Excerpt from Future Warden Book

If I haven’t brought it up before, I had a lot of fun writing the fourth Warden book. So much so that it’s caused me to take in hand (when time permits) and do work on future books in the series. With that in mind, I thought I share an excerpt form one of those (and as you might guess, the usual caveats apply with respect to typos, etc.):

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“Please help me,” the White Widow pleaded, the misery evident in her voice.

“I’ll think about,” Errol replied, keeping his hand on his Wendigo dagger while making sure he stayed between the Widow and Gale.

“That’s all I ask,” the Widow stated. “Thank you, Warden.” She then turned and retreated back into the woods…into the Badlands.

Errol remained vigilant, standing still and continuing to watch the area where the Widow had disappeared into the underbrush, all his sense on high alert. Almost every monster in the Badlands was dangerous, but the White Widow was in a class by herself. As evidence of this, it was a full five minutes before Errol finally felt comfortable enough to turn his back on the spot where he’d last seen her.

“Come on,” he said to Gale, taking her hand and resuming their journey.

Gale, silent up until that point, finally spoke, asking, “So, are you going to help her?”

“No,” Errol declared flatly as they walked.

“But you said, you’d think about it.”

“I did. And I came to a decision before she even walked away.”

“Come on – you can’t be serious.”

“Oh, yes I can,” Errol countered.

“You can’t be that cold-hearted,” Gale argued. “Someone stole her child, and she’s asking for help to get it back.”

“Let me explain something to you,” Errol said, coming to a halt and looking Gale in the eye. “That wasn’t a woman back there; it was a creature of the Badlands. You’re feeling sympathetic towards her because you see her as a person, but I promise you, she isn’t. She has the ability to mimic human form, but she’s a monster. She eats people. And her children? They’re little monsters who eat people, too.”

He didn’t add that the Widow had, in fact, tried to eat him.

“But it doesn’t mean she doesn’t love her children,” Gale insisted. “And you heard her; someone went into her home and took her child.”

“Ha!” Errol scoffed. “I doubt that. The Widow’s cabin is a charnel house. Anybody who goes in there is not coming out.”

“You did,” Gale reminded him.

Errol didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he just stared at her for a moment, then let out a deep sigh. 

“Look,” he said, “even if I wanted to help, it’s probably not a good idea. The Widow’s not some savage beast like most of the monsters in the Badlands. She’s smart and crafty…full of guile and tricks. Basically, this could all be some kind of trap, because I’m sure she wants revenge.”

“Revenge?” Gale echoed, plainly curious.

“Yeah,” Errol said with a nod. “In case you forgot, I killed two of her children before.”