Savage Wild Gods Deleted Scenes

The final book in the Savage Wild Series contained a few scene reworks and some changes to character arcs. Like the other deleted scenes, I highly recommend finishing the series before reading these:

A short deleted scene where Val actually goes to visit Peyton before she finds her stepbrother Joshua, sneaking into the Wilds under Rune’s nose.

A couple weeks back Peyton had sent word that Seattle had become too dangerous in the aftermath of Sotera’s attack, and her and the surviving humans had moved to Castle Rock, one of the only surviving human towns within the Wilds themselves. She’d assured me that Rune was okay with it. I’d believed her because I’d had to. I believed her because I had to trust that Rune followed through on what I’d asked him to and not harmed them.

He wouldn’t, I chastised myself. You know him better than that. At least you used to.

Still, I picked up my pace.

I came across the first of the encampment on the outskirts of Castle Rock, rows of enormous tents and shelters built from overhanging, overlarge leaves and the interiors of fire-scoured trees. Bioluminescent mushrooms and flitting fireflies created dull shadowy figures. I could hear them murmuring and the occasional burst of laughter as I drew closer, then skirted around the outside.

I needed to find someone I knew while drawing the least bit of attention. Easier said than done. There had to be a few hundred people in this camp alone.

For the second time in as many minutes, I spun, spooked, as a branch crackled behind me. I squinted as the beam of a flashlight shone directly in my face.

“Who’s there?” a woman said breathlessly. The beam dropped to my Wild-spun cloak. “You’re not supposed to be here. Your high king said we could stay here. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you have permission to bother us.”

“And if I’m here to visit a friend?” I asked.

There was a sharp intake of breath. The flashlight dropped just enough that I could finally see who’d stumbled across me. My jaw dropped. “Gracie!”

“I’m looking for someone I know. Peyton, my… My friend.”

Gracie’s eyes went wide as she gestured back to the glow of the camp. “She’s here. She’s with the others who used to be part of the worshippers of the Mother Tree, and some of those from the Department of Fringe Affairs. Some woman who said she knows your stepbrother, Joshua.”

Leah, it had to be. I wondered if she still blamed me for his death. I wondered what she’d do if she saw me.

“I want to see Peyton,” I said. “Just to make sure they’re okay.”

Gracie cocked her head, clearly confused. “That wildling you were with, Rune, the high king, he said we were allowed to be here. He has bothered us. Didn’t you ask him if she was all right?”

“I wanted to check for myself. And…” I gently grabbed her arm as Gracie turned to lead me back into the camp, “I’d like to not be seen.”

Gracie hesitated, but thankfully didn’t question anymore before leading me around the outskirts of the tents, in the deep shadows of the branches and out of the glow of fluttering bats and fireflies.

“I’m sure you already know since you’re working with Rune, but things have been crazy here,” Gracie said, voice low.

She didn’t know about who I was, what I was, now. I’d kept that a secret on purpose. Still, it was a struggle to nod and act like I did just as she thought. “You said the DFA were here?”

“Those who didn’t defect to Father Dumas. The rest tried to take back what remained of Seattle from his worshippers, but…”

Gracie’s lips tightened, and I could guess that many of those who had tried hadn’t made it back. “Let me guess,” I said. “Father Dumas horded weapons.”

“Lots,” Gracie agreed. “An army’s worth, and not just any weapons. Magical ones. I heard even the high king tried to attack him and couldn’t do anything.”

Rune had attacked Father Dumas all on his own? He’d pretended to agree to leave Father Dumas alone, but if he was breaking that then either he didn’t mind breaking the promise, or he was desperate for another reason.

“How if Father Dumas surviving King Bendeti of the Undersea?” I said. “Bendeti should have taken over.”

Gracie shook her head. “No clue. Doesn’t seem like they give each other any issue, though. Maybe Bendeti is as scared of Father Dumas as we are.”

Maybe. Or it was something else to be worried about. If Father Dumas and King Bendeti had some sort of agreement, there would be trouble. More than I was sure I could handle.

We stole across the street of a neighborhood, overshadowed by trees and enveloped in the Wilds; walkways laid under sprawling roots, slender, gurgling springs that split houses, and colonies of mushrooms that grew over rooftops.

“And Rune,” I asked, barely daring to. “How’s he treated you?”

I didn’t miss Gracie’s surprised look, as though I should already know the answer. “Fine. Good, actually. He doesn’t visit much.” She gave a small chuckle. “I tried to see him as just another wildling. Just that obnoxious guy that took over my apartment for a few days. But out here he’s…”

“Something different?” I guessed.

“Dangerous,” Gracie said. “And beautiful. And…” Gracie blushed, shooting me another furtive glance. “But you already knew that. At least the beautiful part.”

It was my turn to blush. “He’s always been dangerous. I think that’s why I—”

I couldn’t finish the thought, though Gracie stared at me hard enough to make my skin buzz. “Uh-huh. Have you talked to him about it?”

“No,” I said, too quickly.

“Oh. Good.” Gracie brushed aside a low-hanging frond. There was a larger collection of tents up ahead and she easily navigated us around them. “You two seemed close.”

“We were—are—but I…it doesn’t matter.”

I internally winced as Gracie slowed to a stop. Her gaze met mine. “Val, you’re not with Rune, are you? I mean, you’re not working with him anymore.”

I gave a jerky shake of my head.

Gracie breathed out. “Then where did you come from? And what have you been doing?”

That was an explanation that would take too much time. Time I was realizing only now I really didn’t have. My anxiety at being caught here was growing every second. It felt as though every eye of the Wilds, every beast and branch was nearby, listening in, calling on their ruler; She’s here, she’s here.

“I just need to see if Peyton and the others are okay.”

Gracie gave a slow nod, though she too looked nervous. We approached the tent Gracie told me was Peyton’s. I crouched nearby, hidden, and waited. A moment later Peyton came out. She looked drawn and tired, but fine, and I could feel my anxiety fleeing my tense muscles. She crossed to another collection of tents, those with people wearing DFA gear. I spied Leah, wheelchair bound, sitting around a crackling fire, a beast roasting over it, and a pile of ripened fruit collected nearby.

“Where’s Joshua?” I murmured. “My stepbrother,” I added at Gracie’s questioning look. “He went off to do something without telling anyone. I thought he’d be back by now.”

