Elemental Games is our best series yet!
Hello there,
We hope this email finds you well. We've been hard at work crafting Elemental Games, Book 1 of our upcoming series. As the story unfolds, we can't help but agree that it's going to be our best story yet. It has all the action, romance, and unique dystopian escapism of our other series, and MORE!
We're getting so excited about it we're thrilled to share with you an exclusive sneak peek of the first chapter. As a valued reader and supporter, we wanted to give you an early look at what promises to be an exhilarating journey into a fascinating and surprise-filled word where nothing is as it seems.
We hope you enjoy this sneak peek and that it leaves you eager for more. Elemental Games is a story that's captured our hearts just as much as it did our minds, and we can't wait to share the entire series with you in the coming months.
Stay tuned for updates and other exciting news related to the series. Your feedback and support mean the world to us, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this opening chapter. Has it got you intrigued?
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. We can't wait to embark on this dystopian adventure together.
Happy reading,
Tamar and Heidi
ELEMENTAL GAMES
Chapter 1
Aura
Aura’s eyes spring open so fast it’s like they’re being controlled by someone else. The first thing she sees is the same endless blue sky that’s stretched across her world her entire life.
But she immediately knows something’s not right.
She’s not safely tucked in her hammock that swings from the ceiling of her family’s barge. She’s outdoors, her spine pressing into a hard surface as a cold breeze caresses her face.
She sits up and wraps her arms around her trembling legs to discover she’s balancing on a flimsy raft. It wobbles and her hands automatically shoot out and she holds still. Tries to stay calm. And waits for both the raft and her breathing to stabilize.
But this proves impossible. Because a quick glance at the vast ocean that surrounds her confirms that while she’s at home, floating amongst the frozen glaciers of the Deadwaters, she has no idea how she got here.
And to make it even worse, she’s all alone.
A queasy feeling twists her stomach into knots and her head spins. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was seasick, which is impossible given she grew up on the ice of the rising tides. It must be her confusion making her ill.
The raft slowly steadies and she dares to look down at herself, seeing she’s wearing the pale blue suit worn by all the inhabitants of the Deadwaters. Skin-tight and insulated for warmth, it protects them from the bitter winds and freezing ocean. It’s her second skin and the soft fabric brings her a little comfort in her sea of confusion.
Looking around, she searches for a passing barge or familiar landmark, but finds nothing, which is not entirely unusual. The Deadwaters is huge, with its population spread across thousands of miles. It’s possible to travel for days without seeing another human soul. Just how far had she drifted?
“I want to go home!” she shouts, her words forming a cloud of cold that floats into the emptiness. “Get me out of here!” Silence is her response, so she lets out a long, bloodcurdling scream until her throat blazes with pain.
Feeling a little better, she draws in a deep breath, trying to settle her breathing. This isn’t how the calm, measured people of the Water Quadrant behave. She’s acting more like someone from the Fire Quadrant, exploding in rage at the slightest provocation. Although, in fairness, what’s happening to her stretches well beyond slight.
“Think, Aura!” Her pulse spikes as she searches her memory for even the tiniest hint of how she got out here.
She concentrates on the last thing she can remember.
It was her eighteenth birthday. If it’s the same day, then it still is. She woke in her hammock to the sound of her parents crying. Not just her mother, but her father too. They were loud, agonized sobs like she’d never heard before. She’d scrambled to her feet and rushed out of the barge.
Then…nothing.
That’s it. It was like the moment she stepped onto the gangway, the world as she’d known it vanished. Her next conscious moment was waking up on this raft.
She fixes her gaze on the ice caps, trying to decide what to do. If she had an oar, she could move much faster. She’s a strong swimmer, but plunging into water at this temperature would be too risky without a way to warm up. Not to mention the dangers she knows lurk beneath this deceptively calm surface. Which leaves her with one option. She’s going to have to paddle with her hands and hope she has enough energy to find someone to help. Her odds aren’t great.
She has to try!
Because there’s no way in the four quadrants of this doomed planet she’s going to sit here and wait to die. Courage boils in her gut, and she clenches her fists, her heart now drumming to a beat of determination rather than fear.
