Please enjoy this excerpt from my forthcoming novel, The Pretender’s Game. The Pretender’s Game is a story of Hemi. She was born in another era through the sacrifice of pain. Hemi is reborn in each daughter down through the ages. She is the sister of light. The sister of darkness was also born in that sacrifice. She was sentenced to the darkness she was made of. However, the Earth is shifting. The sister of darkness is finding her way and swimming up to the light. The Pretender’s Game is a work-in-progress. Any pages shared here may change before the final iteration of the story.
The Circle in the Woods
Hemi was surrounded by a circle of twelve beautiful older women. They wore long white dresses. Some women wore white headwraps. All had long dreadlocks adorned with copper jewelry that dangled and swayed in the night air. They sang and danced as they moved around Hemi like the hands on a clock. Hemi was standing in a baby pool that was printed with fading images of unicorns. There was water in the pool, and her feet were cold. She stood directly underneath where the moonlight reached Earth. The air had a chill, and the hairs on her arm were standing up. Her nipples poked through the sheer white gown, but she knew no one would see. Everyone else had their eyes closed, so Hemi followed their lead.
Women grow Hemi thought to herself; we study ourselves, understanding that the world around us is far more confusing than the place within us. Girls have dreams that develop into goals that we clothe ourselves in daily when we grow into women. She reflected on the ancient nations of power: Persia, Egypt, Rome, and Greece. No one stays on the throne forever she thought to herself. It was at this moment that Hemi absolved herself of the hatred she felt toward Lexington. She would let her fall naturally, like a roof that has collected too much ice and snow; she knew the weight of it all would drop her.
Hemi focused her mind and her intent, emptying herself of all other ideas that she held onto too tightly. She stood strong, moving past the hurt and anger to a place of ever flowing gratitude and thanks, a place of timeless love with an invitation that would never be rescinded. The water began to warm under her feet, and she fell into the song like hands folding into a prayer. And in that moment, wrapped in the black of night like it was a bath towel after a warm bath with milk and honey, Hemi’s mind unfolded further, traveling deeper and deeper into the darkness until a white light and primary colors formed at the sides of her eyes.
The light folded into a triangle, expanding and pulsating into a circle. Yellow, blue, purple, and red, the brilliant colors folded into a tetrahedron. The light moved her soul, her consciousness, faster into the dark at a speed she could not fathom and steered her to the distant sound of a vibration, a primal voice moving through every cell of her body.
And then a voice came from one of the women around her, “Now you are ready to be connected. Your energy has been purified.”
“We have something for you, left behind by your grandmother,” said another elder.
Hemi opened her eyes and looked around the circle at the warmth radiating from the smiling faces. “From my grandmother?”
“Do you see the red glow beyond those trees?” asked a soft voice. “The Blackstone has arrived; she bears the cardinal symbol. She is ready.”
“Let me take you to her cabin,” said one of the elders.
* * *
Peggy Arthur 