A SNEAK PEEK JUST FOR YOU!

YES! It's true! NO MORE DRAGON SASS IS COMING YOUR WAY VERY SOON!

I am so excited! I just couldn't wait any longer! I HAD to share this SNEAK PEEK of my newest DRAGONS OF DESTINY story!

"Annabella, we've been at this for days." Cornelius' deep raspy voice echoed through the Crypt. "You need sleep, and I need sustenance."

"No," the Necromancer grunted. "You need to hush, and I need to try this one more time." Then, directing her huff of irritation at the wisp of hair hanging in her eye, she added, "After all, it's you who didn't trust our calculations. You who flew out to the middle of the sea and portaled yourself on to a Matchmaking cruise. And, I might add, you who scared the crap out of Makayla. You did all of that to drag me back here because, and I quote….”

Looking over the top of her oversized, rounded-edge, black Jackie O glasses she'd recently been reduced to wearing to see five feet in front of her face, Annabella made air quotes, "…there was a disturbance in the Ether that was causing an uproar in the Crypt."

“But….”

"But nothing." Keeping her eyes trained on his, she continued without so much as a breath while throwing her arms open wide. "I feel no disturbance in the Ether and I see no uproar in the Crypt."

"If you would just…."

"Just what? Stop trying to figure out what you think you heard? Decline looking into the Past, Present, and Future to be sure you haven't lost your marbles and I have to call The Morrigan to take you back to wherever you came from?”

“You know exactly where I came from, Annabella Eliza….”

"Or maybe I should simply continue to get older by the minute, start collecting cats, sit on the porch and wait for my nieces to come to visit, then bore them with stories of the good old days?"

“I think you should….”

“Yeah, well, I think you should shut your beak and stand there like a good Familiar.”

“Well, I never.”

"Oh, hell yes, you did, you are, and you will again, Bucko."

Not waiting for another complaint from her thousand-year-old, six-foot, black-feathered, and incredibly whiny Familiar who happened to be one of the Crows given to The Morrigan by the Great Goddess herself, Annabella pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose and peered into the Grimoire that was actually older than she was. "Okay, if I reverse this line, light that candle instead of that one, and ask for Odin's Blessing instead of The Dagda's – I think I should be able to…."

Words cut off by an explosion that rocked the walls of her ancient Crypt, shook the ground beneath her, and pretty much scrambled her brains, Annabella rolled ass over teakettle until her head made abrupt and painful contact with the corner of the door of the granite tomb of her great-great-great-grandmother, Anastacia. Quickly forcing herself into a sitting position, her blurry gaze landed upon a blazing fire.

A blazing fire hadn’t been there two seconds before.

Flames as high as the twenty-foot ceiling, clear as glass in the center with flickering blue around the edges, and hotter than Hell at high noon, there was no rhyme nor reason as to where the blaze had come from or where it was going. Holding out her hands, Annabella whispered, "From this place and to your home, be gone flames no longer to roam."

And… nothing happened.

Repeating the incantation, this time in Gaelic, she demanded, “O'n àite so 's gu d' dhachaidh, falbh 'na lasraichibh. Gun a bhith a 'siubhal tuilleadh.”

And… nothing happened – again.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cornelius squawked. "I told you we needed to rest. You're too tired to work even the easiest of Spells - much less say it in the old language. Look what you've done. Look at this mess! Put it out! Put it out! Put. It. Out. Before you reduce everything and everyone to ashes. Do it now so we can go eat."

Wings flapping and feathers flying in every direction, the massive Crow's beak opened wide to continue his shrieking rant just as the flames in the center of the room dropped to the ground, and an otherworldly sigh floated up and out of the glowing embers on bright white billowing plumes of slitering smoke. Up on her knees, Annabella got one foot flat on the ground when a whoosh of Magic and a flash of light filled the entire catacomb with a sense of longing and desire.

Unable to move, she blinked her eyes once, twice, then three times before patting the ground in search of her glasses. Getting the spectacles as far as the tip of her nose, Annabella's heart ceased to beat as the shock at what she saw knocked her right back on her ass.

Gulping a breath as her heart restarted and her brain clicked into gear, she whispered to the oversized, overwrought Crow, “Please tell me you see that, Cornie.”

“Yes, I see it,” the Familiar breathed. “But I don’t believe it.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Annabella counted to three before forcing them open and huffing, “Well, shit. It’s really there."

Pinching her arm, she flinched, then added, "And I'm not dreaming."

“No, you most assuredly are not,” Cornie whispered.

As unbelievable as it was, there was no denying that right there in the center of her Crypt, in the middle of the nexus of the most powerful ley lines in the US, stood the Spiritual Embodiment of the long-forgotten King of the Diamond Dragons - Kayman the Great. Tall and majestic, more regal than anything Annabella had ever seen, the incandescent scales of his broad chest pulsed with Power and Magic as old as time.

Looking her right in the eye, she felt the weight of his stare to the very depths of her soul. It was as if he’d reached into her chest, held her heart in his great paw, and breathed renewed life into every fiber of her being.

“Wow,” she breathed just as the Winged Warrior of old bowed his head, furled the tips of his folded wings putward, and bent his right knee.

Sparkling Enchantment and a warm breeze adorned with smoky peat, delicate Highland heather, and soothing lavender ushered in the low, rumbling brogue of the great Dragon King. "Annabella Aeriela, Holder of the Magic of The Morrigan and through whom the blood of a great Aeriela Lion Queen flows, you have called beyond the Veil, and I have answered.”

A single blink of his expressive blue eyes, and he continued, "You must find the Guardsman who knows not who he is, the Warrior who has lost his way, the one with a great Destiny who has forgotten his Calling. Bring him to me. Our souls must be reunited when the waning moon is high in the sky, or we will both be called Home. Our time on Earth will be cut short. We will take our place among the Ancestors in the Heavens above until the end of time - never to return and never to know our Mate's love."

“You wanna run that by me one more time?" She asked, the shock and awe of what was before her evaporating as quickly as it had appeared – only to be replaced by her usual take-no-prisoners-.sassy-as-all-get-out attitude. "I'm gonna need a little more information. For instance, what does this guy look like? When was the last time you saw him? Did he hit his head? Is that how he lost his memory? Are you even sure he's still alive? You don’t by chance have a last known location, do you?" Holding her hands out, she shrugged, "You're gonna have to at least point me in the right direction." Snapping her fingers, she quickly added, "Or how about a map? A map would be really helpful and might be easier for you. Do you have a map, Great King Kayman?”

Still on her knees, afraid to move and not wanting to keep rambling like a loon, Annabella stayed perfectly still and absolutely silent for what seemed like forever. Then, finally, when it looked like the Dragon King wasn't going to answer, she got as far as opening her mouth before he replied, "Follow your heart, Annabella Aeriela. Follow your heart and soul, for this man was made for you by the Universe."

“The hell you say!” Shaking her head and laughing sarcastically, Annabella added, “Figures you’d wait until I was wearin’ glasses, pickin’ out rockin’ chairs, and havin’ hot flashes that could keep the fires of Hell burnin’ bright. Where the hell were you a couple of hundred years ago?”

I PROMISE MORE IS COMING!

And the WHOLE STORY Will be here by the END OF AUGUST!!!

Talk to ya' soon!

Take care!

Read lots!

And, ALWAYS Dare to Dream!!

XOXO, Julia