The Blood of Sorcery

1.

The night Maya Martin returned to her hometown of Goldcliff, the town itself seemed to hold its breath, as if it already knew what she had brought with her. Rain pelted from the sombre clouds revolving overhead, her hair and clothes already sodden. Breath ragged, Maya's faded leather boots splashed through puddles as thunder rolled in the distance. Six months of fleeing, hiding, spell-casting and lying had hollowed her out. Her boots were well worn at the soles and the deep scuff marks were clearly visible to her, even in darkness of night. Her magic pulsed erratically through her veins. Wild, overused and unraveling. In truth Maya was nearing the point of burnout, but she couldn't admit that to herself. If she did, fatigue would overtake her, but the demon that pursued her would never tire.

During the six months Maya had been away from home she had tried everything to keep the creature at bay. Binding spells, cloaking charms, runes etched into the floorboards of inn rooms and even protective herbal mixtures poured over every windowsill and every threshold. Despite not believing in the latter made any difference at all. Nothing seemed to hold it back. Nothing lasted, it only managed to slow it down for a short time. Even now she could feel it closing in on her again, that chill at the back of her neck that made the hairs on her arms stand to attention. The slither of dread threading through her bones. It was always near by, always watching. Maya was unsure why the demon had chosen to latch onto her or or what business it had with her, but she knew whatever the reason, she could not shake her feeling of unease. There was only one place left she could run. Only one place where any sense of hope now lay. The town of Goldcliff. Home.

Maya never thought she would return to that sleepy costal town. She'd always believed it to be too small, too full of secrets and housed too many memories of everything she had tried to escape six months ago. But it was also where her family lived. Her older brother, Miles, who she had missed immensely in her absence, as well as her grandmother, Jennifer, who's indifference knew no bounds. And maybe, just maybe, people who could help her fight. She didn't know why but in those six months the demon had never tried to kill her, only pursued her, which meant that it wanted her alive for whatever reason, and that was the part that scared her the most. Maybe it was chasing her towards something...

She risked a glance over her shoulder. The vacant road behind her shimmered in the haze of the rain, and something else. Magic she suspected. Or more likely, demonic energy. It wasn't visible to the naked eye, but she could feel it. That slow, malevolent presence that was always just behind, like some psycho stalker. She knew it didn't need to be fast, it somehow always knew where she would go next. And now she was out of options. Maya slipped behind a low crumbling wall caked in moss and collapsed, her heart hammering against her ribs. The rain hadn't ceased and she was well and truly drenched now. Pressing her palm to the muddy earth, she raggedly uttered an incantation under her breath.

"Roots to stone. Stone to bone. Let me be unseen."

A dull flicker of magic pulsed from her hand. But it wasn't enough to complete the spell, nowhere near enough. Her fingers clenched around the silver band on her wrist. A gift from her mother long before she had passed away. It was one of the few personal affects that Maya hadn't sold to stay ahead of the thing hunting her. It didn't have any magical properties, but it did act as a grounding charm she used to recenter herself and served as a reminder of why she was still alive.

She had made it this far, barely. But now she was out of resources, her magic had almost run dry and there was nowhere left for her to hide. Whether she wanted to or not, Maya had no choice but to return to her family home of Goldcliff and the Mars Country House. The very though twisted in her gut, She'd sworn that she'd never return, to protect those that she loved. But the town was founded on old magic, deep-rooted and tangled in blood. Her blood, her families, and the blood of the other twelve founding families of the town. If there was any hope of surviving this thing, of fighting back, she would have to start there.

Maya stood from behind the wall, drenched and shivering. She tore the sleeve of her hoodie at the frayed seam to expose her bare wrist and tugging the rune pendant from around her neck lose, began carving a sigil into her arm. Blood welled up in a thin line as she offered up a prayer to whatever gods would listen. Pleaded that this would work. It had to work because she was out of options, almost entirely burned out of magic energy and there was no room for failure. She uttered the incantation, eyes burning.

"Open the road less traveled, bridge the gap, close the space, allow me to pass to another place."

As she recited, her blood mixed with the droplets of rain and plummeted to the saturated earth. Pooling at her feet, Maya took a step back as her blood began to form of circle of runes that glowed faintly. A few moments later the dim glow of the runes surged white and then faded to a light blue, the ground within the circle fell away and a sigil gate appeared in its place. The brightness blurred her vision momentarily. The wind shifted and the scent of ash and sulphur carried on the breeze. It had found her again.

Maya didn't hesitate, didn't wait. She threw herself at the sigil gate and into whatever darkness she suspected lay beyond, vanishing.

*~*~*~*

In the remote foothills of Crescent Coast, a senior woman stirred in her ancient rocking chair. Jennifer Martin shifted her gaze from her spell book to the window as the gale outside rattled the frames. The flames in the hearth flickered violently.

"She's coming back," She whispered, voice cracked with age and magic. "And she is not alone."

A/N

Okay, so not quite a week after the teaser was posted. More like 18 months later... that is my bad and I can only apologise. This chapter, as well as the rest of the novel that is finished up to this point, has recently undergone extensive rewrites. I originally anticipated this to be a relatively short process, but a necessary one as I was unhappy with general structure and pacing of the original draft and could not write more than two new sentences a time without having a mental breakdown . 

What I originally thought would be a quick editing process turned into 3 months of methodically going through, restructuring the story and world from the ground up, as well as rewriting multiple characters to feel more like real people and creating a more structured a understandable magic system, which I bet will hardly come up in this book haha! I really hope this shows through in the final product. Currently my word count is sat at just under 11,000 words and I feel I am at a point now where I can continue on and not hate absolutely everything that proceeds it. 

Now that this first chapter is revised and fully released, I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think, any constructive criticism or feedback is greatly appreciated! I will not say when the next chapter will be released as it could be in two hours, it could be in a week, or a month... but hopefully not that long! I am trying my hardest to get this polished and out to you guys, so please keep your eyes peeled!