Book Tour Promo Stop: Underneath by Jes Young

Underneath - by Jes Young

Princess of Twilight and Dawn Book Two

Six months ago, when her long-hidden heritage came to light, Tab Bennett reluctantly let go of her past and embraced her future as an Elvish princess on the cusp of her gifts and the edge of her destiny. She never wanted a fairy tale life, but as the daughter of the Dark King and the Light Queen, that’s exactly what she got.

Raised in exile away from the kingdom of the Inbetween, Tab has never even met the parents who ruined her life. Her mother is dead, but Tab’s father, Daniel, is alive and well, the mad ruler of the kingdom of the Underneath.
He’s made it clear he wants to meet her and now that she knows all the sadness and heartache in her life can be traced directly to the Dark king’s door, Tab wants to meet him too. After all, it's because of him that the first twenty-five years of her life were a lie. It’s his fault she gave her heart to Robbin when she should have been saving it for Alex, the prince who is destined to be her Homecoming. But, most importantly, King Daniel is the one responsible for her mother’s suicide and her sisters’ murders.

Now Tab wants justice – but she’ll settle for revenge and Finnegan Blackthorn, an Elvish warrior with secrets of his own, is going to help her get it. Together, they’ll embark on the dangerous journey to her father’s stronghold in the kingdom Underneath. Once she's there, far away from the Light in which she was raised, Tab will be forced to confront the seductive nature of Darkness and her own potential to truly become her father’s daughter.

About the Author: 

After graduating from Emerson College with a BFA in creative writing, Jes Young was a copywriter at Random House (Ballantine Books and Crown Publishing Group) for nearly ten years. Currently she is the development manager of a small non-profit and the mother of two children under the age of ten. Her writing is done primarily between the hours of 11 p.m and 3 a.m. 

Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter: @JesYoungWrites

Giveaway for each stop is a set of Tab Bennett and the Inbetween and Underneath ebooks. 

Just leave us a comment and let us know what you think about Underneath and the Series. A winner will be chosen from the Comments at Random on Dec 15th! 

Excerpt From Underneath : 

Excerpt 1

“We are being followed.”

Jenny Greenteeth hissed and bared her teeth, reaching for her sword. Finn drew the twin swords from the sheath on his back in one swift, fluid motion. Without even thinking, I drew my knife and turned to see who was coming for us.

“Do you mean the starlings?” I asked, unable to keep from laughing. The sky was full of them, a thousand small birds, swirling in a tightly knit circle of glossy-black wings and ruby-red eyes. “They’re with me.”

Finn looked puzzled and Jenny looked even greener than usual. “Birds are omens of death, Your Lightness,” she said.

“Or rebirth,” Finn added quickly.

“We should not begin this journey when the sky is full of such dark omens.”

I watched the starlings as they flew in a corkscrew holding pattern, clearly waiting for me to get going.

“They used to freak me out too, but I don’t think they’re here to make trouble. They’ve already saved my life twice so far.”

Finn nodded, as if it wasn’t a big deal to be rescued by birds; as if everyone had been at one time or another.

“I try not to pay them too much attention. If you stop looking at them they might just go away.”

“Might?”

“Yeah, they’re kind of on their own schedule.” I started walking again.

We were climbing over the stone wall that separated the carefully kept grounds of my grandfather’s estate from the wild magic of the deep forest when Finn said, “Someone’s coming. It’s not the birds this time.”

I turned to see Matt striding toward us through the last clumps of slushy snow.

“Stay right there,” he called as he drew closer.

Although I seriously considered jumping from the wall and running into the woods, I forced myself to stand there and wait for him—trying to look casual, as if there was nothing strange at all about standing perched on the edge of safety, one foot dangling over the deep forest.

“Hey, Matt. What’s up?”

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. Ignoring Jenny and Finn, he focused on me, pinning me to the spot with eyes that were gray and still. Sadness had stolen all of the color from his irises that were usually a bright and beautiful blue.

“Where do I think I’m going?”

He laughed, but not because he thought I was funny.

“I know you think I’m too fucked up to notice you sneaking away, but Francis left me in charge and no matter how fucked up I might be, I will always do my job.” That was the most he’d said to me, to anyone, in a while.

We all missed Rivers, but what Matt went through in those months following her death was some of the most intense mourning I’d ever witnessed. She was pretty much the only thing he thought about. Loving her. Losing her. He blamed himself for her death, for not protecting her, and for not running away with her when he’d had the chance.

Being near him was painful; his memories of Rivers shouted at me, shrill and hard to watch.

“George warned me you might try something like this. And although I’m not surprised to see you here,” Matt said, pointing at Finn, “I thought you had more sense than this, Jenny.”

“I did not want to go,” she explained, “but the Princess was determined and more than one guard will be needed to keep her safe. And I know the way.”

