Last day of June? Say it isn't so! Back in April I made a "Coming Soon" announcement for a Prequel to my Guardian Angel Series. As with most writing projects, I had an optimistic view of "soon." It's taken a tad longer than I anticipated, but I'm happy to say it will be out in early July. Update: The ebook of The Castle: Prequel to the Guardian Angel Series is available for free here at Smashwords, with others locations to follow. Hope you enjoy!
Here is the blurb and a short excerpt follows:
Immortals tend to think they know a little more...make that a lot more...than anyone else. Married to one of the immortal High Council members, Heather knows more than most it's hard to tell immortals they have a bad idea. She'd already tried and failed to stop the High Council's locket collection idea. Now, on the eve of the Grand Opening of the Guardians' new school, she and her fellow time traveling Guardians search for the children who, without a locket to guide them back, find themselves lost when they accidentally teleport into the world. Could the day get any worse?
It does. A betrayal and a sinister plan involving the lockets unfolds to fracture her world. Heather, with a sole surviving locket, suddenly holds the fate of the Guardians, and even the life of her immortal husband, in her hands. Under constant watch by a power-hungry wizard who has decided to create a new Order of Guardians at the Castle, it is a dangerous game she must play to outsmart him. But with each choice more impossible than the last, and promises made that can't be kept, it seems the only choice left is to make her escape.
Starting over, she fears, is asking too much while a past waits unfinished. A world of magic can't be left behind and eventually Heather must make the hardest choice of all.
***
Excerpt:
Eric pulled her close,
wrapping his arms around her. His breath
stirred against her temples. “I saw sketches in Thaddeus’ journals,
Heather. Not just of the experiments,
but of you.”
She trembled and his
arms tightened.
“Has he…?”
“No! Nothing has happened. I swear, nothing has happened.” Nothing she couldn’t recover from, that is, once
this was over. He held her so tight, as
if he’d never let her go. What could she
say? That his brother sought to take his
place? She hated that Thaddeus had been
right, in his own way, when he’d been so certain she wouldn’t tell Eric what
he’d done. He’d thought he’d separated
them forever. Only now she still had to keep
silent while in her husband’s arms.
“I want you to stay.”
It was hard to refuse
him when he didn’t frame his preference as an order. She wanted to stay too, right here where his
heart beat strong against her ear.
“I can’t. Not yet.”
He set her back from
him a step.
“Why take the risk? Have you thought about if your locket is discovered
and taken away? What will that mean for
all our plans?”
“I’m being careful to
keep it out of sight. You notice I’m not
wearing it around my neck?”
“What did you do with
it? Stuff it in your pocket?”
“Better. I added another chain to it and made it long
enough to wear around my waist.”
“Clever.” He laid his hand against her stomach. “Trust you to find a way to protect it.”
If he only knew. She covered his hand with hers, glad for the
dim light as the tears flooded her eyes.
Our baby rests beneath your hand.
Eric sighed. “So there is nothing I can do beyond chaining
you to my side to keep you here?”
“I’m a Guardian,” she
said softly. “Only this time I’m
guarding my friends. How can I leave
them?”
She sensed rather than
saw Eric’s frown. “Heather, in this
instance, it might be best for your friends if you removed yourself entirely.”
He referred, she knew,
to Thaddeus choosing Marigold and Seymour for his demonstration. But she shook her head. “It wouldn’t help them if I were gone. If I went missing, he would just think they’d
hidden me somehow.”
“Damn him.” Eric uttered his pronouncement quietly, as a sentence.
“I can handle
Thaddeus.” Heather swallowed and
modified her statement. “My influence
may be…complicated, but I can at least slow him down.” She added, trying to reassure him…and
herself, “Besides, I can always leave.”
“Promise you will. The minute you feel threatened, promise you
will leave.”
“I promise.”
***
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