The Dragon's Devotion is through proofreading and turned in and on track for publication in September, so I thought I'd give you just a little more of it this week. Last week, I shared the first six sentences of the first chapter, which introduced you to Corentin. Here is a bit more of chapter one, when we see Bastien for the first time.
Bastien propped himself up on his arms in the open window of his study and took a long, deep breath. Fresh air filled his lungs, fragrant with grass and horse and a hint of woodsmoke—the familiar scents of home. He liked this time of year, this shift of season when the trees changed color and the estate was awash with gold and red, before the weather turned colder and the gray of winter set in.
He didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to miss all that color, but he likely would this year. It was absurd to feel so wrong about leaving, especially for so short a time. Just a trip to Jumelle for a month, maybe two. It wasn’t as if he would never return.
Still, the trip would be the longest he’d be away from home since his father died and he inherited the title and the lands that went with it.