Touched By Lightning: Lightning Series

By Kathleen Rovner

The island is a secret prison…

Kara has the perfect life. Well, sort of. She has supportive parents and an incredible singing talent. Sure, she wishes her parents were a little more lenient about her dating, but on their tiny island, there aren’t a lot of choices anyway. When a new girl named Julie arrives—which in itself is incredible; no one new ever comes there—they instantly become best friends.

On vacation, Kara has a chance conversation with Ethan, a friend from Julie’s old school. Ethan is everything Kara might want in a boy, if she were allowed to date or he lived closer. Tempted to stay friends with him, she defies her parents’ rules and talks to him in secret.

As their friendship develops, Kara starts to question everything she thought she knew about herself and everyone around her, leading her to believe that she may be in danger. Will she be able to escape the island in time?

Touched By Lightning is a short companion novel in a series of suspenseful young adult fantasy novels with a touch of romance. If you like captivating stories, strong female characters, and mysterious paranormal twists, then you'll love Kathleen Rovner's Lightning Series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willabby Press
• Release date: Oct 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533765116

Book preview

Touched By Lightning

Kathleen Rovner

For my family.

Cover Illustration by Melody Barber

Edited by Jeni Chappelle

Copyright © 2016

All rights reserved

Chapter 1: A Phone Call

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"Hey girl! Scoot over here. I need to show you something," Mandy said.

Kara smiled, glad her parents had relented for once and let her off the island to go on vacation and meet Julie’s old school friends. Though why they had to meet here was beyond her. There were beaches all over the island at home. But instead Julie’s family had rented a house in Hilton Head.

Hilton Head wasn’t as perfectly manicured as her island home, but everything here seemed more vibrant and alive. The people were friendlier. Was this what Julie’s life was like in Atlanta? If so, she could understand why her friend wanted to return so badly.

Still, she couldn’t believe she was here!

Hold your horses. Geez. You better be nice! Or else I will hunt you down and make you sorry. You know I can… Mandy held her phone to her other ear where Kara hadn’t noticed it before. She rolled her light blue eyes at Kara like she was tired of the conversation she was in, brushing back her honey blond hair as an ocean breeze whipped around them.

All the nervousness she’d felt about meeting Julie’s friends had melted away in the first five minutes as they hugged like she was an old friend too. Mandy and Darcy were so nice and happy Julie had found a friend that there was no awkwardness. Kara felt like they were instant friends. And Julie hadn’t deserted her like she feared once she told her she was moving to the new school.

Unlike Melissande and all her other old friends.

It was as if something had changed a few years ago and everyone had forgotten to send Kara an update. Her best friend and second cousin, Melissande, had moved to the school across the island. Their friendship had drifted away. And after a while, more people drifted away from her and the school, until it was only her and three boys left there.

She looked down at her sandals, the small beads on them reflecting in the light. The light almost glared in her eyes, stinging them like it stung to think about her old friends. The light flashed a rainbow on her toes. She wiggled them, letting some of the sand on the beach fill into the shoes, her thoughts and feelings wiggling away as she wiggled her toes.

Kara shook her head. What had she been thinking about?

She must have zoned out again. She did that all the time. No wonder her parents were so hard on her. She could never focus on anything and always disappointed them.

Are you coming here or not? Mandy interrupted Kara’s thoughts. Julie had warned her that Mandy was abrupt but sweet and would do anything for her friends. It had only been a day, and Mandy had already declared they would be friends. I swear, you zone out more than anyone I have ever met!

K, coming. She scooted over their spread–out towels, not worrying about whatever she had forgotten now.

Mandy nodded down the beach. I swear that there is something wrong with that boy over there. I mean I’m sitting here, and you get up to move wearing that. She indicated Kara’s hot pink and orange floral bikini. And he doesn’t look once. I guess he swings the other way.

Kara studied Mandy as she started talking to whoever was on her phone again. Her new friend was so vibrant, her golden blond hair bouncing energetically around her pretty face and her blue eyes full of mischief. Not for the first time since they’d met, Kara was jealous of Mandy’s eyes. Her own were a boring light green, fading into her pale face, with her pale blond hair. Mandy joked about Kara being drop–dead gorgeous and that she was happy they lived far apart or she might get jealous.

