MENTOR: Nazarea
Andrews
ALTERNATE: Heather
Lynn
TITLE: The Lightning
City
CATEGORY/GENRE: NA
Sci-fi
WORD COUNT: 91,000
PITCH: In the
Lightning City, being a magical wielder is illegal. Ilya, a young policeman and
wielder, wants to change that and goes after the powerful magical mafia – if
his own side doesn’t arrest him first.
EXCERPT:
Ilya steadies the needle over his arm – it’s a liquid silver mosquito
ready to bite him. The metallic taste floods his mouth, coating his tongue. And
the needle isn’t even in yet. But he’s sweating, his palms are slick. It’s
still gonna hurt like a sonofabitch.
The syringe is filled
with metallic poison, after all.
He lays his arm flat on
the table – a dumpster dive find. He’s added a few instruments that don’t come
standard -- like several shackles to hold him in place. He stretches his right
arm flat, flexing his muscles, the vein jumping out. Outside dogs are barking,
on the floor above him, bass reverberates through the ceiling, and down the
hallway a couple shouts at each other. When he presses the needle into his arm,
his scream goes unnoticed. His arm spasms, but the restraints do their job. His
mouth floods with the acerbic taste of iron. After the injection, his veins are
silvery tattoos. They darken to black before fading away and sliding back into
his body.
Existing shouldn’t be
illegal – but his is. With each thump of his heart, the iron invades his body,
extinguishing each spark of magic. Ferrous is a banned substance, illegal to
make, to use, and to own. It’s almost as bad as being a magic wielder to begin
with. At least using the ferrous is his choice – even if it makes him doubly
screwed.
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