Leah had blamed me for that, claiming I had something to do with his disappearance. It wasn’t the craziest claim. Before Sotera collapsed Seattle Joshua and the DFA had seen me as practically a terrorist. If he wasn’t my stepbrother, I was sure he’d have tried to hurt me more than he already had, and I him. Maybe even worse.

But he was capable and trained. Whatever he’d gone to do, I was sure he’d be fine.

Still.

“You can ask them,” Gracie said.

I watched Peyton as she stood around the fire with the others, clutching the outside of her arms and swaying gently. She smiled when one of them cracked a joke, but the edges of her eyes seemed a bit strained. I could ask them, but like with Rune and the wildlings, I didn’t belong among them. And I was out of time.

I stood, feeling a cold trill of dread curling in my stomach. I’d seen what I’d needed to. And my original plan to talk to Rune was laughably idiotic now. It was a mistake to come here without a plan, without any goal of what to ask.

“Val?” Gracie whispered after me as I took off into the trees. “Val, wait!”

“I’m so glad to see you, Gracie,” I said as I walked, meaning every word. “I’d stay if I could.”

She stumbled a little over some roots, but managed to tug on my sleeve and bring me to a stop in a small depression hemmed by flowers each as big as my head. Above, a sleeping flock of birds perched, a few of the ones we’d awakened peering down at us with their gold-red eyes.

“You don’t have to go,” Gracie said. “Whatever happened, I’m sure we can figure it out. Either with the DFA or the wildlings.”

“I’ll be back,” I assured her. I wasn’t sure when, and I wasn’t sure in what capacity, but I’d be back once I got things straightened out.

Gracie gaped, trying to wrap her mind around something I couldn’t even put into words myself. “But…but…”

“Take care of yourself,” I said. “Next time—”

I felt it moments before Erebus gave a low, warning growl. I felt a pulse of magic shudder through the trees and the plants at my feet. The trees bent to crowd me in. Roots rose up and formed into a circle, beyond which was a pitch-black path of nothingness, with greenery lacing the outside edges. The blurry outline of figures began to step through.

“Val?” Gracie cried after me as I stumbled back, then hurried away.

 

In the final book Rune actually catches Val instead of her going to save him, which I felt aligned with her suppressed feelings for him more.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked when Rune didn’t immediately answer.

Rune scoffed as though it were obvious. “I am of the Wilds and the Wilds is in me. Though I’m not omniscient, of course I noticed the moment you arrived. You have a loud heartbeat, remember? And the power you stole from me is more obvious than ever.”

The underbrush rustled, and a moment later a dark-skinned, muscled man in military fatigues and gripping a sword rushed broke into the clearing. Garrett, the de-facto head of Castle Rock. Behind him, I could see Gracie, panting like she’d sprinted to warn him the moment Rune arrived, along with a half dozen of Castle Rock’s children, their eyes glowing a vibrant lapis blue.

“Rune,” Garrett said, giving an acknowledging nod of his head. His eyes brushed over me and widened before returning to Rune. “Please, let’s not have any trouble.”

“I have a bad habit of being drawn to it,” Rune said lazily.

“Or creating it,” I snapped.

The corner of Rune’s mouth twitched. “We’ll resolve this,” he said to Garrett, not looking away from me. “Right, Val?”

“That’s up to you. We’ll resolve this,” I assured Garrett, feeling like I was anything but.

Garret swallowed and gave a tight nod of his own. Rune’s wildlings peeled off. Cassius brushed past me, grinning. “Good to see you again. Don’t be too hard on him.”

“No guarantees.”

Savage Wild Souls Deleted Scenes

Though the second book in the Savage Wilds series clocks in at around 406 pages (my longest book to date) there were still around 25 pages of deleted scenes I ended up actually removing. Like all deleted scenes, these could be for a variety of reasons; over explanation, pacing, cutting a story line, etc. So if you’re curious to see what didn’t make the cut, keep on scrolling…

Prologues don’t often make the cut in my more recent books. Some work, others don’t, and I think the reason for that is because a prologue is a way for me to feel my way around this new story. Then, after I’ve done that, often it needs to be cut to better get into the action. This prologue was just like that, though I did reincorporate much of it in the final book in the series.

Prologue—The One They Waited For

“Please don't go,” Val begged. “Don’t leave me with him.”

Father Rathers smiled down at her with teeth stained yellow. The heart gems on golden chains around his neck jingled. “There, there, no need to make such a fuss!”

Val hid her face in Peyton’s leg. Why wasn’t she listening? Couldn’t she see there was something wrong about him? “Please don’t go. Don’t go, don’t go...”

“Father Rathers is a friend, my love,” Peyton soothed. “I can’t leave you home alone. It’ll only be for a couple hours.”

“During which the two of us will get along famously,” Father Rathers said. Val smelled sour cherry cough drops on his breath. “Don’t worry. You’re in good hands.”

Val clutched tighter to the hem of Peyton’s shirt. “No, Peyton… Don’t…”

But Father Rathers put a firm hand on Val’s shoulder as Peyton pulled away. She barely looked back as she double-checked her purse, then hurried out the front door. Val struggled to keep her lips from trembling. This wasn’t like Peyton. She’d never left her with anyone but Joshua before. She’d been too distracted to even blow a kiss.

The front door clasped shut. Val’s collarbone ached as Father Rathers clenched tighter. “Why don’t we—”

Val shrugged out of his grip and rushed through the kitchen to the sliding glass door, determined to throw it open and escape outside, as she often did when Peyton was away and Joshua distracted.

“You wouldn’t be thinking of going to the Wilds, would you?”

Val’s hand froze around the handle. Father Rathers stood in the kitchen doorway, a disapproving frown on his face. He carried a small brown bag Val hadn’t noticed him bring in. “You know how terribly dangerous that is. Peyton’s told you a number of times to stay away, no doubt. I think she’d dislike bringing you home from the Wilds, only for you to heedlessly go running back.”

