Sky Song ~ YA/Fantasy
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 360 KB
Print Length: 167 pages
ASIN: B00B0CQWV8
What
the man told him was too incredible to believe, yet Jacob did believe it. On some deep unconscious level he had
always known it to be true. He was an invention, a fictional character. Jacob Lightfoot didn’t exist.
A
strange-eyed boy with no memory of his true identity or real parents, Jacob
could have no idea of the mortal danger he has been in every day of his fifteen
years. Now that danger has found him and suddenly he doesn’t know who he can
trust and what is real anymore. All he
knows is that his new identity is almost as terrifying as the peril unleashing
it has brought. Caught in the universal power struggle of an ancient race of
beings and a destiny demanded of him that he does not want, he must fight to
protect his own life and everyone he holds dear.
But
when the time comes, will he be strong enough to make the sacrifices that
saving them will demand?
Sky Song excerpt
Jacob was still in his school
uniform. He glanced at the digital clock on his bedside table. It had
just gone three in the morning. Moonlight streamed through his open
bedroom curtains, throwing the sharp edged contours of his furniture into
silvery relief. Uncle Dan was downstairs on the sofa, asleep. Jacob
could hear the low, throaty rumble of his snoring and wished he would just go
home; he couldn’t stand being around him. He couldn’t stand to be around
anyone. He wanted to be alone, not to have to speak ever again. He
wished he could cry. It didn’t seem normal somehow not to, it seemed
distinctly alien. The burden of guilt was hard to bear; it tore at
him and made him want to scratch and pinch himself in sheer spite.
Eventually, he
slid off the bed and padded across the hall to the bedroom that his parents had
safely occupied only the night before. Jacob pressed his ear to the
closed door, willing a sound - steady breathing, the crack of the bedsprings as
someone got comfortable, a low snore. The pain the silence brought felt
like a hole being carved into his heart. He pushed the door open and gazed at
the empty bed. Suddenly feeling the need to be close to the scent still
lingering on the pillows, he crossed the room and threw himself onto the bed,
face down, breathing deeply and trying desperately to hold on to the memory of
the smell, to store it away so that they would never leave him. As he lay, his face buried close to the only biological traces of his parents he had left, echoes of the evening’s conversations began to crowd his head. Why had his mum called his dad out of work? Something to do with him - but what? There were witnesses who had seen the silver car break through the roadside barriers and plunge from the bridge into the swirling waters below, but as yet police divers had failed to recover any bodies. How was it that their car had breached the barrier? He couldn’t accept what the police had told him, that there was a freak weakness in the metal. He had questioned them again and again. When they had gone he had questioned Uncle Dan again. None of it seemed right. How could they be so sure his parents were dead? It didn’t add up. And it didn’t feel like they were dead, deep inside him, it all felt wrong. He had tried to explain this to Uncle Dan, who gave a small, sad smile and muttered something to the
The next few days of waiting for
news were an excruciating blur. There was no structure to the day, no hours to
mark it out, only darkness or daylight. When he wasn’t lying on his
parents’ bed, their scent fading daily along with his hopes of their ever
coming back, Jacob was in his room, on his own bed, staring blankly at the
walls. Ellen and Luca phoned him, but he ignored the calls; they sent him
texts which he didn’t reply to. Every day he heard their low, earnest voices at
the front door, speaking to Uncle Dan, and heard their receding footsteps as
they left again.
On the fifth
day, Uncle Dan came up to his room and sat on the end of the bed upon which
Jacob lay with his arms folded above his head, unmoving, staring into space.‘I’m sorry to be talking practical, Jacob…’ He wiped his sweaty palms over his canvas trousers. ‘But I can’t stay here forever.’ Jacob continued in his silent contemplation of a dagger of impertinent sunlight that blazed across the ceiling, as if to mock his sorrow. ‘And there isn’t room for you with us… you know I would if I could, but…’ His voice tailed off.
Jacob sat up and fixed him with a shrewd look. ‘Aunt Carol doesn’t want me, that’s what you mean. I’m going into care - right?’
Uncle Dan shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m sorry. You’ve been allocated a social worker. Linda. She sounds nice. She’s coming over later.’
Jacob saved him further explanation by swinging off the bed and striding across to his wardrobe. He began flinging clothes onto the floor.
‘Fine,’ he muttered through gritted teeth. ‘I’ll pack, then.’
