WINDFIRE, the first book of the Windfire Series.
YA Urban Fantasy / © 2012 Tamsin L. Silver
Synopsis:
Adopted at an early age, Atlanta Hart remembers very little about her birth mother who died in a car accident when she was only two. Raised by her father’s family, she has little need to hunt for information on a woman she never knew. That is, until she turns thirteen and begins to have powers she can’t explain. However, once she begins to dig, Atlanta can find nothing about her biological mother. As if the woman were a ghost.
With the trail cold, Atlanta gives up hope of ever knowing the maternal side of her family or finding an explanation for her unique gifts. That is until she meets Roman, a man with similar powers to her own. After informing her that she’s a lost witch from a unique bloodline, his connections in the Clandestine World help Atlanta hunt for her mother’s family again. This time she finds a lead and travels from Boston to South Carolina to learn all she can about the Setti family and the curse that surrounds them.
Not all legacies should be dug up.
The Setti family has spilled blood in the past.
Atlanta or her friends could be next.
EXCERPT
“Primarily I read feelings. Every now and again, I hear thoughts. I have dreams that come true, visions, I—” she stopped. Surprisingly enough, she wasn’t afraid of his reaction, more so at the sound of her own voice saying things she’d only told her two closest friends. Now here she stood, telling someone she barely knew all her dirty little secrets.
“Go on,” he prompted.
“I shouldn’t.” She felt exposed. Letting go of his arm she stared back out the window, crossing her arms nervously.
“You can trust me.”
Atlanta pondered this. If he had the same gifts, then he knew what it was like. Why was she so scared? Sure, she’d only known this beautiful man for a few hours but maybe she could tell him everything. She wanted to but hesitated, biting her lip in thought.
He didn’t pressure her, though she felt him watching her process her thoughts. When she finally looked up into the stormy blue of his stare, she felt an understanding that was so powerful and safe, she felt helpless. So she told him. She told him a lot. She told him things she’d never told anyone. He listened, and when she finished, Atlanta felt so much better. The cliché of ‘a weight off your shoulders’ sometimes was exactly that. Now she waited for his response.
He smiled at her. “You, my dear, are a lost witch.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not positive. But I think you’re a lost witch. You mentioned you were adopted and that you don't know your mother’s side of the family. There’s a good chance you’re from a bloodline of witches. The powers you possess mirror those of some of my friends.”
“And they think they’re witches?”
“They are witches.”
Atlanta almost made another joke but he appeared serious. She then heard him inside her head.
“Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. You accept your gifts. Why not accept that there is an explanation for them?”
He had a point. Her education told her that there weren’t such things as witches. Well, not real ones with working spells and powers. There were those that practiced Wicca, sure, but actual witches? No.
“Witches are fictional characters from fairy tales,” she finally said mentally.
“I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.”
She laughed.
“You know, some things in fiction…well, the idea had to come from somewhere.”