HatH - Guest post and giveaway from author Tish Thawer

Samhain in Ovialell

(A behind the scenes look from Aradia Awakens)

Tonight wasn't a celebration of All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. You wouldn't see any children dressed up in silly costumes, racing from door to door gathering candy from their neighbors. Not here. Not in Ovialell.

Instead, on this Samhain night, there was going to be a grand ceremony to welcome back the Queen of The Witches. The Witches were a coven of powerful witches who run with the Goddess Diana during the wild hunt, and are charged with protecting us citizens of Ovialell, or Otherworld, with their magick and healing abilities.

When the Goddess Diana sent out word that the Queen had returned, an elaborate event had been planned to welcome her back. Now, I won't pretend that we aren't all skeptical, I mean, it's common knowledge that the Queen had been killed during the Great Rift. But if the Goddess says she's back, combined with the fact that Queen Shay, the leader of the Seelie Fae, had already arrived; not to mention Kylie, and her Amazon warriors were expected any minute. Yeah...this was exciting stuff. Everyone in Ovialell would be attending this ceremony to see exactly who this "Queen" really was.

My name is Lexxi, and my mom use to be one of The Witches. Her name was Ingrid, but she was killed about six months ago. After that the Goddess allowed me to live and work in her castle on Upper World. That's how I was able to get a sneak peek at the throne room where the ceremony would be held tonight.

The lavish decorations had my jaw dropping the first time I'd snuck in the side entrance from the kitchen. The velvet curtains surrounding the raised dais where the Goddess would introduce the new Queen from, looked so heavy that it would probably take a spell to actually move them. There was a red carpet runner that flowed down the middle of the room, separating it into two distinct sections. It was so long it looked like a river of blood against the white marble floor.

There were fairy lights throughout the room, courtesy of the Fae, I'm sure. They floated in the air of their own accord, and twinkled with a hue of light that wasn't found on Upper World. Since the Fae, Seelie and Unseelie, both resided on the Middle World of Ovialell, the fact that they were here, was a pretty big deal.

I was so ready for this ceremony to get started, that I'd dressed hours ago, then came to help out in any way that I could. My dress wasn't too fancy, but I thought it was pretty. The long navy skirt was velvet, and had fine gold piping that was braided to look like a net, which laid over the top of the whole thing. The bodice was gold and the undershirt the same navy blue as the skirt. My friend had pulled the laces so tight that my cleavage was ridiculously exaggerated. I'd decided to leave my hair down, but wound in some little braids to match my dress. I thought my blonde hair went well with the blue and gold.

It was almost time for the ceremony to begin and I hoped that I could maintain a good position to see everything. So, as everyone started to enter the throne room, I staked out a place behind one of the stone pillars. I figured I could use it's tiered bottom to stand on in order to get an extra boost to see over the crowd. But just as the door shut, some rude, red-haired woman nudged me off of my spot. When I turned to state that I'd been there first, I found myself staring into a pair reddish-brown eyes, which ironically, were the last thing I'd ever see. Because when she opened her mouth to smile, all I saw were a set of fangs.


ARADIA AWAKENS (Book One in The Ovialell Series) will be available November 6, 2012 at Amazon, BandN, All Romance, and other online vendors.

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Tish is giving away two ebooks, Prophecy's Child and Aradia Awakens, plus magnets. This giveaway is open internationally and will end on October 31st. Read event rules and guidelines before entering.

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