Pitch Wars ALT: LL-13 ENTHRALLED

MENTOR: Tina Moss
ALTERNATE: Luisa M. Perkins
TITLE: Enthralled
CATEGORY/GENRE: Contemporary Fantasy
WORD COUNT:  89,000

PITCH:

Una’s sick of being someone else’s magical battery pack. Fighting both her mother’s powerful hexes and her abusive fiancé, Una will do whatever it takes to be free—even accept the unlikely help of Tom, her mother’s bounty hunter.

EXCERPT:

Port Authority Bus Station, Manhattan

The symptoms hit Una sooner than she had calculated. She had to get on that bus—fast.

She dug her fingers into her waist as cramps twisted through her gut. Stumbling at the accompanying dizziness, she leaned a hand on the soot-stained wall—then snatched it away and wiped it on her jeans.

She was moving too slowly. She forced herself not to check over her shoulder yet again. That would only attract attention she couldn’t afford.

At Gate 58, Una pushed open the door and exhaled shakily. The express bus to Kingston idled in the depths of the massive parking garage. If she could get on it and make it through the first stages of thrall withdrawal, she’d be free.

Once on board, she knuckled sweat out of her eyes and bit off a moan. She just needed a little space to curl up alone so she could fight through this. But as she staggered down the aisle, it seemed like every eye was on her—hostile, suspicious. She knew she looked like a common junkie. Maybe the bus had been a bad idea.

Near the back, Una found someone who wasn’t staring. He glanced up with a polite half-smile, but immediately returned his attention to his book. He looked like her best chance of being ignored. That cinched it.

She slipped into the seat and slid her knapsack off her shoulders. She gritted her teeth against the bile rising in her throat and peered past her neighbor out the dusty window. Just a few more hours, Una. You can do this.