QSFer Kaje Harper has a new MM fantasy romance out in the Carnival of Mysteries universe: Magic Escaping.
Alan
I didn’t think two cars slowing down behind me as I jogged along our country road were a problem. I’m just an ordinary third-grade teacher. Well, also a sorcerer, but I don’t really use my powers. Even when my familiar, Sunny, said, “I don’t like this,” and winged off to fetch my boyfriend, I wasn’t really expecting trouble. But then guys with guns jumped out and “arrested” me. Now I’m locked in a prison hours away from home, my magic is suppressed by a blocking bracelet, and they laugh when I ask to see a lawyer. Scary stuff, but Sunny’s no ordinary bird and Jason will never stop trying to find me. I just hope they arrive in time. I just hope they arrive…
Jason
As a small-town firefighter, I’ve had my share of terrifying moments, but watching Alan be grabbed and driven off in an unmarked car is high on that list. Especially when the agency that supposedly arrested him tells our lawyer they’ve never heard of Alan and have no idea where he is. That’s not an arrest, it’s an abduction.
I’m no superhero and Alan’s friends are two Healers, an elderly and confused sorcerer, and a small bird. But we’re not going to just sit around and let anything happen to the man we all love. And in a stroke of luck, Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries has appeared again. If Errante’s willing to help us, we’ll have a far better chance of rescuing Alan. But if the Carnival’s here, with its power and wild magic, that also means the stakes may be higher than any of us realized.
This sequel to Magic Burning features a kidnapped schoolteacher, a furious boyfriend, a mouthy bird, and a desperate mission to save far more than just one man. Content warnings for abduction, violence, death and loss.
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Excerpt
The guard holding Alan hustled him toward the SUV. The younger suit guy opened the back door, and Alan’s handler pushed him in. I caught sight of Alan’s face as he glanced back, his normally tan skin washed pale. Then the goon shoved him farther over on the seat and got in beside him. Younger suit guy slammed the back door and climbed in the driver’s side as Underhill rounded the hood and got in beside him.
I lurched a step toward them, but my guard pinned me in place with his unwavering handgun. “Stop. Don’t get any stupid ideas. Hands up!”
“What do you think Alan did?” I raised my hands unwillingly.
“Doesn’t matter. He’s a sorcerer. We’re careful with those.”
I belatedly remembered I was supposed to be an ignorant, ordinary human who had no clue why NSEP even existed. “Why be careful? Aren’t sorcerers a bit of a joke? Harmless, mostly?” The Great Spell was a massive magical working over a hundred years old that made most regular folks see sorcerers that way. Harmless, entertainment for gullible people, showmanship, tricks of the light. Nothing to worry about, no real power.
Until I saw Alan battle a wildfire with his magic and banish a fire elemental, I’d thought the same.
The goon smirked. “Yeah, you go on believing that. Let’s just say you’ve had a lucky escape. Pick someone less… exotic next time you want to get laid, huh?”
Exotic? Was that a fucking slur on the fact that Alan’s Thai-American too? I gritted my teeth as the suit guys in the SUV reversed, straightened, and pulled away. The heavily tinted windows robbed me of a last glimpse of Alan.
My goon backed away from me toward the sedan, holstered his gun, and pinned me with a glare. “Stay out of Homeland Security business, you hear me?” He swung into the passenger side, slamming the door behind him. Whoever’d stayed in the driver’s seat put the car in gear and pulled out onto the road.
Sunny whipped past my shoulder, making me flinch, and winged after the vehicles, flying low to the ground. In a moment, he’d caught up to the trunk of the sedan. Then he vanished. The SUV turned onto the cross street and the car followed, picking up speed.
What—?
I realized Sunny must’ve used his short-range teleportation power to jump himself into the trunk of the second car in a bid to follow Alan.
God, I hope it works. I hope they’re going to the same place. I hope… Fuck!
Both vehicles sped out of sight down the road.
I lowered my hands and stared at the phone I was clutching. Call nine-one-one? But the ID had looked real, and the local cops probably wouldn’t stand up to NSEP.
Erin. Sylvester. I found Erin’s contact and stabbed it with a finger shaking with anger. Just anger. I clung to how furious I was as a guard against the abyss behind that anger. The phone rang, then went to voicemail. She could be driving or in the hospital for a shift. She didn’t keep her personal phone on her while working with patients. I hung up and dialed Dale, her apprentice.
They answered on the second ring. “Mm? Jason?”
“Dale, what do you know about NSEP?”
“Who?” Their voice sounded slow.
I realized it was six-thirty in the morning. I’d probably woken them up. “NSEP. National Sorcery Enforcement something?” Alan had mentioned the sorcerer registry and the fact that he was flying under their radar, but the details had never come up. I cursed my ignorance now. “A bunch of guys in SWAT gear from NSEP arrested Alan on his morning run and took him away. Five minutes ago.”
“Oh, shit.” Dale sounded wide awake now. “Erin’s not home. She worked an overnight, but she should be back soon. Let me get Sylvester.”
After a pause, I heard the voice of Alan’s old mentor, sounding like he was on speaker, “Hey, boy, you need something?”
He usually only called Alan “boy,” so I said, “It’s Jason, sir. I need information on NSEP. Who are they? How does someone get hold of them?”
“NSEP? Stay away from them. That’s my advice. The humans and the sorcerers both. Un… un… unholy alliance, that one. Forced on us after the Upheavals, of course. Better they never notice you.”
I hesitated a second, because Sylvester’s reactions were unpredictable, but I needed information. “Too late. They just picked up Alan and took him away.”
“The hell they did. Get him back!”
Author Bio
I get asked about my name a lot. It’s not something exotic, though. “Kaje” is pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname, and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I’ve been writing far longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty years*), although mostly for my own entertainment. I write M/M romance, often with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi, paranormal… I also have Young Adult short stories (some released under the pen name Kira Harp.)
It was my husband who finally convinced me that after all the years of writing just for fun, I really should submit something, somewhere. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out in May 2011. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks and print, both free and professionally published, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow Award Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact. A complete list with links can be found on my website “Books” page.