Black Water Magic : A Teagan Blackwater Urban Fantasy Novel by by Leslie Scott ➱ Book Tour with Giveaway
Black
Water Magic
by
Leslie Scott
Genre:
Paranormal Urban Fantasy
Teagan
Blackwater’s biggest problem used to be hiding her relationship
with a demi-demon from her grandmother, Nola, the most powerful witch
in all of Florida.
When
Nola is murdered, Teagan learns how insignificant her secret really
was. And how rare it is she only had the one. Firewater Springs is a
small town, and every one of its residents seems to have secrets of
their own. Including the friendly cop Teagan had a crush on in high
school and the Demi-demon she’s been sleeping with.
But
the person with the most secrets was Nola herself, and Teagan needs
to unravel them to break a curse and solve Nola’s murder. It’s no
secret Teagan doesn’t feel up to the task, but she is the new Swamp
Witch of Firewater Springs, so what choice does she have? Everyone is
counting on her.
No
pressure.
Excerpt One
The rain started as a few drops, the big fat kind that came with a tropical system. They sizzled and evaporated into little puffs on the hot asphalt. Then it came heavier, a pitter patter of big drops. This shower was beyond strange. There wasn’t a storm churning around in the gulf. In fact, there wasn’t even a raincloud in the sky. The droplets manifested right over our heads, no doubt by magic. And the highway? Completely dry. Not a single car that passed had its wipers on.
Not believing my own eyes, I stepped out beneath the canopy that spanned the entire sidewalk in front of the shopping plaza. As I did the rain slammed down in an abrupt torrent. Hidden in the roar of the water was the wail of something…preternatural.
“Oh snap!” Oliver stepped out beside me and shivered, as the temperature had dropped at least thirty degrees in just a manner of seconds. He leaned close enough to shout over the rain, “Do you hear that?”
The keening grew louder, like a banshee caught in the tempest. I doubted Oliver’s next shiver had anything to do with the cooler air.
“Over there.” I motioned to the only space that didn’t have one of the charred, disfigured signs and the general direction of the screeching.
We made our way to the empty shop. Nobody followed us, though the other four crowded in the open doorway and watched us with enough excitement to freak me out. That definitely didn’t make me feel good about any of this. Portia didn’t seem the type to scare easily, but even her face had grown ashen.
I pushed open the unlocked glass door and stepped into an empty space, save for a broken dust mop and several chunks of canvas-covered furniture. The rain outside echoed off the bare walls, and the remnants of a beaded curtain shivered in an empty interior doorway.
The bellowing wail came to an abrupt stop and Oliver reached out and gripped my shoulder. The scent of mildew and dust permeated and tickled my sinuses. I sneezed and rubbed my nose to stop a second. I took a few steps into the shop, and my breath became visible as the temperature dropped.
“Wait.” Oliver froze next to me and squeezed. “Teagan, go outside.”
My best friend rarely issued commands. The husky, reverberating sound of his voice wasn’t something I’d heard before. He was scared.
Before I could turn to leave, a deafening paranormal scream pierced the complex. Nothing about the feral, inhuman sound was of this world. I dropped to my knees and covered my ears as the sound scorched through my head. The windows rattled, the sound of the rain disappeared. I was consumed with a deafening shriek that stole my breath and left my body twisted with agony. And when I thought I couldn’t take anymore—it stopped.
Oliver snatched me by the arm and jerked me outside, where he took out a baggie of black salt and haphazardly sprinkled a fair amount of it over me. I sneezed again, all the while my ears ringing and the downpour raging on.
Mr. Howard ambled from the doorway to us. “Power’s out now.”
“I suppose that’s my fault, too?” I huffed a sigh.
“Yup.” He spat at my feet. “Damn witches. She knew what you were; you set her to crying again, didn’t ya? Right after we got clear skies. Guess I’ll go get my poncho and wade out for more sandbags.”
By now, the rain had exploited the weaknesses in the awning and mini waterfalls were sprouting up every few feet.
“Her who?” I looked to Oliver and wiped the dirt and dust from my knees.
“The ghost.” He was panting. “A witch’s ghost.”
My heart sank. A ghost, we could banish. A witch only remained if she was cursed, which made getting rid of her almost impossible. Damn it. This rain was going to last a while.
Excerpt Two
Inside the clubhouse, my nostrils were assaulted with the stench of various types of smoke. Wood, cigar, cigarettes, weed, and—hellfire. A big, round guy in the corner coughed and a puff of smoke popped out and over the playing cards in his hand.
O’Dell grinned. “We call that the fire-demon flu.”
“It smells like dead ass.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Which is why Colby is holed up in his office. Come on.”
I followed O’Dell through the bar-like front room and pulled up short. The not-looking at me thing was getting weird. “Why are they doing that?”
O’Dell glanced over his shoulder, to where every man in the building was looking down at the ground. The few women looked confused.
I passed under a large mural of fierce Norseman raiders storming a Christian monastery. One looked far too familiar for my liking. It’s amazing how very little Colby had physically changed.
“You are Colby’s woman, are you not?”
“Wow, definitely not.” I would have snarled, had I possessed any energy. Everything about being here was unsettling.
