Title: He Dreams Magic
Author: Emme C. Taylor
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: October 28, 2019
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 88100
Genre: Fantasy, LGBT, fantasy, alternate universe, literature, horror, captivity, magic, magic users, action/adventure, monsters, slow burn
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Synopsis
Ren has always wanted to leave, to
escape his quiet village life. He wakes up from gold-tinged dreams with his
heart pounding and a yearning for something he can’t name, can’t hold. He longs
to experience something magical just once in his life.
Nico’s monsters don’t lurk under the
bed. They walk in daylight. They haunt him every day of his life. He’s possibly
the strongest magician of his time, yet he’s trapped. All he wants is an out.
At a magical carnival in the middle of a
forest, Ren and Nico collide. They’ve been on this collision course their
entire lives, always hurtling toward each other. For both men, escape is now.
They have no choice but to flee together. Monsters and betrayal hunt them
across strange lands. They find themselves on a journey to save each other—and
possibly the world. All they have is one another, Nico’s magic, and a lifetime
of half-remembered dreams. But finding each other, finally having someone to
rely on, might be the strongest magic of all.
Excerpt
He Dreams Magic
Emme C. Taylor © 2019
All Rights Reserved
Ren
The lake was on fire. Ren dipped his
oars into the water and swept himself closer to the blaze, each stroke an
exultation. He’d been waiting months for this, counting down the hot summer
weeks to autumn and rain and flames.
He was ready to throw himself into the
burn.
The fire came on time, as it did every
year. The first rainstorm of autumn brought them down from the sky. Or so the
story was told. Ren couldn’t quite bring himself to believe they rode through
the skies on storm clouds and dropped to the ground between thunderclaps,
stealing their impossible power from the lightning.
Then again, they were magicians.
Anything was possible.
Ren’s village, Klein, lay huddled in the
dark at his back. On the opposite shore, half the forest flickered red. The low
clouds caught and held the glowing light from below. The spectacle could be
seen from every village in the surrounding valley, a beacon: come, step into
the heat, play with us, burn with us.
For the first time in his life, he was
going to see it up close. From the quiet safety of Klein, the spectacle always
gave the impression of a town set aflame. So near to it, it wasn’t like that at
all. More like the whole world had ignited. His fingers around the wood paddles
twitched with anticipation. This was it. Finally. Finally.
By the time Ren reached the middle of
the lake, half of it alight, a bright crimson flared across the surface and
leaped like waves in wind. Reflections set the rest of the lake ablaze so that
it seemed to Ren he was sitting in the very middle of the conflagration. So
far, he had avoided the areas of the lake that had caught flame.
Magic. God, yes. He could practically
taste it in the air, and he wanted more of it. He’d dreamed of magic for years,
a gold thread of it always in his mind’s eye. Since childhood, magic remained a
ball of yearning lodged in his chest. Ren had to see it for himself. Touch it.
Experience it. He wanted to drink it, have it sear his throat.
For years, he’d heard whispers of this from
people in nearby villages, those who had gotten close to it over the years.
Those who’d walked through it—and come
out on the other side.
Ren paused in the middle of the lake to
take it all in. He would be seeing fire in his dreams that night.
His turn had come to walk into this wild
world.
He dug his oars into the lake, his
reflection rippling away from the boat with each stroke. Ren pushed himself
closer to the ruby burn, a moth drawn to the dangerous lure of light.
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