An English lass grows up in a Scottish coven only to awaken in a strange new world with sculptures, a handsome man, and a hate-filled demon. Falling in love while saving the world was not the plan!
Multi-published and award-winning Raleigh author, Nancy Lee Badger, presents a paranormal romance set in North Carolina filled with sights, sounds, a fabulous art museum, horses, sword fights, and a demon bent on taking over the world. A love of art, especially the bronze sculptures by the French master, Auguste Rodin, helped give her ideas that brought this story to life. This is a full-length book, the third and final book in her Warriors in Bronze series.
Scottish Highlands, 1790: London-born Marigold awakens naked inside a dark tomb. Using a spell to free herself, and wrapped in her long red hair and an unusual banner, she is startled by the bronze statue staring down at her.
Raleigh, North Carolina Present day: As a Fae living among humans, Sam heads home to his beach house in Rodanthe, but is compelled to park at the Raleigh Museum of Art. This is where he and fellow demon fighters vanquished two demons. Has another returned? Two women gain his attention, but mystery surrounds both.
He returns with the redhead to his cousin’s home, but the fire-throwing demon follows. When a sword-wielding Marigold saves him, he wonders where her abilities come from. Is she the third Heaven-sent warrior? A woman? If so, training her is prudent, but the urge to make love to her is too strong to resist.
Excerpt
“My name is Somerled Walker, but please, call me Sam. And you are?”
“Oh, um, Marigold. That’s right, Marigold Keats. I am still a little foggy.”
“Pleased to meet you, under the circumstances. Zinerva is wicked. She wanted me to follow her, but she is a demon. I wish I realized that before I let her kiss me.”
“Looked like ye were enjoying kissing her. Maybe she had ye under a spell?”
He turned and stood so close the heat from his body made her damp red curls tighten about her shoulders.
“Not exactly. She’s no damned witch. She claimed to hate them as much as me. She used her otherworldly wiles on me, but I finally got her talking. Women like to talk about themselves.” His grin was boyish, but beneath the moonlight his chest glowed like solid silver flesh. She tugged her gaze away and realized what he’d claimed.
“Are ye placing me in that group?”
“Perhaps you awakened from inside one of the trio of statues by the sculptor Auguste Rodin called The Three Shades. I wouldn’t be surprised, though I assumed you were male.”
Planting her hands on both hips, she glared at him. “Last time I looked, I was female, through and through.” He talked about a statue as if assuming she had come from inside it. How would he know such a thing? She was not sure how she arrived, or even if the statue was indeed her tomb, just that she’d found herself laying free at its base.
His eyes widened, then glanced up and down her body. She suddenly realized that raising her arms uncovered more skin below the hem. Her secret place began to throb beneath his perusal. The sensation was maddening, so she lowered her fists to her sides.
“So,” he continued, “if the statue led you here, your powers are due to being a Heaven-sent warrior.”
“A what?”
Sam kicked a pebble into the pond beyond the tree and sighed. “Not another one. Why would Heaven send another warrior without explaining the rules to them first? This will take time.”
“How much time?” What he said made no sense.
“Time I did not plan to spend in Raleigh.”
Nancy Lee Badger grew up in Huntington on New York’s Long Island, where school field trips to lofty museums were the norm. After attending Plymouth State, in New Hampshire, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education and met and married her college sweetheart. They raised two handsome sons in Rumney, New Hampshire, where Nancy volunteered as an EMT and firefighter while working full-time. When the children had left the nest, and shoveling snow became a chore, she retired from her satisfying job as a 9-1-1 Emergency Medical Dispatcher and moved with her husband to North Carolina, where she writes full-time.
Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Triangle Association of Freelancers. She loves to travel and attend Scottish Highland Games and is never far from her laptop. She finds story ideas in the most unusual places. Connect with her here:
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