This post contains affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a small commission should you purchase using those links. All opinions expressed are my own. I receive no compensation for reviews.

Exclusive Excerpt + Signed Giveaway: The Bound (#2, Ascension) by K.A. Linde

Out today—The Bound by K.A. Linde! This is the anticipated fantasy follow-up to The Affiliate and I’m thrilled to share with you a sneak peek into this story rife with passion, myth and intrigue.

✦ Order Now: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble ✦

✦ Add to your TBR ✦

Synopsis

the-bound Cyrene Strohm is a Queen’s Affiliate, a high-ranking official of the court of Byern, with power and privilege to spare. But she’s also a keeper of dangerous secrets: like the fact that she holds the heart of the King, and that she possesses magic in a world where magic no longer exists.

Determined to discover what this means and how to use her newfound abilities, Cyrene sets off for the distant land of Eleysia. An island nation where Affiliates are strictly forbidden from entering.

But the journey is perilous, and the destination may mean utter ruin, as Cyrene comes to learn that everything she’s been told her whole life—about her court, her homeland, and even herself—are bound in a beautiful lie.

Excerpt

As soon as she touched the sparking center at her middle, a deadly heartbeat filled her eardrums. She squeezed her eyes against the onslaught, and her abilities flowed into her like a river emptying into the ocean.

Everything was magnified a thousandfold. She could feel the individual threads in his shirt clutched in her fist, the light breeze touching her skin, and his faint breaths beside her.

Above all, that was the heartbeat. Yet it was wrong. Not like the deer at all.

This was otherworldly. It called to her and repulsed her without her having any knowledge of what it was.

Then, she felt it reach out to touch her mind. It was just the faintest brush that, if she had not had her powers to guide her, she would never have felt it. But she had felt that touch before, and she would never again let that happen to her.

Without a second thought, she slammed a mental wall between that and the thing that was trying to reach her. Braj.

The heartbeat remained…and it was getting closer. Too close.

“No,” she cried, straightening.

“What’s wrong?”

“Give me your weapon.”

“My sword?” he asked. His brows furrowed.

“Now!” she cried. Then, she yanked it out of its ornamental sheath before he could object.

She whirled with the sword in hand. It was massive and made for the man behind her, who was much larger and stronger than her. But her powers surged up out of her and flooded the instrument in her hand, lightening and strengthening the steel.

The Braj came out of the shadows at that exact moment.

“Move. Get out of here!” she yelled at the man at her side.

“I’m not leaving you here!”

She rushed toward the Braj with more determination with the use of her powers than she had felt the last time she killed. She knew nothing of swordplay, but she let the instrument guide her, let her powers flow freely.

The beast came at her with ease, perilously swinging his poison-laden blade.

Cyrene twisted away from the curved sword. She had known its danger and had been lucky to have survived. She wouldn’t give the thing that advantage this time. She felt the irregular heartbeat of the Braj and then used the sword as an instrument to push the magic toward him.

She deflected his blow and drove the sword home. A pulse shuddered through its body, and then it tumbled to the ground. She was forced off her feet as the weight of the Braj took her down with the sword still in her hand.

Her heart fluttered as the power slowly drained out of her, like molasses dripping from a tree. She felt an arm on her shoulder as someone hoisted her onto her feet.

“Are you out of your mind? How did you even hold my sword? The bloody thing is too heavy for most of my men, and you handled it like a professional. Did you learn that from your father as well?”

She shook her head, but her body felt sluggish, almost like she was wading through a heavy current. Her powers hummed softly in her, and just as she went to release them at the loss of the threat…another heartbeat filled her ears.

“There’s another,” she said softly. Then, she collapsed.

Series Reading Order

Signed Giveaway

To celebrate the release of The Bound, I’m giving away signed paperbacks of BOTH The Affiliate and The Bound! To enter, share this post on social media (any forum) and come back and leave a comment on this blog post below! U.S. only entrants please.

Follow K.A. Linde

Website | Facebook | Twitter

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