Queen and Assassin
an excerpt

The people who had done this were still nearby.

She cast about a bit more and then jumped to her feet and ran, only slightly conscious of the pain of running barefoot on the stone road. Her only thought was to find the people who murdered her family and get retribution.

Almost there, just around the corner, she egged herself on despite the pain in her feet, in her head and in her heart. Just as she reached the turn and saw smoke billowing from where her home should be, she was grabbed from behind and pulled into the woods surrounding the road.

Starrlyn screamed, kicked, clawed. A hand clamped down over her mouth and calming emotions poured through her. Her body relaxed a little despite her fear. What on earth?

“Shh…” a man’s voice, the man from earlier in the bar, whispered in her ear. “They’ll kill you if they find you.”

She stopped moving, feeling the honesty in his words. She gave a nod of her head and hoped he’d put her down. After only a moment’s hesitation, he did.
She spun around and jabbed a finger at him. “The smoke you smell? The flames you see? That’s from my home, it’s my family out there. Why did you stop me? Who are you?”

His warm copper eyes were full of sorrow. “Your foster family is dead. You can’t help them now, not by going to your home. There are guards posted, waiting for you, and more searching the woods. It’s you they wanted.”