Lyla's life is planned. In a few months, she'll be leaving her stifling small village and the vicious rumors that have marked her as unsuitable to be anyone's wife, for the endless opportunities of the large port city of Balast. There she will finish her training as a magical healer, join an adventuring team, and see the world beyond the mountainous valleys of the High Passes that she's lived in her whole life.

Then a tragedy strikes.

Lyla doesn't know the secret that the soldier who saved her life is keeping from her. Worse yet, she doesn't know that he accidentally bound himself to her when he saved her life and that without her he will slowly lose his mind. What she does know is that her parents, the village elders, and even her best friend, are falling all over themselves to marry her off to this nearly perfect stranger with far too many muscles for her to take him seriously.

Can she escape this unexpected marriage that is messing up her plans for greatness? Will she even want to? Or will this be exactly the kind of adventure she was hoping for all along?





Do you love reading about the Mages of the Empire of Man?  Try my book "Lines of Inheritance" The first of a series about the conflict between the Empire of Man, The Matriarchy, And The Priestess Isles.

Or check out my web series "Inheritance" and read about the political intrigue within The Matriarchy and the uneasy truce they have with the Orc Horde.

Empire of Man - Book 1: The First Empress

Lindowyth Von Meridian, an Imperial Magus of the second Line of Inheritance, pick her way delicately along the rough path to the healer’s cottage avoiding potholes and bumps deliberately without looking as if she was. Behind her, two of the larger soldiers from their group followed with far less grace or dignity. She resisted the urge to chuckle as one stepped in a barely visible hole she had easily avoided, but lost the urge nearly immediately as she remembered why she had those two men with her. 


Though mages of both genders were generally taller and larger than the average human, her pixy heritage resulted in a slim girlish figure, auburn hair with the luster of sunset, and bright violet eyes that could glow like the clouds in the planet’s rings when her emotions ran high. This had always been a problem for her. Not the glowing eye’s part. The rest of it. 


20 – Wish I Didn’t Win That Bet