Black Moon Draw by Lizzy Ford
Chapter One
The Shadow Knight of Black Moon Draw lifted his boar’s head to the sky, worn yet energized by the day at battle. As the battle-witch had promised, he had won shortly after sunset and stood, triumphant, over the body of his slain enemy. The battlefields were littered with the dead and dying, enemies slaughtered by his bloodlust and brute strength, and the bodies of men who served him. He counted the dead then nodded in satisfaction.
It was a good day. Except he needed a new witch. His lay among the corpses, her purple robes fluttering in the late summer breeze.
With seven kingdoms conquered and three remaining to oppose him, he did not have time to celebrate his victory with a feast. The end of the era was coming, and with it, the fulfillment of a thousand-year curse that gave him little time to find the last great battle-witch he had sought for ages. The Heart of Black Moon Draw was depending on him. There was no way he was going to fail.
My phone rings, jarring me out of the reading zone where I’ve been hiding from reality all day. I blink at the words on the screen of my laptop to help me return from the world of Black Moon Draw and then snatch the cell phone on the desk beside my mouse.
“Hello,” I answer groggily. Sitting back, I wipe my nose with my palm. The tears stopped a while ago. My nose is still running.
“Hey, baby. Saw your Facebook post,” my mother says. “Sorry to hear about Jason.”
“Shit happens, Mom,” I mumble. “Real life’s so much stranger than fiction.”
“Is the wedding really off or is this something you’re both working through?”
I flinch, lost for a moment. I’ve spent the past year preparing to dedicate my life to the man I thought was my true love, only for him to tell me he’s found someone else, a week before the wedding.
Someone more grounded, he claims.
I hope she’s ugly. It’s a terrible thought, but I can’t help it.
“It’s off, Mom,” I answer. “He says I spend too much time with fictional people when I should be in the real world with real people.”
My mother is silent.
I know she’s working hard not to utter an I-told-you-so. Jason isn’t the first person to try to pry me out of the land of the nonexistent and he isn’t the first to leave my life over it.
Probably not the last. I’d like to think I have to lose myself in books. I’ve been a librarian for a year now and one of my tasks is to help identify great books to feature at the library. It’s a perfect job. All I do when not behind the desk at work is read. If I don’t keep reading, how will I know if I’ve found the next great thing? There’s some vindication for a bookworm who reads an awesome book before it’s mainstream.
“He was good for you,” my mother says. “But what’s important is your happiness. Maybe this will encourage you to try to get out more?”
“I don’t want to get out more. I’m happy being an introverted hermit. I don’t care how poor or anti-social I am! If that’s not good enough for him . . .” I fight back tears.
“Okay, baby.” My mother clears her throat. “Anything I can do for you?”
“No. Thanks, Mom.”
“Let me know if you want to go out for a cinnamon roll or something.”
“Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I hang up, tired of being upset. My eyes blur as I stare at the screen of my laptop.
Black Moon Draw is the name of the story that’s waiting for me, an unfinished fantasy novel I found on Wattpad, a site where authors write books in real time by uploading a new chapter every so often.
I discovered it this morning, after finishing everything in my Kindle on my to-be-read list and then surfing the net for more books by my favorite author, a mysterious figure who goes by the initials LF. There’s no website or bio anywhere for this author and I was thrilled to discover this partially finished story after rolling through her catalog over a period of three days. I assume LF is a woman – most romance writers are.
This book was written for my shitty week.
It features the ultimate, non-redeemable character, the Shadow Knight of Black Moon Draw, whose soul is so black, the sun can’t warm its depths. The violent, half-man, half-beast knight rules a kingdom where there is no daylight, only the perpetual fog and grayness of twilight. He spends his lifetime in battles and steamrolls over everyone in his path.
There’s no peace, no love, no hope in Black Moon Draw. Only death and destruction and a knight who doesn’t know mercy or forgiveness.
“I love this. I wish I could chop off people’s heads with one strike,” I murmur, rereading the last little bit before the chapter ends. “Freaky but cool.”
The book speaks to me, which is why I keep hitting refresh on my browser in the hopes that the author has updated in the time it took me to read. Thinking about the knight makes me shiver. He’s sexy in a very caveman way. Definitely not civilized, which fits my brittle mood today.
I glance at the television and sit up straight, exhausted after spending the day alternately crying and reading. I’ve had my four all-time favorite movies – Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, The Neverending Story, and Pride and Prejudice – playing on a loop all day. I’m on vacation this week and supposed to be in the final stages of planning a wedding, not stuck in my house.