EXCERPT 1: Book 1 Victori Song

Kia knew the instant the classroom door opened that this woman was here to collect her. She seemed to know a lot of things that she wasn’t supposed to know. She’d once seen a boy trip over and snap one of his front teeth in half. Seconds before it had happened, she’d tried to warn him by crying, “You’re going to trip!” but it had already been too late. She knew that one of the girls in her class, the one who smelled funny, had nightmares every night that made her wet the bed, but she’d never been told that. She knew that there were invisible creatures all around that other people couldn’t sense; not fairies and gnomes, but something dark and something light. And she knew, somehow, that Loraine was not actually her mother.

She also knew, just by looking at this lady, that they had something in common—maybe this gift of knowledge. Kia had always been smart for her age, even though she was the smallest person in her class. She always kept to herself and no one ever picked on her, because if they did, they knew she would somehow get revenge, like she had with the boy who she’d predicted would trip and the smelly girl she’d blackmailed.

When the woman winked at her, Kia felt her body start to move. She picked up her books, walked over to her school bag which sat on a shelf full of other school bags, and put the books inside. When her teacher, Miss Miller, asked if this was her Aunt Nancy, the word yes came flying out of her mouth, though Kia knew intuitively that the woman’s name was not Nancy Stewart at all.

EXCERPT 2: Book 2 Rebequah Victori

She had learned to stop feeling a long time ago. After being rescued from a near death experience at the hands of three witches, she had lost her identity. Was she Kia or was she Kelta? It was too difficult a question to face, so instead she asked her aunt to change her name to Kelly. She declined to take Daniel’s surname on the basis that Kelly Vella was a tongue twister. In reality, she did not want to be associated with him since he was no relation of hers; so she took the name Kelly Stewart. Counselors also agreed it was a good idea. They said Kelly could create a new identity for herself. But instead Kelly decided to become no one and to feel nothing. It seemed safer.

EXCERPT 3: Book 2 Rebequah Victori

It was just a test in her mind. A test to confirm to herself for once-and-for-all, that she was in fact a witch. She had avoided the truth for so long; it was about time she faced it. She was born into a family of witches and her destiny to become one of them, die for them–or both–was imprinted on her soul.

EXCERPT 4: Book 3 Samantha Song

It was only a few weeks after returning to Paradise Church that Kia met Gavin. What she did not know was that Gavin had asked to meet her. He noticed her sitting with Beq and Jesse on Sunday mornings and making a quick dash for the back door after the service. He approached the Davies to learn more about Kia. By the following week Beq had Kia convinced that if she really wanted to overcome her insecurities she needed to come out for lunch after church and meet new people.

So Kia, Beq, Jesse, Aaron, Beth, Gavin, Gavin’s brother David, David’s wife Michelle and a couple of Beq and Michelle’s mutual friends Trent and Amy, went out for lunch at a buffet after church one Sunday afternoon in May 2010. Funnily enough, Kia and Gavin were the only single adults in the group.

Kia remembered how Gavin had asked her what seemed like hundreds of questions that day. Before too long she became impatient and began glaring at him for prying too deeply. Then she realized that she was using immature coping mechanisms and that she had determined to try to let people in–female and male. So she continued to answer his questions, fighting her own urges to respond with haughty indifference.

Much later in their relationship, Gavin told her that she had failed miserably and had come across as a complete snob. He quickly added, however, that it had not discouraged him. If anything, he had seen through her mask and felt convinced that she was someone in desperate need of love.

Their relationship had moved very slowly in the beginning. Gavin asked Kia to be his girlfriend four times before she finally agreed. Then she broke up with him six times in the first ten months of their relationship. She spent weeks here and there ignoring and avoiding him. She called him names, and constantly pushed him away emotionally and physically.

When she was finally able to admit to him the things that had been done to her, what she had experienced and felt, and how close she had come to murdering her own family, he told her that it didn’t change the way he felt about her. His love for her was deepening because he could see that she was blossoming into an authentic, vulnerable, beautiful woman.

That was one year ago. Kia had finally let Gavin into her heart, where he belonged. Three months later they had become engaged, and today, two years after they had met, they were getting married.