Tour/Giveaway: Pretty Dark Sacrifice by Heather L. Reid

By Jen On July 29, 2015 · 1 Comment · In Author Feature, Blog Tours

I’m thrilled to have Heather Reid back on A Book and a Latte as part of her PRETTY DARK SACRIFICE Blog Tour! Check out her book, her amazing post, and then be sure to enter the giveaway in the Rafflecopter below.

PRETTY DARK SACRIFICE
(Pretty Dark Nothing #2)
by Heather L. Reid
July 28, 2015 / Month9Books

It’s been five weeks, two days, and eight hours since the demons forced Quinn to throw herself into the raging river, since Aaron sacrificed himself to save her, since his body disappeared without a trace.

Everyone wants Quinn to move on, but she can’t, not after a spirit appears to her at Aaron’s memorial, convincing her he’s still alive.

When a mysterious box materializes on the very spot Aaron disappeared, Quinn finds she’s at the center of an ancient prophesy of betrayal, revenge, and sacrifice that takes her to the depths of the underworld to face Lilith—Adam’s first wife.

If Quinn can stop Lilith from unleashing the demon horde Eve, trapped inside the box during the Battle of Eden millennia ago, she will save the human realm and free Aaron from an eternity in torment.

All it will cost is her blood.

The “Art” of World Building

by Heather L. Reid

Pretty Dark Sacrifice takes readers into a much more vivid fantasy world than Pretty Dark Nothing. It’s filled with prophesy, a new take on The Garden of Eden mythology, betrayal, swords, lots of evil demons, and even a trip to the underworld, so I had to up my fantasy world building game. I’m a very visual person, so part of my world building process involves a lot of time perusing Pinterest for inspiring images, but I also like to sketch. For Pretty Dark Sacrifice, I decided to create some of my own art to enhance my depth of understanding of an imaginary world. Here are a few of my endeavors and what they inspired in both Pretty Dark Nothing and Pretty Dark Sacrifice.

The Box of Agathe

Myriads of gold, blue, and green shimmered beneath the murky puddle, reminding her of fireflies dancing in a darkened field. She rubbed her chest at the ache the memory evoked. At the bottom, the source of the mysterious light beckoned to her. A box, half-buried in silt, flared bright as the letters, once on the spirit board, now etched into runes along the sides and top. A sense of déjà vu brought a sick feeling in her stomach. A forgotten dream, and something more, something older. Visions of her handing the box to an angel with golden wings flashed before her then vanished just as quickly. This was her box. – Pretty Dark Sacrifice

In Pretty Dark Sacrifice, I’ve taken threads of the myth of Lilith, along with pieces of the biblical creation story, and added a dash of Greek mythology in the form of Pandora’s box, and twisted them together to create something new. In Pretty Dark Sacrifice, Lilith is queen of the underworld and the mother of all demons. As in Jewish folklore, she was Adam’s first wife but that’s where things start to differ. In revenge, she tricks Adam’s new wife, Eve, into taking the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The poisoned apple contains Lilith’s demon horde and Eve’s betrayal causes the destruction of Eden. Seeing the demons emerging from the apple, Eve grabs a nearby wooden box, and places the fruit inside to contain the other half of Lilith’s demon horde. Full of regret, Eve’s tears fall upon the box locking the demons inside. With the sealing of the box, a prophecy is written upon its surface that says.

