Big Bear Energy – Kala Aster

Or maybe close. She couldn’t tell anymore. The soil was pulling at her. That was the only way to describe it. Like something beneath the surface had wrapped invisible fingers around her bones and was dragging her down, down, down into the cold dark earth. She tried to stand. Her legs wouldn’t cooperate. “Chloe!” Hands caught her shoulders just before she fell forward. The world spun, colors bleeding into each other, and then she was on her back, staring up at the gray February sky.

Freya’s face appeared above her, copper hair haloed by clouds. Her green eyes were wide with alarm. “Stay still. Don’t try to move.” “I’m fine.” The words came out slurred, unconvincing. “You’re not fine. You just collapsed.” Freya’s hands were on her face, her wrist, checking her pulse. “Your skin is ice cold. What happened?” Chloe tried to gather her thoughts. They kept scattering, slipping away like water through fingers.

“The soil. I felt… it was pulling.” “Pulling how?” “I don’t know. Like it wanted something from me.” She closed her eyes against another wave of dizziness. “Like it was trying to take something.” Freya swore softly. “Can you sit up?” “Maybe.” With Freya’s help, she managed to get upright. The world swayed but didn’t spin. Progress. She sat there on the cold ground, her back against Freya’s raised bed, and tried to remember how to breathe normally.

“This isn’t coincidence,” Freya said quietly. “The land sickness, the way it’s spreading, and now this. Something is targeting you specifically. We need to tell someone. The Council, or…” The crunch of boots on gravel made them both look up. Corin stood at the corner of the building, a crate of honey jars balanced against his hip.

His eyes swept the scene, taking in Chloe on the ground, Freya crouched beside her, the scattered herbs and fallen shears. The crate hit the ground with a thud. “What happened?” He was already moving toward them, his long strides eating up the distance. “Chloe. Are you hurt?” “I’m okay.” She tried to stand and immediately regretted it. The dizziness surged back, and she would have fallen if Corin hadn’t been there suddenly, his hand closing around her arm, steadying her. “She collapsed while harvesting,” Freya said. “Just dropped.

I barely caught her in time.” Corin’s jaw tightened. He guided Chloe to sit on the low stone wall that bordered the garden, his hand warm and solid against her back. He didn’t let go. “What happened?” His voice was controlled but something simmered beneath the surface. Chloe took a breath, trying to order her thoughts.

“I was cutting herbs. The soil felt wrong, but it’s felt wrong for weeks, so I didn’t think much of it. And then…” She shook her head. “It was like something grabbed me. Something in the ground. It wanted to pull me down.”

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. 1kitap1.com/en CONTENTS 1. Chloe 2. Corin 3. Chloe 4. Corin 5. Chloe 6.

Corin 7. Chloe 8. Corin 9. Chloe 10. Corin 11. Chloe 12. Corin 13. Chloe 14. Corin 15. Chloe 16. Corin 17. Chloe 18. Corin 19. Chloe 20. Corin 21. Chloe 22. Corin 23. Chloe 24. Chloe 25. Corin 26. Chloe 27. Corin 28. Chloe 29. Corin 30. Chloe 31. Corin 32. Chloe 33. Chloe 34. Corin 35. Chloe 36. Corin 37.

Chloe 38. Corin Preview Howl You Doin’ Chapter 1 1kitap1.com/en C 1 CHLOE hloe knelt in the small plot behind Freya’s apothecary, her breath fogging in the gray morning air as she worked gloved fingers through the soil around a cluster of winter savory. The herb should have been thriving in late January. It was hardy enough to survive frost, stubborn enough to push through snow. Instead, the leaves curled inward, edges browning like old parchment.

She sat on her heels and frowned. Chloe took off her glove and dug her fingers deep into the soil. It felt wrong. Not frozen, that she could work with. This was something else. Too dense. Too still. When she pressed her palm flat against the earth, there was no answering hum, no quiet pulse of life waiting beneath the surface. Just… nothing. “You’re glaring at that dirt like it’s done you dirty.”

Chloe looked up. Freya stood in the apothecary’s back doorway, copper- auburn waves escaping her braid, a steaming mug cradled between her palms. Even in the flat winter light, she looked like something that had grown straight from the forest floor in all warm greens and earth tones and an energy that made plants lean toward her when she walked past.

“The savory’s struggling.” Chloe pushed to her feet, brushing soil from her knees. Her pale blonde hair had slipped from its pins again, and she tucked a strand behind her ear. “I don’t understand it. I’ve done everything right.” Freya’s forest green eyes swept over the herb beds. “The valerian’s the same. And the comfrey near the fence.” “I noticed.” “It’s probably just the cold snap we had last week. That freeze came in fast,” Freya replied, though her face looked a little more concerned.

Chloe nodded, but her hands wouldn’t let her believe it.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 2a3e96079003f35a
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,291,890 bytes (2.186 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 199
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 277.48 minutes
• Total Words: 55,496
• Total Characters: 320,747
• Average Words per Page: 278.87
• Average Characters per Page: 1611.79

Most Frequent Words

chloe (422), corin (335), like (258), something (245), back (189), said (184), she’d (164), know (163), didn’t (156), eyes (149), way (142), he’d (135), i’m (132), voice (122), now (119), hands (119), freya (116), one (115), someone (112), it’s (110), land (110), don’t (108), you’re (107), against (104), around (103), well (103), let (101), bear (98), looked (95), made (94), wasn’t (93), still (92), felt (90), soil (86), came (85), want (85), away (80), going (80), need (78), corin’s (77), enough (76), cold (76), stood (75), think (75), things (74), elias (74), magic (74), everything (73), face (73), time (73), hand (72), people (71), orchard (69), that’s (69), every (69), see (69), toward (68), right (68), herself (68), blood (68), jasper (68), without (67), freya’s (66), never (66), couldn’t (65), wanted (64), long (64), thought (64), found (63), maybe (63), beneath (62), feel (62), body (61), nothing (60), make (59), pulled (58), dark (58), first (57), moment (57), tell (57), old (56), even (56), hollow (56), door (56), he’s (55), trying (55), town (54), wendy (54), warm (53), i’ll (53), twyla (53), skin (53), i’ve (52), turned (52), anything (52), oak (51), doing (51), she’s (51), get (50), thing (50).

PDF Download