Peyton wouldn’t just dislike it, she’d hate it. It’d been a couple years since Peyton had found Val, bloodied and alone, at the edge of the Wilds, but still her voice trembled when she spoke about it. Val didn’t entirely understand why. The Wilds were dangerous, she knew that. Everyone knew that. But they weren’t all danger. They felt… Not safe, but familiar. More familiar for Val, at least, than pretending to fit in with other kids at school, or learning simple human things that Val couldn’t seem to grasp.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let you go running off,” Father Rathers said. “And I’d hate to have to tell Peyton what you did.”

Val’s heart clenched as she imagined Peyton’s horrified face. She dropped her hands from the door.

With a smile, Father Rathers patted one of the kitchen chairs. “Why don’t you take a seat? I brought some things you might find interesting. Though we dare not enter the Wilds, there’s nothing wrong with learning from their legends. So many wonderful, terrible stories have trickled out from its depths. Have you heard of the Mother Tree? How about Rhasahlyn, the spirit of comfort, or her counterpart, Grislehaut—”

Val darted past him, skinny legs pumping up the stairs two at a time until she reached her room and slammed the door shut. She might be stuck here all afternoon, but she was not going to spend that time listening to Father Rathers blather on. Val had heard enough of what they believed the few times Father Rathers and others from his group came over to meet with Peyton. She never wanted Val listening in, but Val had caught some of the names whenever she’d snuck past the office to grab snacks.

Val flopped back on her bed, kicking her legs over the side. She watched the gray drizzle of the Washington sky, and pulled at the sleeves of her shirt as seeping damp cold came through the edges of the poorly sealed windows. She flipped through the few books Peyton had scavenged for her the times she had gone near the Wilds herself.

“I’m doing humanitarian missions. Hum-an-it-arian,” Peyton had spelled out to her the first time. “Saving humans in places the Wilds have almost taken over. Saving those who have gotten lost or…” She’d hesitated. “Or worse. Hum-an-it-arian. Human. Like you.”

Human, like Val, Peyton always assured her. She tried to assure Val of that so often lately that Val had started wondering why.

When the books failed to hold her attention, Val at last grabbed her lightweight wooden sword from the corner and started swinging it around like Joshua had showed her.

“There are things in the Wilds that would kill you, just like that.” Joshua had snapped so loudly Val jumped. He grinned, tousling her hair. “But you don’t have to be afraid. I’ll teach you how to defend yourself.”

Then, almost reverently, he’d handed her this sword. He must have carved it himself at the workshop at his school so Peyton wouldn’t know. The hilt fit her tiny hands perfectly, the wood glossy with lacquer.

“Thank you,” Val whispered.

“You’re welcome,” Joshua said. “This close to the Wilds, everyone should know how to use one, even those who don’t enter.”

He sniffed disdainfully, as though the thought of being clueless with a weapon was a personal afront. “In the DFA, everyone knows how to fight. They aren’t afraid. Not of anything. I’m not afraid, and now, you won’t be either.”

Val hadn’t answered. Not just because she didn’t speak often, but because the Department of Fringe Affairs and Joshua learning how to fight was taboo in their house. Joshua exalted both. Peyton didn’t, and they’d butted heads about it more than a few times. Last week they’d gotten into a shouting match so loud Val had been forced to clamber into the corner behind the couch and clamp her hands over her ears.

Val paused mid swing and let the sword drop to her side. Something delicious lingered in the air. She cracked her door open and smelled it wafting from downstairs. Her stomach growled.

Father Rathers smiled knowingly at her as she entered the kitchen. “I imagine you’re hungry.”

Peyton rarely cooked, and while Val adored her, when she did the result was usually as palatable as toad skin. Val’s stomach growled again.

“Sit, sit,” Father Rathers said. He pulled the chair out beside him. Val took the one opposite, but Father Rathers didn’t seem to mind. He hummed as he ladled soup into a bowl and, with a flourish, sprinkled some green stuff—parsley, maybe—over top.

“Eat—or drink—up!” Father Rathers said, sliding the soup front of her. “I want to see you finish every drop or Peyton will be very upset with me.”

Val grabbed a spoon and clumsily started scooping the soup into her mouth. She’d never fully gotten used to utensils. The soup was salty and a little tangy. When she smacked her lips, it left a thin film on her tongue.

“How do you like it?”

Father Rathers had seated himself across from her, leaning far too close for Val’s liking. He hadn’t poured any soup for himself.

Val gave a grudging nod. She pulled the soup bowl toward her as he leaned even closer.

“Your mother—Peyton, I mean, sometimes I forget you’re not related—she worries about you a lot. That’s why she moved down here, though Father Dumas thought it a poor idea. There’s no getting far from the Wilds, but closer to Seattle would have been better.”

Val nodded again, though doing so took effort, like a weight had been tied to her chin. She slurped more soup. The film on her tongue had created a grainy texture on the roof of her mouth.

“Personally, I think the closer to the Wilds, the better,” Father Rathers continued. “They don’t know yet…they aren’t certain… Peyton certainly doesn’t agree. She’s confident we’re wrong. But I suppose that’s why I’ve been called. To do the dirty work. To help her see that it’s all for the best.”

He was stroking the inside of Val’s arm in a way that made her hair stand on end. When had he started doing that?

Val tried to jerk away from his hand, but her blood had been replaced by the thick texture of soup. Father Rathers was speaking, but the words swam in and out of her head.

Val blinked.

Her head clipped the bowl as it dropped, spilling warm soup onto her lap.

Blink.

The water-stained ceiling of the living room drifted overhead as she floated in Father Rathers’ arms. Cold outside air kissed her skin. It had started to grow dark. The other houses along their streets were nothing but fuzzy shapes of yards scoured free of grass, and cement and metal in the twilight miasma.

Father Rathers moved at a determined pace through the slim drainage canal at the end of the the cul-de-sac. Through the thick haze her mind had become, Val realized he was heading toward the towering outline of trees surrounding the neighborhood.

The Wilds.

“Must be quick,” Father Rathers muttered. He kept shooting glances at the snarls of thick undergrowth as he approached the Wild’s edge. Every skitter of movement within caused him to jump. He laughed nervously. “Must be quick, but must be certain. This close should be good. If there’s any reaction…”

Val smelled dirt as he lay her on her back at the edge of the trees. Her left arm was splayed out to the side and Father Rathers hovered over it, a feverish look in his eye. He held a small knife, engraved with strange markings.

Don’t, Val wanted to cry but her tongue was too thick.

She blinked.

