Today Chantal
Gadoury, The Parliament House, and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover
for BEYOND THE SHORE AND SHADOWS, the second book in her YA Little Mermaid
Retelling Series, which releases May 2021! Check out the awesome cover and
enter to win a $10 Amazon GC!
BEYOND THE SHORE AND SHADOWS
Lena, #2
by Chantal Gadoury
May 2020
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
A Merrow
with a Choice
A Man Who
Loved Her
And an Evil
that could destroy them both
The Sea Is
Calling. . .
Lena is a
merrow in possession of the Magick Skal, the shell once owned by the Queen of
the merrows. And now, Lord Jarl knows her secret and wants it for himself.
After running
away from the Lundby-Wyatt Inn, leaving behind everything she was familiar
with, Lena finds herself in the company of the warm and kind Soren Emil.
When the
villagers turn against her and Soren, they’re forced to leave the burning Bror
Boghandel behind and escape to a forgotten cottage on the edge of the shore,
where no one will find them. Lena knows she must get the shell back to the sea
and destroy it, before it falls into the hands of Lord Jarl, or worse, his
apprentice, Jace Wyatt.
With the
help of some unruly pirates, Lena and Soren journey to the sea, a place Lena
never thought she’d return to. There, she will have to face not only the Sea
King’s army, the Fosse-Søfolk, but the impossible choice to sacrifice her own
life, or the life of the man she loves.
BETWEEN THE SEA AND STARS (Lena #1)
Chantal
Gadoury
Pub. Date: June
19, 2018
Publisher: The
Parliament House
Formats: Paperback,
eBook, audiobook
Pages: 268
A Legend,
A Magical Shell
A Girl Who Dreamed Of Something More...
Lena, a Merrow girl, lives in the Skagerrak sea with her father, Carrick and
her brother, Javelin who tells her of the legend of the Merrow Queen murdered
by her human lover when greed takes over. But what’s worth spilling the queen’s
blood? Gifted from Poseidon, himself, a magic shell gives any human the ability
to control both land and sea.
When Javelin is called to join a clan of Merrow soldiers bent on protecting
their waters from human invasion, Lena resists Merrow law and ventures to the
shore with no choice but to swim to land.
With newfound legs, Lena is whisked away on a new adventure with new friends
and new trouble. Everyone seems to want something from her as intrigue lurks
around every corner.
Trying her best to hide who she is and remain safe from the dangers of the
human world, will Lena finally find where she belongs, or will she be swept
into a strong and stormy current by lust, greed, and jealousy?
Excerpt from BETWEEN THE SEA AND
STARS (Lena #1):
“Tell me the legend of the Skagerrak queen.”
Javelin lifted a brow. “It’s hardly a legend, Lena,” he said. “It’s
barely been a decade.” His voice was easy, unbothered by the possibility of
being overheard. They were alone in this place. There was no need to whisper or
scold or shush. Still, he groaned. “I’ve told that one a thousand times. You
should know it by heart. Aren’t you tired of it yet?”
“Come on,” Lena urged him. “It’s my favorite. Tell me again.”
He rolled his eyes, but his mouth curved into a grin. “Fine.” His scooped
a clam shell out of the sand and began sliding the sharp side of a rock against
its grain. “The queen fell in love with a human man,” he began, his strong
fingers holding the clam firmly in place. “Every full moon, she used her magic
to travel ashore to see him.”
Lena settled onto her elbows, relishing the smooth sound of her brother’s
voice as he recited the tale. A dreamy smile spread over her lips.
“I wonder how she met him,” she murmured softly, tilting her chin up and
letting her lashes flutter shut.
“Likely the same way any merrow meets a human,” Javelin teased.
“Shipwrecked during one of Poseidon’s storms. She should have drowned him
immediately.”
“But she couldn’t!” Lena’s eyes pinged open. “For he was devilishly
handsome, even soaking wet. The most handsome man she’d ever seen.”
“Devilish is right,” Javelin allowed. “Whether he was handsome or not,
I’ll let your imagination decide.”
“Oh, he was.” Lena was smiling widely now. “He was, perhaps, the most
beautiful human man in existence, and desperately enraptured by the queen. Each
full moon, he waited for her, pacing the beach like a madman. And when she
would emerge from the sea, he’d run hip-deep to meet her, unable to spend one
more moment apart. He’d wrap his muscular arms around her—”
“For Poseidon’s sake, Lena.”
“And they’d dance together,” she pressed on, giggling, “as only humans
can do. They’d dance and dance the hours away, bathed in starlight, humming
songs into one another’s ears.”
“Until one night. . .” Javelin prompted smugly, and Lena rolled her eyes.
“Until one night,” she sighed, “something overcame the queen’s lover.
Greed.”
“Human greed,” Javelin corrected. “Human nature. It was only a matter of
time.”
She glared at him, but didn’t interrupt as he continued. This was the best
and the worst part of the tale, and Javelin—damn him, was good at telling it.
And he knew.
“That night, the queen swam toward the surface, impatient as ever she
was. Ready to be rid of her tail. Ready to be human again. Her magic was a gift
from Poseidon himself, contained in a delicate shell which she wore around her
neck on a gold chain. It gave her the ability to explore the shore, and to
control the storms and seas.”
