WIP Wednesday Bryn Donovan The Equinox Stone Manus Sancti

Hello! How’s everyone doing? I hope everything’s going well for you…and if it’s not, I hope things turn around, right now.

And welcome to WIP Wednesday! On the first Wednesday of every month, I share an excerpt of a work in progress, and you do the same in the comments section below. (If you never want to miss a WIP Wednesday, follow the blog to get notifications–there’s a place to subscribe at the bottom of this post.)

The maximum length is about 500 words. If your excerpt goes long, I might edit it and cut off part of the end. Make sure your excerpt doesn’t contain extreme gore or sexually explicit material. It’s fine to link to a blog where people can read more.

It’s okay if the writing is rough! It really should be a work in progress and not a finished piece. Don’t leave critical comments–this is only for sharing. However, kind and supportive words are more than welcome.

I’m sharing another excerpt from The Equinox Stone, which contains spoilers for book one, The Phoenix Codex. I am determined to have books two and three out in 2019!

In the beginning of this scene, Michael and Val have been undercover at a Catholic girls’ high school they suspect is being operated by an enemy faction. Val’s cover is a high school student–she looks young for someone in her early 20s. Here, they’ve talking about how the first day went.

 

“Come on, what happened?” Alarm rose in him. There were so many ways for this to go wrong, and she had no experience.

She sighed. “You know that girl Ellie? She talked about us—being fat. Like how no one would be attracted to us.”

Michael laughed. He’d been afraid the mission had been compromised, and instead, she had her mind on stupid teenage girl talk.

Val looked as though he’d slapped her in the face.

Shit. He shouldn’t have laughed.

“Hey, come on,” he said quietly. “You know you’re gorgeous. You must feel other people lusting after you.” He’d seen others’ gazes linger on her. He wasn’t the only one.

“Ellie said guys like to have sex with fat girls, but they don’t want them for girlfriends.”

His heart beat faster, adrenaline spiking his blood. “Why are you saying this? You know how I feel. We don’t talk about it, but you know.”

She sniffled. “But…you don’t want to get involved. As soon as you got your memories back, you were horrified.”

“I wasn’t…” He shook his head. This was the conversation he’d tried so hard not to have, but he couldn’t allow her to feel rejected. “When I remembered things again, all the sudden, it was like there were two versions of you in my head. The one I’d gotten involved with, and the one I’d known since she was little. If I was horrified, it was because of that second you.”

“The real me,” she said.

“They’re both the real you.”

She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, making a shield out of her own body. “Which one do you see me as now?”

“Now they’re one person. The girl I’ve cared about most of my life, and this…woman I want so badly.” He didn’t have the energy to hold back any more. “I’m in love with you, and I don’t know how to get over it.”

“Do you have to? Is it so strange that you knew me as a kid?”

He exhaled sharply. “It’s not even that. I don’t know how to do relationships. And if I screwed it up, if I hurt you—everyone would hate me. Everyone.” Cold dread spread over him just at the thought of it. There was no one people trusted and respected more than Val–or felt more protective of, because of her gentleness and sensitive empath’s soul. “My brother, my father. Capitán. Every Knight you’ve ever worked with.” Hell, maybe even Nic, considering he’d already advised Michael to stay away.

She gave a furious shake of her head. “Everyone knows relationships are hard. Capitán wouldn’t hold it against you. And Johnny—he loves you more than he loves himself. That’s not going to change.”

It made no difference. “If I messed things up, I would hate myself. And if I lost you as a friend, I—” He cleared his burning throat. “I don’t know what I would do.”

 

 

 

If you want to, please share something you’re working on in the comments section below! Or if you just want to talk about your writing projects or your goals for September, that’s fine, too. Thanks for reading, and happy writing!

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