#maya agrawal

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

“What were the two of you planning to do with this anyway?” he asks Maya and Alex now, hefting the evidence bag into the air in an attempt to divert his thoughts away from that hellish meeting.   The couple exchanges an unreadable look before Maya gives a shrug that seems almost too casual. “It was my intention to scry with it,” she says cheerfully, grin widening as Shayne nearly chokes on his own tongue in surprise.  “Scry with it,” he repeats incredulously. “Are you kidding me?” “Nope,” she replies, eyes sparkling.   Shayne waits for her to elaborate, but apparently that’s as much as he’s going to get out of her on that particular subject. He decides to retreat back to more stable conversational ground. “You didn’t contaminate the evidence at all, did you?” Maya wrinkles her nose in an expression that shouldn’t be nearly as attractive as it is. “Of course not,” she replies. “We’re not amateurs.” There are several things Shayne considers saying in response, but he discards them all in favor of a very neutral, “Okay.”

Arise, Chapter 4 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

Maya pops her head up from behind the orange juice machine she’s using as cover and then immediately regrets it when she takes a head of red leaf lettuce to the face. A chorus of hysterical giggles erupts from the other side of the supermarket’s produce department, underscored by a triumphant feline yowl. “Okay,” she says, exasperated. “Right. That’s about enough of that, I think.” She sketches a sigil in the air and summons a small shield bubble right as a napa cabbage comes sailing towards her; the cabbage crashes into the magical forcefield with a sad sound that’s somewhere between a crunch and a squish, and flops to the floor. “Haruna,” she says now, “I’m going to count to ten. If you are still flinging vegetables around when I get to the end of my count, I am going to spell you into the air, dangle you upside down, and tie your tails into bowline knots. Understand?” “Don’t listen to her, Runa, she’s just bluffing,” one of Haruna’s friends hisses.  “I’m really not,” Maya assures them, and uses a spark of magic to levitate a trio of cantaloupes and set them dancing midair as if juggled by a phantom performer. “So, what’ll it be, kids?” 

Arise,  Chapter 10 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

Silence is the only thing that greets her at first, but right as she’s about to stand back up a long slender arm shoots out of the water, strong fingers wrapping around her wrist in an iron grip. Instinct makes Maya’s heart lurch in her chest, alarm spiking, but experience has her taking a deep breath, shifting her balance so that she remains planted firmly on the ground even when the hand clutching at her gives a savage yank in an attempt to topple her into the water. “I’m not really in the mood for a drowning today,” she remarks, keeping her tone light but firm, so that the nøkk beneath the surface of the water knows that she’s not intimidated. The grip around her wrist tightens briefly, then releases completely, long fingers uncurling as Halvar reveals himself completely. As his head and upper body breach the surface, Maya can’t help but notice that the nøkk looks largely the same as the last time she’d seen him three years ago: pale gray-blue skin and long hair the color of eelgrass, with bright silvery eyes that glow like a full moon on a cloudless night. “Fire-witch,” Halvar says by way of greeting, voice rippling like a stream cascading over rocks. “What brings you here?”

Arise, Chapter 11 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

“What do you think?” Alexander asks as Maya mutes the television at the end of the news conference. “Ghouls?” Maya gives a low hum, tugging absently at the hamsa pendant hanging from her neck. “It could be, I guess,” she acknowledges. “But you know as well as I do that ghouls these days favor dead flesh; it’s not like them to go for fresh meat, much less kill for it. A ghoul with a preference for living flesh would be a very old one indeed.” “True,” Alexander agrees. “And given where Sinclair’s body was found…it doesn’t really add up, does it? Contemporary ghouls would be more likely to strike San Carlos Cemetery, dig up some of the bodies there. Chasing down a jogger isn’t really typical behavior.” “No,” Maya says with a sigh. “It’s not. Which leaves us with one very important question: if not ghouls, what is doing this?” “I don’t know,” Alexander replies. “But we’ll find out.”

Arise, Chapter 2 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

Character Moodboard for Mayawati Agrawal, one of the main characters from my urban fantasy novel, Arise, which is the first in the Triumvirate of Monterey series.

Mayawati "Maya" Agrawal: a Gujarati witch who specializes in elemental magic and divination. Owner/operator of Arcane Investigations, a small shop that specializes in the arcane. Married to Alex Drake. 

[pyotra]

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