Taking a break from my usual excerpts of Dance Macabre, here's one from the first draft of Chiaroscuro. Ari and Lee, my co-protagonists, have just stopped fighting - or sparring, as Lee would call it - because Ari suddenly started coughing like someone dying:
“So that’s your cost, then?”
Even with Lee’s face cast partly in shadows, Ari could still see the little cut her one and only strike had made at the corner of Lee’s mouth. What she couldn’t make out was her expression, and Lee did have a track recording of saying one thing and feeling another thing.
“The cost of my magic?” Ari said carefully.
“No, the cost of the car we’re driving in. Stop staring.”
She switched hands on the bottle, keeping from the urge to clear her throat. “Sorry. No. The cost isn’t torture.”
“Oh.” The disappointment in Lee’s voice had the plastic under Ari’s fingers crinkling. “Then what the hell was that just now?”
“Part of it.”
“There’s more?”
Ari licked her lips. The water hadn’t washed away the sharpness of blood at all. “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it.”
“That’s nice. Wish I could feel comfortable about the fact that I'm traveling with a demon and a witch across post-apocalypse England.”
Happy Tuesday!
“So that’s your cost, then?”
Even with Lee’s face cast partly in shadows, Ari could still see the little cut her one and only strike had made at the corner of Lee’s mouth. What she couldn’t make out was her expression, and Lee did have a track recording of saying one thing and feeling another thing.
“The cost of my magic?” Ari said carefully.
“No, the cost of the car we’re driving in. Stop staring.”
She switched hands on the bottle, keeping from the urge to clear her throat. “Sorry. No. The cost isn’t torture.”
“Oh.” The disappointment in Lee’s voice had the plastic under Ari’s fingers crinkling. “Then what the hell was that just now?”
“Part of it.”
“There’s more?”
Ari licked her lips. The water hadn’t washed away the sharpness of blood at all. “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it.”
“That’s nice. Wish I could feel comfortable about the fact that I'm traveling with a demon and a witch across post-apocalypse England.”
Happy Tuesday!
Your excerpts always feel so dark. This isn't a bad thing. I like dark stories :)
ReplyDeleteI try and remedy that with the 'Happy Tuesday!', but I see that that doesn't quite work. :)
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