Ryld must learn to control his dangerous shadows before they kill someone he cares about or someone unscrupulous learns how to control him.
Blurb
AURA’s offices have been quiet since the mage tower incident—as quiet as they can be for an agency dedicated to policing holes in reality—and the department heads have been free to turn their attention back to mundane matters. The return to quiet bureaucracy gives AURA’s Director of Research, Kai Hiltas, the time to turn his energy to a new issue—a young drow with unusual and dangerous powers named Ryld.
Though his shadows always lurk at the edges of his vision, Ryld does his best to live peacefully and not let them hurt anyone. He has his work, his apartment and a succession of minders assigned by AURA who are, ostensibly, there to keep him safe in his new world and to prevent him from causing any scenes with his shadows. Most of the time, the arrangement works. But one disastrous incident causes Ryld’s minder to leave him unattended and lost—the precise thing he was hired to prevent.
To replace the faithless minder, Kai suggests Hank, a half-goblin accountant recently in the middle of a string of terrible luck, while Kai works out how best to get Ryld the magical training he so desperately needs. For his part, Hank truly likes Ryld and insists he would be happier working as Ryld’s companion rather than as a controlling minder.
As Hank and Ryld slowly come to terms with sharing space—and eventually more—Kai’s search for a teacher for Ryld takes them out west on the invitation of the Elvenhome’s aelfe queen and right into the lap of inter-elven feuds, ancient prejudice, conspiracies and trafficking rings. What should have been a pleasant visit soon turns into more than even forever-scheming Kai can handle.
Excerpt
“Another one, Brady. I don’t have all night.”
The bartender sighed when Hank thumped his fist on the bar. That crack was already there. I know it was.
“One terabin per customer. You know the rules.”
“I’m not even close to drunk enough.”
Shaking his head, the bartender put a glass of water in front of Hank. The water swayed. Maybe the bar swayed. A single terabin would’ve taken down a human and sent them to the ER. A second one would even put a troll on the floor. Hank was pretty sure he could manage another.
Brady put his hands on the bar and leaned in. “What’s happened, Hank? This isn’t like you.”
Hank tried to answer, his short tusks getting in the way of his words. That hadn’t happened since he was a teenager.
“What was that?”
“They fired me today. Fired me.” Hank gave up trying to look menacing and put his head in his hands.
“Did you screw something up? Lose a decimal place or something?” What Brady knew about accounting probably wouldn’t have filled half a jigger.
“No.” Hank gulped a breath. “I did my job. I worked hard. But the new manager… She said I wasn’t commensurate with the company image.”
“Wait. Just ’cause of how you look? You could file a complaint?”
“Sure. Right. The pretty sylphs in the non-human rights office are gonna get right on that. Far as they’re concerned, the only place I should be is locked up.”
The bartender winced in an uncomfortable way and patted Hank’s arm awkwardly. “Not like you’re riding a varg down the street swinging a battle-axe. You’re, you know, civilized. Still can’t serve you another one.”
A bitter smile curled Hank’s mouth as he took the water and chugged half of it down. “Thanks, Brady. I feel so much better now. I’ll… I guess I’ll find something. Somewhere.”
Out on the sidewalk, Hank breathed in the relatively fresh air. Poisoned with exhaust fumes and all the reek of too many humans in too small a space—still it was cooler and not the close, claustrophobic smell of the bar. He probably shouldn’t have let Brady’s racist comments go, but tonight he was too damn tired to deal with it, and Brady needed to count his lucky pebbles that Hank wasn’t some thin-skinned goblin kid with a chip bigger than his head. You’re okay, Hank. You’re one of the few good goblins. Not like those other filthy barbarians. Pat the half-gobbo on the head and smile.
He wanted chilies, huge bags of them, wanted to drown in the capsaicin high they’d bring. But he had enough sense, even this drunk, to know he’d overdo it in his current state of mind and probably end up in the ER from a ghost pepper OD again.
Once was enough.
No. Go home. Get some sleep. Figure it out in the morning.
He’d manage. He always did.
