DESECRATION, Serial: Part 1 of 3 (Book One of The Wizard Queen at Sixteen Series)

By Hadley Holt

DESECRATION: In a hidden world of wizards where only men hold the power of magic, one girl arises with the power to change everything, if she isn't killed first...
Adriana Victoriana Evangelista (Addie), daughter to the High Chancellor of the Wizard’s Council, has always been the perfect wizard girl. She never questions why men possess magical powers and women have no power at all, magical or otherwise. Male wizards blend into the modern human world, leading huge corporations while wizard women are sequestered away.
On her sixteenth birthday, Addie discovers she possesses magic. Under wizard law, she is a desecration. An ancient prophecy surrounds the emergence of a girl magic-wielder, the wizard queen, who is destined to bring about the downfall of the wizard-kin.
Addie has long had a forbidden crush on a human boy who lives in the wizard stronghold, Rory Devlin. As she delves deeper into the dangerous mysteries surrounding her own destiny, she suspects Rory might be more than just human.
Addie’s fate sends her straight into the path of a powerful and evil sorcerer, but the worst danger of all may come from right inside her own home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hadley Holt
• Release date: Jul 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310891373

Hadley Holt

Hadley Holt, author of paranormal, and fantasy YA (Young Adult) has always loved to write. She also nurtures an incurable fascination with all things supernatural and fantastical. From a young age, she imagined stories about dragons, wizards, witches, ghosts, shape-shifters, vampires, and other magical creatures. As life often does, it blessed Hadley with family and a rewarding career. Hadley spent many years in the not-so-magical world of finance and mortgage banking, but the stories were always there in the back of her mind, demanding to be set free.Thanks to the housing market crash, Hadley finally realized her dreams. She now breathes life into her magical tales of reluctant young heroes finding their inner power to stand up against terrible creatures and even more terrible odds.

Book preview

BOOK ONE OF THE WIZARD QUEEN AT SIXTEEN SERIES

DESECRATION

PART ONE

FORBIDDEN MAGIC

HADLEY HOLT

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights and livelihood is appreciated.

DESECRATION

Smashwords Edition

Copyright (c) 2014 by Hadley Holt

Published by: Angela Cavener & Associates LLC

Excerpt from CONSECRATION

Copyright (c) 2014 by Hadley Holt

Published by: Angela Cavener & Associates LLC

All rights reserved.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

eISBN: 978-0-9915173-0-5

DESECRATION has been released as

a serial, which means it has been split into

separate parts to be purchased individually.

This is the FIRST of three parts.

Please visit the author at:

www.hadleyholt.com

What readers are saying about…

DESECRATION?

Desecration is an addictive book! I could not put it down, and I was done before I knew it! It was exciting to join the main character Addie and her besties on their adventure, including magic, girl power, danger, and forbidden romance! I cannot wait to dive into their next wizardly adventure! —Karen L., Publisher’s Advance Reader

An engaging tale that will lead you on an exciting path of discovery with a little bit of everything: romance, mystery, terror, humor, and a new twist on the world of wizards! You'll find yourself turning page after page to keep the story going. Wonderful 1st book of a series that I hope lasts a long time! —Brandi C., Publisher Advance Reader

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This book is dedicated to my family,

who believes in my dreams.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I love you.

Acknowledgements

I don’t know of any writer who does it all on their own, and I’m no exception. I have family, critique partners, friends, beta readers, and coworkers who have encouraged me, and have rooted for me. They’ve believed in me, even when I had those moments when I didn’t believe in myself (and we all have those moments).

I thanked my family in my dedication, but I want to thank them again, now. I’m grateful to each family member, but I’d like to give a special thanks to Brandi, Nathan, Elizabeth, Kyle, Christina, Mary Lois (Mom), Amy, Rob, Ann, Sylvia, and Kat for continually encouraging me, offering to read, art direction, beta reading, and all-around being vested in my writing. I’ll add a thank you to Parker just because he makes me smile and I make him laugh (he’s a toddler).

I’d also like to thank my long time critique partner, the talented Diane Kelly (author of the Death and Taxes series and the new Paw Enforcement series), as well as my wonderful critique partners: Muffet Frische, Sherrel Lee, Angela Hicks, and Trinity Blake.

I had so many kind people offer to beta read for me, but I only had time to enlist a few for this project (I’ll have more people to thank next time). I’d like to give a special thanks to the ultra-experienced professional beta-reading Karen L. Thanks also to the awesome Linda W., Linda M., Diann L., and Nicole M.

