Jun
2015
Shira Anthony’s Running With The Wind
Oh my gosh y’all! The last book in Shira Anthony’s Mermen of Ea series is now available and I can’t FREAKING wait to read it. She stops by today with the first of three parts in an exclusive scene you can only find on the blog tour. You definitely don’t want to miss it. After reading Aine’s scene read all about the book that finishes out this wonderful series. Plus there’s a fabulous excerpt. If you haven’t read any of the books yet I’d skip the excerpt because there is a bit of a spoiler in it. At the very bottom, enter for a chance to win one of three fabulous prizes.
The setup: The crews of the Sea Witch and the Phantom join forces as Taren and Ian search for the fabled colony of merfolk in the Eastern Lands. Human and Ea (mermen shifters), side by side, are drawn into an age-old mystery. Set sometime during the final book in the Mermen of Ea Series, Running with the Wind, two cabin boys, one human and one merman, grow to be close friends and perhaps more….
Fiall pulled his knees to his chest and looked out over the water. The waves danced on the surface as the wind created white capped peaks and bubbles. He closed his eyes and imagined what it might be like to swim beneath like a fish.
“The water’s warm today,” a familiar voice.
“Aine.” Fiall opened his eyes to see his counterpart from the Phantom smiling back at him from the water’s edge. Naked, his long hair dripping, his face shining with pleasure, Aine had clearly just transformed after a long swim.
“You could swim with me,” Aine said as he wiped a stray lock of hair from his eyes.
“I’m not much of a swimmer.” Fiall wouldn’t tell Aine that he’d not gone swimming since he’d nearly drowned months before.
Aine sat next to Fiall on the warm sand. “Taren told me about what happened during the storm,” he said, his voice gentle. “He said you fell overboard and almost died.”
“I owe Taren my life,” Fiall said wistfully. He hated to remember that dreadful night and his horror when afterward he’d believed Taren had perished in his place. It didn’t matter that Taren had been rescued by the crew of the Phantom or that Taren had found his soul mate in the Phantom’s captain as a result, Fiall still shouldered the heavy weight of his guilt.
“If it hadn’t been for you,” Aine pointed out, “Taren would never have known of his true nature.” He covered Fiall’s hand with his own.
“Did you read my thoughts?” Fiall angrily retorted.
Aine shook his head. “I cannot,” he said. “Not in my human form.” He touched his knee, where only moments before there had been a tail.
“I’m sorry.” Fiall turned and met Aine’s understanding gaze. “You know I don’t fear you or the other Ea.”
“I know.” Aine squeezed Fiall’s hand reassuringly, then fixed his gaze on the water.
Neither of them spoke for the longest time, the only sound the waves as they broke along the shore. Finally, Aine said, “Swim with me?”
Fear writhed like an angry snake in Fiall’s belly. “I… I can’t.”
“Do you not know how?” Aine asked.
“Aye,” Fiall answered. “I do know how. It’s just….”
“You fear the water.”
Fiall heard no judgment in Aine’s words, only understanding. The realization warmed him, and his fear eased a bit. “Aye,” he admitted.
“I will keep you safe.” Aine stood and held out his hand. “We needn’t go far or deep. And I will stay by your side.”
To be continued on June 8 at Bayou Book Junkie
Blurb:
Sequel to Into the Wind
With the final confrontation between the island and mainland Ea factions looming, Taren and Ian sail with Odhrán to investigate a lost colony of merfolk in the Eastern Lands. Upon their arrival, the King of Astenya welcomes them as friends. Odhrán, however, isn’t so quick to trust the descendent of the man who held him prisoner for nearly a decade, especially now that he has someone to cherish and protect—the mysterious winged boy he rescued from the depths.
Armed with the knowledge he believes will save the Ea, Taren returns to the mainland. With Ian at his side, Taren convinces Vurin that their people must unite with their island brethren before it’s too late. When Seria and his men attack, Taren must call upon the ancient power of the rune stone to protect his comrades. But using stone’s immeasurable power commands a hefty price—and Ian fears that price is Taren’s life.
Excerpt:
SPOILER WARNING: This excerpt contains spoilers for the first two series books!
Running with the Wind
Excerpt from Chapter One
Ian leaned over the railing as the morning sunlight warmed his shoulders. A few feet away, Taren wrapped a blanket around the shivering boy, who sat with his knees hugged to his chest. He tenderly ruffled the boy’s fiery red hair. The boy leaned into Taren’s touch and made a satisfied sound much like the purr of a cat.
Not a boy, Ian reminded himself. Bastian. An Anuki. The heavenly brethren of the Ea. A dragon shifter reborn from the ashes. True, this freckle-faced dragon child looked nothing like the full-fledged beast who’d nearly killed them the day before, but they knew little of the Anuki. Had it only been a day since Seria’s men had attacked them and they’d lost Rider to Seria’s bullet?
Ian met Taren’s gaze and his grief eased slightly. Taren smiled back, his warm brown eyes hooded with exhaustion and grief, his shoulder-length hair having dried in a tumble of waves. From where he sat on the deck, Bastian watched Odhrán, keenly interested. The sphere they’d discovered not long after the destruction of the Sea Witch—an egg, Ian now knew—had dissolved beneath the water. Bastian had been choking and spluttering when Odhrán had carried him aboard. Since then, Bastian had done little but watch Odhrán with rapt attention.
Like a baby bird watches its mother. Ian frowned at his folly. How easy it was to forget this pathetic creature had destroyed the Sea Witch and nearly killed them all. If Odhrán hadn’t killed the dragon Bastian had become, they’d all have died. And yet Bastian had been reborn.
