Excerpts and Teasers

Excerpt from Acceptance: Jewel Trilogy BOOK ONE

By Trish Beninato

            “I have a request—or a demand—before I ask my question.” I sat up straight and sharpened my tone to show I meant serious business, but it was probably more to reassure myself.

            “A demand? I am indeed interested.” He did that sexy smirk thing again, the cocky bastard.

            “I need time with my friends, and for myself, and I need to know if our training spans the weekend as well.”

            “I wasn’t going to insist we train on the weekend, unless you wanted to.” He paused suggestively. Again, with the cockiness. “However, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you Friday for half your Saturday. We can start the new arrangement tomorrow.”

            “I don’t understand why you need me so much.” I may have answered in an overly annoyed tone, but I didn’t care.

            “I need to make sure you’re prepared.”

            “For?”

            “Is this your question?”

            “No.” He studied me silently. “Fine, I’ll ask my question.”

            “Please do, I’m curious.”

            “What happens…” I paused, thinking my question through once more since I’d managed to get distracted. “What happens to me once this is over? What I mean is, do I get a choice? Will I still be me or will I be this other person?” I tried to hide the slight fear and desperation in my voice, but like all things related to me, he saw through it. It struck me as funny that I knew this after only two days with him.

            Then he did something that again took me by surprise. He put his arms around me and held me to him. He felt… good. He felt right. It felt like, in that moment, everything and nothing made sense all at once. He then gently took my face in his hands and turned my head towards his. At first I thought he was going to kiss me. He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in towards my ear.

            “I know you’re frustrated, confused, and worried. You’ll still be you. You’ll just remember who you were before. That’s all.” His voice was soft, and my body instantly heated in response. And to my utter embarrassment, I instinctively leaned into him. Realizing it, I quickly stepped back, breaking the embrace and the intimacy.

            I felt vulnerable and I didn’t like that feeling. He had that effect on me. He made me feel vulnerable in ways I didn’t understand. I needed to fight this. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be this other person.

The Jewel Trilogy

Is a Young Adult Fantasy book with elements of Science-fiction and the Paranormal.

The Jewel Trilogy is a book that fans of X-Men, Percy Jackson, Eva Pohler, Edna Walters, Michelle Maddow, Kris Austen Radcliffe and Rayne Wagner books!

Jewel- main character of the Jewel Trilogy

Jewel is an eighteen year old girl who just wants to be normal. Only she never has been normal.

She learns she is even further from normal than she could ever imagine. She is an ancient Greek goddess with a prophecy that surrounds her, that she never asked for- let alone wants.

She is the very reason the people she lives with are the way they are. Gifted or cursed, you will have to decide. But powerful they are.

Jewel struggles through the book to accept her destiny and learn who she was and decide who and what she wants in her life. 

Join her on her journey in- Acceptance: Jewel Trilogy

                                     Awoken: Jewel Trilogy book 2

Anubis- Main character of the Jewel TRILOGY

Anubis is a god of ancient Egypt, but before that he was just a soldier in his fathers army on a planet far away.

Now he is immortal. And a very long time ago he fell in love.

He was a god that waited forever. And he still waits for her to choose him.

Will she choose him, or will she walk a different path?

Awoken

Excerpt from Awoken. 

     My headache was gone. I opened my eyes slowly. There was a light above me, far above me. It was an unnatural light. Much like the lights on the vessel I grew up on.  I peered up at it, mesmerized by it. I looked around the room. I was back in the sandpit. He was there.

     “Do you live in this room?” I turned my head toward him. He was standing to the side watching me. He was partially enveloped in darkness as if his essence was entwined with it. There was a chill in the surrounding air. He was dressed in a tunic and had a sword strapped to his side. It meant he had also been out among the humans.

     “No, but I felt your presence and thought it best to meet you here.” He stepped out of the darkness that surrounded him, and it disappeared. It had been a portal. I laughed. The last few days had been a myriad of things happening and the fact that here stood Anubis, the god of death, made me deliriously giggly. “Are you okay?” He moved closer to me carefully as if he was afraid to spook me.

     “Yes.” I managed to say between giggles. “This... this is my destiny.” I erupted into more laughter unleashing all the pent-up emotions. I then stretched out on the sand feeling the unique texture. It was soft and silky whereas sand was ordinarily rough and harsh. It felt like I was swimming in powder.

     “I fail to see the humor.” He stood above me, so I threw the silky powder sand at him. He continued to peer down at me, this time, with more annoyance than before.

     “You fail to see it because you aren’t looking hard enough.” I started to move my arms through the thin layer of sand. If this was dream state, couldn’t I almost do whatever I wanted? I wanted to swim in the powder sand. So, I did as the handsome rugged, and a highly annoyed man stood looking down at me as if I was crazy.

