Jealousy of Jalice Blog Tour

The Jealousy of Jalice
Jesse Nolan Bailey
(A Disaster of Dokojin #1)
Publication date: May 19th 2020
Genres: Adult, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy

The Realms have split apart, the Stones of Elation have been hidden, and warnings of dokojin drift among the tribes.

The land and its people are corrupted. The Sachem, chief of the Unified Tribes, is to blame.

It is this conviction that drives Annilasia and Delilee to risk their lives. Afraid of the aether magic he wields, they enact a subtler scheme: kidnap his wife. In her place, Delilee will pretend to be the chieftess and spy on the Sachem.

Unaware of this plot against her husband, Jalice is whisked away by Annilasia. Pleading with her captor proves futile, and she rejects Annilasia’s delusional accusations against the chief. After all, the Sachem has brought peace to the land.

Yet a dangerous truth hides in Jalice’s past. As she and Annilasia flee through a forest of insidious threats, they must confront the evil plaguing the tribes and the events that unleashed it.

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Excerpt:

The entry room was empty. Of that, Annilasia was certain. She turned her attention to the rooms beyond, cast in darkness and untouched by the daylight that seeped in from the open door above. Dread slithered through her, an unusual fear taking grip of her mind. 

Something didn’t feel right. Her hands tightened around her sword as they trembled. She wasn’t alone in the bunker. Certainty of an attack pervaded her. 

A moment, weighed by anxious anticipation, dragged on with no outcome. Annilasia berated herself for the unprecedented fear of the dark. She was a tillishu—nothing posed a threat to her. 

She licked her lips and determined to move towards the darkness—but her feet remained fixed in place. Paralysis overtook her muscles and kept her rooted, like a statue cursed to its post. The only movement condoned were her shaking hands, and the sword bobbed in the air as a result. 

There was something in the darkness. It dripped of death and violence, two elements permeating the bunker’s space. Whatever it was, it wanted her. Needed her.

Violent images molested Annilasia’s mind: torn skin, contorted limbs, flayed bodies that thrashed under endless torture. New screams erupted in her ears, but these cries differed drastically from those before. The voices from earlier had sounded familiar, like Jalice. The sounds assaulting Annilasia now belonged to victims she’d never met. 

Primitive instinct seized her. She dropped her sword—an act she’d never done under duress—and bolted for the supplies. The trembling became uncontrollable, hindering her as she stuffed items into one of the discarded satchels. She had to get out of there. 

She risked a glance towards the darkness, a mistake she couldn’t undo. Two large eyes stared back at her. They bulged wide in an unblinking gaze, with crazed terror scratching within. 

At first, they appeared alone at the edge of the darkness—lidless eyes trapped in a locked witness of horror. Slowly, a set of lips appeared beneath them. Gashed and split, they flashed open to generate a screech unlike anything Annilasia had endured. It was a sound of inhuman proportion, warped in a pain instilled by endless torment. Chipped yellow teeth lined the inside, joined by a slithering tongue that oozed with blood. 

Annilasia quivered and fell to the floor. She scrambled back on her heels and palms, unable to break her gaze from the nightmarish anomaly. Even as she moved away, the bloodied lips and lidless eyes shot forward towards her. 

Her heart stopped at the absence of a body. The organs were disembodied and forsaken by a host. Upon reaching her, they bobbed in the air, mere inches above her face. 

A warm breath clogged her nostrils with a putrid stench as the lips persisted in an incessant shriek. The eyes followed the drift of her gaze with frenzied jerks through the air. Annilasia whimpered, desperate to escape the terrorized stare, but to no avail. 

She had never screamed in her life. She wouldn’t dignify life’s curses with her whimpers. But what confronted her now was unlike any trauma she’d experienced. When her back pressed against the wall, horrible realization choked her bravery. She couldn’t avoid the agonizing eyes, or silence the curdling wails. 

Annilasia screamed. The sound burned in her lungs and scourged her throat, extinguishing every other emotion and any thought.

Author Bio:

Enthralled by the magic that written stories contain, Jesse Nolan Bailey has always wanted to be an author. With his debut novel finally released to the masses, he can now claim such title with relief. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, where he has embraced the equally-gratifying lifework of hosting a trio of spoiled cats.

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