“Shame on you for forcing Jenny into this, Tab.”

“I didn’t force her. She volunteered,” I protested.  

“The Princess just asked her for directions,” Finn shrugged. “The rest was up to Jenny.”

“So like I said, you bullied her,” Matt concluded.

The truth was probably somewhere in-between, leaning toward bullying.

“Jenny, you know you don’t have to come, right?” I asked. “Finn and I can find our way.”

“Perhaps you could, Lightness. But if you are going to the Underneath, then I am going with you.”

Matt jumped over the old stone wall in one graceful leap. “I’m coming too.”

“Why?” I didn’t think I could afford the distraction of his endlessly broadcasting sadness.

“Because if two guards are good, than three are better.”

The starlings that had been swooping and swirling in the sky above us while we talked now landed in the trees. They looked down, their ruby eyes curious, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Finally,” Jenny said, relieved. “Here he comes.”

“Who? Everyone I know is already here.”

I turned to see Robbin racing toward us. Even from a distance, he looked pissed. He stopped in front of me, bowed, and then leapt over the old stone wall in a single bound that would have impressed Superman himself. “Are we going or what?”

“You’re coming?” Matt asked.

“Not my idea.” He looked at me, all tension and resentment, his mind nothing but complicated black knots. “I’m just the Princess’s tool.”

“You’re a tool all right,” I said, shifting the weight of my pack to my other shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Excerpt 2

Unless you’ve spent the night in a cave in the Underneath, way below the crust of the earth, down where the sun has never touched and never will, you have no idea how cold it is, how wet. In the damp chill of the air, your skin slicks with moisture that freezes and glazes over, crackling like ice. Your bones ache with it. When you blink, your lids snag on tears that have already frozen before they even had a chance to fall from your eyes. Before long, you forget what it feels like to be warm. You begin to doubt that such a thing is even possible.

Even fully clothed in my sleeping bag, my teeth chattered. I didn’t think I’d be able to fall asleep until suddenly, I was lounging in a chair on the most beautiful beach I’d ever seen, on the most perfect, sunny day. I was wearing a red and white polka dot bikini and drinking a pina colada from a hollowed out pineapple.

I was waiting for Alex to come, wondering if making love to him in the surf would be sexy or just sandy, when something passed in front of the sun. I looked up as a thousand starlings became a man. I knew who he was even though I’d never seen him before.

“Behold the prodigal daughter,” King Daniel said as he sat down on the lounger across from me. “Come home at last.”

Even in the dream I could feel the tingle of magic on my palms as the Gift of Light and Air welled up around me, preparing for a fight.

“This isn’t my home,” I said, “and I am not your daughter.”

I could deny it, but proof of who I was, of how I had come to be, was all over the Dark King’s face. Robbin had been right—I looked exactly like him. His hair was like mine, almost black and slightly wavy. We had the same straight nose and pointy chin.

Like all They of the Dark, his eyes were red. My mother’s were blue. Mine are purple. You’re familiar with the color wheel, right? Good. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

“This could be your home,” he answered, “if you chose it.”

The palm trees waved back and forth in a soft breeze that tousled his hair. I caught the familiar smell of strawberry shampoo on the air.

“So I get to choose?” I laughed. “Light or dark? Inbetween or Underneath?”

“Of course.” He had the nerve to look insulted. “I would never try to force you to be anyone other than who you are.”

“You killed my sisters, one by one, to bring me here. What is that, if not force?”

“Regrettable,” he said. “But necessary. And they weren’t really your sisters.”

I felt something hot and sharp growing, glowing, inside of my chest. He watched with interest as my magic swirled around me, bathing me in a golden light. Daniel sat just outside of it, wrapped in the kind of darkness that even the brightest light can’t chase away.

The look on his face was, unmistakably, one of parental pride. I can’t even tell you how much that pissed me off.

I want King Daniel dead, I told the magic. It surged up, ready when I needed it. But instead of pouring over him, it split in two, leaving him on an island of shadow amidst the currents of light. I tried again, and once again the magic rushed forward but went nowhere.

Do this for me now and I’ll start practicing more as soon as I wake up.

Blistering heat and light built up around me. I want King Daniel dead.

That time it hurt him, just a little, I could tell.

“Enough,” he roared. With a wave of his hand, he turned the sunny day to nighttime. There was only a sliver of moon left. Even in its dim light I could see that whatever kindness or fondness he had for me was gone, replaced now with fury. He’d killed people for less than the tweak I’d managed to give him. “Do you know who I am, child? What I could do to you? There are thousands of ways I could tear you apart without moving from this spot.”

“So do it,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “None of this is real anyway.”

“Real is a very subjective concept,” Daniel explained, sounding exasperated. “Let’s not test the bounds of reality on our first meeting.” He reset the sunny afternoon and his pleasant face. He pulled a pair of sunglasses from the pocket of his linen shirt and slipped them on, stretching out in the lounge chair next to mine.

