Author Cheri Schmidt: YA Indie Carnival ~ Huh?

I was always the good girl, and when I first read the title of our topic, well, I was completely lost. I’ve never put the use of "substance" in any of my books either. So I’ve chosen a different excerpt where the characters are under the influence of something else...fairy magic....

From Forever, Ethan's point of view:
(Hint-start the music at the bottom before you start reading. ;)

It seemed there were no adverse side effects to consuming food tainted with fey magic. It’s true that he felt slightly ... what was the word? He wouldn’t say drunk exactly, because he didn’t feel out of control like that. He didn’t feel muddled either, but ... perhaps the word he was looking for was charmed. And healed, he thought, as his hand slid beneath the table and dropped to his knee. That felt even better than it had before he’d been dropped by the pixies and the juice had been the only thing where he could feel the magic work within his body.

His gaze swung to Danielle who was licking her fingers clean of something purple and sticky-looking. Clearly she had completely forgotten her upset from earlier. The look of pleasure that curled her mouth into a contented smile told him that. He mentally thanked Alora and the other fairies for the small gift as he vowed to offer his gratitude in person later. She still wore her shirt instead of having it tied around her waist and he was grateful for that too. Ethan didn’t know how much longer he could restrain the streak of violent jealously within him when he’d caught Casanova noticing how snuggly her T-shirt hugged her fully-bloomed body.

Making a visual pass over the table, his eyes landed on the guards. It seemed they were finished eating as well. The two who irritated him the most, Casanova and Richard, were busy talking at the far end of the table. Night had fallen and the vampires were on guard with their magic, avoiding his gaze and keeping a physical distance.

Leaning back in his chair, he again watched his wife. The persistent beat of the music pounded through his veins and he decided he really wanted to dance. With her. “Shall we?” he asked, although he frowned at how strange his voice sounded. He couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong with it either, so he shrugged it off and reached for her hand.

She giggled and mingled her fingers with his. “I’d love to.”

As they moved toward the dance area, fairies flitted about, as some danced alone and others twirled like couples in love. The colorful glow coming off the fairies looked quite a bit like laser lights as they streaked from one side of the clearing to the other. And the way the darkened trees glittered with fairy dust seemed just like a mirrored ball hung somewhere unseen within this wooded place. For some odd reason, he had to concentrate really hard to find his voice when he commented on the scene. “It’s like we’re at a dance club.”

Danielle glanced around, and it seemed like she was having as much trouble finding words as he was. “Hmm, I hadn’t thought of it like that before.” She laughed and then murmured, “I just love dancing with the fairies.”

He loved it too, but again, that was something he couldn’t bring himself to own to verbally. Too girly. Instead he grinned, and lifting her right arm, he twirled her in a circle. She staggered slightly but smiled when he led her into another spin before capturing her about the waist.

Ethan kept Danielle well outside the ring of mushrooms where many fairies pranced on top of the red and white spotted fungi. First, he didn’t wish to step on any of them, and second, he recalled their strict warning about never wandering into the ring.

The lilting measure slowed until it became a tender melody that moved the soul, and Danielle’s arms came up around his neck. He drew her close and smiled down at her as they began to sway to the music. Her pretty face tipped up and she returned the smile. She’d undone her hair. The braided sections of it had maintained a wave that caressed her left cheek and drew his fingers. As the silky strands slipped through his fingertips, he decided she looked like a beguiling wood-nymph with the naughty intention of stealing his heart. But she can’t steal something she already possesses, he thought with a laugh.

The sight of her made his heart squeeze and he was easily entranced by her clear eyes that looked more like shards of steel-blue instead of brown in this subdued lighting that leached color from everything. His deep love for her rose up within him and he suddenly found it hard to breathe because he was reminded of all the things threatening to take her away. With his lungs seizing, Ethan wondered how much longer she could tolerate the danger his past had brought to her life. While leaving her would never be an option for him because that would not bring her safety, in the back of his mind he feared she might actually leave him. He was the one in danger of losing everything.... Ethan attempted to swallow whatever it was lodged in his throat. If she left him, the guards, who were much more loyal to her than him, would follow ... and then they’d move in on her. They weren’t weak and mortal like him. They didn’t need glasses like he did. He nudged them up the bridge of his nose because they’d slipped. His nostrils flared. He held his breath and ground his teeth.

