A prophecy of old continued to burn in the embers of time; long left
dormant until the Cruentus family rose above all others as darkness
ascended the lands. Greed and deception were the
name of the game, and Arturo Cruentus would stop at nothing as he
concocted the ultimate scheme to get everything he wanted. No price was too high. The scene was set, the
pieces strategically placed. The Gallo family could not come against him, and
in the end Guido and Palmiria Gallo would come out the biggest
losers, watching their only daughter, Emiliana, be taken away to render a
debt settled.
Young Emiliana Gallo, a victim of circumstance, was thrust into a
world she did not understand and forced to marry a man she did not know. But
what no one expected, not even Arturo, was that Emiliana and his son, Donato,
would fall in love against all odds. For Arturo, love made one weak, but for
his son, it was love at first sight. Donato became an opportunist in his
father’s dirty schemes and did everything in his power to ensure the woman he
admired for so long not only took his name in marriage, but also fell in love
with him. Donato wanted it all, his gamble paid off richly, and he achieved
both marriage and love. However, on the day they said ‘I do’ and the
Cruentus and Gallo families were joined, Emiliana was ripped from their home
like a thief in the night.
An unknown force too unsettled to let
the vision spill and strengthen the Cruentus family decided to do the
unthinkable—double-cross the Cruentus family. Rage and disdain fuelled Donato
and Arturo. Though their reasons were very different-their goal unified them.
They squared off with the leader of the Russian Coven to take back Emiliana,
and in the end the Russian coven paid the highest price as the leader's blood
was spilled in retribution for his crime at the hands of Arturo. News spread
quickly to the Magia Council, and before long Arturo was called before them to
answer for his crime of murder unjustly. The Ancients of the roundtable at
Mount Blanc, the mountain range bordering Italy and France, was now enacted as
they listened to the tale that had unfolded. Little did they know that
they were a part of the grand scheme Arturo Cruentus shrewdly planned for
the ultimate betrayal.
As a child, Lisa always wanted to
write. She didn’t have any predilection of what to write, as long as she was
writing – she was happy. She remembers growing up and traveling to Flower’s
Cove to visit family and letting her imagination soar as the pen sketched
across the paper. At such a young age, it was perhaps mostly incoherent
thoughts tossed across the pages but still for all, it was a desire even then
to write and tell a story.
As an adult, Lisa met an amazing group
of individuals, and with their support and encouragement was brave enough to
write and let people read the stories in her mind. While writing is one thing,
allowing others to read the words one has spent hours putting to paper is
entirely another thing. It opens the author wide to both praise and criticism.
Lisa found it to be scary, yet wonderfully exciting.
Lisa has many people to thank for
helping her to reach where she is today, but none of this would be possible
without the support of her husband, Shawn, and her amazing kids, Brittany,
Daniel, and Jacob. These people fill her world with color and make it worth
writing – they enable her to do what she loves.
Buy Links: Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Cruentus-Rise-Power-L-S-Broomfield/dp/0991957709/
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/353671
Excerpt
1
“Why don’t you don’t try to leave this place?” Donato
asked, truly curious.
Emiliana looked straight ahead, continuing on their walk
of the grounds. She wasn’t sure there was an answer that wouldn’t make her look
weak; she opted for the truth.
“My papa did not teach me magic. He felt the lessons I
was learning at the time were far more valuable than magic.”
“What lessons were those?” he countered, though what
Emiliana had told him surprised him. Greatly. What warlock would ever deny
their child of learning their heritage? It was unheard of.
“He taught me lessons of working to survive, of putting
in an honest day’s work to have something to eat or a place to sleep. I bet I
have used my hands more tilling our garden for food than you ever have.”
There were little moments like these when Donato could
see the unstoked embers of Emiliana’s fire, and that was only in the few days
that she had been with them. He wondered what she would be like had she
received the magical teaching as she grew. Her
father was an imbecile.
“It may well be true. Though, I have had the other
extreme of that. I grew up not having to do anything for myself, other than
magic. I wouldn’t change it, though, because magic is a part of me. It makes me
whole.”
She stopped at an odd juncture, staring at the nestling
of trees on the property. Though the moment was brief, it was like Emiliana was
a million miles away.
“I have always been taught you cannot miss that which you
did not have. I would change nothing of my life, except for the day I met you.”
Donato flinched. Her words sliced him deeply even if they
were not intended to.
“Emiliana, neither of us can control why this came to be.
Can you at least have an open mind about us?”
Did she have a choice? No, not really. With a soft dip of
her head, golden locks fanned downward, concealing her face, she answered, “I’ll
try.”
This was not how Donato planned to spend his day. He
needed to make her see he was not just a rich kid. A smile caused his cheeks to lift, eyes twinkling.
“If I had some flower seeds, would you show me how to
plant and nurture them? I have wanted to surprise my mother with her favorite
flower for a very long time, but I do not know the first thing about
gardening.”
“Perhaps you should use your magic,” Emiliana countered.
Donato’s head shook. “I think it is time I get my hands
dirty. Don’t you?”
With that, Emiliana could not help the smile that broke
across her face. Looking up at him, she offered him an olive branch.
“If I teach you to garden, to grow your mother’s flowers,
will you teach me how to do it by magic?”
His smile mirrored hers. After only three days he could
see a smile, and he had caused it. He knew deep down, eventually she would love
him.
“I would be most honoured.”
No comments:
Post a Comment