Lena leaned in.
“As she swam, the queen began to change. Faint sobs faltered over her
blue-scaled lips—cries of pain, lost to the rushing lull of the waves and the
urgent beating of her fins. Swiftly, her tail separated into two perfectly
shaped legs, and she rose out of the sea.”
“Don’t leave out the good parts,” Lena whispered. She knew her brother
would skim over the romance just to annoy her.
Javelin gave her a pointed look. Then he grinned. “The moon was high that
night,” he said, lowering his voice to a hush for effect. “The land was
illuminated by an eerie, silver glow. Beneath its light, the queen’s new flesh
was creamy and soft. Her hair became one with the wind, and her body shivered
against a violent, uproarious breeze. Perhaps it was a warning from the gods,
but the queen didn’t see it as such. The human lands were cold, suffering a
new, frigid season, but her heart remained warm. She smiled, though her
transition had been agony, when she heard the sound of water splashing and saw
her beloved moving toward her through the shallows.
“She sang his name as he brushed chaste kisses against her neck, and
relaxed fully against him, trusting him completely. She was blind to the wicked
yearning which had wrapped around his heart. Which made his body tense, which
crushed his lungs till he could hardly breathe. He wanted her shell, for he’d
discovered what powers were locked inside that delicate charm. Powers gifted to
whomsoever possessed it. His fingers dipped to her throat, caressing the shell
which had allowed her to return to him, again and again. The queen eyed him
strangely, and he dropped his hands to her waist, tugging her against him,
kissing her deeply.”
Lena sighed, and Javelin smirked.
“She was a fool,” he said.
“She was in love,” Lena amended.
“She was both,” he conceded. “And that foolish love consumed her.
Deceived her. Seduced her. Clouded her eyes, so love was all she could see. But
that fateful eve, her beloved’s affection was not what it seemed. He’d seduced
himself too, with all the prospects of what might be. His own love had been
replaced by a lust for riches unknown. For control of the land and sea.”
Lena winced, for she knew what came next.
“He pressed his mouth against the queen’s skin, whispering sweet words,
distracting her. She was smiling as he sent a knife into her back. Smiling,
even as her eyes went wide with shock.”
Lena shuddered, picturing it. A joyful mouth, frozen in place. Bulging,
horrified eyes going dim.
“The queen’s lover twisted his blade, releasing her cold merrow blood to
the sand. He reached for the shell, yanking on its golden chain. But in the last
throes of breath, the queen resisted him and threw the shell into the crashing
waves, bidding Poseidon to wash it away.
“With a promised curse on his lips, her lover trailed back into the
night, determined to one day possess the world between the sea and stars, and
all who dwell beneath the earth, in the ocean’s depths. Our people.” He glanced
sidelong at Lena, his meaning clear. “The merrows.”
“And the queen. . .” Lena murmured, though she already knew how the tale
would end.
“He left her to dissolve into sea foam. She was washed away forever by
the waves.”
Lena released a long breath and gazed at her hands, trying to imagine
what it would be like to watch herself slowly disappear; what heartache and
betrayal the queen must have felt in her last moments. She knew this was a
gruesome tale, but a part of her thought the better parts, the magic and
romance, were worth the gruesome bits.
“What do you think it would be like, to walk?” she wondered aloud. “Would
it be like having two tails?”
“I don’t know,” Javelin chuckled. “I suppose it might be.”
“Where do you think the shell is now?”
Javelin shrugged. From a stony shelf above his head, he retrieved a slim,
wooden railing he’d found in a ship a few days before and carefully tied his
sharpened clamshell to its jagged end.
Lena smiled, realizing he’d made her a hunting spear.
“Poseidon is said to have hidden the shell before the human lover, or any
human, could steal it. It could be anywhere.”
“If you could go to the surface, would you?”
Javelin pinched his lips together and didn’t speak. It was a silent
reprimand. He knew how Lena longed to break through the waves, to see the human
world with her own eyes, to know the uses of all the odd objects they’d
collected over the years. But the laws of the sea were strict, and the king’s
leniency had all but vanished in recent years.
Any merrow caught peeking at the shore was punished. Some were even
struck down by Poseidon and reduced to sea foam, just like the queen.
“This is where we belong, Lena,” Javelin said softly, firmly.
“But how do you know?” She swirled upright and swam along the edge of the
grotto, brushing her fingertips over cups and spoons and heaps of sodden
fabric. Over small chests and tarnished, palm-sized figurines and other
mysterious, unnamed things. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like,
to live on the land? To live among them? To be one of them?”
“Not as much as you have, I can see.”
She groaned, and sank to her brother’s side, resting her head on his
shoulder. “It can’t be as bad as everyone believes. Humans can’t all be the
same. We’re not all the same,” she reasoned quietly.
Author Info
Chantal
Gadoury is an Amazon Best Selling Author who is originally from the countryside
of Muncy, PA. Chantal likes anything Disney, plays a mean game of Disney
trivia, enjoys painting and has a interest in British History. Chantal first
started writing stories at the age of seven and continues that love of writing
today. As a recent college graduate from Susquehanna University, with a degree
in Creative Writing, writing novels is a dream come true.
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon GC, International.
