Blog Tour!! Song of the Fireflies by J.A. Redmerski
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Read the first 8 chapters HERE!!
THE TRUTH WILL SET
THEM FREE
Brayelle Bates has
always been a force of nature. Even as a child, Bray's wild and carefree spirit
intimidated everyone around her. The only person who's ever truly understood
her is her best friend, Elias Kline. Though every fiber of her being wants to stay
with Elias forever, Bray can't bear the thought of him discovering her
agonizing history. She's done everything she can to keep him at arm's length,
including moving away. But their undying bond was too strong a pull to deny,
and Bray couldn't survive without him. Now she's back home with Elias, and
things have never felt more right-until one night changes everything.
Elias vowed never to be separated from Bray
again. So when she decides to flee in a desperate attempt to escape her fate,
Elias knows he must go with her. As the two try to make the most of their
circumstance, taking up with a reckless group of new friends, Elias soon
realizes there's a darkness driving Bray he can't ignore. Now in order to save
her, he'll have to convince Bray to accept the consequences of their
reality-even if it means losing her.
When I made my way
back to the top, I found Bray wasn’t sitting near the edge of the ridge where I
had left her I moved farther out into the clearing with our blankets draped
over one shoulder.
“Bray?” I said,
looking around.
I brushed it off for
a second, thinking she was probably just taking a piss behind a tree somewhere,
and I set our blankets on the ground.
But then I got a
sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I walked quickly
toward the edge and looked over. My heart started to bang against my rib cage.
I peered down as far as my sight could penetrate the darkness, but took a step
back upon realizing that if she had fallen there was no way I’d be able to see from
way up here.
She had to be
somewhere around close by. She had to be.
“Bray?” I called out
again. “Where the hell did you go?”
Still no answer.
Panic set in
quickly. I stood there as still and as quiet as I could for several long
seconds in case she was coming through the woods, but I heard nothing. I
arranged both hands around my mouth and shouted, “BRAY!” and my voice echoed
through the wide-open space. But still nothing. I felt sick to my stomach. She
wouldn’t have left like that way out here. And if she did, I would’ve seen her
on the path coming down as I was making my way back up.
I ran toward the
tree line, searching for any sign of her, for another path she might have
taken. I refused to believe that she had fallen off the edge.
Just as I noticed
another path through the woods that seemed to head south and I started to go
toward it, I heard footfalls in the leaves. I didn’t wait to see if it was her,
I ran blindly straight into the woods. A skinny branch slapped me across the forehead
on my way, but I didn’t stop.
Bray and I nearly
crashed into each other.
“Shit, baby! Where
the hell did you go? Scared the hell out of me!” I started to pull her into a
hug, but something about her was off and I stopped. She didn’t respond or even
raise her head to look at me.
“Are you all right?”
I took her hands
into mine. Hers were shaking. Her whole body was shaking.
I cupped her face in
my palms and raised her head so that she’d look at me. She was crying, and
something in her eyes…I couldn’t place it, but it haunted me. I wondered if she
even knew I was standing right in front of her. Her hair was messy, with pieces
of leaves stuck within a mass of strands. Dirt was smeared across her left
cheek. She looked like she’d been in a fight.
I touched her split
lip, where a thin line of blood glistened near the corner. “Bray, you’re
scaring me. What happened to you?” I shook her gently and then more
aggressively when she still didn’t respond. “What happened? Talk to me!”
Her lips trembled
and more tears seeped from the corners of her eyes. And then as if a floodgate
had been opened, she started screaming through her tears, “It was my fault!
Elias! Oh my God!”
“What happened?” I
roared, scared for her and for myself, my heart about to burst through my
chest.
J.A. Redmerski, New
York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author lives in North
Little Rock, Arkansas with her three children, two cats and a Maltese. She is a
lover of television and books that push boundaries and is a huge fan of AMC's
The Walking Dead.
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