Friday, June 14, 2013

The Weekend Extract: Wicked Nixies & Wicked Games

After everything Melia survived in Half Faerie, you might think the poor half-faerie could get a break. Maybe fly off into the sunset and live happily ever after…

Uhm. Not yet.
This weekend's extract is from Half Mortal:

They heard the song—a duet—before they saw the singers. A siren’s ethereal face peered over the cliff’s ledge; her enormous wings—they looked like they belonged to an oversized butterfly—beat a slow and steady rhythm, suspending her in midair. Two arms wrapped around her neck. Her singing partner—a glamorous nixie—peeked from behind the siren’s neck through a tumble of golden hair.

Tatou stepped back.

Melia froze.

Sirens lured mortals to a watery death, but a powerful one could seduce a creature from the Enchanted World, too. All of a sudden, Illialei, which had always struck Melia as a lush and whimsical paradise for overgrown children, filled her with horror. Never mind that the siren and nixie were technically from the Muannai Valley.

“We were coming to dive.” The siren sounded like a swan. “We couldn’t help but hear your call.”

Melia and Tatou backed up one step at a time. Distance was the only thing that might protect them.

“It’s the black eagle,” the nixie said in the common tongue.

Melia clamped her beak. A row of small pointed teeth contrasted with the nixie’s pouty mouth. Nixies—distant kin to Illialei’s mermaids—were the water faeries native to Tyrannis. They were smaller than mermaids, although not as small as pixies, more like the size of a short field faerie—about three feet long. They were reputed to be wicked.

“You know me?” Melia asked.

The nixie showed more teeth.

Melia flinched before she realized the water faerie was smiling.

This week's song is siren Heather Nova's silky cover of "Wicked Game"…because Melia's still having a hard time letting go and falling in love...