WOMEN OF WAR-BOOK #5 by Lisa Beth Darling

WOMEN OF WAR-BOOK #5 IN THE OF WAR SERIES

By Lisa Beth Darling

BLURB:

Venture on a Mystical Journey through Time and Secrets Past

Book #5 in the OF WAR Series spans four generations of women in Alena’s family from her great-grandmother, Shar Draiocht the last known Queen of the Dark Kingdom to her tortured daughter Morrowind, to Maven Alena’s free-spirited mother and through the lonely life of Alena MacLeod ending where “The Heart of War” begins with the night Alena washes up on Ares’ shore. With intensity, lust, fear, and strength these Women of War make their way in the world revealing the hidden truths of the past and Ares true connection to his beloved Wife, Alena.

EXCERPT PG:

Marteen didn’t suspect the heavy dose of Hemlock she grated into his tea and then let steep a good long time before bringing it to him. When he began puking on himself and sweating like a pig a few moments later, he called out for her. Being the dutiful Wife of a God, Maggie came to him, she sympathized with him, helped him into his bed, and sat with him until he slipped into a coma. Certain he would not wake and that most of the other Druids were in their beds, Maggie grabbed her father’s ring and a cloth sack. She filled it with food, and ran for her life with no thought as to where she was going or how she would get there. Maggie only knew that, as much as her heart cried out for it, she couldn’t go home to the Golden Lands and put the entire village in danger. Surely when Cernunnos found her gone, the Golden Lands would be the first place he would search. If he didn’t find her, if they honestly didn’t know anything about her escape, then he would have no choice but to leave them in peace.

Or she hoped.

Emerging from the tunnel five hundred yards past the keep and just at the tree line to the woods, she looked up at the night sky where a bright red star caught her eye. She recognized it as Mars, the planet named for the Roman God of War. Maggie focused on it, drawing strength and determination from it, hoping that the old God would lend his favor to her for one night. Faster than the wind, she ran toward it, pretending she was climbing some magickal staircase to the stars. The Mars twinkled, as though it was winking at her, acknowledging her, making her run faster. The faster she ran the brighter it glowed. She didn’t stop running nor did she take her eyes off the twinkling red glow until well past dawn when its light was visible to her even the growing light of day.

By the time she fell to the ground from hunger and exhaustion the golden belt sliced deep into the soft flesh of her inner thighs and hips. The wounds were gaping and jagged as flaps of skin stuck to the gold while her blood drying upon it stained it a dark crimson. Finding shelter beneath a large willow tree she dared to eat a large hunk of soda bread she’d stolen from Marteen’s kitchen. The nourishment slowly brought her heart rate to a normal pace as she looked around, noticing a small village some distance below her. The village was a harbor and there was a three-masted sailboat tied to the dock. Maggie didn’t know where it was going and she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was going to be on it. Once she was, when the boat left the dock and it was out on the big blue sea, she’d be safe from Cernunnos. She’d sail off to some place where they never heard of Feys and she would start a new life.