Sunday Snippet: Twilight Kingdom

The first week of Juneis in the books and I got a big chunk of my garage cleaned out, which makes me veryhappy.

Work projects aremoving along and I'm hoping to line up another project or two in the nearfuture. I love a full calendar!

I had a decent weekof television even with the great garage cleanout. I'm not up to my regularschedule yet and I'm actually okay with that.

I finished up thesecond half of Silent Witness and actually liked the kind of twistyending it had. Lots of red herrings in this episode.

Started a watch of Deathin Paradise. I've never seen this series from the actual beginning and I'mexcited to dive in.

Caught anotherepisode of Only Murders in the Building and I loved having some Mabelbackstory. The fact she loved The X-Files as a kid makes me so happy.

Continued myrewatch of Battlestar Galactica. "Resistance" is such a greatepisode … with the exception of introducing a character I absolutely dislikedwith intense passion.

Watched an episodeof Classic Rugrats. The two segments were ones I had forgotten and I'malways happy to watch those.

That's pretty muchit for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Twilight Kingdom,a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Jess Gillian heads to the outer rim planets to get awayfrom his overbearing parents—the royal consorts of their home planet. When theheir is away, the evil Maniforti will play, luring Nareen Rhom, a palace ward,into a relationship so he can get close to the rulers. When Nareen gets wise, Maniforticasts a spell holding the entire kingdom in his thrall—until Jess returns andsets things straight.

And a preview snippet…

Jess woke up with a groan."What the hell happened?" His last clear memory had the no-namebounty hunter saying something about making it worse.

A cool hand pressed against hisforehead. "Damn. Glad you finally came to."

Jess blinked to clear his blurryvision and found the bounty hunter's face hovering over his. Shit. Not good.

He snagged her wrist and jerked herforward. "You bitch. Why are you trying to kill me?" The accusationflew past his lips before he could stop it.

She snatched her arm away. "I'mnot—stupid man—if I made an attempt on your life, you'd be dead." Shesnorted. "I've been protecting you but trying not to interfere." Sherolled her eyes. "That didn't work out well." Sarcasm came naturallyto her.

Jess's eyes widened."Protecting me? What the hell for?" He'd been fine until she showedup in that backwater bar.

The bounty hunter shrugged."The prince consort hired me to keep tabs on you. But … I can't reach him.And that's concerning." A note of worry crept into her tone.

Jess grunted. "Becausesomething's wrong. Nari reached out. Probably saved my life, actually … rightbefore you got here." He paused, recalling the desperation in Nari's plea."Dammit. How long have I been out?"

The bounty hunter lifted ashoulder. "Two days, but—"

Jess winced. "Shit!" Hesat up and gasped in pain.

She shoved him back down."Hold on. You're not gonna be worth anything if you undo everything I justdid." She gathered up some nasty smelling herbs and packed them againsthis skin. "You need at least two more days—preferably three—before you'reback in top form." Scooping the concoction into a leather pouch, shetucked it into her bag.

Jess grimaced, but very carefully satup again. "Get me some clothes." He didn't have two or three days towaste.

She frowned. "Did you hearwhat I said?"

He lifted his chin. "Yeah.It'll take at least that long to get back home. I'll recuperate on theway." His gaze scanned the room, much cleaner than he'd remembered leavingit.

She made her displeasure known butdid as he asked, going to the chest of drawers and retrieving a pair of pantsand a shirt.

A thought crept into his head. Oldmagick. He blinked. Didn't feel telepathic but it did make an odd kind of sense.

The bounty hunter tossed theclothes to him. "I still think it's a good idea to wait." But shegathered her jacket and slid the messenger bag over her shoulder.

While he dressed, he questioned thebounty hunter. "What do you know about the ancient rites?" He onlyknew as much as Nari shared with him.

No-name's brows drew together."Why?"

He shook his head. "Just afeeling, but it's like one that's not mine."

The bounty hunter blew out a harshbreath. "Geez, if we're dealing with the old guard shit, we need to gonow."

Jess snorted. "Which is what Isuggested in the first place."

I love this story!It has a few twists that are so much fun to write.

 

That's it for thisweek.

Cheers!

Skye