by Kelsey Ketch
Genre: New Adult Adventure/Fantasy
Release Date: December 2020
Summary from Goodreads:
With her family name tainted by her great-grandfather’s crimes, Meriden Cummings could only dream of fleeing her oppressive life. Then she unearthed a piece of tanned skin, and her blood revealed an ancient map adorned with Mayan glyphs, launching her on the journey of a lifetime. However, she finds herself bound to the map, and there is a cost to her newfound freedom. One that will torment her mind as well as her soul.
After being shanghaied by pirates, Gregory Wilson escapes to a small English village where he runs into an obnoxious auburn- haired beauty. When he learns she is about to set sail on dangerous waters, he signs up to join her crew, hoping to defend her from the pirates seeking her great-grandfather’s treasure. But, will he be able to protect her from the ghost that haunts her or the curse running through her veins.
Excerpt
Tucker barked at something that had recently washed up onto
the shore. Curious, I walked toward the obvious tangled mess. “What do you have
there?”
I pushed him aside and grabbed the green and grey mass. I peeled
off the debris and seaweed and rinsed the mud and sand off in the Mouth of the
Severn. From the mess appeared an object, which I could only describe as an
elaborate golden coin, about four inches in diameter. Yet, the slightest touch
caused three outer rings of glyphs—similar to the ones painted on the map—to
rotate around a sitting man with a long headdress, bowl, and club. His face
profiled, and his legs crossed. The most outer ring consisted of nineteen
complicated glyphs, including an eagle’s head, a goat-like face, and a demon
face; the middle ring held twenty square glyphs with three curls underneath,
some depicting things like hands, skulls, and faces; and the innermost ring had
a series of dots and lines—much like Roman numerals—that counted up to
thirteen. On the other side of the coin, the same skeletal figure from the map
sat in the center while nine teetered glyphs were spaced out along the outer
rings—five on the outer ring and four in the middle. Among the glyphs of the
middle ring were four arrows pointing in what I would call the cardinal
directions. Overlapping the middle and inner rings were three large arrows.
Much like a compass pointing north, east, and west. And to the south, two
skulls faced each other, leaving a microscopic gap.
My mind spun with disbelief. This had to be related to Death
Island. I was sure of it. But how? And where did it come from? How did it get
here?
The breeze carried my hair off my shoulder, a shiver ran
down my spine, and goose bumps unraveled across my arms when I sensed a
presence nearby. I turned to spy a man as pale as ash with a beard as white as
snow watching me. Black veins stretched throughout his exposed flesh. His eyes
nothing but two black pieces of coal. The mere sight of him made me jump in my
own skin, nearly causing me to drop the Mayan coin as I gasped in fright. In an
attempt to regain my composure, I took my eyes off the man for a second to
steady myself, only for them to fall back on the gardener, or ghost, I met at
the Railings’ home.
Excerpt
In a half-dream state, I saw myself as a young girl being
guided through the city. My hair long, raven locks, and my skin painted blue.
Yet something wasn’t right. While I walked behind a man also decorated with blue
paint and wearing a jaguar loincloth and feathered headdress, my vision
blurred, and my thoughts grew hazy. On top of it, once and a while the painted
man before me would change. His image shifting between the painted man and
Baker. He dragged me up several steps with a rope that was tied around my
wrists. The sound of rushing water drowned out the foreign words the painted
man chanted to the massive crowd sitting around a pool below us. I was pushed
to the edge of a small platform and shoved onto my knees. The sun drew long
shadows from the few trees and surrounding colorful buildings. A shadow of a
club rose into the air and fell. The next thing I felt was a sharp pain in my
skull, darkness, wet, and cold.
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