QSFers Rowan Amaris & Theo Behr have a new MM paranromal romance out: An Embrace of Citrus & Snow.
Fae aren’t real. Soulbonds are woo-woo nonsense. And the man
swooning in Bo’s arms definitely isn’t a kelpie.
Bo
Bo’s made a career out of debunking the supernatural. His eager fans regularly tune in to discover what he’ll disprove next. And Bo really should know better than to let them pick where he goes.
It’s supposed to be a routine visit to a so-called haunted house. But instead of dust and rats, Bo finds Everil: A strange, beautiful man who faints into his arms.
Which, fine. Weirder things have happened. Except the man claims to be a kelpie. And Bo’s soulbond. (Which explains why Bo can taste him, snowmelt and frozen grass, from across the room.)
Bo should just walk away. Believing in magic has only ever hurt him. But he’s always been too stubborn to take the easy route.
Everil
Everil’s spent a century hiding from the Faerie realm and his abusive former soulbond. Now the man is back, and Faerie law makes his claim on Everil’s soul inescapable.
Which means Everil absolutely cannot give his soul to the brash, kind human who barges into his home. Unfortunately, his soul isn’t keen on listening to him.
Everil’s ex will kill Bo if he finds him. To keep the human safe, Everil must break their bond. Only Bo rejects Everil’s every attempt to protect him, offering rough reassurance in turn.
A proper fae would insist. But Everil’s always failed at being proper. And Bo’s honey-sweet soul and wonder are impossible to resist. Despite the perils of homicidal dryads and duplicitous friends, Everil agrees to run. With Bo. Not from him.
Everil is determined to protect his new soulbond. But he soon finds that the true risk comes with the lingering taste of Bo’s kiss.
Warnings: Emotional abuse by a past intimate partner, magical abuse by a past intimate partner, body horror, gaslighting of a child, imprisonment, brainwashing, xenophobia, and murder committed by MCs and others (this includes the past murder of an MC’s lover by his ex). That said, the relationship between the MCs is affirming, loving, and in no way abusive. And it’s not nearly so heavy as it sounds.
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Excerpt
What was the line? Something about the world ending, not with a bang but with a whimper. Everil’s appeared to be ending with the crisp wrap of knuckles against his warded and locked front door.
The utterly ordinary noise twisted in his stomach like a blade of ice. Only another fae could make it to his door. And the list of fae who might seek him out after a century was short indeed. As for the why of it, well, that was simple. Heirs didn’t get to disappear into silence and obscurity, no matter how unfortunate and disappointing they might be.
Another knock, no louder than the last. Impatient, without being aggressive. Already, it sounded like an accusation.
“Do hurry up, Everil. What’s taking you? Don’t tell me you can’t even manage to open a door.“ Nimai’s voice. It was always Nimai’s voice in his memory. The bond he’d broken. The first lover he’d betrayed.
Best to get it over with. As he made his way downstairs, Everil couldn’t help but see Brookhaven as another fae might. Peeling wallpaper. Heavy furniture that he’d never found the will to replace or rearrange. The house looked very like it had when he’d come into possession of it back in the twenties. Only shabbier. At least the previous owners hadn’t been trendy sorts, or it’d be all gilt instead of leather and dark wood.
He was delaying.
Forcing a slow breath through clenched teeth, Everil straightened his shoulders and opened the door. Not one person waiting, but two. Better and better.
The first, he recognized. Suire, with her wild curls and sharp smile. A will-o’-the-wisp, sworn to his House. They’d been friends most his life. He wasn’t sure what they were anymore.
At Suire’s side was a girl of perhaps seventeen, her face pleasantly round where it stared out from her oversized, tatterdemalion hoodie. She looked like the teens Everil sometimes saw from his window; a local kid dared to brave the woods around Brookhaven. But unlike those children, she was surrounded by a nimbus of pure power.
Everil didn’t recognize her, but that was no surprise. Gates were reborn every hundred years or so. Still, he knew who she was. Everil was the last of his line, a line that had sworn guardianship of one of Faerie’s nine Gates since before the convergence.
If this Gate, his Gate, was here, it could only mean one thing. Everil’s mother, and his mother’s bond, were dead.
Everil swallowed, waiting to feel grief and feeling only a hollow sense of inevitability. He and his mother had not parted on pleasant terms. He had let her down, and she’d made it clear that if he wished her acknowledgment, her love, he would have to do better. And better meant returning to Nimai, the man he’d last seen washed in his lover’s blood.
Author Bio
Rowan Amaris is a delightful person who made the terrible choice to allow her frequent co-author to write her bio. She lives with her cats in a city that has water nearby and enough grass to touch every so often. You’ll often find her writing, drinking a hot beverage, and writing saucy stories about terrible, emotionally stupid men who love each other.
Theo Behr is a writer who never actually thought they’d be in a position to be able to call themselves that. They live with two cats somewhere far away from the sea, with occasional bounces to one coast or another. You’ll often find Theo playing cozy games, drawing, and writing spicy tales about ridiculous men with lots of feelings who love each other.
| Author Website | https://www.rowanandtheo.com |
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| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561038983710 |