Luca answered his front door, addressing Jacob in a low voice as he glanced back down the hall to make sure that no members of his huge family were in earshot.
‘Jakey, you can’t stay here, mate.’
‘But they’re going to put me in a home.’
‘Running away isn’t going to help,’ Luca snapped back. Jacob pouted. ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t,’ Luca added more sympathetically. ‘Mum and Dad would go mental if they found out.’
‘They won’t, I’ll be quiet, stay out of sight; it’s only for a few days until I think what to do.’
‘Jake, there is nothing you can do.’
‘Mum and Dad will come back.’
Luca paused as if considering and then frowned. ‘It’s no good,’ he said finally. ‘We’ll never get away with it. You know what my mum is like, how long d’you think you can stay in my room without being found? I mean, if it was Ellen’s… hey, where are you going?’
Jacob was already running down the road.
ALSO FROM SHARON SANT
The Young Moon - Sky Song Trilogy 2
Blurb from Goodreads
So comes the stark warning from Astrae. But what does the prophecy that tells of the young moon actually mean?
Two years have passed and Jacob’s search for the second Successor brings him back to Earth. But his Watcher powers seem to be useless as the other Successor remains shrouded in mystery… And he soon discovers that his bitter uncle, Makash, is also hot on the trail.
Jacob’s quest takes him and Luca halfway across the globe in a race to get to the other Successor first. As they get closer to their goal the body count starts to rise and Jacob and Luca are dragged deeper into Makash’s deadly game as the net closes around them.
All Jacob has to do is cheat death, yet again, find another like him amongst the seven billion people that swarm over the face of the planet before Makash does, and thwart the prophecy that spells his doom. No pressure then…
The Young Moon is the second book of The Sky Song Trilogy
AWESOME GUEST BLOG POST FROM SHARON
A Sense of Place.
As this fabulous blog is about books and travelling (two of
my absolute favourite things apart from cream cakes), I thought I would honour
that heavenly pairing by making my guest post for the Sky Song book tour about books and travelling. So I’m going to talk about some of the
locations that appear in the Sky Song
trilogy, what I did to fiddle with them (on paper, of course), and why they’re
so special to me.
In Sky Song, I use
that wonderful landscape and although I don’t obviously name the places, there
are clues to their locations hidden in the story. Sometimes it’s necessary to splice the
features of one location with the features of another to get the right stage
for an event, and that also happens a lot in Sky Song. There’s a boating
lake that appears many times in the story – it’s really two actual parks in two
separate towns rolled into one. Throughout the trilogy, other locations pop up
that are actually named; there’s an important location in The Young Moon and a massively important one in Not of Our Sky that both get a name
check and are shown in the books exactly as they are in life. Sometimes, when I
need to use a location in that way, it’s a good idea to travel there and see it
for myself. Handy as Google Earth is, a place can look very different in the
flesh. Many of the locations I know well
I can write from memory, but others I’m not so familiar with I go to again (or
even for the first time, and it’s a great excuse for a holiday!). The
Young Moon’s major location is somewhere, sadly, that I visited a very long
time ago and don’t have the funds to go back to again, that’s when good old
internet research steps up to fill in the blanks in my memory.
About the Author
She graduated from Staffordshire University in 2009 with a degree in English and creative writing. She currently works part time as a freelance editor and continues to write her own stories. An avid reader with eclectic tastes across many genres, when not busy trying in vain to be a domestic goddess, she can often be found lurking in local coffee shops with her head in a book. Sometimes she pretends to be clever but really loves nothing more than watching geeky TV and eating Pringles.
Sky Song is the first instalment of the Sky Song trilogy. Book two, The Young Moon, is also available and book three, Not of Our Sky, is due for release early May 2013.
Author Links:
Website: Click here
Facebook: Click here
Goodreads: Click here
Twitter: @sharonsant
Amazon UK store: Click here
Amazon US store: Click here
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Amazon US store: Click here
a Rafflecopter giveaway
TOUR SCHEDULE
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Tour
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8th
July 2013
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9th
July 2013
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10th
July 2013
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11th
July 2013
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12th
July 2013
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15th
July 2013
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16th
July 2013
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17th
July 2013
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18th
July 2013
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19th
July 2013
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Thank you so much for being a part of the tour, I've loved visiting your blog :)
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