L.C. Davis has a new queer fantasy book out:
An LGBT+ fantasy of apocalyptic proportions.
Twenty-something Holden Adams never asked to be the harbinger of the apocalypse, or for the seven lovers who come with the job. All he wanted in Stillwater, Vermont was a fresh start, but his past as a preacher’s kid turned witch threatens any hope he has of a normal life in the idyllic town. A fateful encounter with a strange cat on the brink of death earns Holden a new enemy and some unlikely friends, but as Stillwater reveals itself not to be as conventional as it appears, the line between the two becomes irreparably blurred.
Daniel St. James is getting too old for this crap. The love of his life turned out to be a cold-blooded killer and while Dennis got away with murder thirteen years earlier, Daniel and the rest of the town are still reeling from the tragedy. Now some kid who claims to be a witch waltzes into town and all of a sudden, Daniel’s unflinchingly straight best friend is head over heels for Holden. Chaos has a way of following Holden, revealing a web of supernatural secrets around Daniel that makes him question everything he believes about the town he’s lived in his entire life–and everything he doesn’t.
Welcome to Stillwater. Things are a little queer here.
Giveaway
Exclusive Excerpt
“You know that weird thing my family has about soulmates?”
“Yes,” I answered warily. If there was one thing Nick and I had bonded over, it was our shared distaste for the more superstitious elements of our upbringing. My late mother’s fixation on black cats and ladders had nothing on the Whitaker family legend that every member of the family had his or her perfect match walking around out there in the world, just waiting for a spark of love at first sight to unite them forever. To their credit, the family divorce rate was zilch, but that didn’t mean they were happy.
“Holden is mine.”
“Come on, Nick,” I groaned.
“You told me you wanted to know the truth. That’s part of it.”
“Fine. It’s still not an excuse for brainwashing some guy you barely know.”
“We call it compulsion,” he grumbled.
“Whatever. You get that real witches are just new agers with a fetish for herbs and crystals, right? It’s no more whacked out than all the other fairytales people believe, I guess, but it’s not real.” If there was one person I never thought I’d have to have this conversation with, it was the guy I’d forged a friendship with through our shared skepticism, but that night was proving that I didn’t know Nick as well as I thought I did.
“I’m not talking about that kind of witch. There are others.” The heat kicked in with a creak and his nose wrinkled. All of a sudden, Nick fixated on the robe hanging on my closet door again, stalking over to…sniff it?
“The fuck are you doing now?”
“Who left this?” he demanded, dangling the silk from his fingertip, as if he didn’t want to touch any more of it than he had to. He looked around the room warily like I might be hiding a human behind my exercise bike. “Where is she?”
“Not here. He left it last night.”
“He?” That got his attention.
I snatched the robe out of his hand and did a half-assed job of folding it before shoving it into my dresser drawer. That felt a bit too intimate for a one-night stand, so I took it out and tossed it on top of the clean clothes I hadn’t put away yet. “Yes, he. I’m bisexual. You know that.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t dated a guy since Dennis.”
The mention of my sociopathic ex’s name made my skin crawl, and the air in the room went stale. “We’re not dating, it was a one-time thing. I met this guy at the party last night. We were both drunk.”
“What was his name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You fucked a guy and you don’t even know his name?” He cocked an eyebrow. “My little Daniel is all grown up and turned into a raging slut.”
“Yeah, guess I took a page from your book. I mean, he gave me some bullshit stripper name, but I don’t even remember what it was.”
“Now he’s a stripper?”
“No! I don’t know. Maybe. It doesn’t matter, I’m never going to see him again.”
“Maybe I’m new to the whole dating dudes thing, but leaving something at a guy’s place is what women do when they want an excuse to come back. Just so you know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Be careful,” Nick said, growing serious. “Tell me if he comes around again, alright? I’d like to meet this one-night stand of yours.”
“I’m definitely not going to do that.”
Before he could respond, a noise from the living room drew our attention. Nick darted out of the room and I winced as I heard the front door slam against the wall. “Shit.”
I ran after Nick, barely latching onto the back of his shirt before he could follow Holden. “Since we’re already doling out unsolicited relationship advice tonight, how about you don’t chase after the guy you just hypnotized like a complete stalker?”
“You don’t understand. I have to keep him safe.”
“From what?”
“From my family, for one thing. If they find out there’s a witch in town –”
“God, not this again.”
Nick shirked out of my grasp. “You don’t have to believe it, all you have to do is believe that my family believes it.”
“Fair enough, but why would your family want to hurt Holden? Your aunt and uncle seemed ready to adopt him at the party.”
He was close to giving me an answer. I could feel it. Like so many other times, that final coin toss came up tails and I could feel that door slam shut in my face well before Nick muttered some half-assed apology and walked out through the real one.
Author Bio
L.C. Davis is a trans & nonbinary author of lgbt fantasy and romance with a passion for representation. His current series include Queer Magick, Kingdom of Night and The Mountain Shifters.
Website: http://www.lcdavisbooks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LCDavisAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LCDavisBooks
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15173293.L_C_Davis
Email: author@lcdavisbooks.com
