Chapter 1
“Come on! Get on up here. Are you scared?”
Six-year-old Rachel Evans looked around frantically. She could hear the other kids in school playing on the swings and monkey bars around the corner. Miss Brown, the recess monitor, organized the games they played. Tag, dodge ball, kickball.
She didn’t know what was going on just around the corner.
Rachel looked up in the tree. John Crowe and Melissa Johnson had already climbed halfway. Melissa’s twin brother, Michael, was still working his way up, grabbing branch after branch.
John, Melissa, and Michael spent all their time together, and everyone liked them. To be friends with them would make everything so much easier. Everyone would stop picking on Rachel, making fun of her. They’d stop calling her Four Eyes and choosing her last for kickball.
She pushed her thick glasses onto her nose and took a deep breath. They weren’t supposed to be away from the other kids. If Miss Brown caught them, they would all be in deep trouble.
“We’re not supposed to be here,” Rachel said. “Miss Brown always says we’re supposed to stay where we can see her.”
Melissa laughed. “See? I told you she wouldn’t do it. She probably can’t see through her four eyes.”
John smiled. Michael made it to the limb opposite his friends. He sat and leaned his weight against the tree so he wouldn’t fall.
“It’s not that hard,” he said. “You can do it, Rachel.”
She smiled and blushed. She didn’t realize they knew her name.
“I thought her name was Lisa?” Melissa said.
“Her name is Scaredy-Cat,” John said. “She can’t climb a tree.”
Rachel looked down at her clothes. She wore a pink dress her mother had bought
for her. It wouldn’t be easy to climb a tree in it.
But she had to try. If she didn’t, they would say bad things about her all over
school. They would make fun of her more than they already did.
She didn’t know why the other kids didn’t like her. She heard her parents talking
about it one day after dinner. Dad thought it was because he was one of the richer people in town, and everyone else was jealous. Rachel thought it was because Mom was prettier than everyone else’s moms.
Whatever the reason, there were days the kids in her class were relentless. She would get on and off the bus, crying her eyes out. Mom would always be at the bus stop to pick her up, and Rachel had to quickly wipe her eyes and keep from crying so Mom wouldn’t see.
On the days they didn’t pick on her, they didn’t talk to her at all. No one wanted to sit with her at lunch, or play dolls with her.
It was only by freak chance that she was near the corner, playing alone, when she heard John and his friends climbing the tree.
She grabbed the lowest branch and pulled herself up.
“Well, look at this,” John said.
Melissa shook her head. “She’s not gonna be able to do it.”
Michael laughed. “Probably not. Her glasses are too heavy.”
Rachel gritted her teeth and grabbed another branch. She felt so high up already,
but she wouldn’t quit. They were just a few more limbs up, sitting and laughing at her. But she would show them. Then she could greet Mom at the bus stop with a smile instead of tears.
Jon
October 23, 2012 @ 11:00 am
Thought this book was great, I really loved the take on magic you chose, it’s rare to find anything unique anymore and every single one of your books has been.
Glenn Bullion
October 25, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
Thank you much. 🙂 This kind of stuff makes my day.
Sam G
February 3, 2013 @ 12:53 am
While this book improved on the flaws in Demonspawn, I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the similarities in plot. Now don’t get me wrong I am a fan and have enjoyed the two of your books I’ve read and am in the process of starting Jack Kursed. I just wish the great characters had their own story here.
Glenn Bullion
February 4, 2013 @ 8:38 am
I read this in a few reviews of A Witch To Live, how Alex and Kevin had probably too many similarities. I didn’t pick up on this at all during creation, but I do see the point now. Adopted, one sibling, discovering their powers. I kept this in mind when writing the latest novel (Demon’s Doorway), and hope I’ve squashed this one. 🙂 I think Alex and Kevin have both gone their own path now, and I’m hoping they’re not seen as too similar.
Jim
December 7, 2013 @ 11:46 am
My favorite scene is the one in the hospital, too. The ability to heal is one of those things that is incredible in a book where the author can do justice to the sense of the miraculous in what was done. It also has the advantage of clarifying immediately for the reader that magic can be used for good. It’s not that healing couldn’t be used for a foul purpose, but it’s not generally expected. It’s too bad that when the same ability is moved into the media of games and movies the fast pace of the action typically renders that gift trivial and uninteresting.
Glenn Bullion
December 8, 2013 @ 10:08 am
I purposely used healing as the first magical act Kevin does. I wanted it to be clear that he was a good person. 🙂
Bob
October 16, 2015 @ 11:09 pm
Let me start this by saying that I like the books, even if it’s a bit critical. There is some awkwardness to the writing, but nowhere near as bad as I’m used to seeing with the self-published books I usually read, and I like the worlds. It’s nothing I’ve never seen before or anything like that but it’s the type of setting I like. You don’t stop eating doritos because you’ve had them before after all 😀
I had this whole wot to explain my problems with the book, but I just deleted it. It’s pretty easy to sum up. Here’s our protagonist at the end of the book.
“Whew, what a relief! We’re safe! I mean sure, those witch hunters are still out there. Because, you know, we let those genocidal fanatics life. And sure, they’ll keep murdering other witches, and their families (including their infant children of course), and any innocent bystanders who get in their way. And, yeah, there’s totally this whole supernatural government for which killing anyone like me without question is apparently the party line, who will keep on encouraging these witch hunters to murder innocent witches and so on. But hey, I totally groveled my way into one of their leaders’ favor, so I’m totally safe, so who cares about those other witches? I mean, it’s totally already been demonstrated to me that the witch hunters will keep trying to kill me until I kill them – and that fact would be obvious to anyone who has ever heard of fanaticism and knows that the only way to deal with a fanatic is to kill the, but screw logic right? Amirite guys? By the way let’s stay in the same town where everyone now knows there is a witch, and keep our same identities, because conflict is good for the plot. Everything will turn out fine after all, I AM the protagonist. Though you might have to die at some point sis if the author decides to make this dark fantasy because it would be a good emotional motivator for me. Winning!”
Seriously, I hate this type of protagonist, and the general idea that a ‘good guy’ is someone who doesn’t kill. If you let a murderer walk when you know they’re a murderer and you had it in your power to kill them, you are personally responsible for everyone they kill from the point forward. You are, in essence, an evil piece of shit.
Also, side note, what was up with the protagonist being so slapdash with his magic? I mean he kept going into fights basically just relying on his ability to think up whatever potion he needed (by the way, why is there even a potion system needed in this book? For all intents and purposes the magical system consists of, ‘whatever the witch wants to happen, happens’). It was demonstrated early on that he can permanently enchant objects, that he doesn’t need to touch them for them to work. Why didn’t he immediately make a permanent protection vest or something equivalent of dresden’s cloak with his stone trick (except, y’know, with FORCEFIELDS, so even better)? Why did he go into every fight with such weak weapon spells, when it was obvious that when he needed to he could pump out enough power to vaporize someone a thousand times over without breaking a sweat.
I dunno. This somehow turned into a wall of text anyway. Sorry, it’s just kind of sad to see such a good world kinda wasted on a terrible protagonist.
Glenn Bullion
October 19, 2015 @ 8:11 am
Ironically, in this upcoming novel, I do bring up the idea and consequences of “letting an evil person live.”