Contest winner and Monday snippet

And the winner of the Bewitched & Betrayed totebag in Friday's contest . . . Elfbiter! Congratulations, sweetie! Elfbiter's entries are all of the following:

You know you're a writer if . . .

The letters are getting faint on your keyboard.
You are late to social functions because you had to jot a scene down.
You dangle participles for fun.
Your characters get more action than you do.

When at the grocery store your buy/not buy is decided by how easy it is to eat at the computer.
You can't watch The History Channel without thinking "Hey, I can use that in my book!"
You talk about your characters the way most people talk about their kids.
You're not unemployed, you're unpublished.
Sometimes the cursor mocks you. You're certain of it.

Now, on to today's Bewitched & Betrayed snippet featuring Raine and a new character -- Director of the Goblin Secret Service, Imala Kalis. I just love her. ; )

Imala Kalis's smile just got wider. "Mistress Benares, I presume."

I bared my teeth to match hers. "Presumption correct."

"I expected you to be taller." She swung a graceful leg over her horse's neck and dismounted, landing lightly on the cobbles.

Damned if she wasn't shorter than I was. The streetlamps gave me a good look at her face. I have to admit I was surprised there, too. The head of the goblin secret service, the agent at top of the ladder, the lady in the big office was . . . well, cute.

Her face was oval, delicate, and pretty. It'd been my experience that goblin women were tall and coldly beautiful. Imala Kalis was petite and perky. She looked like someone's cute little sister, someone's cute and deadly little sister. And I wasn't the only one packing magic. Imala Kalis had nowhere near the level of talent that the Saghred had cursed me with, but it was obvious that she knew her way around a spell or two. She might be petite, but magically speaking she was no lightweight. Large, dark eyes shone with a keen intelligence and secrets, lots of secrets. One look at this lady told me that she probably had schemes and plots piled on top of motives, and she didn't bother with alibis or care who she had to kill. In other words, a perfect goblin.

Imala Kalis stepped forward and extended her hand. It was gloved; so was mine. A handshake between mages was more than a greeting. Skin-on-skin contact combined with a quick questing spell could let a mage assess the true power of another. That was one reason when mages got together there was a lot of head nodding and bowing going on.

I took two steps and accepted her hand, and there were hisses, a couple of growls, and one "shit" when I did it. The last one came from Vegard. I shook Imala Kalis's hand because I wanted to and it would be rude not to. I also had three reasons why it was perfectly safe. One, I was wearing thick gloves; two, thanks to the Saghred, I was packing more than enough power to protect myself; and three, if Imala Kalis tried a questing spell on me, I'd be using my fist on her.

She looked in my eyes, and I think she knew all three. Her smile turned into a grin, and I swear the woman had dimples. A cute killer goblin with dimples. Damn.

"You are not what I expected, Mistress Benares." She actually looked happy about that.

"You're not exactly what I envisioned, either."

"I get that comment quite often."

"I'm sure you do." And looking into those sharp, intelligent eyes, anyone would be making a fatal mistake if they underestimated her for one second. I wondered if those dimples had been the last thing some people had seen before being dispatched to their great reward. I shrugged. "What you see is what I am."

"I very much doubt that." Imala Kalis raised her voice to address her men. "Gentlemen, this is the lady who tricked Sarad Nukpana into feeding himself to the Saghred."

The goblins with her grinned; a few chuckled darkly. I wasn't sure if either was a good thing since both involved me seeing a lot of fangs. If a goblin wanted to kill you, they would prefer a single, efficient slash or stab; but like I said, in a down and dirty fight, they would use their fangs to fatal effect. I'd seen the aftermath before; it wasn't pretty.