Aldrea Alien's Blog, page 17

Rainbow Snippets: He put her there

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker draws closer to the smell of burnt wood.

People lay scattered about the wagon. Armed and not. It was hard to determine whether the weapons were wielded by friend or foe. Perhaps both.

A part of him had hoped it to be an illusion, the skill the girl had been so good at that the tower overseers had wanted to send a child into war. She couldn’t fool him, nor any other of the King’s Hounds, but it didn’t stop the wistful longing. He had promised to keep her safe, to do what her guardian had risked imprisonment for.

But the fact that he—a King’s Hound, immune to magic—saw the aftermath of the chaos, only meant it was real.

And he had put her here.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Suffering the same fate

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker draws closer to the smell of burnt wood.

They marched hesitantly closer. The road rose, taking the easy path around the rubble of what he guessed was an ancient outpost. Dozens of places dotted the kingdom, relics of a time when spellsters once ruled.

His gaze lingered on the slabs of stone. Could bandits have sheltered there? Had they snuck up on the merchants, seeing the wagon as easy prey?

Cresting the rise, he drew his horse to a halt.

The remains of a covered wagon stood in the middle of the road, the arches that once supported canvas laid bare like charred ribs. The unfortunate beasts tasked with hauling the wagon had suffered the same fate.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: A shroud of blame

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker smelt something unpleasant on the wind.

Tracker could’ve turned away. He didn’t want to investigate, to witness the destruction he dreaded was behind what he sensed. It might not be his first death caused by magic, but he had witnessed his fill of it in the past month.

However, his training as a King’s Hound compelled him to do his duty. To ensure the dangerous spellster, the child, was secured or dead.

It didn’t help that he knew the truth, could feel in the air that the source behind such magic was long gone. Dead or fleeing beyond the range of his senses. A part of him remained optimistic on it being the latter. Clinging to that hope was the only way he could move closer.

He hadn’t given the spellster any orders, but the shroud of blame cloaked him regardless. If he hadn’t put her on that wagon, then any destruction she had wrought, any casualties, would never have happened.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Security enough against bandits

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker smelt something unpleasant on the wind.

His hand had been the one to set precious cargo—a young girl of only ten—on a wagon heading on a weeks-long journey to Dvärghem. The merchants had accepted his coin, had sworn that their guards were enough security to ward off bandits.

But if the girl had felt threatened enough to reveal herself as a spellster, to attack with all her might, then the merchants were clearly wrong.

He kneed his horse forward. The animal baulked at the instruction, clearly sensing his rider’s own hesitation in heading towards the scent.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: An oiliness on the wind

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker confirmed magic was involved in a fire.

His horse jogged sideways in the middle of the road. Tracker growled under his breath at the animal. Lullaby was no less a stranger to death than himself, but the wind continued to spread the smell, growing stronger with every gust.

Tracker cupped a hand to his face, hoping to block out most of the smell, and peered through the gap cut through the canopy trees by the road. The thin plume of black smoke he had followed seemed to have vanished. It had been barely perceptive even to his elven sight.

He gave a tentative sniff, trying to gauge how close the site of such smoke was. The wind carried notes of charred wood and a familiar oiliness he tried not to think about.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Smoke on the wind

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Moving on from Tracking Trouble I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker was following the trail of a supposed spellster attack.

That had also been prior to encountering those fleeing from the source. He had hoped they had seen wrong, that fear and imagination exaggerated had their memories. But whilst farmers and merchants were more skittish than the average mercenary troupe when it came to the unexpected, they were seldom wrong about the damage a spellster wrought.

A breeze ruffled through the trees, it toyed with the leaves, grasses and his many earrings with equal ease. A slightly stronger puff cooled his brow, refreshing if not for the hint of wood smoke and charred flesh.

Frowning, he drew his horse to a halt. That aroma alone wasn’t a reason for concern. There were a number of reasons behind it. A travelling party’s campfire. A farmhouse’s hearth. A robbing gone wrong.

