QSFer Antonia Aquilante has a new MM (demisexual) fantasy book out: A Harmony of Fire and Earth.
Prince Edmund of Thalassa and Prince Arden of Aither are eagerly anticipating their upcoming wedding, but the danger to their kingdom hasn’t lessened. They have a plan, but they won’t be able to carry it out alone: they need a strong wielder of each Element, whom they can trust implicitly, to carry out the magic.
Rhys is a commoner and wielder of Earth magic. He and his sister have made a living from the use of their magic for years and have become highly respected in scholarly circles, though he prefers a more simple life with his plants. When a message from Prince Arden reaches them asking for their help, they don’t hesitate. They stop only to request that Gaz, a strong Fire wielder and the man Rhys has long been enamored of, accompany them on the journey to Thalassa’s royal palace.
What no one knows is that Gaz was once known as Prince Gareth of Thalassa and is Edmund’s younger brother, long believed dead. He fled his home after his Fire Affinity made itself known and put him in danger, and he had no intention of ever going back. But he can’t keep himself from going to his brother’s aid, despite the risk of discovery and of the weight of his secrets potentially crushing his fledgling relationship with Rhys.
Working against time, they must find a way to come together in a magical working the likes of which none of them has ever imagined, or their homelands will surely burn.
NineStar Press| Amazon| Smashwords| Barnes & Noble| Kobo
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Excerpt
“Your brother is alive?” The words burst from Arden without thought. Shock wasn’t allowing him to think.
Prince Gareth of Thalassa was alive?
And this wasn’t something Edmund had chosen to tell Arden before now? They were going to be married in the morning, and Gareth was Edmund’s younger brother, whom everyone had thought dead for years.
“Yes, he is,” Edmund said quietly.
Arden shook his head, more in disbelief than in denial. “How?”
Edmund glanced around the empty library, then back to Arden. “Can we speak of this in private?”
He wanted to protest, wanted to demand Edmund tell him now, but doing so would just be petulant. “All right.”
Arden took the time to gather up his things, leaving some books for the librarians to replace and taking the rest with him. His notes couldn’t be left lying around. When Edmund had found him, Arden had been doing research—as he had most days since Tycen had attacked Thalassa with magic, setting fires and menacing people along the border the two countries shared. He was determined to find a solution that would protect his new home, and the kingdom of his birth as well, since Tycen had begun doing the same to Aither. The army and the magic wielders on the border could do no more than hold back the worst of it, and too much was being lost to the flames. Until they could stop Tycen entirely, they needed a way to protect themselves.
King Torin, Edmund’s father and ruler of Thalassa, had tasked his magic wielders with finding a solution. Arden wasn’t counted among the group due to his position, but he’d studied magic his whole life—he could help. He’d found something he thought might work that very day. He still had a lot of details to figure out—more than details, really, but the theory was sound. What he already knew was they would need a strong magic wielder of each Element to perform it. Arden could take the Air portion, and Thalassa had plenty of strong Water wielders. An Earth wielder wouldn’t be a problem if Arden could convince one he knew to travel to Thalassa. The Fire Affinity was the problem, and that was when Edmund had shocked Arden by telling him not only was his brother alive, but he was a Fire wielder as well.
How?
Arden walked silently at Edmund’s side through the corridors of the palace. The attention of the people they passed registered only dimly—they always garnered attention. Shock and a creeping sense of betrayal might be fogging Arden’s mind, but no one would ever know—no one could. There could be no hint of discord or distance between him and Edmund for anyone to see.
He didn’t want them to exist between him and Edmund at all.
The silence was probably bad enough. He and Edmund were seldom entirely silent when walking together. People would notice, and they would talk.
Arden cared about the appearances—he had to—but he cared more about him and Edmund.
They passed the whimsical fountain that marked the entrance to the wing where Edmund had his rooms. It was tiered and tiled in mosaics of glittering blue and green glass. Arden thought it beautiful, his every glance showing him something new. If he wouldn’t look bizarre, he’d stand and study it, trying to tease out all the little details. The art of the mosaics, so common in Thalassa’s royal palace, was breathtaking. But this palace on the sea was so different from Aither’s airy, soaring castle perched in the mountains. If Arden thought too hard about the differences, about how very far from home he was, how unlikely it was he’d ever see the castle or the house he’d bought for himself again, his head would spin.