It was just that this time he thought he had managed. Found a place for himself. Reached the spot where things could be routine, and he could be normal. Just another worker bee in the crowd.
The screech of tires on pavement yanked him out of his reverie and just about made him jump out of his skin. His reactions were muddled and slow, but the shot of adrenaline racing through him as he stared at the truck only inches away was almost enough to knock him sober.
The driver’s door opened, and a tall elf got out. His face was full of haughty arrogance and disdain, as was usual for aelfe, but his words were even and neutral as he asked, “Are you all right?”
Before Hank could answer the passenger door opened, and another elf got out, this one a drow. “You are walking where vehicles are supposed to be driven.”
“Get back in the truck, Ryld,” the first elf said sternly.
“But, he’s walking where vehicles are driven. That’s against the rules.”
“Get. In. The. Truck. Ryld.”
“But…”
“Now!”
The drow cut his eyes away. He made some odd gestures but sat back down and closed his door. Even from behind the windshield Hank could pick out how unnaturally blue his eyes were. He’d only ever seen drow with red eyes or white.
“Are you all right?” the blond elf asked again.
Hank pulled in a slow breath, then two more. The rising nausea settled, and he leaned a hand against the lamppost on the corner. “Fine. I’m fine. You stopped in time.”
The elf stared at him, maybe thinking Hank owed him a thank you for not ploughing over him. Finally, he gave a sharp nod. “Okay. Good.”
That was it. He climbed back into the truck, shut the door, said something sharp to the drow and drove off.
Weird. That was…weird. Though maybe the terabin had made the whole interaction so strange. Maybe there hadn’t been any blue-eyed drow insisting on road rules. Hank shook himself, hurried across the street and reached his apartment building without any further bizarre incidents.
Our Thoughts
Author Interview
All questions answered by Angel Martinez
Q: What’s your favorite scene in your latest book and what makes it a fave?
Would you care to share an excerpt from the scene with us?
One of my favorites is the sort of meet-cute scene for Ryld and Hank. It's not the first time they've seen each other, but it's the first time they get to have a conversation. They don't know each other, but in this odd little conversation, you can see immediately how they would be with each other. It's a connection of sorts, even if it's not the one people would expect.
A bit of an excerpt from that scene:
If someone had snapped their fingers in front of Hank’s face like that? Well. He wasn’t a violent person, but it would still have been tempting to bite a couple off.
Now Mr. Fuchsia just stood there, rooted to the spot, like he wasn’t allowed to even take a seat or anything. Some instinct drew Hank up from his own chair despite his headache, and he approached slowly, not wanting to appear threatening.
“Um, hi.” Good. Great opening. “Are you okay? Ryld, was it? Was that guy—do you need help?”
Large blue eyes blinked slowly at him. Not a human shade of blue, more like…cyan or something. From a distance they probably looked all one shade, no iris, no pupil, just a solid blue, but up close Hank could make out a faint darker ring of blue within the blue that suggested an iris, and an even darker point at their center.
“I am okay. Yes, my name is Ryld. I don’t need any help. Thank you. Are you here for counseling?”
All right. Counseling. They wouldn’t let anything bad happen to the little guy—to Ryld—and they’d know if someone was abusing him, right? Hank summoned up a smile. “No. Not today. I’m here to get some calcium supplements.”
Ryld stared at him, unblinking now. He was so still it was almost eerie, then his hands twitched, just a little bit. “Are you an orc?” His blank face became more animated with the question.
Anger prickled at Hank’s spine since he’d just about had all the racist crap he could take in twenty-four hours, but there was something so sincere, so open about the question that Hank wasn’t at all sure Ryld knew what he was saying.
“Um. I’m half-goblin, if that’s what you mean.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “You really can’t go around saying that to people. Someone might punch you.”
This got him a slow blink. “I’ve offended you? The words ‘I’m sorry’ don’t mean anything, I’ve been told, but other sources say it is customary to say the words to make amends. Is it okay for me to tell you I’m sorry, or would you like to hit me?”
