Stepping
Stones (The Stone Series, #1)
Release Date:
08/25/15
Urban Fey
Press
Summary from
Goodreads:
Onnaleigh
Moore is part of a plan—and it isn’t hers. When her brother dies in a car
accident, Onna is desperate to preserve the tatters of her family. Any hope of
finding normalcy vanishes when her mother runs off and her dad turns to booze
to numb his pain. Onna’s grief is crippling, but the boy who showed up just
when she needed him is helping her cope.
Everett’s presence is comforting, though he knows things—Onna’s name just before they met, where she lives, and sometimes he comments on thoughts she doesn’t say aloud. She pegs him for a stalker, or maybe psychic, but the truth is deadlier than she imagines. As their feelings for one another deepen, Everett confesses a horrifying secret: Onna’s brother is only the beginning of the plan, and some fates are worse than death.
Everett’s presence is comforting, though he knows things—Onna’s name just before they met, where she lives, and sometimes he comments on thoughts she doesn’t say aloud. She pegs him for a stalker, or maybe psychic, but the truth is deadlier than she imagines. As their feelings for one another deepen, Everett confesses a horrifying secret: Onna’s brother is only the beginning of the plan, and some fates are worse than death.
MY THOUGHTS:
Wow. I need more. I'm pretty sure my husband thought I was crazy with the way I kept sighing and crying while reading this book. Onna's life is throwing her one curve ball after another. She loses her brother, his baby, her Mother runs off, and her Dad becomes suicidal. If that isn't enough to break a person then I really don't know what is. What I really, really loved about this book was how strong Onna was. Despite everything she did not break, she used the grieve and became stronger. This book isn't all about grieve and overcoming obstacles. There's a paranormal element that knocked me on my booty and had me questioning everything I read. I reiterate, I need more of this book and characters. Soon.
About the Author
Kacey Vanderkarr
is a young adult author. She dabbles in fantasy, romance, and sci-fi, complete
with faeries, alternate realities, and the occasional plasma gun. She’s known
to be annoyingly optimistic and listen to music at the highest decibel. When
she’s not writing, she coaches winterguard and works as a sonographer. Kacey
lives in Michigan, with her husband, son, and crazy cats. Along with her
novels, Reflection Pond and Antithesis, Kacey's short fiction can be found in
Sucker Literary Vol 3, and the upcoming Spark Vol 7, Ember: A Journal of
Luminous Things, and Out of the Green: Tales from Fairyland.
EXCERPT:
Ahead of them, the expressway snaked in
each direction. When Caleb lived at home, he and Onna would walk to the
overpass at night and watch the cars speed past. Their lights created ribbons
of color and the steady roar of rubber against concrete rumbled through the
bridge and into their feet.
Once, after Caleb left, she climbed
onto the barrier and dangled her bare feet over the edge. She imagined the
drivers beneath her in a panic because they thought she’d jump. She sat there
for nearly an hour, waiting for someone to call the police or her parents, but
no one did. Then she walked home, tears streaming her face, though she couldn’t
decide if she was angrier Caleb left or that no one noticed her.
“How did your mother die?” Onna asked,
glancing out the window. Sunlight glinted off vehicles and made the road
shimmer with heat. A long time ago, Onna thought the mirage of water over the
road was a portal to another dimension.
“Car accident.”
Onna nodded, not taking her eyes from
the window. There weren’t words to fill a void like that. Instead, she cranked
the handle and let early fall air caress her cheeks.
Everett slowed on the overpass and Onna
leaned against the door. A shift in traffic below caught her attention. A semi
swerved from the outer lane, moving in slow motion, as though the truck waded
through sludge. Screaming airbrakes reached her ears as the semi careened into
the median and flung itself into oncoming traffic.
“Oh my god,” she yelled, white
knuckling the doorframe.
“What is it?” Everett said, steering
the Mustang to the shoulder.