Bastian glanced up at Taren, blinked several times, then shifted his gaze back to Odhrán, who spoke in hushed tones to one of his crew. The long blond braid down Odhrán’s back dripped onto the deck and left the back of his woolen jacket sodden. Despite the bright blue of his eyes and his youthful features, Odhrán appeared as exhausted as Ian felt.
“A moment of your time?” Ian said after the crewmember trotted off toward the stairs, leaving the four of them alone on the foredeck.
Odhrán nodded and followed Ian amidships, far enough away that Bastian wouldn’t hear.
“Do you think this is wise?” Ian asked with a quick glance back at Taren and Bastian.
“What would you have me do? Leave him to drown?” Odhrán, too, appeared weary. Ian knew he still regretted having killed the fully transformed Bastian.
“He couldn’t live without Rider.” Taren’s words echoed in Ian’s mind. Rider—Ian’s oldest friend—had taken a bullet in Ian’s stead. There’d been no time to grieve.
“No.” Ian sighed. “Rider would have wanted us to care for him.” Taren would never have forgiven him for suggesting they leave Bastian to drown, and they’d lost too much to even consider it.
Odhrán nodded curtly and turned his gaze eastward. Now calm in the wake of the storm, the water sparkled with sunlight. Nothing remained of the Sea Witch but a few bits of broken timbers floating restlessly on the waves. Later, all of the men now aboard the Chimera would gather on the deck to remember the Witch’s captain, but for just a moment, Ian could almost imagine Rider at the wheel of his beloved ship.
I’ll miss you, old friend. More than you’ll ever know.
Ian shrugged off his dark thoughts and walked back to Taren. “You should get some sleep.” He squeezed Taren’s shoulder. “Odhrán and I will not let Bastian out of our sight.”
Taren pressed his lips together and nodded. How tired Taren must be that he didn’t even argue!
“I’ll join you in a bit.” Ian pressed his lips to Taren’s warm cheek.
Taren retrieved the blanket that had fallen off Bastian’s shoulders and wrapped it around him again. Naked as Bastian was beneath, Ian caught a glimpse of the wings they’d seen when they’d discovered him on the ocean floor. No longer scaled as they’d been when they’d first pulled Bastian from the water, Bastian’s wings were now covered with feathers and shimmered red, yellow, orange, and fuchsia, iridescent in the sunlight.
“I’ll be back later,” Taren told Bastian with a barely repressed yawn. “I promise.”
Bastian’s eyes revealed little understanding. Had he forgotten everything of his former life? Perhaps he was still too overwhelmed from the shock of the past day’s events to fully comprehend his situation. He’d not uttered a word since they’d brought him aboard.
Taren kissed Ian—a fleeting kiss, but one Ian needed to reassure himself that all had not changed—before heading belowdecks to rest.
Ian met Odhrán at the bow. “He’s like a fledgling,” Ian said, inclining his head in Bastian’s direction, “watching you like a bird might his mother.”
Odhrán’s brow knitted. He’d clearly noticed it as well. “I’ve asked Garan to reinforce the enchantments on the ship’s masts and sails. There’s nothing more to be done.”
“Aye. But if Bastian threatens the ship—”
“Then I’ll be forced to subdue him. Not a prospect I relish, although in his current state, he appears far less powerful than before.” Odhrán studied Bastian once again. “For now, at least, he’s content to be in our company.”
“What do you know of the Anuki?”
“They’re much like the Ea in their ability to shift to human form. I met one centuries ago, but he was nothing like this. Not a child. But what happened with Bastian….”
“Reborn from the ashes.” Ian’s heart ached once again for the loss of Rider.
“My time with one of their kind was brief.” Odhrán stared past Ian as if remembering.
Ian didn’t press the issue. Later, perhaps, he’d ask Odhrán about that encounter. “And his memories of his life with Rider?”
Odhrán shook his head. “I don’t know. I suppose only time will tell.”
Ian clenched his jaw. The realization that Bastian might not remember anything of his love for Rider made Ian’s grief that much greater.
About Shira:
In her last incarnation, Shira was a professional opera singer, performing roles in such operas as “Tosca,” “i Pagliacci,” and “La Traviata,” among others. She’s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M/M romance on her Kindle.
Shira is married with two children and two insane dogs, and when she’s not writing she is usually in a courtroom trying to make the world safer for children. When she’s not working, she can be found aboard a 36’ catamaran at the Carolina coast with her favorite sexy captain at the wheel.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shira.anthony
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shira-Anthony/177484618974406
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriterShira
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/anthony0564/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4641776.Shira_Anthony
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShiraAnthony/posts
Buy Links:
Dreamspinner Press eBook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6455
Dreamspinner Press Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6456
Tour Stops:
1-Jun: Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings
2-Jun: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
3-Jun: My Fiction Nook
4-Jun: Amanda C. Stone
5-Jun: Carly’s Book Reviews
8-Jun: Bayou Book Junkie
9-Jun: Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
10-Jun: Decadent Delights
11-Jun: MM Good Book Reviews
12-Jun: Inked Rainbow Reads
15-Jun: Divine Magazine
16-Jun: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
17-Jun: BFD Book Blog
18-Jun: The Novel Approach
19-Jun: Because Two Men Are Better Than One
22-Jun: Kimi-Chan, Happily Ever Chapter
23-Jun: Prism Book Alliance
24-Jun: Cate Ashwood
25-Jun: Love Bytes
26-Jun: Molly Lolly
Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting today Amanda!!! I’m so excited for release day on Monday. 😀
a nice excerpt