There were other people in the room paying attention now. They were kind of hard to miss, standing in the middle of the reception area, and Hank heard a few titters.
He sent a quick glare toward those snickers and lowered his voice so only Ryld would hear. Something was up. Something that he’d seen in some humans, but he didn’t know enough about. Just because the little guy was different was no reason to be rude, though. “It’s good to hear I’m sorry when someone means it. And, no, I don’t want to hit you. I just wanted you to know that other goblins and half-goblins might not be, um, understanding about it. Orc is a, well, it’s a racist slur. It’s not meant kindly.”
“Oh…thank you. That’s very helpful. I would like to be helpful in return. It’s very unwise to walk where motor vehicles are supposed to be driven…if you didn’t know that.”
Hank gaped at him a moment before the memory came back of bright blue eyes in the passenger seat of a truck. He hadn’t been a drunken illusion. Sort of a relief. “That was you last night. I was a little plastered.” Then he realized that might be too slangy a term. “Drunk. I was drunk and wasn’t being careful. But thank you, I’ll be more careful.”
Q: If you could spend some real-life time with one of the characters in the book, who would you choose and why?
While I dearly love so many of the characters, I'd honestly be most comfortable with Tenzin. He's a yeti, yes, and a sweet, caring individual. He likes his quiet domestic life, and we'd probably end up talking about food, making stuff in the kitchen, and recounting medical department stories.
Q: On the flipside, which character would you probably least get along with? Why?
As much as I adore him, probably Kai. I think we'd be fine in short stretches and with other people around—I'd probably even enjoy his company. But he's so twitchy and restless, I think that would eventually get on my nerves. You can hear him thinking from across the room.
Q: Let’s take off your author cap and put on your reader cap for a moment: what do you look for in a book, what sort of protagonists do you love, and do you have a favorite genre?
A book needs to have an engaging plot, some action-y stuff is nice but not mandatory, I have to believe the dialogue and things have to make sense within the framework of the world. I read science fiction, fantasy and mystery almost exclusive, with or without romance. I like both.
My very favorite character is a trickster character and even better is a fallen trickster character, like Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (aka The Untamed.) But I also like a steadfast character just doing their best, and maybe not always knowing what's going on. Or a dangerous cinnamon roll—I love those, too.
Q: What books and authors would you say influenced you to become a writer?
Probably my first nudge toward becoming a writer was when I found out that Andre Norton was a woman writing under a pen name. Girls could grow up to be science fiction writers. It was possible. While I read all the "classics" in SF and Fantasy, the older I grew, the fewer male writers I read. It was important to me to see what women were writing. Ursula LeGuin, C.J. Cherryh and Lois McMaster Bujold are probably the ones who were most inspirational for me, writer-wise. Everyone else I just devoured as a reader.
Q: What’s the best piece of writing/author advice you’ve ever received that you’d pass on to someone just getting started in the business?
You can't—and I can't emphasize this enough—you cannot edit your own work. Up to a point, yes, of course, do all the corrections you can, but you wrote that. You're not going to be able to catch all of your errors, see all your plot holes, or pick up all of your clumsy sentences. Get good editors. Understand that there are different kinds of editors for different parts of the process. Don't cheat yourself out of the best possible work you can offer to your readers.
Q: Let’s talk tropes: do you have a few favorites that you enjoy both writing and reading? If so, what are they and what makes them your favorites?
As far as character tropes go, both writing and reading, I love the trickster trope. Extra points for a fallen trickster trying to find his feet again. For romance tropes, I'm a sucker for Forced Proximity, Sunshine Loves Grumpy, Legally Dubious x Law Abiding, and, just because it's often hilarious, There's Only One Bed.
Q: If you could choose one of your books to be adapted for the silver screen, which would you choose? Why do you think it would translate well to film?
I'd love to see either AURA or the Brimstone series as television series. Ensemble casts, lots of action, lots of cool possibilities for special effects and plots that keep rolling right along I think are good recipes for book to screen.
Q: If I were to interview your main characters, what would they say about you?