“Are you okay?” she asked, jerking him out of his internal panic with the soft-spoken query.

Catching his eye, Danielle gave him that look of hers that told his soul she loved no one more than him, knew no one else like she knew him. It was that look that brought back such a strong sense of recognition between them that he couldn’t question how she felt about him. Somehow he knew they’d felt this way about one another for much longer than either had been alive. So why was he questioning her commitment now when he never had before? Ethan let himself breathe again. He noticed the fine tremble that had started in his fingers when he trailed the backs of them along the high bone of her cheek. But even with that knowledge in his head, he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Please don’t ever leave me.”

She blinked at that. “Have you lost your mind? I could never leave you.”

Mentally shaking his head, Ethan wondered what was wrong with his brain. His thoughts were clearly not rational at all. One moment he was laughing like a fool and the next he was on the edge of sheer anxiety. “Forgive me, it seems I—”

Danielle’s mouth mashed against his so quickly he just stood there for a moment with his eyes wide. They flickered shut as the taste of her touched his tongue and he hugged her to his chest more tightly than he should. She squeaked and he loosened his grip, but only a little. His amazing wife kissed him until she brought comfort back into his mind. Bless her. Ethan was sure she had no idea how much he needed that kiss at that moment, but he was eternally grateful to her for it.

With the change in rhythm of the music, his mood returned to his wish to dance. The tune sounded suspiciously like a samba. In the quiet depths of his thoughts, the roller coaster of emotions within him still seemed irrational, but he didn’t take the time to try and figure it out. He was surprised the fairies even knew such a tune, but he went with it anyway and led Danielle into the bouncy dance.

Laughing and looking at him like perhaps he had lost his mind, she asked, “What is this?”

“It sounds like a samba to me.”

“No way!”

With a wink, Ethan held her hand in his left and placed his right hand on her shoulder blade. “Do you know the ballroom samba?”

“Kind of.”

They made a pass around the fairy ring and Ethan decided she knew how to shake it better than “kind of,” the little minx. He was practically drooling with the way she rolled her hips, the way her clothes stretched over her sexy curves, the way she smirked at him with desire in her eyes. Deciding he needed to kiss her again, Ethan drew her back against his chest. His thumb found the bottom edge of her jawbone as he carefully nudged her face toward his. Stepping backward, he administered the sort of snogging she deserved for moving like that.

As the music lulled him into a magic-induced bliss, his focus became only that and Danielle. Then in one moment he was kissing and holding her, and in the next he was blinking up at a black span of space dotted with fuzzy but colorful lights.

What?

“Get out of the ring, Ethan,” someone said.

Ethan blinked, unable to even register what that meant. A groan drew his eyes to his left where he found Danielle unconscious next to him. Worried, he rose up onto his elbow and bent over her. With arms and legs sticking out at strange angles it appeared as though she’d collapsed. Ethan wondered why he hadn’t caught her before he realized he’d passed out too.

Only then did he grasp the alarming fact that instead of being outside of the fairy ring as they had been while they’d danced, they were now inside it, exactly where they’d been told repeatedly to never go. He curled his hand around Danielle’s hip and shook her gently but urgently. “Danielle, wake up.”

She groaned again and rocked her head back and forth before mumbling something he couldn’t understand.

When he tried to get to his feet so he could carry her to safety, the world went black again.

And, I just heard a song that really brings this scene to life for me. Enjoy, Close to You by Black Lab:

Release update!!!!

In Sophia's Cookbook for Mortals, she gives you many fairy-influenced recipes. Hopefully they won't make you loopy if you make the recipes at home. The cookbook will be released very soon! I'm not finished, but here is a preview of what the cover will sort of look like. And scroll down a couple of posts to get one of Sophia's recipes for free. Until next time!

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