Freeze Thaw: Flurries & Phantoms, #1

By Selina J. Eckert

An archaeology student, an Ice Age princess, and an undead sorceress...

Talia was meant to be her clan's greatest leader. But when her parents fail to invite a powerful—and very dangerous—sorceress to her birth party, the clan's long-desired blessing becomes their final curse. As Talia comes of age, the power of the sorceress finds her, and she is lost in a blizzard.

Millennia later, archeaology student Owen is on the field trip of his life to a glacier dig. But what begins as a routine dig soon becomes much more when he discovers a perfectly preserved mummy in the ice—a mummy that returns to life and drags him into a millennias-old dispute.

For deeper in the glacier, dark magic is at work, waking the sorceress known as the Shadow Woman, and she will stop at nothing to end Talia's life and destroy the clan once and for all. If Talia and Owen can't stop her, she will destroy not only Talia but also Owen and the rest of the team. But if they can survive, they may just re-discover more than they could have ever hoped for.

This was a Top Ten Finalist for the Five Magic Spindles contest by Rooglewood Press in 2015.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paper Cranes, LLC
• Release date: Feb 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781733755221

Selina J. Eckert

Selina is a biologist-by-day, writer-by-night native of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband, dog, and two cats and spends her time writing, reading, creating art, and dreaming about fictional worlds. Besides writing and sciencing, Selina also runs an author support business, Paper Cranes, LLC, that provides editing, consulting, and mapmaking services to authors, writers, and students. She has written two fairy-tale retelling short stories that were both finalists in Rooglewood Press short story contests and a fantasy short story, “Queen of Mist and Fog,” available through her newsletter.

Book preview

Freeze Thaw

Selina J. Eckert

Copyright © 2020 by Selina J. Eckert

selinajeckert.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: [e-mail].

ISBN: 978-1733755221

First e-book edition February 2020

Book design by dragonpenpress.com

Cover Image: Deposit Photos

Table of Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Need more fairy tales?

Acknowledgements

About the Author

For my parents,

Who believed in me first.

One

Before the Freeze

SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT.

Talia the Elder lifted her nose to the wind, sniffing at the magic in the air. Next to her stood her husband, one hand on her shoulder. She gripped the baby, Talia the Younger, closer to her chest, her eyes alert.

Her husband felt it too. She could feel it in the way he clutched them protectively closer, even as he smiled and laughed with the village, pretending nothing was amiss. But there it was again, that smell of rot, of decay, of twisted and tainted magic.

So she wasn’t dead after all.

Talia the Elder glanced around the crowds of villagers. There would be trouble. They were in trouble. The old witch wasn’t likely to forgive them this oversight.

Her husband led her toward one of the village huts. Though he kept a watchful eye, he couldn’t see what Talia saw: cloaked in shadows, a thin elderly woman muttered silent words dripping with malice, her eyes narrowed toward the small family. The air vibrated red around her, and Talia’s breath caught in her throat as they made eye contact.

They slipped through the pelt covering the door of the hut. Could it already be too late?

Inside, a woman sat at the rough-hewn table, stone and metal scattered over the wood before her. Her tools moved deftly to bend and carve into the metal, shaping small rings for one of her projects. A few unfinished pieces of jewelry sat mixed among the fragments of copper and bronze.

But there was more to her crafting than mere stone and metal. Glowing green streams of light crept and swirled through the air, entwining around the ring in her hand. The emerald light seeped into the copper ring, disappearing momentarily before the light illuminated the runes and stones set into the metal band.

The jeweler smiled as they entered, and she took the baby from her mother, cooing and bouncing the small girl. Talia, dear sister. After all this time, a beautiful baby girl. Your prayers have been answered handsomely!

The man