Tuesday Teaser

It’s release week! Can’t believe it’s here already and I’m super excited to have the book finally out. Here is today’s final teaser to whet your appetite!

If you want to learn more about the book, I’m blogging over at The Romance Studio today! Click here.

There’s also an except posted here!

EXCERPT:

His pupils expanded and his eyes turned black, a shadow of rage creasing his features and changing him from handsome to frightening. Her hand landed on her dagger as she whipped it out as quickly as he gave the signal to his men to charge her. She flung the dagger at the first one on her left. It hit him square in the chest. He staggered backward, his hand clasping around the hilt.

The other three had drawn their swords but she was much faster than they could even hope to be. It was something she had taught herself over the years—a way to control her magic and fuel her body with it. She had discovered, quite by accident, she could speed up her movements which certainly came in handy when faced by three royal guards who meant business.

In a second, she had the bow in her hand and an arrow nocked against it. She fired the first round then reloaded. She killed the third guard. One more and the fourth one was dead at her feet. She nocked another arrow and this time pointed it at Niall, holding the string taut.

Niall hadn’t even moved from his position.

He stood ten feet from her, rigid and at attention and a gamine grin on his face. He applauded slowly, clapping his hands together in mock appreciation. Yet she could see a hint of alarm flicker across his features.

“Impressive, my dear. Wherever did you learn that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She couldn’t keep the snappish tone out of her voice.

She had learned much in the years since leaving Faery. She had taught herself the ways of magic, the magic Deaglan, may he rest in peace, had begun to teach her. She wondered how powerful she would be had he continued to teach her.

“I would, actually.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Put down the bow and arrow, dearie, will you?”

The rage storming through her caught her by surprise.

“Don’t ever call me that again.” Deaglan had called her that. Niall wasn’t fit to use the same term of endearment. “You will return to your tower and leave me be.”

“Will I?” A pale brow quirked upward toward his hairline.

“Aye, you will.” She’d yet to lower the bow.

“Wherever you’re headed, I will find you. We have unfinished business, you and I,” he said.

“I agree we have unfinished business. But not here.” Not in this time anyway. She didn’t want to give away where she intended to go.

“Then where?”

She didn’t have an answer. She didn’t want to answer. She remained where she was, weapon at the ready and pointing at his heart. Her muscles started to quake and she knew she couldn’t keep up the façade much longer. One of them had to relent. But, by the gods, it would not be her first.

Niall dropped his hands and walked toward her. She couldn’t help but notice he still walked with that catlike grace.

“Stop,” she growled and pulled the arrow tighter.

“You won’t hurt me, Fiona. You can’t hurt me.”

“I mean it. Stop.”

He was in front of her now, at the end of her arrow. Daring her. “Go ahead. Shoot me. Put me out of my misery because I am tired of feeling as though my heart is missing.”

Ouch. She hadn’t expected that at all. What was he saying? That he missed her? That he truly loved her? She didn’t believe him. She couldn’t believe him. He was nothing to her. He was her enemy and he had to be destroyed.

She hadn’t even realized she had tears in her eyes when she lowered the weapon, releasing the arrow and holding it at her side. Niall moved closer, standing only a breath away from her. His eyes lowered, his lips parted, his breathing was irregular. For a wild moment she was certain he intended to kiss her.

He could kill her as easily. He could grab her, throw her to the ground and do to her what Cian did. When his hand came up toward her face, she flinched, jerked back. Confusion creased his brow as she quickly stepped away.

“Don’t touch me.” Her words were an icy whisper.

His eyes blazed with fire, regret, anger. “I didn’t know how I would feel when I saw you again, Fiona. I didn’t expect to want you again. I wanted you to suffer for leaving me. For making me search for you all these long years.”

Her heart rammed against her breastbone, a sudden burn of more tears in the backs of her eyes. By the gods, Deaglan had been right. Niall was in love with her yet he was still unable to say the words, for whatever reason. He turned and walked away, still with that fluid elegance. Anxiety spurted through her as she watched him walking away from her in defeat.

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Time for another Tuesday Teaser! And this one happens to be one of my favorite parts of the book. All her life, Aoife has been forbidden to go into the attic. It was her mother’s sacred place and no one was allowed up there. But now, something strange calls to Aoife and she finds she cannot resist the pull.

 In the Age of Wizards, Time is a commodity more valuable than gold.

When Aoife (EE-fa) stumbles upon an antique trunk in the attic, it calls to her with an ancient magic. Inside she finds a stairway leading into darkness and cannot resist stepping onto that first stair. It leads her to dark truths her mother never wanted her to uncover and love so powerful she walks through time to save it.

EXCERPT:

She halted mid-reach, gasping for breath and shoving back against the wall. She couldn’t. She’d been forbidden her entire life to go into the attic. Her mother made that painfully clear. She was not allowed and neither was Sunnie.

