My Sweet Saturday Sample is a morsel from my latest release, an epic fantasy romance, Staurolite: Enchanted Bookstore Legend Four. This is the fourth of a 5-part series.
In this scene, Lyra and Cullen engage in a massive dragon battle between the Imperial Dragon's good Alliance and the evil Dark Realm. They are riding on the back of a blue dragon fighter, a senior guard named Yord. Cullen is the Imperial Sorcerer for the Alliance. He and Lyra are engaged to marry. Her powers, as the only Scribe, are unique, allowing her to kill the most dangerous dragon, the cimafa, but doing so takes a tole on her health.
“Yord, cover us
for a minute,” Cullen called to the blue dragon before he twisted in his seat
to face Lyra. He took her wrist and paused. “Rapid, but not erratic. Your aura
isn’t flowing as smoothly as it should, but the pulses are only slight. Good
enough.”
Her gaze darted
all around them. While understanding the importance, she felt uneasy with him
taking a break in the middle of the fighting.
He turned back
and alerted Yord, who responded with an immediate sweep into a snarl of fire
and magma drakes that formed a ring trapping two blue fighters with two ice
drakes in a death match.
The Imperial
Dragon rocketed toward the opposite side of the circle from high above.
Tension
materialized a powerball in Lyra’s hand. She worked to hold it in place.
Yord gave a
slight nod, signaling to her.
She braced
herself, contracting her thighs even tighter around him.
The senior blue
charged—faster than Lyra had ever experienced—straight for the circle. His
mouth opened wide, but the Imperial Dragon beat him, firing a fraction of a
second earlier.
The leader’s
golden flame licked up the backs of several drakes, their agonized contortions
silhouetted in the light.
Yord hurled a
wide swath of lightning at those closest to them. Red bodies of fire and magma
drakes darted up and down, fleeing the area.
From beside him,
Yasqu shot a wide flame, injuring many who fled too late.
When the lights
of fire dimmed, only one blue fighter with a badly torn right lower wingsail
remained in the center of the decimated ring. The other plummeted to the
ground, out of sight in the pre-dawn shadows. The injured dragon uttered no
cry, which made Lyra uneasy. A knot formed in her stomach, wondering whether
he’d died instantly or merely worked to not display his weakened state.
Cullen threw his
body weight into another powerball that zinged over the heads of fire drakes,
saving its strike for an ice drake who threatened the injured fighter.
Lyra’s skin
crawled, an unmistakable sickening feeling that shot straight to her gut. She
looked up and from a sky dotted with red magma sparks, she picked out the
ringed red eyes of a cimafa stealth dragon. Its sinuous black body absorbed the
light. Only patchy reflections of red hues from its surrounding allies marked
its form. It glided into the fracas without notice. No aura permeated its outer
surface. But Lyra had fallen under its shadow too many times not to recognize
it. The density of the darkness beneath the beast signaled her that it was
about to strike.
She forced
additional power into her hand while checking her aim. Her other hand dug into
Cullen’s side, and he looked up just as her arm drove the powerball into a wide
arc over their heads.
His hand clamped
onto hers. His aura throbbed along her skin as darkness flooded her vision. The
shrill, pained cry of the wounded cimafa hit her ears. She smiled even though
tremors shot through her body. She slumped against Cullen’s back.
The rhythm of
Yord’s flight gradually changed from jerkiness, dodging the hazards of battle,
to a more regular pattern. Sounds of fighting became more and more distant. The
smooth flight made Lyra feel sluggish.
A sudden impact
caused her to open her eyes. “Where are we?” she choked out, her throat rough
and constricted. Suddenly, hit with a blinding white light, she grimaced.
Staurolite: Enchanted Bookstore Legend Four
Lyra McCauley, current Scribe of the Alliance, is the only
one who can decode magic hidden in the recently retrieved ancient texts written
by her ancestors, the first four Scribes. Information in those writings can help
Lyra locate the four missing keystones, which will restore power to the
Alliance and allow overthrow of the Dark Realm. With peace restored, she and her
beloved, Cullen, could finally marry.
Time is short with the Black Dragon’s Dark Realm increasing
attacks to avenge the death of his heir. Many innocent lives are lost. Alliance
residents are forced into hiding. Magicals and blue dragons follow leadership
of the Imperial Dragon and the other three Guardians into battle to defend the
Alliance.
While Lyra unlocks the ancient magic, she opens herself up
to scribal powers from her ancestors. She alone can fight the deadliest of the
Dark Realm’s forces—the cimafa stealth dragons—but at a cost. The energy flux
threatens her health and ability to learn where to find the missing keystones.
Can Lyra overcome this shrewd tactic of the Black Dragon to decimate the
Alliance?
About the series~
The Enchanted Bookstore Legends
are about Lyra McCauley, a woman destined to become one of five strong women in
her family who possess unique magical abilities and serve as Scribes in
Dragonspeir. The Scribes span a long history, dating from 1200 to present day.
Each Scribe is expected to journey through Dragonspeir, both the good and evil
factions, then draft a written account. Each book contains magic with vast
implications.
Lyra was first introduced to
Dragonspeir as a young girl, when she met the high sorcerer, Cullen Drake,
through a gift of one of those enchanted books. Using its magic, he escorted
her into the parallel world of Dragonspeir. Years later, she lost that volume
and forgot the world and Cullen. These legends begin where he finds her again—she
is thirty-five, standing in his enchanted bookstore, and Dragonspeir needs her.
When Lyra reopens that enchanted
book, she confronts a series of quests where she is expected to save the good
Alliance from destruction by the evil Black Dragon. While learning
about her role, Lyra and Cullen fall in love. He is 220 years old and kept
alive by Dragonspeir magic. Cullen will die if Dragonspeir is taken over by the
evil faction…Lyra becomes the Scribe.
Purchase Links for previous books in the series:
I'm
looking forward to seeing what sweets some of my fellow authors on this hop
will serve. Be sure to check them out on the main blog page for Sweet Saturday
Samples.