     “Thoth,” the man called Anubis roared at the top of his lungs at the door. In stepped my old friend, a man who had once been the father I had always wanted. “She is broken.” He gestured toward me with his hands.

     “No Thothie, He  is broken.” I pointed upwards toward the looming mountain of a man glaring down at me. Then I continued to swim through the sand. It occurred to me, I was acting odd, but then the thought was gone as I giggled some more. The sand felt good.

     “She has been drugged. It has followed her into the dream state.”  Thoth walked closer toward me. I heard his words but didn’t want to stop my swimming.

     “I thought our kind was near impervious to being drugged?”  Anubis peered closer at me, and I smiled at him.

     “You, sir, have a nice face. I like your face and the other stuff that’s not your face.” I sat up then and stood to brush the sand from my body. I walked closer to the large man named Anubis, or at least I tried. The room wouldn’t stay still as I walked.  I tripped, and the nice face man caught me in his arms. “Your face, it caught me!” I said giggling.

     “Here, sit her on the raised floor, and I’ll examine her.” I heard Thoth speaking to the nice face man as I was heaved up and placed gently down. I didn’t like it when he stopped touching me, so I kept trying to get closer to him. They tried to hold me down, but I didn’t want to be held down.

    “Jewel, please we are trying to help you,” Thoth spoke to me appearing in front of my face. He was in the way of the nice face man, named Anubis.

     “Mr. Thoth, Thothie, Thoth-taculos.” I stopped and forgot what I was about to say.

     “Yes, Jewel.” He was looking into my eyes and checking me over in concern.

     “Him.” I pointed, poorly at the mountain man with the nice face named something. “I need him close. Bring him back.” Thoth turned and looked at the man, and there was an odd exchange to which the man then sat next to me and did not protest as I put myself in his lap. I sighed as I laid my head on his shoulder.

     “What has she been drugged with and how do we stop this?” His voice bellowed out in a deep, baritone with a touch of honey. I liked listening to it.

     “It’s hard to say. She isn’t really there. It’s hard to make an assessment when I can't touch her.” Thoth placed his hand on my shoulder, but I felt only a breeze as his hand passed through me.

     “I can touch her. What do you want me to check?” The nice faced man spoke again. I liked it when he talked.

     “Does she feel cold, hot, or is she sweating?” I closed my eyes then, bored with their talk.

     “She feels warm, not sweaty and her heart is racing a little higher than normal.” I breathed in his skin. He smelled amazing; like sunshine, mahogany, and masculine musk. “And she just sniffed me and sighed with pleasure. What is wrong with her?”

     “You smell so good,” I whispered into his ear.

     “Hmm.” I opened my eyes than to see Thoth rub his chin as he had the habit of doing when thinking deeply. “I fear she has been drugged with a particular elixir. One that is associated with Eros.” Humans use it to seduce each other when one is not- well in desire to be seduced.

     “Great, so she thinks she is in love with me?” I heard the man face mountain respond with what sounded like displeasure.

     “No, this elixir is unique in a way.” Thoth sounded further away then.

     “How so?” The man’s arms were around me now, and I snuggled into them. It felt good.

     The Elixir, it is unique. I’ll have to test to see if my hypothesis is correct, but without her here in real time. It’s impossible.” He paused., more than likely contemplating something again.  This conversation made my head hurt. “Jewel, before you came here. What happened?”

     “Moon festival, Rhea, sacrifices, Nikon, then party at pompous ass house, then headache and the beach.” My head was starting to hurt again.

     “Did you say, Rhea?” He asked the question but walked away as if he already had the answer. Meanwhile, my head split with pain, and I sought refuge in the nice faced man’s arms. Thoth laughed. Why is he laughing? I thought as I reached up to clutch my pounding head and why was I in Anubis’s arms? The lights were bright, too bright. It hurt. “I always thought the prophecy was some made up stuff to use the poor girl, but now I see.”

     I stood then on wobbly legs. “You see what?” I asked him through the head pounding.

     “I’ll explain when you are less ill, my dear. For now, you must go. I believe you are at the beginning of a long journey. I shall see you soon, it seems.” He turned toward the door, but before I lost them and the room he turned and spoke. “Don’t drink anything that you didn’t make, and drink goats milk in the morning.” And they, it, everything, was gone. I lay alone on a beach, my head still pounding.

     I stood, walking toward home and cursing the stars the whole way.  That night I dreamed of the smell of his skin, and the feel of his arms around me; the sensation of his lips on mine. When I woke the next day, I felt a need I’ve never felt before. The pendant around my neck began to warm against my skin. I could feel it through the shell I hide it in. I rolled over in bed, and the room started to spin again. So, I stumbled into the kitchen and devoured the freshly obtained goat’s milk on the shelf. I guzzled it till it was gone and finally began to feel normal. But something was itching in the back of my mind. Where and how did I know I needed goat’s milk? That’s when I remembered it. Everything.

I sat in his lap!

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