Hello nerd friends! It’s been a while!

Quick update: Aurella the Demon is almost ready for publication, and I thought I’d share a little taste by posting the first chapter here. I expect the book to be publish-ready by the end of the month.

In other news, if you’re in Phoenix on November 2nd, stop by the Phoenix Local Author Fair! I will have a table selling/signing books.

Without further ado, here is the prologue of Aurella the Demon:

Prologue

The assassin pulled the hood lower over her face and snuck down the torch-lit corridor. She didn’t need the hood and cloak; an invisibility spell would have been more effective to conceal herself. But that would have defeated the purpose of this mission. She needed to be seen.

After looking both directions she turned a corner toward the audience chamber where the queen and her advisors were meeting. The sound of heavy boots echoed down the corridor. She ducked around the patches of moonlight shining through the windows and hid behind a pillar. A guard made his way down the corridor, whistling. For a moment they made eye contact. The guard froze in place, and the assassin’s heart skipped a beat as they stared at each other. She held her breath. Then the guard continued walking at his original pace, whistling slightly louder than before.

The assassin waited behind the pillar with bated breath. The guard’s footsteps faded as he continued down the next corridor. Then she heard a boom that shook the ground beneath her feet. Dust from the ceiling rained down on the tiled floor as another tremor reverberated through the walls. The assassin steeled herself then sprinted toward the large double doors at the end of the corridor. Another tremor shook the palace, and the two massive doors rattled against each other before falling heavily to the floor, their loosened hinges clinking against the tile. Dust flew up obscuring the inhabitants in the room, but the assassin plowed through. She jumped atop the fallen doors and in the same movement pulled an arrow from her quiver and notched it on her bow. When the dust settled, she aimed the bow at her target: Heletica, the Queen of Dovice.

The assassin muttered something under her breath then released her arrow. It cut through the air and lodged in the queen’s heart. As she slid limply from her chair, shrieks pierced the air. The queen’s young heir fell to his knees and stared at the arrow piercing her chest. Then he slowly turned toward the assassin, his face contorted with rage.

“Guards! After him!” he roared.

The assassin smirked at his incorrect pronoun. Of course people would assume she was a man. Only one guard rushed to avenge the queen’s murder—the rest were all dealing with the explosions in the kitchens set as a diversion—but she made haste to escape before they arrived. She shot a second arrow at the window behind the queen, shattering it on impact. Running across the table, the assassin leaped over the queen’s lifeless body and out the window. Her hands grasped the rope she had hung from above the window earlier and descended to the ground. Her feet hit the gravel with a thud, and she disappeared into the night.

¨

The assassin waited in a tree as guards searched the forest for her. Several passed right beneath her, but she was invisible. No one would see her until she removed her spell. She shivered as the night grew colder, and one-by-one the guards trickled back into the palace empty‑handed. An owl hooted in a nearby tree, making the assassin jump. Leaves fell from the branch she’d been holding, and she held her breath.

Hours later she heard the sound of crunching leaves as someone crept toward her hiding spot. The assassin held her breath, watching a lone guard approaching her tree, barely making a sound. He knelt, studied the three rocks stacked against the trunk, and looked up. It was the same guard who has passed her inside the palace. Without a word the assassin removed her invisibility spell, and once again the two stared at each other. Finally, the guard removed his helmet, revealing a mop of fluffy brown hair, and grinned.

“You can come down now, Ella. It worked perfectly.”