EXCERPT:
The scream hung in the air like the waxing
moon outside my window. I touched my face, expecting to feel the wound there,
my skin cut somehow as Myrddin’s had been in the dream. My trembling fingers
came away clean. My heart raced as my mind recovered, but I tore from my
bedchamber nonetheless, darting through the shadowed hallways of Grandfather’s
household, avoiding the guards that stood, dozing, at the ends of corridors. I
knew I’d be beaten if I was caught, but nothing was as important as getting to
Myrddin.
I reached the familiar door and slipped
inside. He lay on his simple pallet beneath the window casement, but his eyes
were open in the moonlight. They sparkled like dew on the grass, as did the
sweat that dampened his hairline. His hand lay against his cheek, searching for
the phantom wound.
“What is it?” I breathed, my heart still
pounding as if it had never pumped before. “I had a nightmare about you.”
He sat up, his body shaking, and I pulled the
blanket up over his shoulders as tremors wracked him. He gripped the cover with
one hand and took mine in his other. It was not a fit, I knew, but an icy chill
stole over me. “I had a vision.”
“It was you, was it not?” I forced the words
out, even though they pained me to say them. “Trapped? Tortured?”
He nodded. I could bear it no longer, and
flung myself into him, burying my face in his chest. He hesitated, but then his
arms came around me, and I nearly gasped from relief, from knowing he was with
me, warm and alive and safe.
“What does it mean?” I moaned.
“It is the future we see.”
I tilted my chin up to look at him, and he
stared down into my face, one brow arched as if puzzling over a new plant he’d
found while scavenging. “How is it that we see it together, raven? How is it
that we are connected?”
“I love you.” The words, so sacred and yet
sounding so simple, tumbled out. I did not care. Here in the dark, where there
was no one else, the rest of the world seemed frozen, unimportant, and far, far
away. Blaise, sleeping in the next room, was forgotten. I did not think of my
grandfather and his plot to find me a husband, or of his threats to kill any
man that stood in the way of that.
Only this moment between us mattered. Myrddin
had to know that I thought of nothing but him, sought naught but his presence,
heard only his voice with the pounding of my heart. It was bold and brash and
dangerous, it was everything I wanted to be, my own true self, and I knew he
understood that.
“I know,” he whispered. “And you should not.”
He tried to pull his hand away, yet I clung
to it, my voice hardening. “Why do you say that? You are everything to me.”
“You speak of love, Gwendydd, and yet you
have told me countless times how you long not for a husband, but for freedom.”
“You are my freedom. Do you not see? You, who
have taught me healing and storytelling and magick. . .so many things. You are
right—I did not know what I longed for until I met you, and then I understood.”
I lifted my hand, daring to touch his cheek, and he allowed it. “This must be
love, for it to seep so deeply into me, into my very soul.”
Softness settled into his gaze as he stared
at me. “You are a poet, raven.” He teased, I knew, to turn the subject, but I
would not be abashed.
“It frightened me, Myrddin. The dream. I
cannot bear to be without you, or to have you hurt.”
“And yet there is no way to stop it, if it is
my fate.” He gathered me against him and pushed us both up to our feet, shaking
the blanket from his shoulders. He guided me toward the door but did not pull
away, and I savored his closeness. “Come. You must go back to your chambers. If
Brychan finds you here, or if someone sees us and informs him, he will kill us
both.”
We shuffled in silence along the corridors,
slipping past the sleepy guards undetected. When we came to my quarters, Myrddin
placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me sternly, as Betrys sometimes
did when she preached her gospel of Jesus.
“Blaise has told me, Gwendydd, that unrest
stirs in the land. The Cymry chieftains like your grandsire cannot quell it,
and it will come to call here very soon. But these changes, all of them, no
matter what they are, must unfold as they are meant to. We may never understand
all that happens, but that is our challenge in life. And that includes whatever
this vision may portend for me.”
I matched his seriousness with my own.
“Whatever happens, we are meant to be together. I understand that much.”
His hand moved underneath my loosened hair,
cupping the back of my head like a pillow, and his expression of wonder made me
dizzy. “It is foolish and reckless, raven, but yes. I think I understand it as
well.”
He left me standing there in a pool of
moonlight, my mind spinning as the stars overhead, replaying his words over and
over again to seal them permanently in my memory.
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Night Owl Book Lover’s Magazine
Merlyn’s Raven
By Rose Vanden Eynden
Soul Mate Publishing
For a young woman, falling in love is the ultimate magic. But what if the object of her affection is Merlyn, destined to be King Arthur’s legendary advisor? Can Gwendydd work her own magic to capture the heart of the world’s most powerful enchanter, or will her desire destroy her and the people she loves most?
Back Cover Blurb
Falling in love is the ultimate magic. For Gwendydd, a young woman in 5th century Wales, it seems an unobtainable fantasy. She dreads the day her chieftain grandfather will marry her off to increase his allies among the warring tribes of Britain. When she meets the mysterious and handsome druid apprentice Myrddin, Gwendydd realizes just how difficult falling in love can be. The ire of her disapproving grandfather is not her only obstacle. Myrddin’s clairvoyant visions of a king who will unify the battling tribes and bring peace to the land become a dangerous obsession that threatens to obliterate their union. Can Gwendydd support her beloved, the man destined to become the world’s most powerful enchanter, King Arthur’s legendary Merlyn? Or will her devotion destroy her and everything she holds dear?
About the Author:
Rose Vanden Eynden has always believed in magic, which probably explains how she is able to be a writer as well as a wife, mother, medium, massage therapist, minister, and instructor. She resides in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, twin teenaged sons, and a dachshund named after Rudyard Kipling. In her spare (!) time, she enjoys performing in live theatre, watching films, reading, and walking in the woods. An avid believer in a balanced life, she meditates and eats chocolate daily.
Light Journey Enterprises
www.vandeneynden.biz
Read Rose's blog, STANDING BETWEEN THE WORLDS www.vandeneynden.biz/blog
Rose's books, available at all major bookstores:
SO YOU WANT TO BE A MEDIUM? A DOWN TO EARTH GUIDE
METATRON: INVOKING THE ANGEL OF GOD'S PRESENCE
ASK A MEDIUM: ANSWERS TO YOUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SPIRIT WORLD
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5 comments:
Thank you so much for featuring MERLYN'S RAVEN here, Roxanne! I appreciate your support.
Hi Rose,
Best of luck with Merlyn's Raven. The excerpt sounds interesting. I'll have to add it to my tbr list.
Write here with you, Soul Mate sister. (lol) Great excerpt.
Raven
Thanks, Callie and Sheila! So glad to have you both here. Sending hugs to you both!
So looking forward to reading this book!
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