"The plot is slow-building but with constant action as you begin to piece together this world and its history. Silverwood's writing is vivid and exciting: you can feel the cold of the frigid Canadian north as well as the heat between Anu and Etlu."- Karen Siddall, Amazon 5 Star Review (Episode 3)
Published: August 14th, 2019
All Eanna wants is to forget the night she lost everything, but fate has other plans. A lifetime ago, the cursed burned her home and everyone she loved. Now she’s haunted by a dangerous legacy.
Her guardian, Etlu is determined to make Eanna into a queen, even if it means sacrificing his happiness. Surrounded by enemies, Eanna and Etlu have no choice but to give in to destiny.
Wil and his sister Isabol are searching for the chosen princess, but Wil finds more than he bargained for in Eanna. He doesn’t plan on falling in love with her. A love like theirs can only end in tragedy and death.
There can only be one outcome when chosen and cursed collide: a world bathed in fire and blood.
EXCERPT
In the end, it takes Eanna tapping into her accursed gift
before she’s able to give the fire life. She hasn’t been here in months, maybe
longer. The door was difficult to open at first, and evidence of rodents and
birds is scattered across the floor of the cabin. The makeshift pillows and
blankets are frozen stiff as she lays her guest down to sweat over them. The
cold never bothers her, but her guest is shivering.
From shock, she dimly thinks. She plops him on her pallet and begins
her impossible task. The stench of his blood and sickness is overwhelming.
You should have killed him…burned
out his damned soul…
Eanna shivers and adds kindling to the blue flames dancing
in the hearth. Her fire will last longer, at least. As long as she doesn’t lose
control again.
“I will not lose
control,” she says to the flame.
Wil moans, and Eanna reluctantly turns. Dim firelight plays
over his exposed, scarlet-streaked skin.
She looks to the bucket of snow beside her and the clean
rags she made from an old blanket. It’s not ideal, but it will have to do.
“They are cursed, Anu,” Etlu’s voice chants in her head.
Eanna stiffens her spine as she wills her flame to grow. She
brings the bucket and rags to his side and sets to work. Her hand trembles as
she hesitates just above his ruined torso.
Wil’s
voice rolls against her ear as his hips lazily press against hers, insistent
and yet undemanding. “What are you doing celebrating your birthday alone, in a
place like this?”
She
turns her head, so her lips graze his scruff. “Enjoying myself.”
“Are
you?”
She mops blood off the hard planes
of his chest. With each brush of her rag, the ruby stains give way to a coppery
gold. His skin is so much warmer than her own, warmer than a human’s.
I
should have noticed that night in the bar.
He had fooled her, in that den of
human sweat and lust.
Sweat beads on his forehead as his
face twists in pain. Eanna cannot look at his face without remembering their
kiss. She watches the rise and fall of his chest. She dips the rag into the
melting snow and brings it back to clean his bullet wounds. His legs are worse.
“They feel no pain, remorse, or
compassion,” Etlu told her.
It doesn’t help assuage her guilt. This isn’t the first time
she hates herself, but it is the first time she has betrayed everything her
parents died for. He wears the face of a man she found comfort and connection
with, nothing more.
He is cursed.
No matter how normal he looks now, all Eanna sees is the
fire his people used to destroy hers. She
should have killed him when she had the chance. If they are caught, no mercy
will be granted to her, no matter her lineage.
This goes above and beyond sneaking
outside the compound.
Her hand stills as her thumb accidentally brushes his golden
torso. Heat from his skin shoots through her fingertip and up her arm. Her
pulse accelerates.
“They will take off your head as
soon as they look at you. They are hollow shells of nothing,” Etlu would remind her.
But Wil looks helpless now, so near to death. It is her
fault. And no matter what he is, he made her feel alive for one stolen moment.
About the author:
Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time, she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it's the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador, or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of three series--Heaven's Edge, Wylder Tales and the Borderlands Saga--and the stand-alone titles Stay and She Walks in Moonlight. She released her first serialized Urban Fantasy, Angel Blue in August 2018.
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Well done Jenn! It looks and sounds terrific!
ReplyDeletesounds like a good book
ReplyDeleteI love the cover
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book. The cover is very beautiful.
ReplyDelete