And to my amazing friends who are always in my corner Linda M., Linda W., Diann, Isabel, Sylvia, Tammy, Muffet, Kim, Marion M, and Sharon.

I’d also like to thank two authors who have generously guided me (intentionally or otherwise), Kathleen Baldwin and Liliana Hart.

CONTRIBUTORS

Editors:

Content Editing: Elizabeth Lloyd

[e-mail]

Copyediting and Proofreading: Lauren Sweet

[e-mail]

Cover Artist:

Cover Artist: Nathan Reinhardt

nathanr.carbonmade.com

Stock Art:

Dreamstime

Published by: Angela Cavener & Associates LLC

CHAPTER 1

I am a DESECRATION

I don’t really matter. I’m only a girl.

"You did not just say that!" My best friend worked her neck in classic Izzy-style. Her eyes, green at the moment, glinted with outrage. The shaking of her head caused unruly red curls to escape from underneath the hood of her cloak.

Well, it’s true, I argued back. We’ve been through this so many times, Izzy. You know the guys are the ones that count. They’re the magic wielders and we…just aren’t. We’re the mothers and the party planners.

Ha! You’re hopeless, Addie. Izzy shook her head. You only see yourself as a future wizard breeder. I refuse to buy into that way of thinking.

It’s the way it is, I said with a sigh, because it was our reality and it just wasn’t going to change.

Izzy huffed. She began pacing back and forth in the glorified broom closet that was our favorite school hideout, her feet clacking against the concrete floor. There wasn’t a lot of room, but Izzy made the most of the space she had. I knew my friend was only starting to get riled up.

Adriana Marquesa Victoriana Evangelista, it’s your birthday, too! She speared me with a glare. Don’t you watch norm television? Wizards are stuck in the dark ages, and you know it! At least norms make an attempt at equal rights for women, but wizards don’t even try, and I am tired of it.

I had a moment of paranoia. What if our little hideout in the school basement had an eavesdropping spell? I looked around the tiny room—not that I’d be able to see a spell even if there was one.

With relief, I remembered my other best friend, Hugo, had promised there wasn’t any magic in the room. Izzy and I were probably safe. Besides, no one ever came here. Even the norm janitors didn’t use this room anymore. I sighed and plopped down on the industrial-sized overturned bucket, one of two that served as our seats. In between the buckets sat a wooden crate that made a good card table or a place to set our lunches. Izzy and I had spent many lunch breaks in this small, dingy room. It wasn’t anything to look at and it smelled faintly of ammonia and mildew, but it meant privacy, which was a precious commodity to both of us. Living in a wizard keep was how I imagined it would be in a norm college dormitory—people everywhere, all the time.

I pressed the button to unlock my lunchbox. The intricately scrolled golden case, imbued with magic, opened like a flower blooming. A silver thimble-sized sphere morphed into a mug of steaming hot cider, and the bronze cylinder lengthened and folded out to reveal Chicken Cordon Bleu with steamed broccoli. Yum!

Hello! Knock-knock! We’re talking, Addie! Izzy waved her hand in front of my face. And you know I’m right. She gave me a half-smirk.

Izzy, you have to be more careful about what you say! I shot her a stern look. My lunch forgotten, I ran my hand over my own cloak, pulling it tighter around me as if it would somehow protect me from Izzy’s sacrilegious and dangerous opinions. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t heard them all before, but lately she was so passionate about everything. It was starting to make me question things. And questioning wizard society wasn’t a prudent pastime for me. I was the daughter of the High Chancellor. My father didn’t appreciate or, more accurately, tolerate anarchy of any kind.

Hello again, Addie. I keep losing you today. I was saying that Hugo has told us we’re safe in here.

I could have argued that we couldn’t know for sure unless he checked the little room every day, but I didn’t bother.

Anyway, Izzy continued, as I was saying, I’ve really had it with wizard society. I mean, we’re the most technologically advanced society in the world, but we’re more antiquated when it comes to the genders than any third-world country. You have to see that, Addie. She stopped pacing to tug her cloak off, casually tossing it across the room.

Izzy! I gasped.

What? I detest our cloaks. Besides, newswomen don’t wear cloaks, and that’s what I’m going to be.

Yeah, sure you are. I’d heard this a dozen times, and the shock had long since worn off. I’d gone through the list of cons with her so many times it had become my mantra: being ostracized, censured, and ultimately retrained, which was a euphemism for having your personality magically stripped