He wanted to be where he was—he wanted to be with Edmund, which meant being in Thalassa. Edmund would be king someday, and Arden would stand beside him as his consort. But it was best if he didn’t think too hard about leaving behind everything he knew. Especially because he wasn’t really—Ciaran and Larkin were here. The twins were his closest friends, outside Edmund now, and had always worked with him—his secretary, his eyes and ears, his spies. For the moment, the twins showed no desire to leave.
Aither would be a difficult place for them these days. Their uncle had betrayed Aither and all of them, conspiring with Tycen to attempt an assassination of Arden’s sister, the queen, and to frame Edmund for it. Ciaran had helped Arden rescue Edmund and fled with them. Larkin had followed them to Thalassa with her husband and infant son, and though Merrick was one of Hollis’s councilors, even he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to return. At some point, Arden would have to talk to them, but something always seemed to be more pressing. And, really, he wanted them to stay. He loved Edmund and already liked Edmund’s sister very much, but he wanted his friends—his family—too.
Ciaran likely wouldn’t want to leave anyway since he’d fallen in love with Edmund’s secretary, Peregrine.
Edmund opened the door to his rooms for Arden and followed him inside. Arden had been given rooms of his own, but he hadn’t spent a single night in them. From the first moment they’d arrived, they’d stayed in these rooms together—perhaps out of some lingering fear from their flight across Aither or perhaps just because they loved one another and they could. Perhaps both. The servants knew, of course, and some might talk, but Arden couldn’t bring himself to care, not about this one thing. After the wedding tomorrow, it wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
Edmund’s—their—rooms were comfortable and decorated beautifully in Thalassan style with patterned tiles on the floors and luxurious fabrics in jewel tones, mostly greens. They very much looked like Edmund’s too, but the first full day he’d been here, Edmund had told him they could change anything to make Arden more comfortable. To make this place theirs.
“Arden.”
He turned to face Edmund who stood a few steps behind him. “Edmund…your brother is alive?”
Edmund lifted his hands and let them drop helplessly. “Yes.”
“And he has a Fire Affinity?”
“Yes.”
“How?” Arden asked again. “There wasn’t even a trace of rumor. Everyone thinks he’s dead. And a Fire Affinity?”
An Affinity for Water ran strong in Edmund’s family, and the generations before Edmund seemed to do all they could to keep it that way, only marrying those with a matching Affinity. Some families were much stricter about the practice than others. A strong Affinity for Air ran in Arden’s family, producing Arden himself, but they’d married outside it in past generations, which had resulted in a few children with Water or Earth Affinities—none had ever inherited the throne, but that was more a matter of chance of birth order than anything else.
For Gareth to inherit a Fire Affinity, there had to be one in the line somewhere, and Edmund’s family seemed too rigid in their adherence to marrying Water Affinities to marry outside—Arden was certain King Torin would not have approved of Edmund’s marriage to him if not for the necessary alliance it would bring. And a Fire Affinity? Fire and Water were opposing Elements, and Edmund’s family traditionally had something of a prejudice against Fire, though Edmund himself didn’t.
So how would a Fire Affinity make its way into the bloodline? Unless…
Arden looked up at Edmund and bit his lip, unsure how to put what he was about to say delicately. “Your mother…”
Edmund raked a hand through his shoulder-length dark hair. “I haven’t asked her—I couldn’t ask her—but she and Father have been estranged ever since we found out what Gareth’s Affinity was.”
If the queen had taken a lover—who either had a Fire Affinity or carried the potential for it—it would explain how her second son had ended up with his Affinity. And why Queen Senara lived apart from her husband and the court, returning only sporadically to fulfill the duties required of her. “She might not have…maybe it came from somewhere further back in the line.”
Edmund’s smile was sad. “Thank you for saying it, but I think we can both agree how unlikely that possibility is, knowing my family’s feelings on the Fire Element.”
“It doesn’t mean it can’t be true. Perhaps the potential has been there for a long time and just came out with your brother. Perhaps it came from somewhere back in your mother’s family, not your father’s.” Arden’s instinct to comfort Edmund was undeniable, even with his own emotions still in turmoil.
