Title: Where The Moths Dance
Author: Kristah Price
Genre: YA Paranormal
Sixteen-year-old Jessie Hale lives in the caretaker’s cottage at the bottom of Gum Tree Hill Cemetery. She feels more comfortable surrounded by the dead than the living, and the graveyard is her sanctuary, a place to escape from her troubled home life and from her mother’s despicable boyfriend, Conrad.
Elliott Rossi has found a way to come back from the dead. He needs to warn Jessie about a demon who can also access the living world and has his new prey firmly in his grasp.
When Jessie learns who has become the demon’s latest victim, she must enlist the help of her friends to battle the evil that has invaded her sanctuary, turning her life upside down and threatening to destroy everything she cares about.
Then there is the small matter of falling in love with a dead boy.
Excerpt:
“Why the serious look?” Violet asked, breaking into my thoughts.
I glanced at her, debating whether or not I should tell her about the goings-on up at the graveyard. I knew that she believed in spirits and the afterlife, and it occurred to me that with the knowledge she had from her Wiccan beliefs, she might just be able to help. But I still didn’t feel ready to share my secret, at least not until I knew a little more about what I was dealing with myself. I decided to keep it vague, to keep Elliott’s name out of it.
“This might sound weird,” I said, while Violet looked at me curiously. “But I’ve had this creepy feeling lately around the graveyard.” I lowered my voice; I didn’t want anyone else listening in on our conversation. “It’s like there’s some sort of malevolent energy lingering around.”
Falling silent, Violet scanned my face with her piercing, blue eyes, until I began to wonder if she thought I was crazy. Then she leaned forward and said, “Do you just get the feeling in the cemetery, or is it in your house as well?”
“It’s in the house as well.” I was relieved that she seemed to be taking me seriously.
Violet nodded. “It makes sense that with your house being beside a graveyard, it might have dark energies hanging around. But there are loads of things you can do to protect the inside of your home. You can hang garlands of calendula around doors and windows to keep out evil. Or thread juniper, rowan, or holly berries and string them around the house. They all have strong protective properties. You can burn incense, too. Frankincense and sandalwood will rid a home of unwanted spirits.” She paused as she studied me from beneath her black fringe, as though to gauge my reaction. I obviously looked suitably captivated because she continued then, her enthusiasm evident.
“You can brew a tea from basil or angelica, and sprinkle it in the corners and around the edges of the rooms to keep out evil spirits. And if it were me, I would hang sprigs of fresh herbs all around the house.” She continued to stare at me intently. “You should scatter a few under your bed, just to make sure. You can get the herbs and incense from Sapphires & Stardust—that shop beside the old church that was turned into a vegetarian restaurant. Gretchen, the lady that works there, is really nice.”
“Thanks, I might go there after school.” I smiled at her, feeling a little happier now that I knew there were steps I could take to protect our home. Until recently, I might have considered everything Violet had just told me to be a load of hocus pocus.
Until recently, I had never believed in demons, either. If one existed, then I had to believe in the other.
Author Bio
Kristah Price has always loved books and dreamed of being a writer since she was a teenager. After much dreaming, and writing in her spare time, she eventually took a year off work to write a novel. Although that novel remains hidden away in a box on the top shelf of a wardrobe, she went on to have several novellas published in magazines in Scotland, and her first full-length novel, Scrappy Cupcake Angels, was published in 2012. Where the Moths Dance is her first novel for young adults. When she is not reading or writing, she enjoys scrapbooking, quilting, mixed-media art, and organic gardening. She lives with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Finn, in the Art Deco city of Napier, New Zealand.
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