But Kara was sure she was just being nice. No one at home seemed all that interested, except the three guys at her school.

But what choice did they have? She was the only girl. That didn’t really build her confidence. And they freely flirted with her, knowing that dating was strictly off limits by her parents, upon the threat of harsh punishment—first her phone and then her singing lessons. And none of the three boys were worth any of that.

She sighed. She knew her parents were only watching out for her, even if she was curious.

Kara looked off down the beach at the blond guy Mandy pointed out. He was hot. But Mandy was right; he wasn’t looking at them. In fact, he stared off into the ocean where Julie and Darcy were. Maybe he didn’t like blonds. Some guys liked redheads or brunettes. She decided not say that to Mandy, though. According to Mandy, blondes were always more fun.

Plus, Julie was gorgeous too, and Kara had never had more fun than she did with Julie. Her best friend had only been here a few months, missing half this school year, but it had changed Kara’s life. She now had a friend to hang out with after school, someone to call and text. Over the last few months, she and Julie had spent every free moment together.

Or they had until Kara’s family vacation. Julie had seemed more distant since then, wanting to spend more time on her own instead of hanging out.

Or maybe she was looking for problems that weren’t there.

Kara took a deep breath to calm down, like Julie had showed her. She was here with Julie and some new friends. That was what mattered.

She’s right here. Mandy handed the phone over to Kara. Here. Say hello.

Uh… She took the phone automatically but didn’t put it up to her ear yet. Who is it?

Mandy waved her off. Ethan. He’s fine. Say hi so he’ll stop bugging me.

Um, okay. She looked at Mandy’s sparkly, pink phone in her hand then shrugged.

What was the worst that could happen?

Kara put the phone up to her ear. Hello?

Kara, right? a male voice said. I’m Ethan, one of Julie’s and Jamie’s friends from Atlanta.

Oh, okay. She looked at Mandy, confused, and mouthed to her, Why does he want to talk to me?

Mandy put her hands in the air.

Look, I know this is weird, but Julie sent me a picture of all of you. I wanted to say hey to the only girl I didn’t know. Thanks for being such a good friend to Julie. She’s always been like a little sister to me. So it means a lot that she found a close friend over there. He paused. Especially now, with everything she has going on.

What did he mean? Julie’s move? She guessed that would be hard on anyone, having your family move to the stiff, perfect island after living in Atlanta, which sounded like paradise when Julie spoke about it, where she didn’t have to wonder as much what was behind someone’s smile and had so many friends.

Why Julie was allowed all that growing up and not her? She swallowed down the bitter thought. Julie didn’t deserve that. She was Kara’s only friend.

There was an awkward silence, and Kara filled it. Um, thank you.

So enough about that. Let’s talk about you now, Ethan slipped in smoothly. Who is Kara? What do you like to do?

Who was this guy anyway? Was he flirting with her? He was certainly confident. She would give him that.

She raised an eyebrow at Mandy. What is this? she mouthed.

Mandy snorted and rolled her eyes, whispering, Tell you later.

Mandy looked over at the blond guy one more time, sighed, and ran down to the water to play with Julie and Darcy.

Kara envied her. It was beyond awkward to talk to a friend of Julie’s like this. Why did Mandy do this to her? She felt like groaning.

But she guessed she should talk to him for a bit. She didn’t want to offend any of her new friends. If he was really close to Julie, she didn’t want to be rude.

Well…I’m tall and blond and have green eyes, she answered lamely.

Yeah. I saw your picture. Ethan laughed. But what do you like to do? I’m all ears, and I just want to learn more about you.

Kara rolled her eyes. He sounded way too cocky. None of the boys she was around were anything like him. He was so confident that she was almost put off by him…almost.

But he was funny. And he was far away. And he wasn’t from the island. That bit of difference made her curious. Julie was her best friend now, and she wasn’t from the island.

Her heart ticked up a couple of beats. Here was a chance to flirt with a guy without it getting all around her small island community. She could play along for a few minutes.

Kara giggled. What do you look like anyway? It isn’t fair that you’ve seen me, and I haven’t seen you.

Sending you my best pic now. Gotta impress, you know.

The phone pinged. She gasped as she saw a cute boy with spiked–up, brown hair and mischievous, brown eyes. His features were squarer, rougher than she was used to. But she liked his rugged look. His mouth had