Warm liquid poured out of her arm and was greedily soaked up by the soil. Father Rathers cast the knife aside and dug fervently where he’d cut her forearm. In moments, his hands and face were speckled with blood. Her blood.

“…must be true… Must be… Ah!”

Father Rathers peeled her skin further apart and his face shone with mesmerizing blue light. He sat back and gave a triumphant, cackling laugh. The ground shook somewhere deep, deep below Val. It rattled her bones and made her already throbbing head ache even more. Father Rathers was too busy pacing and wringing his hands to notice.

“She has to know. Need to tell her. That’s what all this was for, wasn’t it?”

He left. Val could only lay there as the night closed in. The trees loomed, eager to drag her into their embrace. Inhuman whispers tickled her ear. Shiny eyes gathered at the edge of the long grass. Val wasn’t scared of the Wilds, not like others were, but if she could, she would have screamed.

It was far too long before crunching footsteps returned.

“—what is this?”

That was Peyton, clearly upset. “You left Val out here alone? What were you thinking—"

Val’s hearing had recently become hypersensitive, and the almost in-human pitch Peyton screamed chiseled into her brain. “What have you done to her?”

Then Peyton was clasping Val’s numb cheeks, tugging on one of her eyelids, shaking her hard enough that Val’s neck hurt. The numbness in her arm was slowly being replaced by searing pain.

“…we had to be sure.” Father Rathers sounded consoling. “We had to know.”

“Not like this,” Peyton sobbed. “Never like this.”

“It’s only temporary. She won’t remember a thing, I promise. I knew it’d upset you, so I thought it better you didn’t know ahead of time. But look!”

“I can’t.”

“Just look. Quickly. It’ll be over soon, I promise.”

Peyton appeared over Val, her cheeks tear-stained, Father Rathers gripping both her shoulders as though to keep her from running. Together they knelt. A new wellspring of pain flowed from Val’s arm as Father Rathers pulled aside the flesh he’d cut.

“See?” he said excitedly.

Peyton stared. And stared. More tears and snot ran down her face.

“We were right,” Father Rathers said. Peyton sobbed harder, standing and hugging herself as she walked fervently back and forth. Father Rathers heaved a sigh and joined her, still gesticulating wildly as he talked.

Val found she could move a little. She curled into a ball, clutching at the ragged, bleeding flesh of her inner arm. It took a few tries, but she managed to gulp great, heaving breaths, but not too loud in case something in the Wilds heard. In case they smelled the blood.

She knew this was her fault. The pain, Peyton crying, all of it. She was being punished, she was sure. If only she hadn’t tried running to the Wilds. If only she hadn’t let Father Rathers trick her. If only she’d been stronger, smarter, better.

If only she’d been powerful.

And as Val lay there, the pain in her arm growing unbearable, the Wilds closing in as more and more things from within noticed her, as her own body wracked with silent tears, Val swore she’d never feel this powerless again.

“What—” Peyton cleared her throat as she pushed herself away from Father Rathers’ babbling explanations. “What...is she?”

“They key.” Father Rathers’ eyes glinted. “The key to everything we need. The power to save. Or the power to destroy. But she must never become that powerful. She must never know how strong she can be.”

 “Why not?”

“Why not?” Father Rathers laughed as though Peyton were a child who’d asked a silly question. “Because if she does, she’ll be the end of us.”

This scene was a dream sequence Val had, when she first meets Mother Mal. While I loved the evocative imagery, I ended up finding a more streamlined and active way to introduce our mysterious Mother Mal later on:

The blood, dark living room, swirled away, as thick and filthy as the soup. Peyton’s rigid form stooped over, spine protruding. An old woman with a  brown shawl over her shoulders had taken her place. She wasn’t human, even with her back turned Val could tell that right away. One uncovered leg was solid, gnarled oak. The hand that gripped her cane was covered in riots of plants and flowers, their scent strong enough to make Val’s head spin.

“Here you are,” the old woman said.

Val looked around. She stood in a small clearing at the base of an enormous tree. Beyond her immediate surroundings was inky darkness, as though reality didn’t exist beyond this single point.

“Where am I?”

“You’re here, I already told you.”

Val frowned. She stood much taller than the stooped woman, and in an unfamiliar situation she wasn’t above intimidation. She took a step closer. “Why am I here?”

“Because you keep fighting what needs to be. You haven’t grasped what’s needed yet. But when you do…”

The woman stepped aside and Val could see what she’d been tending: a throne of branch and earth and curled with vine and greenery. The high back fanned with flowers like a wreath. Like a crown.

“Do you like it?” the old woman said.

“I—”

“You’d better take it, or else…”

The earth trembled. A crack ripped the throne in two. Val took a step toward it—to do what she wasn’t sure—and the next second she was beside it.

“A perfect fit, don’t you think, little fox?”

Rune sat languidly on the throne, his long, lean body bridging both halves that had been torn asunder.

Every inch of him as Val remembered, though his face wasn’t covered in blood and screaming her name as she was dragged down below. The circlet of ivy and nightshade he’d worn when they’d met had been replaced by the golden, silver, and leafed crown of the High King, tilted at an ostentatious angle across his brow. His glass-sharp mouth turned in a smirk sharp enough to cut.

His eye, gold-red and hard, drank in Val.

“It appears to be missing something, don’t you think?”

“Me.” The words sprang from Val’s lips. “I should be there.”

“You should,” Rune agreed, though his voice and the old woman’s mixed so Val couldn’t discern them. “But not mine, never mine.”

Val didn’t think he meant them, not like that. Drug-induced, he’s once proclaimed that she would be his queen. But that would be impossible. Especially now.

“I’m trying to be there,” Val said. Her chest had started to crumple inward, squeezing  the air out. Frigid air seeped into her limbs. “I’ve tried to get out. I’m trying to hold on, but I’m growing tired. It’s too cold, and I’m too weak. I thought you…”

Black ink had begun leaking from Rune’s eyes and mouth. Seeing Rune literally dissolving before her made Val clench her fists.

“I can be stronger, but not forever. I’m getting desperate.”

“You can,” Rune agreed, voice thick. He tilted his head, and the black consumed the clearing. “And I already told you what desperation does.”

“It makes monsters of us all,” Val whispered.