So why then did she have the uncontrollable urge to pull down the attic stairs and go up?

Do it, Aoife. Go up into the attic.

The voice whispered inside her skull. She had no idea whose voice it was. She didn’t think it was her own. She was compelled to open the attic and take that first upward step.

So she did. With her heart pounding in her throat, she ascended and paused in the darkness listening to her ragged breathing. She stood on forbidden ground.

Now what?

The trunk.

Again that voice. She scanned the darkened room, only barely able to make out shapes. There were the holiday decorations on one side. An old desk on another. She headed for the desk.

The trunk. The trunk.

She pressed her palm against the side of her head and rubbed. She was hearing things.

The desk was coated in a thick layer of dust that had been disturbed not so long ago. There were several cubbies with papers sticking out of them in a chaotic and untidy way and two books that had finger and handprints left behind in the dust.

“Hidden Dimensions and Fae Time Travel,” she read aloud.

She picked up the second book, A Hypothesis of Fae Magic in Other Realms, and flipped through it. She understood none of it as it was written in a language she couldn’t comprehend. She dropped the book and reached for one of the scrolls when her fingers brushed one that felt different than paper. Curious, she pulled it out and untied the faded red ribbon, letting it roll open. Despite the flawless handwriting, the words were of a language she couldn’t understand. Except for the two words in English scrawled across the top.

“Eradication spell?”

She dropped the scroll and shoved it away as something dark gripped her. Like she’d touched something forbidden or evil.

With her heart pattering a quick beat, she reached for another scroll. The parchment fell open on the desk revealing a drawing of an ancient map. The ink had faded. When she peered at it closer she couldn’t make out the words, which were in the same language as the book. Something flowery with lots of squiggles and she had no idea what it said. A small compass was drawn in the lower left hand corner with north pointing to the right.

Aoife reached for a second piece of paper. It had been folded and looked as though it was a page that had been ripped out of a book. Again, the language was strange. Like nothing she’d ever seen before. As she stared at the faded ink, the words and letters re-arranged and morphed into words she could read.

A wizard of both Fae and Wizard blood will come into power and rule from a silver throne.

“A wizard of both Fae and Wizard blood…?” Her voice was quiet in the darkness.

Something behind her glowed. She dropped the paper and turned to see a symbol on the top of the trunk had lit up, like a beacon in the darkness.

The trunk. The trunk. The trunk.

It called to her. She was certain she had heard her name coming from it. In a fog, she walked toward it and dropped to her knees. It was an old steamer trunk. She had never seen it before in the house. Where did it come from? Was it her mother’s?

The glowing symbol on the top was an intricate Celtic knotwork circle with a sword through it. The light pulsed, beckoning her.

The trunk, Aoife.

“Yes,” she heard herself say. “The trunk. Of course.”

Her fingers brushed over the Celtic knotwork and suddenly the interior illuminated. Light pushed out around the lid. She gasped and opened it. When the blinding light faded, there in the trunk was a stone staircase leading down into darkness.

“What the heck…?”

Downstairs, she heard a door slam and then Sean’s voice. “Aoife? Are you here?”

Step into the trunk, Aoife.

“Yes, I must.”

She stood and stepped onto the first stone step. Her racing heart thumped a wild beat and the next thing she knew she was on the second step. Then the third.

“Aoife, wait!”

Glancing up, Sean appeared at the top of the attic stairs. She sucked in a sharp breath, grasped the lid and slammed it closed above her head. She was instantly plunged into total darkness and hunched down on the step, waiting for Sean to open the lid and come after her. She heard nothing. No sounds above.

Panic seized her. She reached above and her hand brushed against smooth, cool stone. She pushed and pushed and pushed but the stone would not give. She flattened her trembling hands against where she thought the lid was but again met cold stone instead of smooth wood. The lid had disappeared. Where did it go?

A cold tingling sensation went through her as she realized she was trapped. Gasping for air, she banged the side of her hand against the stone until it hurt, shouting Sean’s name as hot tears stung her eyes. Her voice bounced off the stone walls around her, echoing through the shadows. It was useless. He couldn’t hear her. Sean didn’t follow her because Sean couldn’t follow her. She was trapped.

There was no going back and there was no way she could get out. Her only option was to go down. With her pulse racing, she descended into the shadows.

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Today’s Tuesday Teaser is another snippet from Wizard King. We’re getting closer to release day and I couldn’t be more excited. You can preorder now at one of the links below.

EXCERPT:

In the Land of Faery Past

“’Tis your wedding day, milady!”

The high-pitched exclamation from Lady Fiona’s handmaiden echoed off the stone walls. Thank the gods for the tapestries to absorb the banshee’s shriek. Fiona pressed two fingers against her temple and rubbed at the headache forming. She hadn’t yet managed to get out of bed but she knew the servants had been coming and going since before dawn.

