Cosmic Tic-Tac-Toe

Note the cosmic balance. And the five empty locations. As the series progresses, I promise, each slot will get filled in, ideally in the most shocking way possible.

I’m currently chugging along on Called to Serve, now working on chapter 8. There’ll likely be 38 chapters. Thought I’d share a snippet from the book, and hope you enjoy it. The scene is Ishethra trying to find her next Paramour after a century of loneliness. Her divination has yielded only a faceless image, sadly.

Alone. The word presses down on my chest as I stare at the vaulted ceiling in my mess of a master suite, a mirror to my love life. I rise, the silk sheets piling at my feet. Kicking clothing out of the way, I walk to the grand window.

Through the ward’s shimmer, Goryn’s statue centers Tenebres, the city glittering below, a constellation of mortal lives burning bright and brief. For a century, no man has shared this view with me. Not truly. So many beautiful potentials, hand-plucked by me after reviewing scrolls detailed by my attendants. Hundreds of them. They warm my bed, but none has touched my mind in the way I need. The amatory bond—the searing, indelible mark of my phoenix over my man’s heart—remains absent. A dormant circuit waiting for a current that never comes.

If only I could see his face, my court could track him down within days.