"Lost Adventures" from THE EVERSTEAM CHRONICLES

An excerpt from Jude's debut novel.

Promo art by Melina Rivera

Penelope walked along the riverwalk through the lacework of shadow and sunlight filtering through the branches. She dragged her feet through the dried leaves covering the ground, inhaling the musty brown smell of them deeply and loving the crunching sound they made. She sighed and remembered playing in the piles of leaves her Baba had raked up just for her.
After her parents died in a hot air balloon accident, her grandfather had cared for her, leaving his days of travel and adventure behind him. He became her whole world at the age of eight. He often spoke of the days after she finished school, how he would take her on the adventures he had so many stories about. She had so longed for those adventures. She still longed for them, but in a distant, untouchable way. She wanted the adventure she knew would never happen, and frankly, she felt, had never existed. She scoffed at the little girl who had an unquenchable interest in stories of magique and time travel, ancient folktales and faerietales, battles won and battles lost.

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