Sprawling to her stomach, Aura jams her hands into the salty water on either side of the narrow raft, her body well used to the cold. She drags her hands through the water, propelling herself forward. Repeating the action, she takes a moment to be grateful for how fluid she feels. Before long, the agony of each of these motions is going to rip her through to her soul. Her hands will get so cold, she’ll feel like she’s on fire.
But she can do this. Because she comes from the Water Quadrant. And out of all the elements, water always wins. It extinguishes fire, consumes air, drowns the earth. It can transform into any state, falling from the sky, trailing across the land, rising into the air. But most of all, it’s the life force that pumps through every human’s veins.
Aura couldn’t be prouder to be from Water.
Swinging her arms over her head, she drives her hands into the freezing ocean and pulls them back, sending her raft gliding over the glassy surface. She does this over and over, and when her body screams for a rest, she ignores it. Resting means death. And she’s far too young to die.
Swing. Drive. Pull.
Swing. Drive. Pull.
Swing. Drive. Pull.
She’s got this. She’s a winner. She’s…
“Aauuuu-raaaa!”
Her head snaps up at the sound of her name. She sits up and looks around, ecstatic to see another raft. She’s not alone! Except…out of all the people she could have found out here, why did it have to be him?
Hayze waves at her with an enthusiasm he’s never shown in her presence before. Well, that’s not strictly true. If scoffing and eye-rolling count then he’s given her plenty of this kind of attention in the past. But this is different. He’s smiling, making his annoyingly handsome face even more annoyingly handsome. When she’d gone in search of someone, she most definitely hadn’t wished for him.
“Stay there!” His smile falls and he lowers to his stomach, using his powerful forearms to drive himself toward her.
Refusing to be a damsel in distress, Aura resumes her paddling and works to close the gap, unsure if she should have turned and gone the other way. Her parents used to be best friends with Hayze’s parents before his family decided they were too good for life in the Deadwaters and moved to Aqua, the burgeoning yet exclusive capital of the Water Quadrant. Aura’s not sure of all the details, but from what she’s been able to piece together, Hayze’s parents did something highly unethical to earn their place in Aqua. Which means she now not only has to contend with whatever might be circling underneath her raft, she has to watch out for the muscle-clad danger right in front of her face.
Her raft bumps into Hayze’s and he reaches out to take hold of the edge of hers. He runs a hand through his dirty blond hair then unravels some of the twine keeping the timber of his raft together, using it to secure himself to her.
“What if I don’t want to be tied to you?” she asks.
“Why?” He glances around dramatically. “You got a better offer?”
“Maybe,” she says. “Like being on my own, for example.”
His dark eyes zero in on her. “You want me to go?”
Panic surges through her unsettled gut. She doesn’t want him to go. She wants to throw herself on his raft and wrap her arms around him so she can feel his breath on her face and his heart beat against her chest—
Whoa, what is she thinking! She hates this guy! And whenever she’s seen him at the Traders Market, he’s made it perfectly clear the feeling is mutual.
Hayze puts his hand on the knot he just tied. “Well? Am I leaving?”
“No,” she says a little too quickly. “I’m glad you’re here. Because I have a little problem. You see, I can’t…” She grimaces, not wanting to look like an idiot in front of someone who’s gone out of his way to make it clear that’s exactly what he thinks she is.
“You can’t remember how you got here?” he prompts. “Yeah, neither can I. One minute I was waking up in my own bed. And the next… Bam! I’m out here. Middle of nowhere with nothing and nobody to be found. Until I saw you.”
“Bet I wouldn’t have been your first choice,” she says, claiming the first eyeroll in this exchange.
He shakes his head, not even having the decency to deny it. “You weren’t exactly the birthday present I had in mind.”
“It’s your birthday?” She chews her lip, wondering why her parents never mentioned this coincidence. “I’m eighteen today, too.”
“Who knew we had so much in common,” he says wryly. “Born on the same day, in the same Quadrant, and now completely and utterly doomed to die together.”
“I’m not dying,” she snaps. “If that’s what you think, untie my raft now, so I can paddle.”
“You don’t have much of a sense of humor, do you?” he scoffs. “I have no intention of dying. But you’re wasting your time paddling. There’s nobody out here. I would have found them if there was.”
She grits her teeth. “Yet, somehow you found me.”
