Echo Blog Tour: Excerpt & Giveaway

Echo
Author: Alicia Wright Brewster
Genre: YA Fantasy/Dystopian
Release Date: April 25, 2013

Description:

The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone's been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara's death. 

I slowed as I reached the fence surrounding my home cluster. Instinctively, my face turned upward and to the north—to the numbers of the countdown clock that glowed above, stark white over the sky’s deep blue. I was too early for my morning transport. It wouldn’t be here for another hour, if it was coming at all—if I was still welcome on the Ethereal task force.
I needed a ride to the Council now. Making the trip on foot was impossible; it was way too far. If I were a Breather, I could get there in no time . . . Luckily, I knew a Breather.
I unclasped the comm unit from my waistband and raised the speaker to my lips. “Contact Rey.”
“Command confirmed,” came a pleasant female voice in response. After several more seconds, it added, “Rey is not available.”
“Try him again!”
“Command confirmed.”
Several more seconds and then Rey’s sluggish voice came through the speaker. “Ash? What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I’m at the cluster fence. I need a ride to the Council.”
He paused. I imagined him checking the time on his comm. “You’re an hour early. The transport will be there in plenty of time to get us to training.”
“I don’t want to wait for the transport.”
No answer.
“Rey!”
“What, what?”
“Wake up. I need to leave now.” Then it occurred to me that, unlike me, Rey probably hadn’t been sent packing when the Mages escaped yesterday. “Hey, do you know what happened to the escapees?”
“We couldn’t find the other two.” The panic that had tinged his voice when he first answered had subsided. Most likely, he’d determined that whatever I needed wasn’t urgent after all.
“What do you mean you couldn’t find them?” I asked.
“Weren’t you there?”
“No.” My jaw tightened. “Loken sent me home.”
He muffled a chuckle—poorly. “That’s what you get for having your boyfriend as a group leader.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“The way you two make eyes at each other whenever the other one’s not looking, I’m not sure why you bothered breaking up.”
“It wasn’t my choice, remember? Your friend is a stubborn, irrational jackass who thinks he can’t do his all-important job if he has actual emotions. You know what he did yesterday? He made me—”
“Do I really need to hear this? Don’t you have any girlfriends you can rant to?”
“They’re all still asleep.”
“So am I,” he growled. 

Alicia Wright Brewster is a mild-mannered lady of average height and above average paranormal obsession. By day, she works in an office. At night she is an author, an electronics junkie, and a secret superhero. (Please don't ask what her superpower is; that's not very polite.)

In her virtually non-existent free time, she loves to read, watch movies, and eat food. She is particularly fond of the food-eating and makes a point to perform this task at least three times per day, usually more.

Website: http://www.aliciawb.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliciawrightbrewster

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliciawbrewster

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