Vehicles dodged the impending
collision, taking sharp angles and sliding onto the edge of the road. Onna
watched near misses, horrified. Most of the traffic cleared the bullet speeding
toward them, filling up the sides of the highway and hurtling into the grass
like blood clotting in a vein. One remaining silver car had nowhere to go. It
swung to the right and spun out of control. From this distance, Onna couldn’t
see the driver’s face, but she searched the windshield anyway. In the space of
a heartbeat, the truck demolished the silver car.
Metal shrieked as the car and semi
became one, twisting around each other like lovers. The immediate silence was
deafening.
Onna was out of the Mustang and tearing
down the weed-infested hill before the car stopped. Pickers slashed at her
calves. Her heels slipped on rocks. Everett yelled for her to come back. She
ignored him.
Below her, people climbed from their
vehicles. They approached the wreck like cautious animals, circling, scenting
for danger.
By the time she reached the road,
flames leapt from the debris, hungry yellow fingers that grabbed for smoking
remains. Onna tasted gasoline and fear.
The Prius’s driver side disappeared
inside the car, a crumpled twist of metal. Nothing remained of the windshield.
The deflated passenger airbag hung over remnants of the hood.
Onna’s heart squeezed into her throat
next to her stomach.
She propelled herself forward, breaking
through a barrier of onlookers. A hand grabbed for her, catching her elbow
before she shook it off. There were voices, a constant, babbling stream that she
couldn’t separate into words.
Lots of people drive Priuses, she told herself.
It’s not Caleb.
Still, her hands shook as her feet
found concrete. A slim white hand hung from the shattered window. There was
blood. Onna smelled it before she saw it. Rivulets trickled from the ravaging
teeth of the window, mapping out a path to the dangling hand with a huge
sparkling engagement ring.
Onna’s heartbeat rushed in her ears,
insistent, like the sound of an explosion underwater. She struggled to make
sense of the tangled metal, pale skin, and blood. Then, red hair.
“Cora!” she screamed. Adrenaline surged
into Onna’s arteries and she hurled herself into the wreckage, mindless of
flames and the growing puddle of gasoline. Shouts rose around her. Warnings,
pleas. She tried the door handle first, unsurprised when it didn’t budge.
Arms slid around her waist and pulled
her backwards. “Stop.”
She struggled against Everett, kicking
and punching. “Let me go! That’s Caleb. It’s
Caleb.” Her words broke into sobs and she finally wriggled free. Her knees
stung when she hit pavement and crawled toward Caleb’s car. This time, Everett
followed.
“Help me,” Onna begged, pushing to her
feet and sliding her arms into the smoldering car. She caught Cora beneath the
armpits, ignoring the startling white of jagged bone protruding from her
forearm and shards of glass that remained in the window frame. Cora’s eyes were
closed. Blood dripped from a gash in her hairline, from her nose, her ears.
More hands appeared beside Onna’s as
onlookers braved the fire. Everett counted to three and they pulled. Black
smoke poured from the engine, filling the car and making it impossible to see.
Distantly, Onna knew she was coughing, suffocating. Her lungs ached from lack
of oxygen.
Undeterred, she rearranged her grip on
Cora and Everett counted again. It took four tries, but eventually Cora came
free, her weight falling against them like the dead limbs of a ragdoll. Onna
climbed toward the spot Cora vacated before they’d even carried Cora to safety.
Hands pulled her back. “You can’t.”
Everett’s words ended with a wracking cough that loosened his grip.
She stumbled away and lunged for the
opening. Glass tore at her arms and legs and ripped her shirt. Smoke oozed
across her vision like poison, scalding her eyes. Gasoline and heat filled her
throat. She coughed. “Caleb?” Using her fingertips, she found hot metal, sharp
bits of glass, and cottony stuffing spewing from the seat. She tried to call
his name again, but no sound came out.
Her head grew heavy.
She was spinning. Dizzying lights
flashed in front of her eyes. Onna jammed her hands farther into twisting
metal. She felt something warm. Damp. Solid.
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