When the tears of Eve have turned to blood and her sins have turned to flesh, the key will fall. For love is bound by the power of the Trinity. Their destiny is written by chaos and betrayal, and on the first eclipse of the eighteenth year, the voice of the sacrifice will break the lock, restoring darkness unto the light. By this promise, be compelled. – Pretty Dark Sacrifice

Quinn’s Qeres Dagger

Azrael reached into his boot and pulled out a knife roughly eight inches long. Blue runes danced across the blade, reminiscent of Azrael’s Qeres sword. “A dagger, actually, very rare and imbued with Qeres poison. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this for you.” Laying the blade across both his palms, he offered it to Quinn. She picked it up by the ornate hilt and spun in between her hands. It hummed in her touch, the runes burning bright. A wicked grin spread across her lips. A poisoned blade, deadly to immortal essences. Now she could kill them.- Pretty Dark Sacrifice

While Pretty Dark Nothing dealt more with Quinn’s internal struggle against the manipulations of the demons that were haunting her, Pretty Dark Sacrifice takes on a much wider story arc. Quinn’s true destiny comes into play and we see her powers start to manifest. Plus she gets to stab them with her very own Qeres dagger.

Azrael

Azrael – My poorly photoshopped version of him anyway. Take The Prince of Persia, slap some black wings on him. Yes, I know they’re a bit small, but work with me here, and give him a blue Qeres star blade in one hand and his soul reaper blade in the other, and it’s a pretty close representation.

The character of Azrael is inspired by stories told of Azrael, the angel of death and punishment found in Hebrew, Sikh, and Islamic lore. Though I don’t go into much detail about his backstory in either book, one of his jobs is to un-tether human souls from their bodies and guide them to a new realm of existence.

At the hospital, Azrael hovered over a pale boy in a metal bed. Machines beeped and whirred around him, and a breathing tube protruded from his mouth. The smell of imminent death permeated the atmosphere. Azrael wrapped his dark wings around the frail body, golden sword drawn and ready to separate the soul from the flesh. – Pretty Dark Nothing

Now, armed with both swords, will Azrael use them to protect Quinn or lead her to her death?

A curved, runed sword hung on each hip—one blade etched with electric blue symbols, the Qeres blade, poison to any immortal soul; the other etched by golden sun, a blade with the power to separate an essence from a mortal body. – Pretty Dark Sacrifice

Azrael’s golden Reaper Sword

Azrael drew his golden sword and slashed down, separating the boy’s soul from his mortality. – Pretty Dark Nothing

Kaemon’s coveted Qeres star blade. Very rare and only given to Elite Warriors.

Two shadows leaped forward. Kaemon drew the Qeres blade from its scabbard. The curved blue star-metal rang out the hour of her birth for all to hear. The beasts quailed at the sound, sensing the prophecy of their death in the rare and ancient sword’s venom. The Dominions had not sent an ordinary Sentinel to watch her. Millennia of training had earned Kaemon the rank of Elite, carrier of the Qeres star blade, one of the chosen few. – Pretty Dark Nothing

Quinn discovers what the runes upon Kaemon’s blade say.

Quinn slid the blade from the windowsill away from him and balanced the flat of the curved metal on the palms of her hand. A dull hum of electric current ran up both arms and through her body. Reveal the deep things of darkness and bring shadows into the light. As she read, the runes on the sword glowed brighter and then dimmed.-Pretty Dark Sacrifice

You don’t have to be a great artist to try your hand at drawing. I’m proof of that. You’re certainly not going to see any of my work hanging in a gallery. I find the act of using a different artistic medium to explore the world in a different way can reveal things hiding deep in the subconscious. There’s no pressure, no deadline, just me, a pencil, and a blank sheet of paper. As the sketch flows, so does my mind, and later, the words.

About the Author

Heather L. Reid is both American and British and has called six different cities in three different countries, home. Her strong sense of wanderlust and craving for a new adventure mean you might find her wandering the moors of her beloved Scotland, exploring haunted castles, or hiking through a magical forest in search of fairies and sprites. When she’s not venturing into the unknown in her real life, she loves getting lost in the worlds of video games or curling up by the fire with good story. For now, this native Texan is back in the Lone Star State, settling down with her Scottish husband and writing new tales of fantasy and horror.

Many thanks to Heather for stopping by today to share about her art and world building for the PRETTY DARK NOTHING series! Readers, be sure to enter the giveaway in the Rafflecopter below, and follow the tour, HERE.