This snippet is from Warlock’s Pawn and continues from the last one (click on the SFFSat tag at the bottom of the post to read past snippets). Warlock’s Pawn is a fantasy romance inspired by The Arabian Nights. It is available on LSBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ARe, Kobo, and a few other places.
In the previous post, Duncan calls Alia a pawn. How so, you ask?
“When your bloodline is revealed, you will have already earned your people’s loyalty. Alia. It is a name I shall never forget.”
For reasons he could not understand, Duncan was reluctant to release her. Nonetheless, he laid her on the cold, shifting sand and rose. An arduous path awaited him, and he was eager to begin the conquest he should never have attempted to avoid. Helicon needed the waters this kingdom possessed. What he failed to acquire through marriage, he would now have to take by force.
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Tara Quan 
So like a man! Harrumph. Let’s go to war!
I know–it’s really hard to come back from that isn’t it?
Masculine thinking, all right.
Reading it out of context, you could definitely start inferring (based on the statements made in the snippet) what’s going to happen next, and it wouldn’t be pleasant…
I definitely wouldn’t describe it a pleasant 😉 Stay tuned!
I don’t guess a compromise can be had? Oh, well.
Very nice snippet! Like how you let the reader get into Duncan’s head a little.
well written and smooth, as usual, and the whole passage just flows – the hard road it is then. Can’t wait to see where it takes us.