I have a beautiful little treat for you today!! We are anxiously awaiting the 3rd book in the Madly series by M. Leighton - Madly and the Jackal. You may have seen the gorgeous cover already but here it is for your viewing pleasure...
How deep does love run?
Deeper than the ocean? Deeper
than memory? Deeper than magic?
Following their plan to save Atlas, Madly and Jackson return
the spirit of Wolfhardt to his prison beneath the sea. But even the best laid plans couldn’t account
for the surprises they find. This time, Lore
aren’t their onl
y challenges.
Madly is special in ways no one could have guessed and dark forces
seek to control her. They want her power,
but first they must weaken her. They
need her beaten. Vulnerable. Near death.
And alone. But that task isn’t an
easy one with Jackson at her side. The
strongest of their kind, the only way to separate Jackson from Madly is to
destroy his love for her, to erase it from his mind. And his heart.
Is it possible to steal Jackson’s love from Madly? Or is their love the only truly unbreakable
thing?
And now, here's an excerpt from Madly and the Jackal...
I tried to smile brightly, but felt it falter. I reminded myself that if there was anyone
who could fix it, it was
Jackson. I was fairly certain there was
little he couldn’t do if he set his mind to it.
Clinging to that knowledge like a lifeline, Jackson and I
stepped out of the cave and into the vastness of the ocean. Within a fraction of a second, our tail fins
had reformed and we were speeding through the water. Jackson kept me close to his body as we
moved, whether for my comfort or my safety I wasn’t sure. Either way, I appreciated it.
We swam for quite a distance before I began to feel
oriented, recognizing several landmarks as we passed. I wondered about the magic used to keep the
cave entrance and canyon cloaked. I’d
never encountered magic like that before, magic that could be concealed from my
bracelet, from my senses. I concluded
that it had to be ancient magic, put in place by the older generations,
possibly even someone from the High Council.
When Jackson
stopped suddenly, all thoughts of that curious magic left my mind, replaced in
an instant by the task at hand and the inherent peril of it.
“What’s the matter?” I asked in a hushed voice.
Jackson didn’t respond right away. His sharp blue eyes scanned the waters around
us like an eagle scans the sky. I looked
out, trying to see what he saw, hear what he heard, feel what he felt. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary
to me, I knew Jackson was sensing something.
His tension tickled my nerves from head to toe as if he were strumming
them like guitar strings.
“Madly, don’t ask questions. Swim that way,” he said, pointing off to our
right. “Don’t stop. Don’t look back. Don’t worry about me. I’ll find you. Just swim.
Now!”
Grabbing me around the waist, Jackson gave me a push for
a head start before he turned and darted off like a bullet, cutting through the
water in the other direction.
Confused and a little scared, I did as he instructed. I ignored the thought that there was only one
portal in the shield and that it did not lay in this direction. I ignored the thought that the further
Jackson was from me, the harder it would be to maintain his invisibility. I ignored the thought that I wouldn’t know
when to summon the whale or if I still needed to. I ignored all my screaming instincts and did
only what Jackson asked.
Straining with all my power to keep Jackson’s appearance
concealed, I reached out for any whale in the vicinity, thinking absently that
I believed I could feel one. Without
taking away from Jackson, I let my own visibility shine through just enough
that I could confuse the whale and draw it closer then I put my appearance back
under wraps. It was all I could do, the
best I could hope for.
When the alarms sounded, I wasn’t sure if I had triggered
them or if the whale had stumbled into them.
I felt the disorienting, debilitating effects of them instantly. I managed to keep enough of my wits about me
to pray that Jackson was safe and that he would get away. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign or
not when the alarms were silenced less than a minute later. I recovered quickly, but it was with great
unease that I resumed my swim. How could
I get out when the portal lay in the other direction? What if I got trapped? What if…
My thoughts swam faster than I did as I focused on my
trust of Jackson. It wasn’t until I
began passing the familiar landscape of the waters outside Slumber that I
slowed. How had I escaped the
shield? Was there another portal?
I had so many questions, but at that moment, none of them
mattered. My worries were tightly
focused on one thing, one person, as I scanned the shadows of the deep—looking,
listening, feeling. Jackson was
nowhere. I couldn’t sense him at
all.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I started to swim back
toward Atlas when the memory of Jackson’s voice stopped me. It rang clearly in my head, as if I were
hearing him say the words again, right at my side.
Don’t
look back…I’ll find you.
With an unbearable emptiness burning in my chest, I
turned from Atlas and made my way toward shore.
Without Jackson.
A huge Thanks to M. Leighton for letting me share this!
