Michelle Krys - Hexed

A sound outside the room stops me short. Footsteps. Laughter. Coming closer.

I suck in a breath and scuttle backward, my back slamming into a shelf. Something clatters to the ground, and the laughter stops.

Holding my breath, I close my eyes tight and clench my shaking hands at my sides. Please don’t come in, please don’t come in.

The door creaks open.

“And what do we have here?” a man says. His words send a chill up my spine.

I force my eyes open. Two figures stand in the doorway, backlit by smoky gray light. A thin-faced man with buzzed hair and too-tight pants, and a generic-looking blond bimbo who clings to his arm.

The man shakes off the girl’s grip and steps into the room. My heart rate accelerates with each step he takes nearer to me. He reaches up over his head and pulls something, and I’m suddenly blinking against the dim light of a single overhead bulb. The man stares at me for way too long, his eyes traversing every inch of me so that I want nothing more than to melt into the shelf and become part of the decor.

“And just what do you think you’re doing here, human ?” the man says, contempt lacing his last word.

The girl steps forward and throws her arms around the guy’s shoulder, assessing me. “She looks young, Bobby.”

Bobby grins. “Old enough.”

This is a nightmare, I decide. Just a horrible nightmare. I close my eyes tight and try to wake up, but when I open them again, they’re still there, sneering at me.

An unwitting sob escapes me.

“Aw, you’ve scared the little girl,” the bimbo says, laughing.

Bobby joins in. “What’s your name, little girl?”

I press my lips together to keep from crying again.

“Come on now, don’t be shy,” Bobby says.

A shadow falls across the room. At first I’m not sure whether the person in the doorway is a man or a woman. The albino-white hair, which matches equally pale skin, is short and slicked back, reminiscent of James Dean’s. The eyes are big, framed by white lashes that are bare of any makeup, and all the other features are so androgynous it could go either way. It’s only the voice that gives her away as a woman.

“What’s going on here?” the woman says.

“Nothing!” Bobby blurts out, and laughs nervously.

“I thought I’d made it abundantly clear that no one was to come into the basement without permission. Was there a problem with my instructions?” She tilts her head very slightly, locking her unblinking eyes on the guy.

I dart my eyes between them, unsure of what’s going on—just that I don’t want to be a part of it.

When he doesn’t respond, she continues. “I hope you weren’t thinking about harming the girl.”

“Of course not, Rowan,” Bobby says quickly. “But, just so I know … why are we not harming her, again? She’s just a human, you know. I can tell.” His laughter peters out when she doesn’t join in.

“Because,” the woman says, stepping into the room, “I have big plans for this girl.”

Dying to find out what happens next?

Check randomhouse.com/teens for all the details on when Michelle Krys’s second HEXED novel will be on sale.

First and foremost, a huge thank-you to my agent Adriann Ranta for helping to make this unlikely dream of mine a reality. I’m so lucky to have her in my corner.

Thank you a thousand times over to my editor, Wendy Loggia, whose sharp eye for detail and expert guidance turned Hexed into the absolute best book it could be. Her insight and enthusiasm know no bounds! Also thank you to Heather Hughes, Colleen Fellingham, Susan Wallach and Alison Kolani for their genius editorial skills; Alison Impey for designing the beautiful jacket; and the entire team at Delacorte Press who read or helped shaped this book. Thank you to Janice Weaver and the team at Doubleday Canada for helping Hexed reach Canadian readers.

Two people deserve an entire book’s worth of thanks. I can’t thank my sister Brandy Allard enough for being my biggest fan and for believing in me from day one. And Ruth Lauren Steven is not just the best critique partner a writer could ever ask for but also my across-the-pond, Internet best friend. (Maybe we can even meet one day?)

An abundance of thank-yous go out to my online friends. Thank you to the people from the Novel, Chapter-by-Chapter group, particularly Amaleen Ison, whose don’t-pull-any-punches critiques made the first thirteen chapters better by a lot. A gigantic thank-you to Amy Tintera for being my go-to girl for insider info on L.A., and to the rest of my friends in Gunning for Awesome: Amy Christine Parker, Kimberly Welchons, Natalie C. Parker, Corinne Duyvis, Gemma Cooper, Lori M. Lee, Stephanie Winkelhake, Deborah Hewitt, and Lacey J. Edwards for always being there for moral support when I needed it the most. Thank you to my blog and Twitter followers for making this whole process fun, especially Paulina W. for her unwavering support and enthusiasm.

Thank you to Amy Fontaine for helping me sort out a huge plot hole over night shift at work, and to Shannon Mancuso, for taking my jacket photo.

Of course, a massive thank-you goes to my close family and friends. My mom, Phylis Kaukanen, and my sister Crystal Couture, thank you for reading the earliest draft of Hexed and claiming it didn’t suck. Barb Hemsworth, thank you for always asking how the writing is going and for reading this book on your honeymoon (and thank you, Cody, for yelling out “More magic!” during our phone calls). Thanks to Laura Dennis and Rebecca Stokaluk for cheering me on along the way.

Finally, thank you to my son for having such incredible sleeping habits that I had time to write a book—I love you to the moooon! And to my husband, Logan, thank you for not laughing at me when I strolled into the living room and announced I was going to write a book. Thank you for the endless support, for the coffee when I could barely keep my eyes open, and for telling everyone you know your wife is a writer.

And last but not least, thank you to the readers. I can’t wait to share what happens next.

Michelle Krys lives with her husband and son in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. She works part-time as a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse and spends her free time writing books for teens. Michelle is probably not a witch, though she did belong to a witchcraft club in the fifth grade and levitated people in her bedroom, so that may be up for debate. Hexed is her first novel. Visit her at michellekrys.com or follow @MichelleKrys on Twitter.