Aye, indeed it was her wedding day. A day she had long been prepared for since she was but a girl. At age six, she was betrothed to the young prince, Cian, heir to the throne of Anatolia. She’d first met the prince on her ninth birthday, which her parents’ thought was the perfect gift. Fiona wanted a pony or a unicorn. Even a dragon would be a better gift than a stupid boy.

Winnie shoved back the bed curtains letting the bright morning light burst inside Fiona’s cocoon. The girl had opened every window covering to allow the sunbeams to slash across the floor. Fiona had to shield her eyes and blink back the sudden tears from the brilliance.

“’Tis no time for a lie in, my lady. We have to get you dressed and ready!”

The girl pulled back the coverlet and Fiona groaned. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go to Lambridge Castle, the Anatolia royal family home. Cian was likeable in an unassuming sort of way. She liked him. He liked her.

But there had to be more to life than being someone’s wife, even if she would be queen someday. There had to be passion and fire and intensity and…and…something more. She wanted adventure, not marriage to a boring prince. Mayhap that was other girls’ dreams, but it wasn’t hers.

She threw her arm across her eyes to shield them from the morning glare but Winnie was relentless.

“Come on, now.” She pulled at her wrist, trying to force her to get up. “We have to get you in the bath.”

Fiona groaned her reluctance. She was about to tell the girl to piss off—a most unladylike phrase—when the door to her chamber banged open. A rustle of skirts immediately followed and she knew she was in deep trouble. Fiona bolted upright as her mother came striding in, her cobalt silk and taffeta skirts swishing about her and her constant entourage following her. She halted near the bed, fists on hips.

“You’re still abed? You lazy, good for nothing girl. Get up. Get up now.”

Fiona was out of the sheets as fast as she could move and hustling across the bedchamber to her waiting bath. Her mother barked orders to everyone else to get Fiona packed and ready for her wedding. The wedding gown had been specially made with layers of beautiful Anatolian lace over a supple silk material that hugged her every curve.

While Fiona was in the bath getting her hair washed, her mother trotted over and perched on the edge. She looked over Fiona’s naked body with a critical eye.

“You’ve been at the lemon cakes again, haven’t you?”

“No, Mother,” Fiona said.

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We are T-Minus 4 weeks until release of Wizard King. I’m so stinking excited! You are going to love this book. There’s time travel, romance, action, adventure, wizards, bad guys, magic, ROMANCE! WIZARDS! Here’s a little tagline/blurb.

In the Age of Wizards, Time is a commodity more valuable than gold.

When Aoife (EE-fa) stumbles upon an antique trunk in the attic, it calls to her with an ancient magic. Inside she finds a stairway leading into darkness and cannot resist stepping onto that first stair. It leads her to dark truths her mother never wanted her to uncover and love so powerful she walks through time to save it.

To kick off this month’s Tuesday Teaser posts, here are the opening lines of Wizard King. It’s releasing September 1 but buy links are at the bottom of the page to pre-order!

EXCERPT:

Present Day in the Human Realm

An incessant buzzing pulled Aoife Burke out of a dreamy, heavenly sleep. Her hand fumbled on the nightstand trying to silence the thing when a pillow crashed against her face, jarring her from half-asleep to fully awake.

“Make that phone stop already,” her dorm roommate growled. “It’s been going crazy for the last ten minutes.”

Still groggy and trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes, Aoife dropped the pillow to the floor and yanked the cell phone off the charger as it stopped buzzing. When the small screen lit up, she had four missed calls. All from her mother.

Her mother never called her, so to have four missed calls meant something terrible had happened.

She snapped to a sitting position, her fingers fumbling on the screen as she tried to get to the missed calls screen when it started to buzz again. She swiped the screen and answered.

“Mom?”

“Aoife, there you are at last. I’ve called to let you know that your father passed away.” Fiona’s even tone held no emotion whatsoever.

Aoife blinked, a sudden sickness piercing through her gut as her hand tightened on the phone. She hiccupped a breath and forced her mind to remember to inhale, exhale. “What do you mean he passed away? He’s dead?”

Instant regret and guilt poured through her. She’d skipped going home for Christmas three months prior because she couldn’t stand the thought of her mother giving her a frosty reception. When Aoife turned thirteen, her relationship with Fiona underwent a drastic change, something Aoife had never understood.

“Yes, I’m sorry. He’s gone.” Aoife detected a soft quiver in Fiona’s voice as she answered.

Her parents’ marriage had been rocky for a while too, but Aoife naively thought despite all that, they would always be together. Tears pooled in Aoife’s eyes as she clutched the phone and gulped in air, desperate for breath. Her roommate, Jenna, moved to perch on the edge of the bed, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry to have to break the news to you this way, but there’s no time, really.” Fiona sniffed so quiet Aoife almost missed it. “Your sister is in Shanghai filming a movie but I called to let her know. I thought you needed to know, too.”

“Mom, wait—”

“I have to go before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what? Mom!”

But the line went dead.

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