Friday, February 2, 2018

Faery Queen Morgan LaFaye ~ Enchanter Redeemed by Sharon Ashwood



As a special feature, we bring our loyal audience household hints from the cast of Sharon Ashwood’s new release, Enchanter Redeemed

Today’s question is answered by that mistress of menace, the Faery Queen Morgan LaFaye!


Dear Queen Morgan,

I hope you can help. I’m a new practitioner of the dark arts and every time I summon a demon, it makes a terrible stain all over my dungeon floor. What’s the best product to use to get it clean again?

Yours,
SOS (Sick of Scrubbing)



My dearest SOS,

We’ve all been there. The dark curiosity, the thrilling rush of power, the ecstasy . . . and then the crushing let-down of cleaning up afterward. Blood and brains everywhere. It’s a bore.

However, you can prevent a sticky, caked-on mess if you do a quick once-over with soap and water just as soon as the ritual is finished. If there are scorch marks, a stiff bristle brush works wonders. Need I mention that scrubbing is what minions are for, dear SOS? That’s how I keep my claw-like nails looking glorious, so go kidnap a strapping peasant girl ASAP and put her to work.

That being said, don’t bother with the exotic cleaning products sold at tourist traps like the Brimstone Bazaar. Scouring powder doesn’t work any better just because it’s marketed in a skull-shaped container. Toothpaste works well for cleaning ceramic surfaces, and a bargain brand like Brainz-b-Gone is just fine for almost any ritual implements. Be sure to clean all your tools thoroughly—you don’t want any leftover substances mixing in with the next spell you brew. There’s no telling what you might summon, and kraken are very hard to put back if you conjure one by accident. It’s the tentacles, you know. They have a nasty tendency to wrap around the furniture and drag your entire living room suite down to the abyss. Insurance doesn’t cover that sort of thing.

I hope that’s helpful, SOS, and thank you for your question. Pride in our workspace is an essential element of a quality performance. Rampant evil does not excuse untidiness.

Yours in skulduggery,
Morgan LaFaye

Kiss kiss, my darklings!

Enchanter Redeemed
Camelot Reborn
Book Four
Sharon Ashwood

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne

Date of Publication: February 1/6 2018

ISBN: 978-1335629487
ASIN: B073P5TL7J

Number of pages: 300
Word Count: 80,000

Cover Artist: Brandon Allen

Tagline:  Ancient magic and new passion…

Book Description:

In the last battle for Camelot, Merlin had to make a terrible choice. Now he must pay the price. When a demon from his past reappears, she wants nothing more than to destroy the wizard. Now to reap her vengeance as a lover scorned, the demon occupies the body of Clary—the apprentice who is capturing his heart—and has the innocent behaving in uncharacteristic ways. Ways that push the forbidden desire Clary and Merlin share into heated play…


Harlequin       Amazon       BN      Kobo       iBooks



Other Books in the Series

Book 1 - Enchanted Warrior (RITA nominee)
Book 2 – Enchanted Guardian
Book 3 – Royal Enchantment

Excerpt:

