Owens, Robin D. - HeartMate

Title: HeartMate
Author: Robin D. Owens
Series: Heart #1
Pub: Jove
Pub Date: December, 2001
ISBN: 0515132896
Genre: Futuristic romance; psychic elements
Time Period:
Setting: Celta
Hero: Rand T'Ash
Heroine: Danith Mallow

Summary:

All his life, Rand T'Ash has looked forward to meeting his HeartMate, with whom he could begin a family. Once a street tough but now a respected nobleman and artisan, he has crafted the perfect HeartGift, which, in the custom of the psychically-gifted population of the planet Celta, is the way a man finds - and attracts - his wife...

Danith Mallow is irresistibly drawn to the magnificent necklace on display in T'Ash's shop, but she is wary of its creator, despite an overpowering attraction. In a world where everyone is defined by their psychic ability, Danith has little, and thus is at the opposite end of the social spectrum from T'Ash. But T'Ash refuses to accept her rejection, and sees it as a challenge instead. They are HeartMates, but can T'Ash persuade his beloved to accept her destiny by his side?

Excerpt:

Druida City, Celta, 400 years after Colonization, Summer

Today you will meet your HeartMate. Rand T'Ash's blood thrummed in his temples as he stared at the divination dice that he'd just rolled.

The polished blue-green stones gleamed in the light. The symbols incised on them showed deep red veins, looking like blood. He didn't quite believe the glyphs carved in the twelve-sided pieces of bloodstone and the prophecy they foretold. He'd throw again, to be sure.

The deep emanation of his Flair—his psi power—pulsed through his blood. A few years back he'd created the dice, first choosing the bloodstones, then chiseling and shaping them.

He let the swell of his emotions flow through and from him. A tingle of premonition shivered up his spine. He focused his will and mage power. With a flick of his wrist, he threw the dice again. They rolled, spun, stopped.

Today you will meet your HeartMate.

Excitement surged, and an overwhelming tide of triumph. His heart picked up beat. Shimmering tension embedded in his nerves.

T'Ash sat and gripped his half-empty caff mug between his palms. It was oversized, made by a mage-potter to fit his hands.

The ebb and flow of his preternatural Flair had changed over the last few days, he now realized. The daily divinations had foretold something unusual, signs that he'd overlooked. TwinMoonsday—Enjoy the moment, for it will pass; Midweek-Prepare yourself; Quert-yesterday, Restructuring is necessary.

He stared at the dice once more. Today you will meet your HeartMate.

How long he had waited! He was thirty-seven, the sole member of a GreatHouse, the highest rank of Celta. There were only thirteen GreatHouses. His was a colony FirstFamily, the House of the Ash. By the grace of the Lord and Lady, he'd escaped the destruction of his Family by a rival House when he was six years old. By sheer will and determination he hid and lived as a boy in the slums of the worst part of the city—Downwind. He grew strong first to survive, then for vengeance.

Only in the last few years, after he'd reestablished his GreatHouse and started his shop, plying his Flair for mage-gems instead of fighting, had he been able to live life with deliberate ease.

After tomorrow he would never again be alone. An exhilarating, but disturbing thought.

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Comments:

The Heart series

Book 1: HeartMate
Book 2: Heart Thief
Book 3: Heart Duel
Book 4: Heart Choice