Medieval Monday! Join the Journey – Villains!

Happy February!  We have a new theme for you for Medieval Monday…villains.  Delicious, right?  This is a new format.  Here’s how it will work…each author has an excerpt centering around a villain in one of her books.  The excerpt is divided into short installments that will post each week on separate author’s blogs.  Don’t worry!  We’ll leave links at the bottom of the blogs so you can follow along.

I’ll be featuring a great excerpt from my award-winning, bestselling novel, Angel’s Assassin.  Here’s a quick blurb to refresh your memory –

Damien is an assassin, a man with no home and a tortured past. Sold into slavery as a young boy, he is trained to kill with cold calculation, without remorse. As a reward for his ruthless success, he is given a chance to earn his freedom from his cruel master. One last mission. One final person to slay…

Lady Aurora of Acquitaine is the epitome of purity and goodness, beloved by all her people. She lives her life trying to atone for her mother’s cruelty by being a fair and just ruler. Secretly she fears that one day her mother’s murderer will return for her.

When Damien enters Aurora’s life, tempting her with promises of dark passion and forbidden lust, he threatens to tear her peaceful world apart with shadowy secrets of his own.

Can Aurora’s light heal Damien’s dark spirit or will his evil consume her? The eternal battle of good versus evil, love versus hate, dark versus light, all come to a shattering climax in this historical romance set in medieval England.

Here’s the beginning of the excerpt –

Damien eased the door open.  Every one of his senses screamed at him not to enter that room.  But he had to.  If he didn’t, if he even hesitated, the elite guards would be on him.

He entered the solar, scanning it as he moved into the center.  The well-lit room surprised Damien.  Roke lived in darkness.  He thrived in the blackness of the night.  To have this much light was unlike him.  Candles lined every surface of the room.  Even the hearth blazed behind Roke where he lounged in a rich, blood-red velvet chair.  His legs were crossed; his hand rested over one of his knees.  His dark hair fell in straight locks to his shoulders.  His eyes burned into Damien, hotter than the fire from the hearth.

With one glance, Damien took in the rest of the room.  A square table at Roke’s side held all types of instruments of torture.  Roke used these tools to punish those who failed.  Damien’s gaze moved on, passed the windows framed with thick red velvet curtains.  The curtains were closed.  Every time Damien was in the solar at night those had been open.  The only light Roke loved was the moonlight.  It was the only light that belonged to the night.  What was hidden behind those closed curtains?  An archer?  More men?

Damien continued his quick perusal of the room, moving to Roke’s elaborately engraved wooden bed.  The thick black curtains were pulled closed around it, hiding its interior.

Behind him, Damien heard the footfalls of Cyclops and Mother as they entered the room, closing the door behind them.

Damien stopped before Roke.  His face betrayed none of the anxiety he was feeling.  This entire situation was wrong.  Damien couldn’t help feeling it was a trap.

“Tell me,” Roke hissed.

Damien forced himself to keep from clenching his jaw as a thought occurred to him.  Roke knew.  He knew he had not completed the mission.  The candles in the room.  The table arrayed with instruments of torture.  They were all for him.  Roke wanted to see him suffer his punishment.  Failure was not tolerated at Castle Roke.  Not ever.

“Did you kill her?” Roke demanded in a silky voice.

“Why do you ask me when you already know the answer?”

“Say it,” Roke commanded.  “Tell me of your failure.”

Damien took a step toward him.  “Why did you send me there with the promise of my freedom if you had no intention of giving it to me?”

What will happen next?  Is Damien in trouble?  Find out next Monday on Medieval Monday on Barbara Bettis’s blog!

Can’t wait to find out?  Buy Angel’s Assassin here –

Amazon

Thanks for reading!  And, don’t forget, authors work hard to bring you these wonderful stories.  Please don’t forget to leave a review!