Clary jolted awake. Power surged through her body, painful and suffocating. Her spine arched into it—or maybe away from it, she wasn’t sure. Merlin had one hand on her side and the other on her chest, using his magic like a defibrillator. The sensation hammered her from the inside while every hair on her body stood straight up. When he released her, she sagged in relief. A drifting sensation took over, as if she were a feather in an updraft.
Merlin’s fingers went to her neck, checking for a pulse. His hands were hot from working spells, the touch firm yet gentle. In her weakened state, Clary shivered slightly, wanting to bare her throat in surrender. She was a sucker for dark, broody masculinity and he projected it like a beacon. All the same, Clary sucked in a breath before he got any big ideas about mouth-to-mouth. If Merlin was going to kiss her, she wanted wine and soft music, not blood and the dirty workshop floor.
Another bolt of power, more pain, another pulse check. Clary managed a moan, and she heard the sharp intake of Merlin’s breath. His hand withdrew from her pulse point as she forced her eyes open. He was staring down at her with his peculiar amber eyes, dark brows furrowed in concern. She was used to him prickly, arrogant or sarcastic, but not this. She’d never seen that oddly vulnerable expression before—but it quickly fled as their gazes met.
“You’re alive.” He said it like a fact, any softness gone.
“Yup.” Clary pushed herself up on her elbows. She hurt all over. “What was that?”
“A demon.”
“I got that much.” Clary held up her arm, peering through the rents in her jacket where the demon’s claws had slashed. Merlin’s zap of power had stopped the bleeding, but the deep scratches were red, puffy and hurt like blazes.
“Demon claws are toxic.”
“Got that, too.”
“I can put a salve on the wound, but you’d be smart to have Tamsin look at it,” Merlin said. “Your sister is a better healer than I am.”
“She’s better than anybody.” Clary said it with the automatic loyalty of a little sister, but it was true. “She’s got a better bedside manner, too.”
Merlin raised a brow, his natural arrogance back in place. “Just be glad you’re alive.”
She studied Merlin, acutely aware of how much magic he’d used to shut the demon down. He looked like a man in his early thirties, but there was no telling how old he actually was. He was lean-faced with permanent stubble and dark hair that curled at his collar. At first glance, he looked like a radical arts professor or dot-com squillionaire contemplating his next disruptive innovation. It took a second look to notice the muscular physique hidden by the comfortable clothes. Merlin had a way of sliding under most radars, but Clary never underestimated the power he could pluck out of thin air. She was witch born, a member of the Shadowring Coven, but he was light years beyond their strongest warlocks.
That strength was like catnip to her—although she’d never, ever admit that out loud. “What were you doing?” she demanded, struggling the rest of the way to a sitting position.
“I was watching the demons through a scrying portal when you interrupted me.” His tone was precise and growing colder with every syllable. Now that the crisis was over, he was getting angry.
“The she-demon tried to kill me.” Clary’s insides hollowed as the words sank home. Dear goddess, she did kill me! And Merlin had brought her back before a second had passed—but it had happened. Her witch’s senses had felt it happen. The realization left her light-headed.
“She doesn’t get to have you,” he said in a low voice.
Their gazes locked, and something twisted in Clary’s chest. She’d been hurt on Merlin’s watch, and he was furious. No, what she saw in his eyes was more than icy anger. It was a heated, primal possessiveness that came from a far different Merlin than she knew. Clary’s breath stopped. Surely she was misreading the situation. Death and zapping had scrambled her thoughts.
“I shouldn’t have walked in on you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” he said in a voice filled with the same mix of ice and fire. “You’d be a better student of magic if you paid attention. You asked me to teach you proper magic and not the baby food the covens use. Real magic is deadly.”
Abruptly, he stood and crossed the room to kick a shard of agate against the wall. It bounced with a savage clatter. Clary got to her feet, her knees wobbling. He spun and stormed back to her in one motion, moving so fast she barely knew what was happening.
He took her by the shoulders, the grip rough. “Don’t ever do that again!”
And then his mouth crushed hers in a hard, angry kiss. Clary gasped in surprise, but there was no air, only him, and only his need. She rose slowly onto her toes, the gesture both surrender and a desire to hold her own. She’d been kissed many times before, but never consumed this way. His lips were greedy and hot with that same confusing array of emotions she’d seen a moment ago. Anger. Fear. Possession. Protectiveness.
Volatile. That was the word she’d so often used in her own head when thinking about him. Volatile, though he kept himself on a very short chain. Right now that chain had slipped.


For the first two chapters, click here:  http://www.rowanartistry.com/book/enchanter-redeemed/

About the Author:

Sharon Ashwood is a free-lance journalist, novelist, desk jockey and enthusiast for the weird and spooky. She has an English literature degree but works as a finance geek. Interests include growing her to-be-read pile and playing with the toy graveyard on her desk. As a vegetarian, she freely admits the whole vampire/werewolf lifestyle fantasy would never work out, so she writes paranormal romances instead.

Sharon lives in the Pacific Northwest and is owned by the Demon Lord of Kitty Badness.







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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for inviting me to your blog!

Sharon (and Morgan, but she's not polite enough to leave a comment)

Mary Preston said...

This is all fantastic thank you.

 
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