Author: Christina J. Barr
Genre/Age: Fantasy/YA
Series: Cursed Water (Book One)
Publisher: Ninja Dust
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: “True love is not a myth. It’s mystic. It’s a force in the universe that draws two people together, resulting in incredible power, for either good or complete chaos.”
On the day Luna proves that she is powerful enough to be her father’s heir, she is banished for saving the life of an enchanting human boy. Her father, the king, gives her two options: kill Ian and regain her honor by the time she comes of age, or be destroyed.
Luna finds shelter in forbidden waters and comes under the protection of her father’s greatest enemy, the Sea Witch. As her ward, Luna becomes a fearsome warrior, but struggles with the fear of turning her powerful magic dark.
With only days remaining before her seventeenth birthday, Luna finds Ian sailing the seas in search of answers. Luna is determined to escape her father’s wrath, and the Sea Witch’s plot of revenge, but dark forces won’t allow her to live a human life without making an impossible sacrifice.
I never knew where the horrid Sea Witch dwelled. I only knew that it was forbidden to ever see or speak to her. Her home was said to be built with the bones of creatures it had slain, including other merpeople. My sisters would tell stories about the Sea Witch deep into the night and watch me quiver in fear. They said she would eat her own kind and had tricked many into making deals that cost them their lives.
I had heard less dramatic stories from my father. He said that she was a fierce fighter that was capable of destroying most of our strongest warriors. He told me that she was a hideous thing that was apart from any race and had no loyalties. He was never trying to scare me. Fear was weakness to him. I think he might have respected the Sea Witch, but he did clearly hate her. Perhaps that’s the true reason why it was forbidden: father didn’t want to be annoyed.
But I was an outcast. If I wanted to venture into the Sea Witch’s lair, I should have been able to. I had no inkling why I was even considering it. I didn’t want my bones to end up on her wall, but any enemy of my father was worth considering to be my friend.
I touched a few of the remains engraved in the cavern. I shouldn’t have gone any further, but I could feel the vibrations of an oncoming threat. Something was headed toward me, and I was without a weapon to properly fight it off.
“Standing in the entryway is rude.” I felt her inside of my head. There was something very threatening about her essence, but there was also something a little familiar about her, and I didn’t believe she was going to hurt me.
I braced myself and began to swim inside. The cavern was lit by strange smokes that were orange, purple, and red rising from stone cauldrons. I could see her dark eyes glistening from a hole in the cavern wall.
“You’re the one I’ve been warned about as a child?”
“You are a child.” Her tentacles emerged from the darkness—all eight of them—and her skinny and frail arms shook as she pushed the rest of her body out. She had nothing but saggy skin on top of bones. Her hair was whited out, long, and tangled. Her fingertips were entirely made from sharp bone. The Sea Witch’s teeth were long, thin, and pointed like a fangtooth. The skin on her body was faded and decaying in some spots, to the point where her chest plate was nearly exposed. She certainly wasn’t the great warrior I expected her to be.
“Did you send that monster after me?”
“You have an interesting choice of words. That was hardly a monster compared to what you see before you.” As she circled around me, I felt a strange energy that was unlike anything I had ever felt before. My father possessed powerful magic—I suppose I did too—but she was special. I could feel the light being sucked out of the cavern, even though it hadn’t become any dimmer to my eyes. She might not have been physically strong, but she certainly had power.
“Why did you want me here? Were you trying to regain your honor? Were you seeking revenge? Do you still hate my father?”
She surprised me with how quickly she swam in my face and hissed through her thin fangs. “I will always despise your father, but he has nothing to do with why I have summoned you. I called you for one thing, and one thing only.”
I was concerned with my safety—not afraid—but I felt like I needed to know. “And what is that?”
“Your blood.”
As the daughter of sci-fi enthusiasts and a pastor, Christina L. Barr has been taught to believe that anything is possible. She's been a serious composer as far back as twelve-years-old, and has had the opportunity to sing her songs around the world.
In 2007, she graduated from Holly High School number nine in her class and attended College for Creative Studies. She started a pop culture website called The Gorgeous Geeks with her two older sisters, and was even featured on Times Magazine.
Her addiction to writing emerged when she was eighteen and started her first novel. To date, she has nine novels published, fourteen completed, and her goal is to finish thirty books by her thirtieth birthday.
She is currently a Creative Director and spends her days making graphics and videos.
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