KYRESA Teaser and Excerpt

Running about 93,600 words, Kyresa is a romantic fantasy. I am currently seeking representation for this novel.

 

Kyresa

Kyresa, the last immortal Anjelle, has built a kingdom with the life-giving power of her song since the mysterious death of her clan. She has led her people as the beloved Evorian Queen, while far away, her tyrannical half-brother Rahzine rules under the violent Sileb Way.

Rahzine seeks vengeance for his lost clan, a group of mortal men sung to life by the Anjelles to provide them with companionship and love. He enlists his soldiers in a deceptive plot to overthrow Kyresa, and when he asks her help to replenish his nation, he offers one of his men as a tempting distraction.

Kyresa aches to unite the lands, and despite the warnings of the Anjelles so many years ago, she is startled to find a passionate, blinding love in Vesago, her new companion. As their love blooms, Rahzine’s plan unfolds—until Kyresa must choose between love and loyalty to save her kingdom…

     …before it is too late…

  

Read on for an excerpt of Kyresa, by Eva Rieder.

  

Across the horizon, dark clouds drifted over the trees, threatening to swallow the plants whole and take them from the land they’d thrived on for all these years. The dimness called out, aching to spread itself onto the remnants of a fallen land.

Though the barren trees remained, nothing in the Anjelle land resembled what it had been. Once lush, green grasses now shrank into weak yellow strings. Flowers that bloomed across acres of land lay shriveled, their stems withered and their roots dead.

A rabbit bounded out from a leafless tree, yearning to find some nourishment. Like many other small creatures clinging to life, it was driven out to feed a body so thin that its weak heartbeat showed through skin. The rabbit barely lifted its feet in desperate jumps across the field, sniffing with its cracked, dried nose at every tree base, flower, and bush, seeking a morsel to survive. Its tiny leaden jumps slowed; in the end it tumbled to the ground and rolled onto its back, a pair of hollow eyes gazing into the grieving skies.

A fierce gust of wind blew across the dying surface, scratching at the dry trees. It screamed from the blackness beyond the horizon, muting all sounds save for the pounding footsteps of the Anjelle. She ran with great speed, her abraded, blistered soles stomping the ground.

“I’m coming, Halinea!” she called, her voice riding the wind. “Please, please Halinea!” Her lungs throbbed but she continued to scream.

Just beyond the courtyard, its marble benches deserted and dusty, Halinea lay. Her body heaved as she coughed, her arms wrapped around her shins.

“I’m here!” Kyresa cried. She collapsed to the ground, her momentum cracking her knees against the unyielding earth so hard they bled through the white silk of her gown. Her breath came raggedly as she leaned over the woman. Kyresa grabbed Halinea’s hands, the skin on them scraping against her own. She held them to her teary cheeks and cringed at their coldness. “No, you can’t,” she sobbed through her tears.

Halinea coughed again, squinting to focus her eyes onto the girl. Kyresa swayed back and forth, cradling Halinea’s hands in her arms.

“It is time,” she whispered. Her words came as raspy wheezes forced from within. “You are the last.”

Kyresa’s tears burned down her cheeks. “I can’t bear it!” she shrieked. “Why is this happening?”

“Kyresa…” Halinea murmured, “I need to know that you will mend this. Tell me you will right this land. You are the one who can, the one who lives…”

Kyresa shook her head, then reached out for Halinea’s face. She lowered her body next to the dying Anjelle and held her close.

“Yes, yes,” she whispered. “I will, yes…”

“You must take all we’ve given you and salvage this land. Save our history. Heed our word, stay away from the Sileebs, from their water.”

She buried her head in the woman’s arm. “I won’t go there, I won’t drink the water,” she sobbed.

“Beware the beauty of the Sileebs, Kyresa.”

“What?” She sat upright, her face flushed and her hair sticking to her damp cheeks. “What are you talking about?”

“Beware their beauty,” Halinea wheezed, coughing violently. “You are the last Anjelle…” Her final word came as a gasp before she exhaled.

“Wait!” Kyresa cried. She dipped her head into Halinea’s face.

The woman’s eyes were still.

Kyresa threw her palms over her eyes. She opened her mouth and howled, the sound leaping into the wind and spreading throughout the land and beyond.

Out from her hands a single tear raced away, rolling down her cheek and past her trembling chin. It fell to the yellowed grass and sank into the dirt below.

The wind slowed. The dimness of the sky subsided. And a small, green stem traveled from below the grass, peeking its pink flower bud up and out to catch Kyresa’s tears.