They would say I'm terribly mean. Just wretched. Why can't I leave them in peace?
Q: Star Trek or Star Wars - both or neither? Explain.
Both. It really shouldn't be a question of having to choose. Star Trek is space opera, with all the hand wavy science and concentration on character and social structures that often come with space opera. Although, to be fair, in many of its smaller tech devices, ST did foreshadow a lot of the mobile and VR tech we have today. Star Wars is science fantasy – it's space with magical elements. They're completely different things, with different story structures and character focuses. There's no need to say that one is better than the other.
Q: It’s the zombie apocalypse. It’s up to you and 5 other uninfected humans to save what’s left of humanity. Which fictional characters would you want on your team, and why?
*cracks knuckles* All right, let's do this. 1. Geralt from The Witcher – he's deadly, relentless, and a survivor. Also, he knows all about fighting monsters. 2. Torin Kerr from Tanya Huff's Valor series – again, she's relentless. You want people with you who won't give up. Also, Torin's martial and organizational skills are without peer. Those zombies would be so dead. 3. Wei Wuxian from GMDC (The Untamed) – brawn is good, but we'll need an innovative, tricksy thinker. Besides, Xian has a way with the undead that would give us an unfair advantage. 4. Sabriel from the Abhorsen series – obviously, we need a qualified necromancer. 5. Julian Parallax from the Brimstone series – years of experience as a government assassin give Julian an edge in creative ways to destroy things. Also, we need a sharpshooter who doesn't miss.
Our Thoughts
These two are one of my favorite couples
Something about Ryld brought out my mothering instincts
I wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap and snarl at the meanies who refused to drop their prejudices
I wanted to bury a certain queen in rubble after I parted her out (just wait she is pure evil)
Then there was Hank the absolute sweetest most level headed accountant/companion half-goblin
These two were just perfect together -
I do not want to forget to mention that Kai is still learning /working on asking for help lol
I devoured this one - from beginning to end it was packed with action, twists, some serious OMG moments, and the most adorable cuddle times
Books 1-4
What happens when worlds collide?
Tears in the fabric of the universe are sucking inhabitants from different worlds and depositing them randomly among the humans leaving a mess for AURA to keep sorted
I enjoyed the wide range of unique and well-written characters from the medical providing griffin to the wayward water guy (sorry I can't recall species though he loves his hotdogs) each brought their own magic to the storyline
I could spend paragraphs ranting about each couple -
(I have my faves Kai and his furry better half and Hank and his sweet but deadly shadow Ryld)
Each book is packed with -
angst, humor, romance, betrayal, friendship, self-discovery, mystery - Like I said I could go on for days
The series is an action-packed MM urban fantasy romance
It offers a diverse cast of supernatural as well as human characters -
I found I instantly loved or loathe them only to occasionally later in the series change my mind
The storylines are easy to follow packed with action and "OMG" twists that engage and entertain
I do suggest reading in order so you will get the full impact as the series progresses - there are a lot of species and different magical talents
About the Authors
Angel Martinez
The unlikely black sheep of an ivory tower intellectual family, Angel Martinez has managed to make her way through life reasonably unscathed. Despite a wildly misspent youth, she snagged a degree in English Lit, married once and did it right the first time, (same husband for almost twenty-four years) gave birth to one amazing son, (now in college) and realized at some point that she could get paid for writing.
Published since 2006, Angel's cynical heart cloaks a desperate romantic. You'll find drama and humor given equal weight in her writing and don't expect sad endings. Life is sad enough.
She currently lives in Delaware in a drinking town with a college problem and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around gay heroes.
Originally hailing from Detroit Michigan, Bellora now resides on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida where a herd of Dachshunds keeps her entertained. She got her start in writing at the dawn of the internet when she discovered PbEMs (Play by email) and found a passion for collaborative writing and steamy hot erotica. Soap Opera like blogs soon followed and eventually full novels.
The majority of her stories are in the M/M genre with urban fantasy or paranormal settings and many with a strong BDSM flavour.
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