A Touch of Magic
A Touch of Magic
Genre: Romantic SciFi Futuristic
Length: Short Story
Samhain Publishing | Amazon US | Amazon UK
A race against time to save a planet—will the price be too heavy to pay?
Captain Tirana Albasta leads the last scouting mission to mystery planet Samhain, which has already swallowed two previous missions and a starship full of New Wiccan colonists, Lalith’s People.
Determined to keep the pla net from UA Special Forces’ harsh military control, Tirana finds much more than she expected. For the descendants of Lalith’s People have split into two separate societies—the anti-magic Priests and the magical True People—and she has just been caught in the crossfire.
Complicating matters is her attraction to Loren, the broodingly handsome True People witch who ignites passions she has never before experienced, and who just might make leaving Samhain impossible in more ways than one…
Reviews
4 ½ Lips from Two Lips Reviews:
“Cassandra Kane reveals a world beyond imagination and weaves an intricate tale that will keep any reader completely engrossed, holding onto each word until the very end!”
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4 ½ Nymphs from The Literary Nymphs:
“A Touch of Magic is a fantastic futuristic read…that stays on course and delivers what readers look for in a good romance.”
4 ½ Hearts from The Romance Studio
“Cassandra Kane spins a fast-paced tale of a future in which once again, science collides with magic, and civilizations at odds must learn tolerance, or face destruction…”
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4 Angels from Fallen Angel Reviews
“Cassandra Kane has laid out an intricate world with two separate beliefs and an intriguing concept. Tirana is a strong woman who doubts herself more than anything and Loren is a wonderfully flawed hero.”
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The Book Pedlar (Gotta Write Network)
“With A Touch of Magic, the genre just got a whole new boot disc! This novel was fantastic and, coming from someone who doesn’t like science fiction at all, that’s saying something… A Touch of Magic is a wonderful story. It’s sexually charged, passionate and incredibly lyrical. It’s also beautifully written…I could have lived in this world forever.”
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Excerpt
Orson’s soldiers thundered past, manic grins fixed to their faces as they fired indiscriminately at the crowd. Tirana felt someone’s hand on her neck, shoving her to the ground, a body throwing itself over hers. She nose-dived, felt the scrape of grass against her cheek, the smell of damp soil pressed against her nostrils. Screaming and shouts reverberated around her, punctuated by sharp volleys of gunfire.
“Get off me!” She fought against the dead weight forcing her down, managed to jab her elbow into his ribs. The body slid off her. She pushed herself away, struggled to her knees and pulled the stunner from her holster, turning to protect herself.
Thurley lay sprawled facedown on the ground beside her. Laser fire had blasted a gaping hole in his back, his flesh blackened beneath the edges of his singed jacket. He was dead, taking the shot obviously meant for her.
The hot sting of fury wiped out the shock of horror. She rose and pushed through the frightened crowd running to escape the battle being fought on the far side of the hill. The bonfire had toppled beneath the weight of two robed men lying across its scattered centre. Loose embers fluttered into the sky from the trail of fire spreading over the hill.
“Orson!” Tirana strode towards the knot of soldiers herding the crowd. It was difficult to see more than the circling shadows of their uniforms, the points of their rifles. A scatter of bodies littered the area.
Someone slammed into her, screamed. Tirana stumbled, gripped her stunner firmly. She heard the sobbing of women, the cry of children. Children!
Damn Special Forces. Damn Orson. She would make him pay for this outrage.
Orson was standing on the exact same spot where only minutes before the man in the necklace had stood. In the flash of lightning, she saw a smug smile settle over his countenance as he watched his soldiers rounding up the crowd. Half a dozen of the robed men knelt before him, the soldiers’ weapons digging into their backs. Their hoods had been yanked back to reveal spider-like tattoos engraved on their bald heads.
“Orson!” Tirana raised her stunner.
Orson turned and saw her. A nasty smirk spread over his face.
A blazing heap of embers obscured her view, making a sure shot difficult. She stepped closer and flicked her stunner to its highest setting.
“I wouldn’t try that,” Orson called, raising his voice to be heard over the space separating them and the sobs from the crowd. “You’re outnumbered, Captain. I suggest you stand down.”
“You’ll be court-martialed for this.” Tirana aimed at him through the shimmer of heat. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Orson laughed in derision. “Who do you think authorized this?”
No. Oh, no. She stared at him in horror.
“You think they’d give something like this to you without a reason?” His voice rose in scorn. “You were in way over your pretty head from the start, Tirana.”
Her shoulders jerked when he said her name. There was menace and rage in his voice, a desire to hurt. And in his eyes the lust to control, to make her submit, to destroy her.
“Come here, bitch.” Orson’s mouth thinned into a vicious twist. He lifted his laser rifle, aimed it, and took a step towards her.
Standing in the open was suicide, her stunner no match for a rifle. She wheeled and ran, stumbling over the bodies strewn in her path as Orson shouted her name. Laser fire sizzled past her ear. Up ahead, she saw Thurley’s body beside the menhir. Beyond the standing stone lay the bare hill, where Orson would get a clear shot if she ran. She’d have to make her stand there.
She ran to it and jumped over Thurley’s body. Someone caught her arm as she landed and dragged her behind the menhir. She smacked up against the solid chest of the man standing there. He gripped the top of her arms and held her still against his hard body.
Tirana gazed up into blazing green eyes. A shock of recognition shivered through her body. The man with the necklace stared at her, his beautiful face austere in the shadows of the tall stone, his mouth set in grim determination.
“Come with me.”
She heard the low authoritative growl of his voice and shook her head, twisted out of his grip. Something screeched. The gargoyle jumped from foot to foot at her feet, his tiny, leathery hands pulling at the edge of her trousers.
Shock had her stepping back involuntarily, out into the line of fire. Something sizzled, slapped into her arm. There was a moment of excruciating pain before everything went black.
© Cassandra Kane. All rights reserved.
A Touch of Magic also appeared in the first anthology published by Samhain Publishing, Beginnings:
Beginnings – A Samhain Anthology
ISBN: 1-59998-280-3
Genre: Romance Anthology
Length: 286 pages
Celebrating Beginnings, a salute to the first day of the new Celtic year, the first anniversary of Samhain Publishing, we begin with the first annual Samhain Anthology.
Inside you’ll discover wonderful romantic stories in a wide range of genres from six talented authors.
Charlene Teglia brings us a tale of vampires and a chance to start over, Jennie Andrus offers a paranormal showing what might happen when a woman’s death is predicted. From Cassandra Kane, an out-of-this world futuristic story of the planet Samhain. Mackenzie McKade lends her talent to a historical quickie, where witch and Beserka unite. Kate Davies explores what might happen when two people from separate times meet and Lorelei James gives us humor and passion in her contemporary story of two strangers who must depend on each other.