There are many more much smaller sections cut throughout the book, but the final largest section comes at the very end with lots of spoilers, so don’t read unless you’ve read the book. This is a modified version of the throne room scene. I ended up basically rewriting the entire scene from scratch, but kept the old scene and repurposed some of the elements:

There were none, but Sotera’s throne looked as though it had spikes, ready to shoot into anyone who dared tried to take its dead Empress’ place.

The hall was packed with bodies and murmured voices. General Forcheck, Marian, and several other wildlings had made it down here with Rune and me through an enormous opening created by Sotera’s destruction. The Below already had a half foot of sea water we had to wade through to reach the palace.

Sotera’s generals had tried to stop us there, but I’d drawn Sotera’s sword and they’d allowed us to enter. The small army at our back probably didn’t hurt.

Now the remaining generals watched us sullenly. The one I’d seen when I’d snuck through camp looked especially like she wanted to run me through. She looked as though she’d seen her Empress die and blamed me for it.

I shifted uneasily. My calves were damp with seawater, the palace slowly filing with the smell of salt. Sotera’s sword itched, hanging heavy like it didn’t belong. I longed to throw it away, but here it helped to ensure safety. My hands were shaking on the hilt.

“It’s over, Val,” Rune said, noticing. “There’s no need to worry.”

I was nervous, but not for the reason he likely thought. “And you believe that?”

“Not at all. But I will, for now.”

One of Sotera’s priests, a sickly thin man scabbed with sunstone, half his jaw frozen in crystal, hobbled forward. “Y-you wish to take our Empress’ place.”

“I wouldn’t be done here otherwise,” Rune said. “I suggest we get this over with before we all have ot swim out of here.”

In two long strides, Rune ascended the dais. He turned, looking across those assembled.

“Your empress is dead,” he said. “The Below is mind. Be assured that I am not so cruel as I’m sure she made me out to be. We have a common enemy, one who at this very moment seeks to kill you all.”

If he was trying to be reassuring, I didn’t think he was succeeding. But then again, Rune had never been about coddling or pleasant, false promises. His promises had always been in action.

“Priest,” Rune said, motioning for the sickly man to join him.

“Wait,” I said.

I joined Rune, who gave me a confused frown. “What is this?” he muttered.

Everything in me rebelled. I didn’t want to do what I was sure was right. I didn’t want to be down here any longer than absolutely necessary. To be trapped down here, for as long as it had left, this hell that Sotera had crafted for me.

Yet I couldn’t get the image of Rune dying with Sotera’s false crown on his head out of my mind. The same crown that sat on my brow. That I had survived. I had to take over the place I hated the most.

“I need to take the throne,” I whispered.

Rune blinked. He stood rigid, barely moving. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Yes, I do. Sotera tried to kill you, and I survived it. I still don’t think that’s over. This throne,” I gestured to the cold seat. “Whatever it tries to do, I can control it, I know it. I can’t—I won’t—risk it nearly destroying you again.”

Rune bristled. “That’s not for you to decide. I’m to be the ruler of both, and without that there cannot be peace. To unite the thrones—”

“We will unite them,” I said. “As allies.”

“I-Is everything all right?” the priest said.

Rune ignored him, nostrils flaring. “And you didn’t think to tell me this before, when we were alone. When the entire Below wasn’t watching you usurp me?”

“I wasn’t sure.”

“And you are now,” he said, a sneer in his voice.

“Yes.”

“Val,” he said, voice suddenly thick with magic. “You don’t want this throne. You won’t allow me to watch it destroy you—”

“Don’t,” I said, fury swarming me. “Don’t you dare.”

“I’m scared of it hurting you.”

“No.” I looked at him, truly seeing a side of him I hadn’t before. “I think you’re scared of seeing what I might become. That makes two of us. But we have no choice.”

I brushed him aside, and there was a murmur from the crowd.

“You know I’m right. You just refuse to see it.”

The priest looked confused between us.

“I will become Empress,” I told him.

“Oh, ah, of course. Normally I’d anoint you with a crown, but you, ah, already have that. So the last thing is for you to sit on the throne.”

He began to chant something in words I couldn’t understand in low tones.

“Enough of this!”

One of the younger generals stepped forward from the group. We’d come down so quickly we hadn’t bothered disarming anyone, and he drew a sword on his belt, and charged at me.

I drew Sotera’s sword without thinking, swinging it across my body. There was a scream, and the man’s arm, completely severed, went flying.

“Stop!” I yelled as he stumbled back, howling, and the wildlings closed in. “He can live. I am no bloodthirsty Empress.” Despite my actions of the past.

“No, just a dead one,” the man snarled. “Move! Out of my way.” He pushed others aside, leaving a trail of blood on the floor as the crowd parted for him.

I sheathed the sword. “Don’t stop,” I told the priest, who gaped at the display. “Keep chanting.

He did, and I turned back to the throne, so simple, yet so threatening.

“If it starts to take me,” I said to Rune, “I want you to stop me. However you can. Do you understand?”

Rune’s jaw was tight, scowl so dark it could have been a thundercloud. “You are exceedingly clear.”

I felt better about that, at least. The throne couldn’t be left unclaimed, susceptible to other power grabs. If I took it, great. If not, maybe whatever power still remained with it would die with me.

I stilled myself, then rigidly turned so that I stood at its edge. Marian’s lips were a thin line. General Forcheck looked curious, and the generals of the Below looked ready to watch me kill myself.

“Don’t forget your promise,” I said to Rune as I lowered myself onto the throne.

Invisible spikes stabbed into my arms, my legs, back, neck, so fast I could only sit there unblinking and endure the pain. The throne room vanished as my vision darkened and all I saw was darkness and blinks of blue. I was the earth and the Below. For a hair’s breadth of time I could feel it in its entirety, the monstrous weight of eons crushing down on me.

I felt something else alive within. Something that didn’t belong.

From it radiated black and red veins of hatred. At me. At life, wildlings, Those Below, humanity. It didn’t care about that. It simply wanted all of it gone.

I fell closer to Grislehault. Through the connection that had formed in me I tried to urge him back to sleep.

This isn’t your world, I coaxed. This isn’t your time.

The veins of hatred only thickened. I tried to close it off against the rest of Those Below, but it was like trying to shut a door against a tidal wave.