The reverence in O’Dell’s voice, on top of the way the others seemed to regard my presence, made me uneasy. A reminder of things he’d done and never made right, the dangerous and dark side of his past.
The twitchy, small man stopped at a large, oak door adorned with Viking insignia and grinned. “Part of me wants to stick around and watch the sparks fly with this one. I don’t think he’s as prepared for your ire as he thinks he is.”
I stopped again. “What? Why??”
“Because I know witches, and—well,” —he gave an impish shrug— “your kind is damn scary once you’re pissed off.”
One of the Northmen was afraid of me, my kind? And I wasn’t angry, not really. I laughed a little, and the warmth of it pushed away some of the anger and fear, easing the tension that gripped my shoulders and neck. “I don’t think Colby Jacobson is afraid of anything.”
“Whatever you say.” O’Dell gave me a conspiratorial smile and pushed open the heavy door.
But I’d assumed Colby was alone.
Excerpt Three
“Thanks for stopping by, Sean. I appreciate you having my back.” I wasn’t fully dismissing him, but if he had something else to say I was giving him a nudge.
“Not a problem at all. All part of the job.” But he didn’t move to leave.
“Yours and everyone else’s.” I chuckled, because it seemed that every man in Firewater Springs thought I needed looking out for. Even, as much as I loved him, Oliver.
With a lazy grin, he straightened and turned toward the steps. “Have a good night, Teagan.”
As he turned, the light caught a thick line of blood on his arm, like he’d snagged it on something. Blame it on that damn boyish charm, but I licked my thumb the way Nola used to do and reached for his arm.
I searched for the small healing spell as I swiped at blood. Two things occurred to me, the most important being that I finally knew. It came to me like a bolt of lightning and struck me right in the chest. My breath caught, my body tightened, and I wanted to cry out but couldn’t.
By blood be cursed, by blood be damned.
Nola couldn’t break the curse, because it had been cast with Crystal’s blood.
“You okay, Teagan?” Sean grabbed my arm. “I can explain…”
Panic flashed in his eyes, and I laughed. He was misreading everything, and yet, he wasn’t. I’d seen what he worried I’d see—that the wound beneath that blood had already healed completely—much quicker than a mortal’s would have.
He was keen, quick-witted, and strong enough that Colby didn’t want to stick around him. The natural way he commanded a room, or how when I’d been emotional and weak, he’d somehow made me stronger.
There were rumors that a lone wolf resided in Firewater Springs, strong and scary enough that no others tread through here.
But Nola had trusted him, worked hand in hand with him sometimes.
I leaned in and pressed my forehead to his. “We all have secrets, Sean Carmack. I know yours and I’m betting you have a good idea about mine.”
His touch warmed me; his breath came in slow, steady bursts against my face. I could kiss him then, brush my lips against his and taste him in the way I’d wanted to since I’d been about sixteen.
I didn’t. Instead, I pulled away with excruciating patience. “You should go, before I keep you here.”
He stepped away, his face a rock-hard mask. “Answer me one question, first.”
“I didn’t kill her.” At the door, I brushed an errant tear away with the back of my hand. “My life was so easy with her here. Everything was going the way it should, and I was happy… now I’m barely keeping my head above water.”
I felt his sorrow, more than saw it. The swamp around us mourned with him, an aching sadness enveloping everything and silencing even the bullfrogs.
“G’night, Sean.”
He was off the steps and halfway to his vehicle before I called out. “A werewolf, huh?”
His soft reply changed everything between us. “If you want me to howl at the moon, Blackwater, you’ll have to earn it.”
I was presented with a variety of topics to blog/write about while promoting Black Water Magic. One that stuck out to me, was a question that asked if there were any side stories about the characters of the novel. Oh my goodness, there are so many. While, Teagan Blackwater is the protagonist of Black Water Magic (and the upcoming Carnival of Shadows), my plotting process was swamped by the supporting cast. I fell in love with them and the spinoffs are already popping off in my head.
Firewater Springs, Florida has become a real place to me. The residents of the town, those introduced and those yet to be introduced, have all taken on lives of their own. As it is, I’m planning three different spin-offs – including a series of short stories surrounding Teagan’s best friend Oliver and his shenanigans in training a fledgling young witch.
In Black Water Magic readers will meet the residents of The Crazy Eight Mobile Home Park, the vampire bartender, Lyrsa, the group of eclectic merchants and business owners of Plaza of the Everglades, and the dangerous biker gang run by an ancient Viking. So, are their side stories? Yes there are and I hope, at some point, to write them all.
That’s what I see Black Water Magic as, the invitation for readers to visit Firewater Springs, get to know its inhabitants, and find an escape—if only for a little while.
And if a reader comes up with their own side stories, that would be fantastic! Maybe someone can tell me what is really going on with the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Campenaro. I still haven’t figured out what she’s got hiding up the sleeve of her blue house dress.
Award
winning author, Leslie Scott thrives in the middle of chaos. Not
because she home schools her son and rides herd over the family's zoo
of indoor pets or listens to her soul mate wax poetically about all
things car and related. Oh, no. That's nothing. The real chaos is the
characters in her mind, elbowing and tripping each other to get to
the front of the line so they can be the next romantic couple in one
of her stories. Her family is her passion. Writing is her dream.
$25 Amazon
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