EXCERPT:
Chapter 30
A soft knock.
Margy shrugged, raised her eyebrows, grinned mischievously
at Yasir, and pranced towards the door, stark naked, her carrot-colored hair
dancing on her fair shoulders. She turned the latch and opened the door a
crack.
A massive brown hand snapped onto her arm. With a shriek,
abruptly silenced, Margy was dragged into the hall. The door remained ajar, the
quiet hall shadowy.
Yasir crept towards the door, aware that his only weapon,
his cane, leaned against the washstand across the room, aware that he could not
use his magic. The silence in the hall perturbed him more than if Margy had
been caterwauling and cursing.
In a blur, the door burst open. A flurry of gold and flesh
whirled into the room. Silks and gauzes swirled, revealing glimpses of luminous
alabaster skin. Shapely arms snaked in the air, jingling golden bangles. She
smirked.
“Yaa – ssss – irrr.” His name flowed from her scarlet lips
as she beckoned with sinuous movements. Flaxen hair, a waterfall of cream,
rippled along her curves.
“Where is Margy?” he asked, his voice hard.
Her eyes, hollow, lacked an indefinable something. She was
not human. A succubus. Here. In the daylight. Yasir shielded his magic and
stepped from her path.
Her sumptuous breasts, bared with each tantalizing sway of
her body, threatened to break free of thin gold chains quivering with golden
disks. Bright beads around her neck clattered like castanets.
In an instant, Yasir hovered over her. “If you want to live
to seduce another human you will answer me, succuba.”
She licked her lips. She drew her hand up to her hairline
and peeled the flesh from her forehead to her chin, revealing underneath a
fresh face of youth, sprinkles of freckles across the nose, innocent gray eyes.
Yasir stared in horror.
“Margy.” His voice shuddered.
“I possessed your
wench.” The succuba’s eyes, Margy’s eyes, glinted with malice. She whisked a
scarf of thinnest white silk from her waist and drew it in front of her face.
Margy’s features distorted and blurred behind the gossamer veil. The scarf
floated away, a ribbon of vapor, and the succuba stood before him, face intact.
“Oh, great djinni.” She spoke in mellifluous tones and his
body responded to the way she moved her lips, the provocative gleam in her
lavender eyes.
Yasir leaned towards her, breathing hard.
“How does it feel to be taken for a fool by a whore?” She
cackled, the sound of a decrepit crone from plump young lips.
TAGLINE:
A world of
mysterious powers and tumultuous intrigues comes to life in Regency England as
a djinni, burdened with a dark secret, is thrown into a love triangle fraught
with subterfuge.
BLURB:
A troubled djinni seduces his
master’s young wife, forcing her to make a fateful choice.
The djinni Yasir, imprisoned in an
urn by a jealous magician, searches the centuries for his lost love. He finds
Lavinia reborn in 1811 England, only to discover she’s his new master’s bride.
Desperate to have her, Yasir
spell-casts Lavinia’s husband to forget he is master and give her the urn. When
she opens the ancient vessel, Yasir emerges, terrifying in his magnificence yet
somehow familiar, but she fails to recognize him. She distrusts this djinni
even though his very presence enchants her.
Yasir’s spell is fading. Lavinia’s
husband has changed. Now he’s violent as he struggles with returning memories
of when he possessed the urn. Lavinia strives to keep the two from encountering
one another, while torn between fidelity for her husband and her increasing attraction
to the djinni.
Impatient to win Lavinia’s
confidence, Yasir must convince her of her true identity so they can reclaim
their life together. He dare not reveal a deeper reason: Only with Lavinia can
he regain his freedom and exact revenge on the magician who confined him to the
urn—
If she does not go mad from the
spell to awaken her memories.
If her husband does not escape the
djinni’s magic and discover her secret.
If the magician does not find them
first.
The Book is on sale for
$0.99 during the tour.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Claudia
Herring aspired to be a baton twirler when she was five and an archaeologist at
thirteen. When she became a graphic designer and an author of fantasy, she
decided she'd hit upon the perfect compromise.
As a
designer and illustrator she formats the written word around visual art. As a
writer she weaves words into stories that form worlds. Her novel, "His
Master's Bride," a historical fantasy with romantic elements set in
Regency England, won first prize in the Houston Writer's Guild Novel
Competition. "Ties of Smoke," next in "The Djinn
Chronicles" series, is in its second draft.
When she's
not delving into the world of the Djinn, Claudia is practicing yoga to go to
that hushed space where she imagines and plots her next fantasy novel.
If you like
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, or Carol Berg, you'll love His Master's
Bride.
Links:
Website: http://www.claudiaherring.com
Twitter:
@claudiakherring
Amazon
author: http://www.amazon.com/author/claudiaherring
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