In this case, he knew the cause had to be magic.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Reacting on instinct

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Moving on from Tracking Trouble I’ll be sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. Still starring Tracker in parts. The rewrite is a little lighter on the romance side (that happens in the sequel), but it’s still Dylan’s bi-awakening.

This week’s snippet starts with the new prequel, featuring my favourite King’s Hound, Tracker.

Tracker leant forward in his saddle as he trotted down the road, straining to hear anything unusual over the rhythmic beat of his horse’s gait. Nothing stood in his way but empty road, the dirt compacted by centuries of use and baking under the noonday sun. A troubling sight after the throng of fleeing travellers he had passed a few hours ago.

He searched the trees crowding either side of the road, on the lookout for any threats lurking in the shadows. That proved just as fruitless as he expected. Above the trees ahead, just visible through the canopy of lush green, a thin coil of smoke reached for the clouds.

The fleeing travellers told him tales of fire and unfettered magic. He had felt the blast long before he saw smoke. A sudden intense flare of power that halted as abruptly as it began. The classic sign of a spellster reacting on instinct, putting their all into one attack.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: No ordinary thugs.

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

This month, we’re continuing the snippets from Tracking Trouble. It’s a prequel to In Pain and Blood starring Tracker, a King’s Hound from Demarn, who is also the elf responsible for the massive rewriting haul that has become the Spellster and the Hound series. Unlike a lot of my other stories, this isn’t a romance.

This week’s snippet continues from last week’s with Tracker dealing with some thugs.

His attacker straightened in one spine-cracking lurch. In the dim light, the colours upon their tabard were hard to distinguish, but its symbol was not. And they definitely weren’t the only one bearing it. City guards.

Tracker swiftly re-evaluated the rest. Three before him, one not too far on his left and, yes, another was shambling off in what appeared to be another attempt at his back. That made five in all. The entirety of the missing unit. Alive.

Shit. He flipped his throwing knife in the air, readjusting his grip to sheath the blade. He could’ve dealt with thugs quickly enough, but if there was any chance that the guards were merely pawns, then he had to be careful not to hurt them.

This is the final piece I share of Tracking Trouble for some time. Next week, I move on to snippets from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: No ordinary mugging.

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

This month, we’re continuing the snippets from Tracking Trouble. It’s a prequel to In Pain and Blood starring Tracker, a King’s Hound from Demarn, who is also the elf responsible for the massive rewriting haul that has become the Spellster and the Hound series. Unlike a lot of my other stories, this isn’t a romance.

This week’s snippet continues from last week’s with Tracker getting attacked.

He dove to one side, rolling and springing back to his feet before his attacker could finish the first swing.

Only when the thug’s sword slammed into the floor did Tracker pay any heed to the distance between them. The swing had been too far away to do any damage. An error no thug would make.

Now that he faced his attackers, they didn’t look terribly threatening. Yes, they approached with their swords drawn, but their movements were shambolic. Like a person deep in their drink, they swayed and shuffled across the old warehouse floor. None of the coordination Tracker expected from a mugging.

Tracker will be back next week, but it will be the last before I move on to sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Cover Reveal – In Pain and Blood

It’s finally time to reveal the cover for the revamped version of In Pain and Blood, the second instalment novel in the Spellster and the Hound series.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Dylan’s life in the spellster tower has everything he should want: magical knowledge, safety from the King’s Hounds and frequent clandestine affairs with women. All at the cost of his freedom. So when the chance to leave the tower—even as a leashed weapon for the King’s Army—arises, he seizes it.
When his first scouting mission goes awry, Dylan is left alone in a hostile world with the tower a distant beacon of safety. Only the flirtatious Tracker, an elven man whose very presence awakens Dylan’s long-repressed desire, can help him return to his old life before the crown discovers his unleashed status.
But the risk of being branded a deserter may be the least of his concerns as whispers of an armed presence in the North threatens his home. Dylan must rely on Tracker to protect him even as everything he thought he knew begins to unravel around them.

*This book contains violence, gore and explicit adult themes.*
*This second edition shares the main storyline with In Love and Death and has additional content from Tracker’s pov.*

Pre-order on Amazon for $2.99

And, of course, there’s the full spread…