QSFer Juliane Seidel has a new queer dark urban fantasy book out (gay, lesbian, poly), translated by Eleanor Steven, Night Shadows book one: Untouchable.
All beings—whether human, vampire, Sidhe, or were-creature—have a guardian angel.
Lily is one of the rare few who can see hers. Having qualified as a slayer to defend the ordinary from the supernatural, Lily believes she will now be able to unlock the secrets of her hidden past. However, battling werewolves and mages, she soon finds herself pitted against a seemingly invincible enemy. To make matters worse, the once unshakable bond with her guardian angel, Adrian, begins to crumble as he refuses to reveal the truth about her origins.
Amid a whirlwind of events, Lily teams up with a member of the secretive Order of Tenebrae. She grows closer to him as they embark on a desperate quest for the truth and go on to uncover an intricate web of intrigue rooted in her cryptic past.
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Excerpt
The acrid smell of disinfectant wafted upwards into Lily’s nose. A constant beeping sound penetrated the silence and roared like a crash of thunder repeating itself again and again in her head. Her arms and legs were heavy, like lead, and a constantly evolving pain in her chest made it difficult to breathe. Everything felt strangely contorted. It was as if her extremities were too long and her throbbing skull too small.
She writhed and let out a loud groan, tormented by the agony.
“Are you all right?” A deep, velvety voice snapped her out of her disorientated state. In despair, she tried to open her eyes but they seemed glued shut, as if someone had spread honey over her eyelids. “Take your time, Lily.”
Lily… That word triggered something unpleasant inside her, but she couldn’t quite place what it was. “Where am I?” she croaked. Her throat felt raw and dry.
“In hospital. You had a terrible accident. It’s a miracle you’re alive.”
Lily tried to grasp what was being said to her, but the words slithered away from her mind. Only after a while did fragments of the sentence seep into her consciousness.
Had she really had an accident? How was her family? Had they not survived their escape? Lily faltered, and then followed the new lead: escape. From what? More memories surfaced: gloomy, old castle ruins where half a dozen hooded figures had gathered around her. They had been murmuring something to each other, which had culminated in an incredible pain in her chest. The strange cry that, even now, was ringing in her ears seemed familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it.
Rose!
Was she in hospital too? Had she survived the car accident? What had happened to her parents? The memory of a stranger’s words surged within her. She no longer knew who it was that had spoken to her, but every syllable resembled some kind of a vow.
I won’t let you die! I won’t lose my protégé again, and Rose wouldn’t have wanted that. You’re going to live!
The voice faded.
Instead, a jolt of panic gripped her. Lily tried to sit up and jump out of bed, but she couldn’t even lift her arms. What kind of sick nightmare was this? Was she awake or asleep?
“She’s going to hyperventilate,” a woman whispered.
Lily gasped for breath. How many people were standing around her bed? “Who are you?” came from her quivering lips.
“Don’t be afraid, Lily.” The man’s melodic voice lulled her wildly beating heart. At that moment, she longed for a cool hand on her forehead, but the stranger didn’t touch her. She strained herself to listen to her visitor’s soft breathing, but it was barely audible due to the steady beeping of the machines and her pounding heartbeat.
“She knows too much. It’ll drive her mad if she remembers everything…” The woman called her companion by his name, but Lily couldn’t quite catch it. It was masked by a peculiar noise she’d never heard before.
She felt tiredness rising within her, yet she was afraid of the terrible images that were lurking in the darkness…
Concentrating hard, she listened to the quiet discussion that was unfolding between the man and the woman, but she only picked up a few incoherent terms: first try, promise, safety; and a name: Adrian. Was the stranger’s name Adrian? Lily couldn’t say for sure. She only knew one thing: whoever this man was – friend or foe – he had answers.
Finally, exhaustion prevailed. Before she dozed off, she finally felt the man’s hand on her feverish skin, but he didn’t stroke her cheeks soothingly, or feel her forehead. Instead, he placed a finger over her lips and breathed a single word into her ear. “Forget.”
Author Bio
Juliane Seidel was born in 1983 in Suhl, a small city in the German state of Thuringia. She now lives in Wiesbaden and, alongside her position as a team assistant, she dedicates much of her time, heart, and soul to various queer projects (for example, the review blog Like a Dream and the reading festival ‘QUEER gelesen’), and has been writing fantasy books for children and young adults for over a decade.
As well as authoring the initial volumes of her children’s book series “Assjah”, and her self-published, urban fantasy series “Nachtschatten” (the first book of which is now available in English, as Night Shadows), she has also made her mark in the queer literary field. Notable publications she has overseen include the fundraising anthologies “Like a Dream” and “Like a (bad) Dream”, as well as “Wie ein bunter Traum – Kinderträume” and “Wie ein bunter Traum – Teenie-Träume”, for children and adolescents aged 10 to 12 and upwards. Her young adult urban fantasy novel “Herz aus Kristall (which is also available in English, entitled “Heart of Chrystal”) also features queer heroines as its central characters.
| Author Website | www.juliane-seidel.de |
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| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/Assjah/ |