“Two poles of a magnet,” he mutters. “Opposites attract.”
Did he just say what she thought he said? He’s attracted to her?
Shaking her head, she tells herself that’s not what he meant. He was speaking literally. Their families are opposites. Aura’s bloodline is typical of the soft, affable people typical of the Deadwaters. Hayze’s family has the harder edge of those from Aqua, reminding Aura more of ice than water, despite the more temperate climate they live in.
“It was another joke,” Hayze says, claiming the second eyeroll of the day. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Who knew you were such a funny guy.” Frustration builds within Aura, mingling with the confusion still churning in her gut.
“And who knew you were such a stick in the mud,” he quips. “Are you sure you’re not from the Earth Quadrant?”
She drags in a deep breath, pushing down the impulse to silence him by pressing her lips to his smart mouth. This situation is really getting to her. Normally she’s fighting the desire to slap him across the face.
“What’s going on here, Hayze?” she asks, trying to get her thoughts back on track. “How did we get out here?”
He studies her without answering. His dark irises seem directly focused on her lips like he somehow managed to read her mind because there’s no way he could be thinking about kissing her too.
“Are you in on this?” She narrows her eyes. “Is this some kind of elaborate prank?”
He shakes his head slowly, and again, she fights the urge to crawl onto his lap and put her arms around him. He reaches out his hand toward her, letting it hover in the air, then brings it quickly back to his side.
“Something weird is definitely happening,” he says, rubbing his hands together for circulation. “But don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”
Ignoring his arrogance, she looks around, desperately hoping to see someone else. Anyone else!
He also scans the environment, until something else catches his attention. “Look!” he gasps, pointing. “Over there!”
She turns so fast she hurts her neck, letting out a yelp as she sees what he noticed.
There are more rafts! Two of them, no less. Relief slides through her. She’s no longer stuck out here with her one sworn enemy in life.
Hayze rises to his knees and squints. “They’re from the Fire Quadrant.”
Aura blinks, unable to make out the same level of detail he has and hoping with every cell in her fast-depleting body that he’s wrong. “What would they be doing out here?”
“Let’s find out.” Hayze unties their rafts and starts paddling. “Come on.”
She does the same, working hard to keep up with him. His family has always thought they’re better than hers. She is not going to let him win at this. She doubles her efforts, more focussed on her strokes than her concern for who they’re about to meet, no matter how foolish this is. The in-fighting in the Quadrants is nothing compared to the war for resources that rages between them.
The only thing the Quadrants hate more than the havoc constantly wreaked upon them by Mother Nature is each other. So, if Hayze is right and they’re stuck out here with two people from a rival Quadrant, that means he’s just gone from her worst enemy to her very best friend.
Aura’s raft bumps into a solid object and she lifts her face to see a set of emerald eyes surrounded by freckles staring at her. The girl on the raft has slicked back orange hair and is wearing red leather trousers and a vest, telling Aura Hayze was right. She’s definitely from the Fire Quadrant. On the raft beside her is a guy wearing the same get up, except he has hair the color of night framing his pale face.
Aura pushes herself up to get level with these strangers. She’s never seen anyone from another Quadrant up so close before. And just like this bizarre situation she’s stuck in, they seem completely foreign, yet eerily familiar all at the same time.
Now that all four rafts are touching, the small group study each other in silence, fascination evident on their faces. In any other circumstance, a meeting of the Quadrants would mean war. But it’s clear there’ll be no fight breaking out between this group of confused teens.
Not yet anyway.
First, they have to figure out what they’re doing here.
And then they have to find their way home.
ELEMENTAL GAMES
Elemental powers. Deadly games.
No escape.
When Aura and Hayze wake up with six others in a place they’ve never seen, they know three things.
They’re childhood enemies.
No one remembers how they got here.
And there’s no way out.
In a world with no rules or reason, there’s so much they don’t know. Why they’re so drawn to each other. Why they can bend an element to their will. And why each day is deadlier than the last.
Aura and Hayze need answers because one thing is certain. Their lives depend on uncovering what is truth and what is reality.
An intoxicating thrill ride packed with twists, romance and nail-biting action! Lovers of Maze Runner and Hunger Games will devour Elemental Games.
A KU DYSTOPIAN READ-FEST!
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