All at once, my vision hurtled back to my body and I could move again. I slumped back into the throne, then tilted forward out of the throne and face first onto the stone. I was aware of whispering among those gathered. The soft footfalls of Rune as he knelt beside me and grabbed my arm to help me up.

“Off. Get off,” I hissed. “I can’t show weakness. I can’t need you. I won’t need you.”

Rune’s hands left me as though I’d burned him. His face hardened into a cool, cruel mask, the one I’d first known him to wear. The one that had slowly worn off, but was now back again, fastened in place.

“As you wish, Empress,” he said.

 It took a moment for the feeling of spikes piercing me to leave before I stood. The sea of faces that met me ranged from awe to clearly wanting me dead. There was a looseness on my head and I reached up to readjust the crown that had finally relinquished its grip.

“Say something,” Rune said.

My mouth had gone dry, tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. The gravity of what had just happened hadn’t sunken in. The throne had accepted me, and now I had no clue what to do next.

General Forcheck sank to a knee, bones popping.

“Behold, the King of Thorns, behold the Empress of Glass. May there be peace between our kingdoms. Long may they rein.”

The other wildlings sank into a bow immediately. Like unoiled machinery Those Below did, too. The last to bow were the generals. I had no doubt that whatever my position in their eyes was, it was temporary at best.

“Long may we rein,” Rune said.

I looked over at him, as the black blood dripping from one eye, and the glowing blue of the other. A hissing voice whispered, “It’s not over.”

“Give a command,” Rune said, and it was just him again. “You’re so good at giving them to me it shouldn’t be a problem.”

And just like that I did have a plan.

“We’ll be submerged in a couple days,” I said, trying to make my voice come out strong. I nodded at the lead general, the one who looked like she wanted to stick a knife in my back. Best to keep her busy and far from me. “Do you have any safe places to go?”

“If we’re at a truce then I’m sure the Wilds would be more than amicable,” she said, voice dripping with disdain. “Other than that we have higher chambers. Bendeti will have to let up eventually, lest he wants to drain his entire kingdom.”

“Start moving, then,” I said. To the next general, or maybe an advisor, one surprisingly young, one arm rigidly frozen at his side. “I want to know what else Sotera was working on. I’m sure she had other plans besides what she executed.”

“I’m not sure…” The man reconsidered. “As the new Empress wills it.”

“I also want to see Grislehault,” I said.

The woman gave a barking laugh. “If you’re so eager to meet death, Empress-Slayer, I won’t stop you.”

The tension rose in the hall. Rune was looking at her with a smile that told me he wanted nothing more than to drive a blade through her throat.

“Let’s do it,” I said, internally wincing at how un-ruler-like that sounded.’

I turned back to the throne. To try to grapple with what had happened.’

“Congratulations,” Rune said. “You got the power you so desperately crave. I said it before: it fits you well.”

He gave a playful smile, all teeth, and I couldn’t help seeing the wrongness in his eyes again. “Long live the Empress of Glass.”

I could feel the others staring, friend and foe alike. Their eyes were like knives in my back.

 

“I’m scared of it hurting you.”

“No.” I looked at him, truly seeing a side of him I hadn’t before. “I think you’re scared of seeing what I might become. That makes two of us. But we have no choice.”

I brushed him aside, and there was a murmur from the crowd.

“You know I’m right. You just refuse to see it.”

The priest looked confused between us.

“I will become Empress,” I told him.

“Oh, ah, of course. Normally I’d anoint you with a crown, but you, ah, already have that. So the last thing is for you to sit on the throne.”

He began to chant something in words I couldn’t understand in low tones.

 

 

I sheathed the sword. “Don’t stop,” I told the priest, who gaped at the display. “Keep chanting.

He did, and I turned back to the throne, so simple, yet so threatening.

“If it starts to take me,” I said to Rune, “I want you to stop me. However you can. Do you understand?”

Rune’s jaw was tight, scowl so dark it could have been a thundercloud. “You are exceedingly clear.”

I felt better about that, at least. The throne couldn’t be left unclaimed, susceptible to other power grabs. If I took it, great. If not, maybe whatever power still remained with it would die with me.

Savage Wild Hearts Deleted Scenes

For me, every book goes through a number of iterations, from the inkling of an idea, to completed story. Through that process, things get moved, cut, reworded, reworked, and re-something-ed, either ‘cause they slowed the pacing, didn’t make sense, were part of a cut plot line, and more. In many cases, I cut prologues that take just a little too long to get into the meat of the story.

Below, you’ll find a couple deleted scenes from the first book in my Savage Wilds series, Savage Wild Hearts. One of them is said cut prologue, though it’s from the perspective of Val’s guardian, Peyton. I originally had the prologue in the book from Val’s perspective, but eventually cut that, too. If you’d like to read that prologue, you can grab it by signing up for my newsletter here.

I’d recommend reading Savage Wild Hearts before reading this post, or else you’ll be very confused. You might be confused anyway since these are, after all, deleted scenes, but I hope you enjoy!

Deleted prologue (Peyton’s POV)

Peyton didn’t see the child, not at first.

She wasn’t looking for one, not out here. Not at the edge of the Wilds. Her focus was entirely on picking through the western-most edge of the Washington state town of Brinnon. What remained of it, anyway.

“Find anything?” Chris called. There were ten of the searchers—the brave few who’d volunteered.

Peyton crouched and tried to shift aside a vending machine. Something slithered beneath. Peyton scrambled back in alarm, falling onto her butt. Her hand went to her pistol, then switched to her knife. The pistol might have made her feel better, but everyone on her team knew that it, like most firearms, was nearly useless against the things of the Wild.

The vine wrapped around the vending machine and squeezed tight like a constrictor, as though saying, This is mine now. You humans had your chance.

“You okay, Peyton?” Chris called.

Heart still pounding, Peyton stood. “Fine. It’s already moved over here.”

Chris swore. “Of course it has.” From over the rubble of what had a day ago been a gas station convenience store, Peyton saw him shake his head. “Not sure if they caused the quake or are just using it. Guess it doesn’t matter—”

The ground trembled beneath Peyton’s feet. She froze in place, waiting for the worst. Seattle hadn’t been prepared when the magnitude 7.1 quake hit yesterday. The Wilds were a known. They’d been there as long as anyone alive could remember. Places like Brinnon knew the risk of living at the edge of it. But in recent years the Wilds had remained quiet. You didn’t bother it and it didn’t both you. Except for the brave—or stupid—few who ventured inside looking for heart gems.

