Cover Reveal – “OPAL’S SONG” by multi-published author, SJ Byrne

Opal’s Song

 

Coming 2013 – Release date to be announced

 

A horrific accident on a rain
slicked mountainside and permanent paralysis from the waist down.

25 year old Lily Wade has to relearn simple, everyday activities just to live a
seemingly normal life.

Opal—a precocious child in her rehabilitation group—teaches Lily about living
joyfully after

surviving an immense tragedy and how
to find peace within the pain.

To keep a promise made, Lily must dust off her once beloved cello and connect
with the music she’s kept locked inside a velvet lined case for nearly a
decade.

 

 

A Teaser

 

The headlights of Darren’s extended
cab Chevy swung from left to right as he took the switch back curves much
faster than normal. Lines of tension formed beside his mouth, and his usually
relaxed hands clutched the black leather steering wheel in a white knuckle
death grip. Something about the way he pumped the brakes wasn’t quite right,
and the momentum of the truck was picking up instead of slowing down. 

 

Lily wanted to ask if everything was
okay, but didn’t dare distract him from what was quickly becoming a dangerous
situation. Deep ingrained reflex made her tug on the strap of her seat belt to
ensure it would hold if the worst case scenario played itself out.

 

She’d ventured East with her
boyfriend to explore and get away from the stifling rules of her parents. They
had come into Western North Carolina via the Blue Ridge Mountains and
immediately fallen in love with the place. Eclectic Asheville stole her heart
with its combination of forward movement and backwards thinking. Only in that
particular valley, surrounded by some of the oldest mountains in the world,
could one community find the wherewithal to support so many varied lifestyle
modalities. From the redneck–hillbilly descendants of the original Scottish
settlers, to the new agers, dirty hippies, and flamboyant gays—Asheville
catered to them all.

 

Lily wanted to share the exuberance
of the area with her family, but suddenly feared the chance to do so would come
at the cost of a glossy wooden box. Tears filled her eyes as she swallowed past
a lump forming in her throat. She didn’t want to die.

 

“Aww, FUCK!”

 

Darren’s barely whispered expletive
caught Lily’s attention as the tail end of the truck swung around. Suddenly
they were facing the way they’d come. On any other day Darren would’ve calmly
turned the wheel until the truck righted itself. For some reason the beast
didn’t respond to his handling. The vehicle continued to spin until something
in the front end snapped, and Lily stared in horror. One of the tires flew away
from the truck, and in that instant she realized what people said was true—in
the moments before death time slows down as the brain processes everything in
minute detail. 

 

Bright headlamps illuminated the
surrounding forest as the front end of the truck crashed down onto the road.
Heavy metal screeching on asphalt filled Lily’s ears only to be replaced with
the sound of trees snapping beneath the force of a full sized pick-up rolling
down the side of a mountain.

 

Up became down, and Lily’s insides
threatened to come out as she was jerked about behind the increasingly tighter
band of her protective belt. If she’d been sitting next to Darren her head
would’ve been spared the repetitive abuse of being tossed against the passenger
window. Lily didn’t want to scream out her fear, but found she had no control
over her vocal cords—her screeches of distress echoed in the confined space
until the imploding windshield drowned her out. Shards from the window flew
towards them, cutting her neck and face as they tumbled around inside the cab.

 

Everything stopped all at once. The
crashing roll of the truck, the cutting of the glass shards, even Lily’s
screams. The Chevy landed on its side with her hanging by her seat belt,
staring down at the unconscious form of her boyfriend. The smell of gasoline
filled the air and Lily felt the spike of adrenaline wash through her nervous
system.

 

“Darren! Darren, wake up!” She
yelled as loud as her constricted lungs would allow behind the crushing force
of the nylon strap. “Darren, we have to get out of this truck!”

 

Darren remained unconscious, and
Lily refused to give into the blind panic threatening to take over. Breathing
deep she quickly surveyed her position and the quickest escape route. The
windshield had completely shattered, making that the only way out of the
wreckage as the door above her wouldn’t budge when she tried pushing it open.
Grabbing hold of the oh-shit handle, she pulled the weight of her body off the
belt and pushed the release button. Blinding heat zipped through her body as
she crashed face first against Darren’s side and was knocked out cold by the
force of their skulls connecting.

 

****

 

Something wet trickled down the side
of her face just before an excruciating pain exploded behind her eyes, and Lily
knew she was about to have the mother of all migraines. She thought to press
the heels of both hands against her throbbing eye sockets, but found her body
remained motionless against the command. A soft moan beneath her was worrying,
though she couldn’t think why. The muscle of her shoulder flexed involuntarily
and a jolt of pain flashed down her spine, stopping abruptly in her hips. A
deep breath meant to calm her frantic thoughts brought more pain and then the
blessed blackness.

 

****

 

“Hang in there little lady. We’ve
almost got you out.”

 

Lily whimpered as a sudden shock of
agony rippled through her arms and torso, but the sound of someone talking
eased her anxiety. She wasn’t alone—thank god. The voice became a life line she
clung to with her mind until sweet oblivion pulled her back into its warm
embrace.

 

****

 

“They rolled down the side of Mount
Pisgah. From what I can gather she was pinned in place by her seat belt, until
she managed to undo it and then fell against his side.”

 

The conversation felt a million
miles away. Surely they weren’t talking about her. Before she could give it
another thought, the air was filled with excited chatter and frantic movements.
She wanted to open her eyes and see what was going on, but her lids were too
heavy to lift. Moving the muscles of her body required a strength she didn’t
possess and fear flooded her thoughts as she cried out in frustration. The air
she pulled through her nose tasted strange on the back of her tongue. Oblivion
stretched out its arms and Lily went into them without a fight.

 

 

Find out more about Opal’s Song and it’s release 

 

by visiting SJ Byrne or Opal’s Song on Facebook

 

 

A portion
of all proceeds from Opal’s
Song will be donated 

to help
children with disabilities…more information forthcoming.