Kassie Kane and the Tainted Blood

Kelly Scidmore-Sievers

Description

In A Land Where Magic Is Dying... A young girl destined for leadership finds herself in an epic struggle to unite the forces of good against an ever-growing power of evil. Kassie Kane must heal the rift separating the Elves, goblins, and blended peoples of Pulchritude Amity to repel the evil Czar Nefarious’ plans to enslave the land. Together with her brother Charlie Kane, who is the new magic writer, and the last of the humans in the land, they embark on a perilous journey to fulfill their destinies and bring a world of magic back to life.

Sujets

• Fantastique
• Epic Fantasy
• Epic
• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781478768081
• Langue: English

Extrait

This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

Kassie Kane and the Tainted Blood
Book Two of the Kane Saga
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2015 Kelly Scidmore-Sievers
v4.0

Cover illustrated by Emilia Kolorova
Illustrations © 2015 Outskirts Press, Inc. All rights reserved - used with permission.

Cover Photo © 2015 thinkstockphotos.com. All rights reserved - used with permission.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Outskirts Press, Inc.
http://www.outskirtspress.com

ISBN: 978-1-4787-6808-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015908533

Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I dedicate this book to my Dad and Mom, Charles and Carol Scidmore, who are my biggest fans in life. They have taught me to lead by example, to love with all my heart, to accept others as they are, to embrace differences in others, to give all that I have, to never give up hope and to forever believe.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