“Why are you here?” I asked when I couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“I wanted us to have a chance to talk in private, so I arranged to visit you somewhere that neither your guard nor mine could get in our way.”

“Nicholas isn’t coming? That’s too bad. I’m looking forward to seeing him again.”

Daniel laughed. “You intend to kill him.”

It wasn’t a question. He was Daniel’s second, his enforcer. He had orchestrated the attack on my mother; and later, the ones that took my sisters from me one by one. Of course I wanted to kill him.

“That’s part of the plan.”

“I will give him to you as a gift if you agree to stay with me. He’ll be yours to do with as you wish.”

“You’ll just give him to me? After he’s been your right-hand for centuries; after he’s killed for you?” I asked. “Where’s the loyalty?”

Daniel smiled—all teeth and menace—revealing a glimpse of the heartless, beautiful monster he really was. “As the humans say, my daughter dear, blood is thicker than water.”

Excerpt 3

The Tree of Stairs stood alone in the clearing, bare to the twilight sky above. It was gnarled and knotted with symbols cut deep into its bark. Its branches stretched out instead of up, reaching toward us, circling the tree like a spiral staircase.

Nicholas, the darkest of the dark elves, had brought me there the night he tried to hand me over to his king. I’d been moments away from being swallowed up by the earth when the starlings—bless their stalker-like devotion—lifted me up and carried me away.

“I told you I could find it,” I said.

“Forgive me for doubting you, Aurora,” Finn replied. “You’re sure about this?”

Every day, whether you know it or not, there are moments—choices—that will decide the shape of your life. This was one of those. I knew it; everyone knew it. Once we came back, if we ever did, none of us would ever be the same. Still, I nodded. “I’m sure.”

Finn grinned. “Whenever you’re ready, Jenny.”

Without complaint, she pulled the knife she wore strapped to her left arm and carved a symbol into the flesh of her palm. She watched while her blood bloomed and pooled there. When there was enough, Jenny pressed her hand against the bark and closed her eyes.

“What’s she doing?” I whispered.

“Only blood magic will open the tree,” Finn explained.

Jenny’s voice was soft and sing-song as she called her magic to come. I didn’t know the words she sang but some part of me, some part I wished I could deny, understood their meaning just the same. She asked the tree to recognize her, to welcome her home, back into the darkness from which she’d come. She asked the earth to open for her, to swallow her, to shield her from glaring light. She offered blood, but promised bone.

Finally, Jenny’s chant ended. For a full minute, which is longer than you’d think, there was no noise; and no movement. We – and the woods and the world beyond our tight little circle had all gone completely quiet.

Then the tree began to groan. It creaked then cracked as a long seam tore down the bright red fault line of Jenny’s blood. The wood shifted and spread until a doorway had opened in its trunk.

“What do you see?” Finn asked, as I leaned in for a closer look.

“A room, but not much else,” I said. “It’s pretty dark.”

I felt a little stir of magic around him a second before a small light flared in his outstretched palm. It floated above his head like his own personal sun, lighting the way as we walked in together.

Finn laughed when I pulled a small flashlight out of my pocket.

“Don’t be a snob,” I said, elbowing him.

The others filed in behind us and called for suns of their own. The light illuminated the walls of the room at the top of the stairs, throwing the intricate pictures  and words and symbols into relief. I touched the carvings with my fingertips, trying to understand the story they told.

“Look at this one,” Finn said, calling me over. “I think it’s about—”

At the very top of the narrow panel a man and a woman wearing a crown were shown riding into an ambush. Other figures, including one with a long braid hanging down his narrow back, hid behind rocks and trees, waiting for them. Further down the panel, the same crowned woman jumped from a tower while another figure waited to catch the baby who was falling with her. A circle of black birds stood around him on the ground. Three men, one with a wheelbarrow, one with a spade, and one with a pick stood off to the side. Two of them were looking up at the falling baby; the other looked down at three girls who were reaching up toward the light as they were swallowed up by the earth. At the very bottom, a king stood beside an empty throne.

“Us,” I said, closing my eyes. “It’s about my family.”

I felt the magic begin to gather, a storm of anger and pain and power swirling around me. I felt it settle and grow, the heat expanding in my chest. When the air was filled with expectation, with the possibility of great and terrible things, I pressed my hands flat against the panel.

Destroy this, I thought. There was a crack, as loud as thunder, and a flash of pure, gold light on my face. When I opened my eyes the panel was split, as if it had been struck by lightning. The image had been burned away.

“Are you all right?” Finn asked in a quiet voice as the others crowded in behind us. I nodded and pulled my knife from its sheath.

“Never better,” I said as I carved my initials into the charred wood.