Excerpt & Giveaway: TIGEREYE by Mara Harrison

And another in the string of pre-Austen in August giveaways... Today I have author Mara Harrison's Tigereye; check out the excerpt below, and then enter to win a copy for yourself!

Scarlett careened, tumbling downward faster and faster, she ricocheted off of the smooth banks of plate glass that were set at odd angles along the building front. Each glancing blow set her onto a different path, bouncing, falling, gaining speed. Thin metal poles jutting out from the building whipped her arms and legs as she flailed past and grabbed for them desperately.

She was dizzy, black spots exploded in her vision. The crash had to come soon. Scarlett squeezed her eyes shut. Hopefully, she passed out before she hit. It would have to be painful to break every single bone in your body when you slammed into concrete at whatever speed she was going. Static exploded in her ear and brought her back to awareness. A frantic voice pierced through the haze.

“Tigereye! I’m coming for you. Try to slow down your descent. Flatten yourself out.“

Noah?…Noah! flatten myself out.

Scarlett moved without thinking, followed Noah's instructions and pulled her legs up and her arms in. Then with all of her strength, she thrust them out so that she was as flat as possible.

She slowed down. Not much, but a tiny bit. Hopefully it was enough. The strain on her muscles was almost more than she could maintain and she knew she couldn’t hold the position very long.

Hurry Noah!

Just when she thought she couldn’t last even one more second, a black bolt streamed past her and then pulled a cord, opening a small parachute. The parachute slowed him down and as she raced past, he reached and grabbed her. Scarlett's arm wrenched painfully, and she cried out, sure that it was at least halfway ripped from the socket. She bounced up as she and Noah slowed to a fast drift. Her shoulder felt like it was dislocated, she was bruised, sore, and her head was ringing. But she was safe. Of course, she was safe. Noah had her.

“Hold on to me. I need my hands.”

Silence followed as Noah frantically adjusted some straps. They were moving quickly. Too quickly. It was better than her fall, but the ground still careened toward them at an alarming pace.

“Damn it! We weigh too much together for this chute. We're gonna hit hard. Be ready to roll.”

Scarlett held on to Noah's straps tight, eyes on the ground. She had no idea how to roll, how to catch herself in a fall. She was screwed.

"Loosen your knees. Let the momentum roll you over."

Wait, the angry girl was helping her?

"Of course, I am. I don't want you to break my legs."

Her legs? Scarlett didn't have time to think about the meaning behind that.

Noah pulled on the ropes. He guided their decent until they drifted away from the side of the building and close to a grassy park nearby. Grass was better. She could do grass.

Loose legs. Roll.

Scarlett opened her eyes and looked down. The ground grew closer and closer. She had to be ready.

“Ok. Here it comes,” she whispered to herself.

She braced her legs instinctively, then forced them to relax. Scarlett’s heart pounded in her chest so hard that she could hear it above the roar of the air streaming past her ears, feel it beating its way up to her throat. Her lungs tried to hyperventilate but couldn’t quite get enough air to manage that.

“Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.” She squeezed her eyes shut.

They hit the ground hard, harder than she'd expected, jarring every bone in her body. It hurt like the devil but she tried to do what she'd been told. Relax and roll. She let go of Noah and skidded along the ground, gathering damp chunks of mud, rocks, and wet grass until she came to an awkward and painful stop. Her skin felt like it had been scraped in a thousand different places. But she was alive.

A few feet away, Noah sat up and detached from the parachute with the click of a few quick release buckles. They both slowly stood, and Scarlett took a few tentative steps, barely certain she could even walk at all. Her legs were shaking, jellyish. It was hard to stand still and not sway back to the ground.

“Are you all right? Is anything broken?”

Scarlett shook her head.

Nothing's broken. I'm not alright.

****GIVEAWAY****
One lucky winner will receive an ebook of Tigereye by Mara Harrison. Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter. Ends August 10th at 12am EST. Good luck!!
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ABOUT THE BOOK:

Scarlett is being hunted — by the agency, the man in the blue car, the angry girl inside her own head. She doesn't know what they want from her…or why she keeps waking up in somebody else's life, masquerading as a spy. Code name: Tigereye


Scarlett Fitzgerald's normal teenage life is wrenched apart when she wrecks her car only weeks before graduation. Everyone assures her she's fine, but they're wrong. They have to be, because ever since the accident strange things have started to happen. It only takes a few days for Scarlett to realize she's being followed. The man in the blue car is getting closer and he won't leave her alone. But she'll take the creepy man in the car any day over the scary feeling that someone else is trying to control her body, or the memories of a surgery that everyone insists she never had. And then there are the dreams — vivid, scary, so real that she wakes up in the morning bruised and sore like she's been awake the entire time, fighting, falling, running for her life. Scarlett is plunged into a mystery that keeps growing every time she turns over a new rock. And when she finally gets to the truth, she realizes that nothing in her life is how she thought it was. Especially herself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mara Harrison has always been a writer. Since she was a kid she's been scribbling stories in notebooks. Romance, fantasy, sci-fi — she's tried them all. Other than a passion for great books, she loves music of all sorts, travel, art, dancing, cooking and of course collecting shoes!

You can find Mara at her blog/website | twitter

Contact Mara at Maraharrisonwrites@gmail.com