– Harry S. Truman
Chapter One
Magical Journeys
T he dirt sifted through her fingers for the tenth time. She couldn’t understand how she had gone from taking clothes out of the dryer at home to standing in some sort of wasteland. The last thing Kassie could remember was her mother asking her to start another load of wash and to fold the clothes in the dryer. While removing the clothes, Kassie had been distracted by a hole inside the dryer. It was the same shape as the blue heart stone she had found earlier in the day when she had finished taking over unloading the clothes that Charlie had not done. Out of curiosity, she had placed the heart shaped stone into the hole and from there things became fuzzy. The next thing Kassie remembered clearly was standing outside in the dirt in a place she could only describe was a dreary desolate landscape. The sun wasn’t shining, and there was a foggy gloom over the land. She had ventured no further than a few feet in either direction. But all she saw around her was dirt with a few patches of mud here and there, and to the north some haunting naked trees. The only real sign of life she had discovered was a green patch of grass and weeds where the most beautiful blue flowers grew on top of a boulder. And when she looked closely at the blue flowers, she noticed there were several blue stones lying around the stems, similar to the one Kassie had placed in the hole of the dryer.
She hadn’t ventured further in her surroundings out of fear of the unknown. And there were a lot of unknowns. The unknowns of where she was, what had brought her here and what was out there. The unknown of what was to come. In normal circumstances, discovering the unknown would have been right up her alley. She thrived on the discovery of new things. Sometimes she even longed for it, for she felt with the unknown came adventure. She completely shared her mother’s thrill for adventure. However, when Kassie looked around her surroundings, she realized this was not a normal circumstance. Something strange had happened when she placed that rock into that hole in the dryer.
As the dirt sifted through her fingers yet again, Kassie realized she’d have to make a decision on what she was going to do. The world around her was slowly getting darker, and the nighttime slowly descended upon her like a giant dark canopy. She knew it would not be safe to wander in the darkness. Besides, she felt she needed to stay put. She was hopeful someone would pass by, and they could tell her where she was and how to get home, wherever that may be from here. She looked around, confused once again, and wondered how she ended up here. She shook her head in bewilderment. Those thoughts were lost to her as she felt a slight breeze pass through her and shivered. She realized she was not equipped to cope with a cold night. She’d need to make a fire and soon. Her mother had taught her the art of making fire from two sticks and some flint. She was fortunate enough to have a mother who had taken her camping and taught her many crafty ways to cope in the wild. She smiled wistfully, thinking about her family. Charlie had never shown an interest in such things. He was too glued to writing stories and reading books, as was her father. But her mother and she enjoyed all things involving nature. Kassie had become a Girl Scout at a young age, and her mother was her troop leader. To this day, she still participated in the Girl Scouts. At this moment, she was thankful for the resourcefulness the scouts had taught her.
She looked around, but didn’t find anything suitable for making a fire. Kassie felt certain it would be a cold night if she didn’t find some means to provide warmth. She knew Nevada nights could get pretty cold. Then of course there was the issue of water and food, but Kassie would have to think about that later. Right now fire and warmth was her main concern.
Kassie let the last bit of dirt drop from her fingers and slapped her hands together to rub off the dust. She had already surveyed the area around the blue flowers and hadn’t found anything suitable to make a fire. Perhaps she should explore further from the rock and see what she found, even if it was getting darker in this desolate landscape. She turned around a bit, moving backwards as she went, trying to see as far as the darkness and fog would allow. In doing so her legs became tangled, and she fell backwards into a pile of mud. Her mouth gaped open as she felt her pants immediately soak up the cold mud beneath her. She sat stunned for a minute, and then warmth started in her butt and crept up through her thighs, and before Kassie could determine what was causing the heat, the warmth turned into burning, and Kassie yelped and jumped up away from the mud.
She rubbed her buttocks and thighs and tried to smooth the burning pain away as she peered closer at the mud she had fallen into. It looked like ordinary mud at first glance, but a closer look showed small bubbles forming in the middle. Kassie leaned closer and touched the bubbles, and they enlarged and heat emanated from them. She started to process this wasn’t a normal mud pile, and she stared at the bubbling mess, fascinated. She had never heard of mud that heated and bubbled on contact. Kassie took her hand and placed it directly into the middle, and the bubbles grew enormous, and heat seared her skin. She snatched her hand back and shook off the burning mud. The heat from the mud pile exuded upwards, and she could feel it lick her face. She smiled as she lowered her hand into her lap. This was her answer to a lack of fire. She’d warm herself from the mud for the night. If the heat would last for more than a few minutes, she’d be in business.
By now the darkness had claimed the night and a chill saturated the air. Kassie followed her plan to use the mud. When the heat disappeared after a few hours, she simply placed her hand into the middle of the mud pile and let the heat redevelop before pulling her hand back out. It did a fair job keeping her warm during the long restless night. She found she could doze until the chill resurfaced, and she just repeated the process. She was thankful she had been cold at home and had pulled a hoodie over her long sleeve tee. And even though her jeans weren’t the warmest thing to wear, they helped to keep her legs covered. She only wished she’d had shoes on rather than just her fuzzy pink socks. She couldn’t imagine how she had gotten here and why she would have wandered here with only her socks on. All she could assume was when she knocked her head on the dryer, it had given her a concussion which caused some type of mental alteration, and she had wandered out of her house and into this dreary area some miles away. She just couldn’t remember ever seeing landscapes like this around home. Kassie touched the lump on her head and winced. The story seemed farfetched, but it was the best she could come up with.
Kassie pulled the hood tight around her head and let her sleeves extend over her hands. She moved as close to the mud as she felt was safe and closed her eyes, dozing off for the third time that night.

Charlie sat at the desk with the Pen of Knowledge in hand and stared at the book. So far he’d written one spell, and it was a failure. He was fumbling to understand how writing magic truly worked. He was used to writing from his thoughts, but it appeared writing magic was something that came from within, something he didn’t quite control. He wasn’t able to choose what he could write. Some unknown power within him moved the pen. He could finally feel the power of magic coursing through him when holding the pen, and he no longer doubted his role in magic, but he couldn’t understand why the spell had failed.
“I’ve heard stories that even your father wrote many failed spells in his time, so be patient and it will work out,” Henrietta said.
Charlie pushed his hair back from his forehead as he stared at the blank pages of the spell book. “What if I write something horrendous and someone dies because of it?”
Henrietta rested her hand on his shoulder, showing her unity with h