Hey, what do you know? I’m back!

And I’m back with a new project. Through a series of events I’ll explain soon, I find myself with some unexpected time on my hands. I asked members of my street team/readers’ group to suggest short story ideas, and they thought this one was pretty keen.

I’m not going to tell you all about it. Not yet. But it relates to the Bound trilogy, should be out before Sworn is ready to go, and will be sent out as exclusive bonus content for newsletter subscribers.

And you’re not going to want to miss this one.

Oh. For anyone new to this blog hop, WIPpet Wednesday is where we share a snippet from a work in progress that relates in some way to the day’s date. Today I’ll share 9 paragraphs for the ninth month. No context just yet, but some of you might guess who at least one of these characters are if you’ve been listening to me rambling for long enough.

This is very much rough draft stuff. Don’t judge me for the tongue-twister at the beginning. 😉

A broad-shouldered soldier turned to face her, and her breath caught as his gaze met hers. Cold eyes, dark and hard, searched her face. He scowled. Maggie wanted to run, and found she couldn’t. Couldn’t even look away. She stood frozen in the street like a mouse entranced by a barn cat, unsure of how to move or escape.

To call the soldier handsome would have done him a disservice. In spite of his keen glare, she couldn’t help appreciating the strength of his clean-shaven jaw, the way his straight nose balanced the curve of his lips, the grace with which he finally turned away and released her from his stare. The group moved on, and she followed. This was something interesting, something she’d barely even read about. She glanced back to mark the path to the market in her mind, then slipped through the crowd.

The king’s men moved with purpose, not stopping to speak with anyone outside their group. When they stopped again at a corner, cart traffic paused to allow them to pass. At the far side, the handsome soldier looked back again. She caught a breath and backed away.

“Watch it,” an old man muttered as she bumped into him.

“Sorry,” she whispered, but he was gone. She looked back to the guards to see if any of them might be watching, and found that the group had moved on again. She squinted, but couldn’t see the handsome one among them. The frightening one, she added, and felt warm with relief to not be locked under his glare again. Emalda had warned her not to wander too far—perhaps this was why. No one needed trouble with those men, especially if the king were in town. To see where they were headed might have been interesting, but would lead to trouble.

As she made her way to the alley that led back to the market, a hand closed around her upper arm. Before she could scream, another hand spun her to face a green-clad chest. Her throat closed as she looked up into those piercing eyes. Brown, she saw now, but with no warmth in them.

“Who are you?” he demanded as he steered her toward an alley—not the busy one she’d passed through, but empty and dark.

Maggie looked around, but found no sympathetic glances or anyone who seemed at all inclined toward helping her. They wouldn’t interfere with one of the king’s men.

“Gloria Graphook,” she stammered, grabbing for anything but her own name. If there was going to be trouble, the last thing she wanted was for it to be connected with her family. “What do you want?”

Annnnd that’s all we have space for.

For more WIPpet Wednesday shenanigans from authors in a variety of genres, click the link here. If you’d like to join in, post your own snippet on your blog, link back, and be sure to go check out what everyone else is doing. Big thanks to KL Schwengel for hosting, and for ripping the above story to shreds.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be back tomorrow to continue the “Bound A-Z” series with “R is for Ruby.” She stopped by for an interview. It got awkward.

You’ll see what I mean.