It's Charlotte Abel week! She is the awesome author of the Channie series, and we have lots of cool stuff for you in the next few days.
Amazon | GoodreadsHere is an excerpt for you!
Sixteen year old Channie Kerns leads an idyllic life of seclusion and magic deep in the Ozark Mountains ... until her family is forced to flee for their lives.
They leave everything and everyone behind to start over in Louisville, Colorado. Magic is forbidden while they are in hiding, but Channie can't resist the temptation to enchant a group of local boys. When her overbearing parents catch her flirting with these "sex-crazed, non-magical delinquents," they slap a chastity spell on her to protect her virtue.
The spell is triggered by lust, so just navigating the halls at her new school is an ordeal. She can't even touch a boy she's attracted to without blasting him with a jolt of magical energy that feels like a taser.
When Channie falls in love with Josh Abrim, a BMX racer with dangerous secrets of his own, she rebels against her parents and turns to dark and forbidden magic to break the chastity spell ... with disastrous results.
As soon as everyone else was asleep, Channie crawled out from under her quilt and opened her window. A blast of cold air made her eyes water. She tried to cast a warmth spell on herself, but her new power-name was still dormant. What kind of parents destroyed a perfectly good power-name like Enchantment and replaced it with Chastity?
Channie removed the window screen and shoved it in her closet then crawled onto the roof.
The sound of male voices drew her attention to the park next door. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they sounded friendly enough. Hmm… Her new power-name, her curse, was designed with one purpose in mind, so to activate it — she needed a dirty-minded boy.
Channie tossed her blanket back in her room then scampered down the fake, but convenient, rocks on the front of the house. She followed the crushed gravel path that led from her front yard into Heritage Park.
The three-quarter moon peeked out from behind a cloud and revealed two masculine silhouettes. The boys were inside the pavilion, sitting on top of a picnic table. One of them was smoking a cigarette. When Channie stepped out of the shadows, he elbowed the other boy. He stopped talking and stared at her.
She froze, unsure of how to proceed without Enchantment’s natural charm.
A prickly sensation, like cockleburs, ran under Channie’s skin. She didn’t need magic to read the boy’s energy fields — curiosity mixed with a fair amount of lust, nothing unusual about that.
Channie had assumed that her new power-name would repel boys, or make them repulsive to her. Instead, Chastity’s magic was attracted to their lustful energy and grew stronger as it fed off their carnal desires. Momma and Daddy must have messed up the spell when they changed her name.
Channie coughed and fanned the air, frowning at Cigarette Boy. He tossed the nasty thing onto the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of his canvas shoe.
The skinny, non-smoking boy leaned forward and smiled at her. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”
Channie licked her dry lips and nodded. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t shy. Or was she? She didn’t know who she was without Enchantment’s magic.
Cigarette Boy ran his gaze up and down her body. The level of lust in the air doubled and flowed into Chastity’s power-well, awakening its power. He smirked at her and said, “What’s the matter, can’t you talk?”
Channie started to take a step back, but didn’t want him to think she was easily intimidated. She straightened her spine and held her ground. “I can talk just fine. When I have something to say.”
Cigarette Boy elbowed his friend in the ribs. “Dude, did you hear that accent?” He hugged his chest, copying Channie, and pitched his voice up high to mock her. “Aw kin tawk juz fiiiine whin ah have sumthin’ to say.”
“Jeeze, Eric.” The skinny boy shoved Eric’s shoulder. “You’re such an ass.”
He looked at Channie and smiled. “I apologize for this idiot. He has no social skills whatsoever. That’s why we only let him out at night.”
“It’s okay. I can handle it. But thanks.” Channie pulled a small amount of Chastity’s power to the surface and tried to send the obnoxious Eric away using persuasive magic instead of an actual spell. Nothing happened.
She narrowed her eyes and pushed a little more magic at him. Instead of flowing out of her power-well in a gentle stream the way Enchantment’s energy would have, it shot out of her with a sudden burst of power.
Folks rarely noticed when Channie used pursuasive magic on them, and even when they did, they didn’t usually care. Enchantment’s energy was positive and soothing. Chastity’s was not.
Eric yelped and hopped off the metal table. He looked at his friend and said, “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“Something shocked me. There must be a short in the wiring.”
“What wiring? The table’s not wired.”
“Well, something sure as hell zapped me.”
Channie stepped into the shadows to hide her grin. This was fun. She zapped him again.
Eric twitched and swore. “Come on! You had to feel it that time.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What the hell have you been smoking?”
Eric suggested his friend do some inappropriate things to himself then trotted down the path towards the parking lot. Channie waited for him to drive away then took a small step towards the skinny boy on the picnic table. He watched her but didn’t say a word. She read his energy field again and was surprised to find anxiety.
She could try to encourage him by flirting, but that could take all night. Come-hither spells were illegal, but this boy was an Empty and didn’t know that. Besides, who was he going to tell?
Channie held her breath and used a small amount of Chastity’s power to cast what she hoped was a weak spell.
The boy hopped off the picnic table and closed the distance between them in two strides. He was tall — much taller than she’d thought. He was also stronger than he looked. He grabbed Channie with one hand, digging his fingers into her side then slid his other hand to the middle of her back. He pulled her close and crushed his mouth against hers — taking her completely by surprise.
Her first instinct was to curse him and run away, but she wanted to know what Chastity’s magic would do on its own. So, she kissed him back. He tasted like spearmint and honey. Magic pulsed out of her without warning.
The boy jerked his head up and shoved her away from his body. He pushed his hair off his forehead with both hands and gaped at her. “What the hell?”
Tears pricked the back of Channie’s eyelids. This was not how she’d imagined her first kiss. She knew it was selfish to focus on her own disappointment when the poor boy was so obviously confused and frightened — but how could she reassure him with Chastity’s magic buzzing like a swarm of hornets?
Channie blinked in an effort to hide her tears, but they leaked out of the corner of her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
The boy opened his mouth as if to speak, but then slammed it shut and shook his head. He held his elbows close to his body, lifted his hands, palms up and shrugged his shoulders as he backed away from her. He leaned over, grabbed a bicycle off the ground then raced away, disappearing into the shadows.
Giveaway
okay so we have a SUPER AWESOME giveaway for you this week!
there will be TWO, yes, 2 Winners
and each winner will get a choice of either a paperback copy of Enchantment OR a kindle copy of Enchantment and Taken.