Edmund shrugged. “I don’t know. She didn’t deny anything. She just acceded to Father’s wishes.”
Could she have done anything else? Arden had no way of knowing what the dynamics were at Thalassa’s court and within its royal family so many years ago; he’d barely begun to get a grasp of them now. “Will you tell me what happened?”
Letting out a long sigh, Edmund nodded. He went to a chair near the fireplace and dropped into it. The fire crackled cheerfully, driving back the chill of the rainy winter day. Snow was probably deep on the ground in Aither’s mountains, but here they’d only had icy rain so far. Arden crossed the room to sit beside Edmund in the chair that had become his—when they weren’t snuggled up on one of the couches.
“Gareth was thirteen when he woke up one morning and the ends of his hair were bright red.”
Arden blinked once, then again. No wonder Edmund thought Gareth might be powerful. In most people, the use of magic caused changes in hair or eye color, but in some very powerful people, the changes came first. Arden had looked in the mirror one day when he was twelve and seen the first icy blue-white streak in his copper curls; the magic had followed, and constant use of it had streaked Arden’s hair liberally. Edmund’s use of his Water magic had added threads of green through his dark eyes.
Gareth would have known what it meant—they were all taught what to expect; they’d all seen it on others—and he must have been terrified to see red instead of the green he’d expected.
“What happened?” Arden asked quietly, dread edging out every other feeling.
“He cut it off, but it came back almost immediately. So he did it again, and the same happened.” Edmund closed his eyes. “Then Father found out.”
The dread intensified until Arden was sick with it. “Edmund, what did he do?”
Edmund didn’t open his eyes. “He was furious. Enraged. But careful to keep everything among only us—Mother, me, Kerenza, and Gareth. You know what happened to Mother. But Gareth…when he realized there was no hiding Gareth’s Affinity, he locked Gareth away, put it around that he’d taken ill and then died. There was nothing any of us could do or say to change his mind.” Edmund went quiet for a moment. “I don’t know that he wanted to look at Gareth anymore.”
Arden swallowed hard. How could a father do such a thing? Even as he thought it, his more cynical side told him exactly how. “Where is he? Has your father had him locked away all these years?”
Edmund shook his head sharply. “He got out, escaped somehow. His bodyguard helped him, and they ran. I gave him all the money I could; so did Kerenza even though she was just a child. I wish we could have done more.”
The last sentence came out in a ragged whisper. Arden’s heart broke. He reached out and took Edmund’s hand, holding it tight. “Do you know what happened to him?”
“No. Father had a few trusted men search, but they never found him. I think they assumed he ran for the Tycen border. But he was going to go to Mother’s family first, hoping they’d hide him or help him.”
Gareth had been so young. How had he survived? Had he? Arden wasn’t sure he could have at that age, out in the world on his own when he’d only known the sheltered world of the castle. He hoped Gareth was all right, hoped his mother’s family had helped. Hoped Gareth was out there somewhere, alive and well.
“I can ask them if they know anything about how we can find him.”
Arden didn’t want to ask this. “If we can find him…will he help? I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to have anything to do with Thalassa ever again.”
“I wouldn’t either. But I hope he still has some feeling for the kingdom and for me and Kerenza, if not our father.”
“And what about your father? What will he say if you bring Gareth back?”Edmund looked at him bleakly. “I don’t know.”
Author Bio
Antonia Aquilante has been making up stories for as long as she can remember, and at the age of twelve, decided she would be a writer when she grew up. After many years and a few career detours, she has returned to that original plan. Her stories have changed over the years, but one thing has remained consistent—they all end in happily ever after.
She has a fondness for travel (and a long list of places she wants to visit and revisit), taking photos, family history, fabulous shoes, baking treats (which she shares with friends and family), and of course, reading. She usually has at least two books started at once and never goes anywhere without her Kindle. Though she is a convert to e-books, she still loves paper books the best, and there are a couple thousand of them residing in her home with her.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Antonia is living there again after years in Washington, DC and North Carolina for school and work. She enjoys being back in the Garden State but admits to being tempted every so often to run away from home and live in Italy.
