Ink and Bone

INK AND BONE - Part One: New Penny

INK AND BONE is on sale NOW wherever books are sold! Follow Lisa Unger on Wattpad for more excerpts, and visit www.lisaunger.com to learn more. Follow Lisa on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorlisaunger and Twitter at www.twitter.com/lisaunger for news and giveaways. 

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep." —John Milton, Paradise Lost

A girl, spindle thin, rode too fast atop a motorcycle with an electric-purple gas tank and fenders, shiny chrome exhaust pipes. The engine roared, scaring the birds from their perches and causing the animals in the woods to skitter into their burrows. The road before her was a black ribbon dropped carelessly on green velvet, a twisting, turning skein between the trees that had not yet started to turn color. She took the bends tight and in control, feeling the confidence that only youth allows, still blissfully ignorant to the hard fact that consequences can be as unforgiving as asphalt on bare flesh.

The Hollows watched as she flew, the tall pine trees reaching up all around her, the last breath of summer exhaled and the first chill of autumn hovering, not yet fallen. The girl was of this place; she belonged here, more than she knew. But she was a fox in a trap, more likely to chew off her own leg than stay and wait for the hunter to come find her. She was unpredictable and wild, powerful, foolish, stubborn, like many children The Hollows had known.

She rode past the woods, past the high school and the small graveyard with the dilapidated caretaker's shack, past the small pasture. Then she turned onto Main Street, which would lead her into the heart of town. She slowed her speed. If she was seen driving too fast, then it would get back to her grandmother, who would then worry about her more than she already did, which by Finley Montgomery's estimation was far too much.

She wound through town slowly, looping once around the square, lifting a hand at the light to the man who waved from the crosswalk. Then she parked near The Fluffy Muffin, took off her helmet, revealing a shocking head of hot pink and black hair. She hung the helmet on the handlebars, not worried about anybody taking it. That wouldn't happen here, not in The Hollows. Mrs. Kramer, owner of the bakery, smiled indulgently at the girl from the shop window. Then Finley disappeared inside the shop, where she would buy some fresh croissants for her grandmother, which she would try to get home before they got cold.

Across the street, Miss Lovely cleaned out the annuals from in front of her bed-and-breakfast establishment while her daughter Peggy balanced the books inside, worrying about the financial health of their business, which was poor. Expenses far outstripped income, and Peggy wasn't sure how to tell her mother, who never liked to talk about such things.

Around the square, shops were opening. Yogis lined up outside White Orchid, shouldering their mats in stylish bags and clutching water bottles as they stood, chatting. From the Java Stop the scent of roasted coffee beans drifted out, luring in passersby. Marion March, owner of Gentle as a Lamb, lay out on a wooden stand a beautifully crocheted blanket made from the lamb's wool she sold in her boutique of handmade clothes and linens. She'd thought by this point in her life that she'd have been a famous fashion designer living in Manhattan. But instead, she'd never left The Hollows. Marion was born and raised here, married her childhood sweetheart, and raised two girls, one of whom was currently studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology, with aspirations of her own to design (inspired by her mother). If Marion was disappointed at the way her life had turned out, no one knew it, especially not her girls, who thought she was the most wonderful mother on the face of the earth.

Around the corner and down the road, private detective Jones Cooper mowed the lawn in front of the house he shared with his wife, Maggie. His wife had been nagging him to hire the neighbor's son Greg to do the yard work. The boy was a boomerang, unable to find a job in banking after college and living in his parents' basement; he needed the work. But Jones Cooper needed the exercise. Of course, it was only a matter of time before he did what Maggie told him. He was a man who loved his wife and was smart enough to know that she was right about most things, even if he took his time getting around to admitting it.

There were 9,780 living souls populating The Hollows. There were good people and bad ones, people with secrets and dark appetites, happy people, and people buckling under the weight of grief and sorrow. There were people who were looking for things and loved ones they had lost, and people hiding. There were lost people, trying to find their way home. Each of them was connected to the others in ways that were obvious or as hidden as the abandoned mine tunnels beneath the ground. Each had his purpose and his place in The Hollows, whether he knew it or not. Every thing here had its time and its season.

After a few minutes, Finley came out of the bakery with a pink box that she carefully stowed in her backpack, mindful not to crush the contents. Then she climbed on her bike. She zipped out of town, returning home the way she came. Even though she had been born and had grown up someplace else, The Hollows had kept its tendrils reaching out to her, tugging at her, keeping her connected until very recently, when it was time for her to come home.

Finley had noticed that all the warmth had gone from the air and knew that it meant winter, her least favorite season, was approaching. She didn't know how fast it was coming or how hard it was going to be. She didn't know that something would be asked of her, something she didn't want to do but in which she had little choice. And she certainly had no inkling that she might not see another spring.

Even The Hollows couldn't tell the future.

INK AND BONE is on sale NOW wherever books are sold! Follow Lisa Unger on Wattpad for more excerpts, and visit www.lisaunger.com to learn more. Follow Lisa on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorlisaunger and Twitter at www.twitter.com/lisaunger for news and giveaways.