Title: Spirit Talker
Author: Theresa Dale
Genre: Thriller
Book Blurb:
The first book in a new series from the author that brought you the Rose's Ghost Trilogy and Asylum.
Shya’s no stranger to events of the paranormal sort – the women in her family have passed down their strange gifts for as long as they know. But the early loss of her mother has meant far less guidance for Shya than they’d both hoped for, and now she finds herself floundering as she faces darker elements of the spirit world.
She’s grateful for her friends in The Seers group… at least they take her seriously, and even provide insight she couldn’t have gleaned herself, thanks to their incredible collection of supernatural gifts. But none of them are prepared for the fight that looms ahead, and it’s not only a possessed child’s life that hangs in the balance – the demon wants Shya most of all.
Will The Seers succeed in saving both souls when Shya’s gifts are turned to work against her?
Join Shya and The Seers on an adventure that will have you in its grips and leave you wanting more.
Excerpt:
. Her heart raced. “No,” she said, quietly. It wasn’t right. Her gaze snapped to the light pole at the corner of the street where something moved. There was a silhouette, only, with arms too long to be human, separating into long fingers with claws at the ends. She grimaced as a flash of snake-like fingers moving within the grooves of bark hit her.
“No,” she said again, and was headed down the stairs and toward the door before knowing she’d decided to.
Get out of my head.
She knew that was what was happening, but was having trouble separating her own thoughts from those of the beast that stalked her. She slipped her shoes on. What do I hope to gain by going out there? Her jacket, next. It was as if her body was obeying a set of instructions she didn’t know she was giving it.
Go to it.
She gasped as her hand shot out to open the door.
“Oh, God,” she whimpered aloud, just to hear her own voice, and a dark laughter resonated in her head, growing to fill her with the sound until she found herself wanting to let go, just to fall and let herself land where she may, as long as she could not be there, listening to that sound. And as if in response, her body slipped outside.
Her eyes went to that spot beneath the streetlight, but it was empty, now.
I’ll have to find it, then.
A burst of adrenaline surged through her and she started to run, and she was picturing Connor’s. Thinking of Jordan’s room with the damp and heavy air. Of freeing her mother.
She screamed when she turned onto the driveway and someone stepped out to grab her. Someone big. She ducked and turned toward the road, to the dismay of the figure who grunted in surprise, then started after her. She glanced back, but her pursuer was in shadow, and something pressed her on, made her fleet of foot. Is it the demon? She made a sound like a frightened animal, her feet pounding the road, never questioning why she would run from the demon in the direction of the boy it possessed. The duality that existed within her prevented it.
“Shya!” From behind her, the breathless cry of her name. And she noted how the footfalls slowed and fell behind, then cried in frustration at the effort it took for her to slow, herself.
“Stop!” Came the voice again, and she realized she knew it, and made a wide turn when she found herself unable to stop, so she was running, still, when she saw that indeed, it was Ed, and he was stopping, hands going to his knees.
“What the – Ed?” she called, and he straightened, and it was a good thing, because she couldn’t stop. “Help!” she cried, arms outstretched, reminded of ice skating as a child, unable to stop and readying to brace herself against the boards.
He planted his feet and held his massive hands in front of himself and then she crashed into him and he stepped back to absorb the blow, crying, “Whoa!” as her feet were swept off of the ground and she pressed against his chest. Feeling the anger of the demon… the rage at her success. Became aware of its exhaustion just as she sunk a little too far into Big Ed’s arms and, in the blink of an eye, was transported to that room, her mother’s sickbed with its chains and reinhabited corpse. Just a flash, but sure enough to make her scream again, and then she was back and Ed was falling to his knees, so she landed in his lap, still in the vise of his arms but solidly there instead of the other place.
She peered up at his face, crying, confused at what had happened, start to finish, and saw his grimace of pain. “What happened?” she managed, her voice like a child’s.
He looked down at her. The streetlight stretched the shadows of his features, drew his pain and sadness in long, dark lines on his face. “Did you feel that?” he loosened his grip on her and placed a hand to his heart.
“Are you alright?” Shya scrambled off his lap and studied his face. Tears rolled down his cheeks, like diamonds in the streetlight.
“I don’t know.” He looked at her. “What happened?”
She shook her head. “I went back to a place I saw in my dream. The place my mother’s trapped.” She took the hand that clutched at his heart and squeezed it in both of her own. “When I crashed into you, it was like I sunk into you, and that was where I landed.”
He wiped at his cheeks with his free hand, then touched his chest again. “It hurt.”
“Are you alright?”
He gazed, confused, at her. “I saw it, too. The bed. The… chains?”
Shya was wracked with an unexpected sob. Like his saying it aloud confirmed it. His seeing it made it real. She bent forward as everything she’d held back and balled up hit her full force. Without the manipulation of the demon – who’d seemed to have faded when she broke free of the run it had her on – everything was raw.
Big Ed bent forward to rest his head on the top of hers, and they sat like that, in the street as the neighborhood slept on around them, until Shya was cried out.
She straightened, then laughed through lingering tears at the sight of her friend, who’d never looked quite so distraught.
“You’re making fun of me,” he said, so straight-faced it made her laugh some more, and to her relief he joined her, then helped her stand.
“The portal thing,” she said softly, looking up at him.
He nodded. “Guess it’s time I start trying to figure it out rather than pretend it’s not there.”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
What makes your featured book a must-read?
Spirit Talker is the start of a new Supernatural Thriller series that is expected to include five books, and centers on Shya, whose gift to see and communicate with the dead has been passed on through generations on her mother’s side. But now she’s tasked to confront the dark energies of the spirit world without the guidance of her mother.
She’s thankful for her friends in The Seers group, who all have unusual gifts of their own – Jane and Anna, whose psychic abilities are as unique as the condition that gives them their striking white hair and pale eyes, Sheila, an energy worker and psychic in her own right, Big Ed, who is on the brink of discovering the impossible depths of his ability to step between realms of consciousness, Dawn, a talented empath, and Mel, whose powers to calm can affect any situation for the better.
Gaining power in the fact that she’s not alone, Shya resolves to do whatever she must, at whatever cost, to save a child from a demon whose eyes have long focussed on her. And the cost threatens to be very high, indeed.
Giveaway –
Enter to win an e-book bundle of all 46 books featured in the Book Series Starter Bookish Event:
Open Internationally.
Runs January 12 – January 21, 2021.
Winner will be drawn on January 22, 2021.
Author Biography:
Combining a lifelong love of words and a penchant for all things supernatural, Theresa delights in enticing readers with lovable characters, then spooking them with unexpected twists. Theresa lives with her husband and children in Gatineau, Québec.
Social Media Links:
Instagram handle: theresadaleauthor