The tremors eventually subsided but Peyton’s legs still shook. “Aftershocks,” she called.

“Maybe,” Chris said darkly. “or the other shoe’s about the drop.”

Someone yelled and Chris’ head snapped that way. “Survivors,” he said. “At the school. We’d best get to them before they do.”

Then he was gone, converging that direction along with the rest of the search and rescue team. Peyton watched her footing among the rubble as she started to follow. They’d need to be quick. With no human and Brinnon destroyed, it wouldn’t take long for the Wilds to claim it. Already tiny buds of green and thick leafy blooms of flowers were pushing up through the planks of wood and between the crunched carcasses of cars.

Peyton glared at the edge of the Wilds. Couldn’t it wait a single day? Couldn’t it give them a chance to move?

The thick wall of trees glared back, filled with mist more than what was normal in the pacific northwest. Trees with teeth, that’s what she often thought. Sometimes Peyton imagined one of the beasts staring back from the dark just beyond the tree line. Maybe even one of them…

Peyton blinked. Something was glowing from within.

She scanned the treetops and could just make out the cerulean blue glow emanating above them. Magic? Had to be. Nothing in she’d seen before had quite that same sort of blue. The closest she’d seen were humans with heart gems.

The glow faded and Peyton could almost believe she’d imagined it.

But she wasn’t imagining the child at the edge of the trees. She was suddenly there, as though the Wilds had spit her out.

Peyton looked around, as though grounding herself in the real would make what she was seeing anything but. Yet the child remained. Small, pale, naked, covered in blood.

Then Peyton was scrambling over the shattered glass of a storefront, across the wide swath of empty land that separated the edge of the town from the edge of the trees. The child remained there and for a brief moment Peyton’s heart seized. What if she was a wildling? What if this was a trap? It’d happened before. Leave it to the Wilds to use the cruelest way to coax them.

But no, surely this was just a little girl who’d gotten separated and hurt in all the chaos.

“Hey there.” Peyton crouched and slowly walked the rest of the way to the girl. She didn’t move. Barely blinked. She couldn’t have been more than four, and had the wide, terrified look of an animal that had seen so much it’d gone into shock.

“What’s your name?” Peyton asked.

The girl stared but didn’t answer. Definitely shock. Peyton retrieved one of the rations they’d given the search and rescue team and held it out to her. “You should eat. Go ahead.”

Like everything else, the girl stared at the food, then took it with scratched, bloody fingers, like she’d had to claw her way out of something.

Peyton shrugged off her windbreaker and secured it around the girl’s shoulders while she munched. It was a wonder she hadn’t frozen to death in the chilly mist. No, it was more of a wonder she’d somehow survived being this close, or in, the Wilds.

“Just hold still,” Peyton said. “This’ll just take a sec.”

Her chest warmed as the heart gem nestled beside it came to life. Her body filled with the magic it provided and she brushed her fingers over the girl’s cuts and scrapes. The green glow stitched the lacerations together, scabbed over the worst of the wounds. She wasn’t in great shape, but most of the blood wasn’t hers.

“Where are your—”

Another tremor. The girl fell forward and Peyton clutched her close until it subsided.

“Peyton!” Chris called. “We have to go, now!”

He was right. The worst wasn’t over, and in hours there wouldn’t be anything left of Brinnon. Worse than that, they couldn’t be here if the wildlings found them.

“Be there in a sec!” she called back. “Where are your parents?” Peyton asked the girl. She brushed aside a stringy strand of her black hair. “Sweetie? I need to know where your parents are.”

“Peyton! Let’s go!”

Peyton was sure the girl couldn’t—or wouldn’t—answer. But then she turned and looked into the trees. A sick feeling twisted Peyton’s gut.

“Stay here, sweetie. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

It would be useless if a wildling found her, but Peyton pulled her knife and slipped into the trees, parting the mist-kissed ferns and bright flowers that seemed to turn to follow her as she passed. Chris yelled again but the moment she’d stepped into the Wilds it was as though a veil had dropped between them.

She snuck around towering trees—wide as three people. Her skin was already coated in pollen and sweat. A tangy sweetness filled her nose. Branches rustled overhead. Something skittering past.

Peyton made no sudden movement. Nothing to draw attention to herself.

I am small. I am invisible. I am where I don’t belong. Where I’m not wanted. If I don’t get out soon…

She shut her eyes until that last thought passed, then kept moving, only to stop around the next tree. A new smell filled her nose: fresh blood.

The humans—at least she assumed they were humans, it was hard to tell anymore—lay at the edge of the long grass. Thankfully the worse of whatever had happened to them had already been covered by fungi and gnawed away by critters. Also, small crystals had sprang up from the tips of their fingers she could see. They glowed a similar blue as the light she’d seen earlier. Peyton had never seen anything like them, in Seattle or the Wilds. They almost looked like unrefined heart gems, but outside the body.

Peyton covered her nose and stepped close to triple-check, then she hurried back the way she’d come. The entire time she felt as though something followed her. Like those urban legends of the hide-behind; following her, closing in, but never there when she turned around.

The looming fear grew and grew—

Peyton burst past the edge of the trees, still at a fast walk as though leaving the Wilds would somehow protect her, like covering her head with a blanket would save her from the monsters.

“Come on, sweetie.” She grabbed the girl’s hand and practically dragged her back toward the other searchers. She could hear the airy chop of helicopter blades. They might be leaving soon, with or without her.

“Pey—There you are!”

The green glow of Chris’ magic faded around the rubble he was lifting and it crashed to the ground. “They nearly left without you. Who is that?”

Now that they weren’t so close to the Wilds, Peyton scooped the little girl into her arms. “A survivor. We need to go. Chris?”

Chris was still staring at the little girl. “You found her in Brinnon?”

“At the edge. I thought you said we needed to go.”

“Something’s not right about her. you found her near the Wilds, didn’t you?”

