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taste_is_sweetBlood for Magic will be released on November 23 and is available for pre-order at Dreamspinner Press. It's on sale right now too. :D
Blood for Magic will be released on November 23 and is available for pre-order at Dreamspinner Press. It's on sale right now too. :D
Here's a short excerpt from the first chapter. You can read a much longer one via the link above.
The monster slid off the haldur and flopped onto his back on the highway, turned his head, and spat a gob of bloody flesh out of his mouth. His arm was trapped beneath the haldur, but he dragged it free while Tarquin was trying to decide if he should help or run.
The creature—man? Was it a man?—sat up slowly, holding his side, then carefully gathered his legs under him and stood, squinting in the light.
He and Tarquin stared at each other.
The silvery man-creature monster-thing really didn’t look much like a haldur, Tarquin decided numbly. His skin was far more pebbled than the leathery haldur hide, and far too pale, though it was hard to tell its true color under the rime of filth that covered him. The creature’s hair was pure black, which might have been yet more dirt. He wore a too-long robe that looked like he’d found it in a ditch, and now that Tarquin had time and air to notice, the monster stank like an unwashed dog. His features seemed pleasant enough and definitely humanlike, but thin and sallow and just as grubby as the rest of him. His eyes had the same attractive slant of any person from the far north, but with narrow pupils like a cat. Instead of the northern deep brown, they were bright yellow, like a wyvern’s.
This skinny, filthy creature hardly looked like the deadly brute the villagers had described, and he certainly hadn’t ripped off the poor firu girl’s wings. And he’d saved Tarquin’s life and been wounded for his kindness, and he was probably colder than Tarquin was, considering how he shivered in his flimsy robe and bare clawed feet.
One of them really needed to say something.
“Thank you,” Tarquin said, because that seemed the best way to start, given the circumstances.
Blood for Magic will be released on November 23 and is available for pre-order at Dreamspinner Press. It's on sale right now too. :D
Here's a short excerpt from the first chapter. You can read a much longer one via the link above.
The monster slid off the haldur and flopped onto his back on the highway, turned his head, and spat a gob of bloody flesh out of his mouth. His arm was trapped beneath the haldur, but he dragged it free while Tarquin was trying to decide if he should help or run.
The creature—man? Was it a man?—sat up slowly, holding his side, then carefully gathered his legs under him and stood, squinting in the light.
He and Tarquin stared at each other.
The silvery man-creature monster-thing really didn’t look much like a haldur, Tarquin decided numbly. His skin was far more pebbled than the leathery haldur hide, and far too pale, though it was hard to tell its true color under the rime of filth that covered him. The creature’s hair was pure black, which might have been yet more dirt. He wore a too-long robe that looked like he’d found it in a ditch, and now that Tarquin had time and air to notice, the monster stank like an unwashed dog. His features seemed pleasant enough and definitely humanlike, but thin and sallow and just as grubby as the rest of him. His eyes had the same attractive slant of any person from the far north, but with narrow pupils like a cat. Instead of the northern deep brown, they were bright yellow, like a wyvern’s.
This skinny, filthy creature hardly looked like the deadly brute the villagers had described, and he certainly hadn’t ripped off the poor firu girl’s wings. And he’d saved Tarquin’s life and been wounded for his kindness, and he was probably colder than Tarquin was, considering how he shivered in his flimsy robe and bare clawed feet.
One of them really needed to say something.
“Thank you,” Tarquin said, because that seemed the best way to start, given the circumstances.
