Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors.  This week I’m celebrating Love Romances Cafe’s nomination of Blood of Salar for Best Fantasy/Steampunk Romance of 2015.  Blood of Salar is high fantasy, m/m erotica, and is book 2 in the Masters and Mages series.

In this excerpt, M’lan, headmaster of the temple of Ka’alar, is facing the invasion of the temple by rebel forces.  War is about to force the healer to draw on the dark powers of the serpent god he serves.

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M’lan entered the chapel through a side door and scanned the scene. About a dozen soldiers were taking anything movable from the altar and the alcoves around it. There wasn’t much of value in the place, but along with a pair of gold cups and a crystal candlestick, they’d discovered the gemstones embedded in the mosaics behind the altar and were pounding at them with axes and prying with daggers. For the gain of a few coins, the rebels were vandalizing artwork a thousand years old.

He searched the dimly lit space for Sheylin but could make out only the bulky, lumbering bodies of the defilers. Then she cried out again, and M’lan spotted her in one of the alcoves. Raffe held her by the wrists and had forced her to her knees. The captain backhanded her across the face and then went down on one knee beside her limp body.

Thought and calculation dropped away from M’lan like a stone he’d been uselessly holding. This was Ka’alar’s place— Ka’alar would deal with these men.

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Blurb:

M’lan, headmaster of the order of Ka’alar and Jamil Jarka, king’s assassin, find their impossible love challenged to the utmost as a rebellion sweeps them apart, sending Jamil on a dangerous mission to assassinate the rebel leader, General Charvat. Unknown to anyone, Charvat is on his way to the temple to exploit the headmaster’s magical abilities.

When the rebel army arrives, M’lan is thrust into a struggle against political and sexual dominance as Charvat attempts to break his resistance. Violence and death mount, awakening within M’lan both the powers of destruction and the desire for revenge.

On the trail of his prey, Jamil begins to question his devotion to M’lan as his once innocent lover transforms into a mage and invades the assassin’s thoughts and dreams. The closer Jamil draws to M’lan, the more he puts his life and his very soul at risk. Jamil soon realizes that his lover might prove to be more deadly than the man he was sent to kill.

A final confrontation between assassin and monk might destroy them both, but Jamil is relentless in his determination to rescue M’lan, for he knows that only his love can master the mage.

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Blood of Salar on Amazon   Loose Id

All Romance eBooks  Barnes & Noble

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This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight to ten sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com