“This whole place will be in the Wilds if we don’t hurry. She’s not a wildlings, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

The helicopter blades were speeding up. Chris wasn’t moving. Then he jerked his head. “You had the same luck as the rest of us. Only two more survivors.” He cast a look back at the little girl, who was staring into the trees. Peyton swore they’d moved closer than even a minute ago.

“We’ll put her in the system like everyone else. Hopefully that’ll find her closest relations.”

His tone said he doubted it. Peyton did, too.

The two of them ducked as they ran into the helicopter and took a seat. The other searchers spared Peyton and the girl a glance but said nothing. Maybe they, like her, were simply glad they’d found anyone alive at all.

Chris pounded the siding and the chopper lifted off. The little girl relaxed, tucking her head beneath Peyton’s chin. Her tiny body was fever-hot. Peyton squeezed her close. She looked out the side of the chopper, into the Wilds. A prickly feeling traveled up her arms. The Wilds were watching her. Chris had a point, something wasn’t quite right about this, but then nothing had been for a while. She’d saved a child, defied the Wilds and reclaimed one of their own.

But she knew the Wilds never forgot. One day it would reclaim what was taken from it, and there was nothing Peyton could do to stop it.

 

 This next deleted scene was a bit of an expansion on a plot line in the book that Spoiler alert Val’s stepbrother, Joshua, was working with the dangerous Lords of the wildlings. Since humans and wildlings have been in a tense standoff for years, Val had no clue why he’d do that. An iteration of this idea stuck around through the book, but this is the slightly modified scene:

“Jezaline and Mordecai weren’t the only ones here,” Luella said. “There were humans, too, later. In uniforms like soldiers.”

I slowly turned back to Luella. “Black uniforms, with red patches?”

“I believe so? At least the ones I saw outside wore those.”

Rune pulled the echo out of his pocket and tapped the birds beak.

“—if we are to see any sort of progress,” Joshua’s voice said. “Give me your answer, and agree to what I’ve asked, or our discussion is over.”

All three of us stared at the laughing bird as it tucked its wings back into it side and crouched in Rune’s hand.

“I know that voice,” Luella said, and the last vestiges of my flimsy belief tore away.

“So that message we heard was just a follow up,” I said, mind whirling. “The Department of Fringe Affairs was already here. That’s…That’s…”

“Not impossible,” Rune supplied.

“It shoudn’t be possible, Rune.” Our worlds had been in a tense standoff for generations. There were a few official visits for both sides to talk, but those were always big and obvious and announced. I’d been out of touch with the human world the last couple weeks, but I still would have heard if we were speaking with the Lords again. The fact that it was Joshua hurt all the more.

I hope you enjoyed these little tidbits and views inside the at times messy process of a working author. Be sure to check out the much, much longer post about deleted scenes from the second book, Savage Wild Souls.

Some random things I found in my Moleskin journal from years ago

What the title says, a couple poems (cringe) and the start of some short stories I had begun for practice:

Poetry (Prepare yourself)

I could write a poem about the ocean

but it might not be too deep

Shallow, probably

barely skimming the surface

I could write about the sun

But I’m surely not that bright

Rather dim, actually

I just can’t take the heat when it comes to those kinds of things

Owl/Hemlock

When an owl hoots in a hemlock tree/do you only think of me?

When a wave is tossed in a stormy sea/do you only think of me?

Lost in a frost lock of shore, headed away forevermore, in a briny way to fall to the depths of yesteryear clocked ahead of the brewing fight among the gods of best and delight, show what could be the end of past and present.

(Author’s note: ????????)

Short Story Beginnings

Probably will never finish these, but they were fun to practice:

Along the banks of a river in a far off land lived an old woman in a cottage she built with her own two hands. The roof was mud and pine needles. The walls were plied piled trunks of only the youngest, strongest trees.

The old woman had spent her days collecting water from the river’s rushing shores, food from the garden she grew on the side of her cottage. In the summer, the sun baked her home in glorious light, and she would pick the bountiful flowers to fragrant her home, and in the winter she would pile wood to light to keep her warm.

Many more years came and went, and as the years slid by the old woman became increasingly lonely. Though there was a village a long days walk down the narrow road, hardly anybody came to visit her. In fact, some mistrusted her, believing her to be a sorceress, a vessel for dark forces.

How rude.

But the old woman did not know this. Still, she was lonely, and wished for nothing more in the world than a companion, be it human or beast.

One day as she brought her jugs down to the river to fill them, the old woman spotted a woven reed basket caught in the current on the far side…

Second Story

There was once a man feared across the entire land. They say his shoulders were as broad as the largest mountain range, his teeth sharper than the most finely edged knives, his voice deeper than the growl within a dragon’s throat.

He was fierce, and he was feared, and because of this many kings and kingdoms called upon him to do many tasks for them. He cleared wibblesnorts from their nests, wrestled back the trepid waters of the mighty Veksped river, downed the most vicious of warlords. And as his feats grew so did his demand, and his demand was fierce and he was feared, for no man or woman wished to be around such a dangerous man.

Thus the man was alone, and this he was okay with. To him, the presence of others only brought more problems he did not need.

One day, the king of a distant land called the man to his kingdom. “I have a task I believe only you can perform,” the king said.

“Speak, and your bidding shall be done,” the man replied.

“I have an important package to be delivered to my brother’s kingdom. It is a treacherous journey across the lands of ice. Are you up to it?”

“Speak, and your bidding shall be done,” the man repeated, and the halls shook with his powerful voice. The king trembled and quickly paid the man half his promised payment and the man took the package and left. At once he started East, toward the King’s destined delivery. Toward the icelands…

The Girl Who Was Raised by a Dragon

The Girl Who Was Raised by a Dragon

I don’t write many short stories. I find novels and long form more alluring than anything requiring me to parse down my writing and streamline my thoughts. But every so often inspiration strikes and a short story is created. The Girl Who Was Raised by a Dragon is not edited, it’s not very long, but it was undoubtedly a blast to write. I hope you enjoy it, too.

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Called by Darkness Deleted Prologue

Called by Darkness Deleted Prologue

The first book in my New York Academy of Magic, much like many first books in my series, underwent an additional number of revisions versus other books I’ve done. This is probably because the first books are the playground to set the style, characters, tone, blah blah blah for the rest of the series, and as such need a little extra refining.

In this case, editing involved taking out the entire prologue.

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