by T. J. Klune
There was a crash behind us, trees getting knocked down as something heavy landed upon them.
I turned.
A black dragon stood behind me, wings spread, looking majestic as fuck.
“Dude,” I breathed. “Wicked entrance.”
“Yes,” Kevin said as he preened. “It was rather dramatic, wasn’t it? Especially with all this rain sluicing down my muscles. I look badass, don’t I.”
“So badass. I’m not going back.”
He frowned. “I didn’t think you would. Which is why I’m going with you.”
“But Gary—”
“Is angrier than I’ve ever seen him. They all are. And he’s totally going to kick both our asses when we get back, but this is where I belong. With you and the other dragons.”
“The other dragons? What other—”
Two more dragons descended from the sky.
“Ooooh,” the fairies said.
The new dragons were blue and white, their feathers shaking as they landed in the clearing ahead of us. Their eyes flashed as they shook their heads from side to side, flinging water from their snouts.
“Oh dear,” Leslie said. “I have decided that I like snow much better than rain.”
Pat snorted. “Well, if we had just stayed in our cave like I wanted to, we wouldn’t be in the rain.”
“Oh, hush,” Leslie said. “We were summoned here. You barely gave me enough time to make myself presentable before you were pushing me out of the cave. Really, Pat. You may play the part of the gruff old dyke, but we all know you’re just a softie on the inside.”
Pat looked outraged at the prospect.
Leslie ignored her. “Sam,” she said as she bowed her head in my direction. “It is lovely to see you again. Please know that our hearts ache for all that you have lost.”
“Thank you,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “I don’t understand. How did you know?”
“We are dragons,” Pat said. “We are made of magic. It flows from the earth through us. When someone such as Morgan passes beyond the veil, the earth takes note. We felt it when it happened.”
I nodded, telling myself I was just blinking away the rain that fell from above. “So you would feel if Randall were to—”
“He lives,” Leslie said. “And he is safe. He will return when the time is right.”
Before I could ask another question, the last dragon came.
“Aaaaahhh,” the fairies said.
Zero Ravyn Moonfire landed in the clearing, his body coiling underneath him as he gaped nervously at Leslie and Pat.
“Oh, he is precious,” Leslie cooed. “Tell me, little dragon, do you want a mother? I accidentally ate my rock children and am looking for someone to smother with my love.”
“Here we go again,” Pat muttered.
“I am fourteen years old,” Zero said haughtily. “I don’t want to be smothered. I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
“I am going to love you forever,” Leslie breathed.
“Sam!” Zero whined. “Tell the weird old lady that I don’t want that. Gods, my life is so freaking hard. No one understands me. No one will ever understand me.”
“I understand a hard life,” Kevin said easily. “Why, this one time, Gary had a headache and only rimmed me for forty-six minutes, when everyone knows a dragon’s asshole needs to be licked for at least an hour to achieve maximum stimulation.”
“These are the dragons of Verania,” I told Dimitri.
Dimitri’s tiny face was in his tiny hands.
It was adorable.
WE FOUND him hours later, just before dawn.
Or rather, he found us.
We came upon what I thought to be a large hill. If we could get to the top, we’d have a good view of the Dark Woods as the sun rose. Hopefully we could see the Great White, given his size.
I should have known better, of course.
Dimitri didn’t even warn me. He probably just wanted to see me scream, the little bastard.
I didn’t disappoint him.
I shrieked as the hill moved the moment I put my foot upon it.
“That is my face,” the Great White growled as he rose from the earth.
“Gods,” Zero moaned. “As if I needed another blow to my self-esteem, now I’m the only dragon without legs? This is lame. Everything about this is lame.”
“Hey, baby bro,” Kevin said. “Don’t worry about the leg thing. You’re just differently abled. And since I’m the second-biggest dragon here with all four of my legs, I totally got your back.”
“I’m not your baby bro!”
“You sound just like my stepson,” Kevin said fondly.
“I’m not your stepson!”
“See what I mean?”
“Why have you come here?” the Great White asked.
The others fell silent. The fairies hovered above us.
I took a step forward. “You say that you’ve seen my heart. That I wasn’t ready. Please. I ask that you look again.”
“Do you think yourself changed?”
I bowed my head and tried to breathe. “Yes.”
“Look at me, child.”
I did.
His eyes seemed like they were endless as they narrowed.
I didn’t look away, even as tears slid silently down my face.
His face softened. “Your heart has been broken.”
“Morgan is gone. My cornerstone is….”
“You have learned suffering.”
“Yes.”
“Sacrifice.”
“Yes.”
“These are not lessons I wish someone so young has to learn,” the Great White said, not unkindly. “But you are not like everyone else, Sam of Wilds. The forest shines a little less with the loss of Morgan of Shadows, but you must not let his sacrifice be in vain. He gave himself so that you may live. So you could become what this world needs. I ask of you, Sam of Wilds, will you hear me once again?”
I hesitated.
Of course I did.
But in the end, it didn’t matter.
I whispered, “Yes.”
He nodded, and when he spoke again, I felt the overwhelming curl of his magic as it began to pull within me. Only this time, it was combined with four other pinpoints of light that burned as brightly as the sun.
For the first time, the dragons of Verania stood with each other.
And I felt them all.
The Great White said:
Come away with me, O human child.
In this forest deep, in the dark of the wild.
Where in these woods, you’ll face your fear,
as time doth stretch toward a year.
“That doesn’t mean he’s trying to get into Sam’s butthole,” Kevin whispered. “It’s not a love poem.”
“What the hell,” Zero moaned. “This is the worst.”
“You will call me your mother,” Leslie said as she stared manically at Kevin and Zero.
“We should have stayed in the cave,” Pat sighed.
“Sam of Wilds,” the Great White said, “do you accept my offer?”
Because it’s always been you, Sam. I promise. I promise. I promise, because when I look upon these stars, there is nothing I wish for more than you.
I love you, I thought, even as I said, “I accept your offer.”
The Great White reared up, wings spread wide, eyes burning a blinding white. “Then prepare yourself, my apprentice.”
The dragons of Verania roared around me.
I closed my eyes.
And accepted my destiny.
CODA
IN A billowing white room, a knight commander named Ryan Foxheart opened his eyes and said, “Sam.”
Coming Soon
A Wish Upon the Stars
By TJ Klune
Nearly a year ago, blinded by grief and betrayal, Sam of Wilds made a desperate decision to follow the Great White into the Dark Woods. Now, he emerges to a world changed.
The C
ity of Lockes is a prison. The King has been locked away in the dungeons. The Kingdom of Verania has fallen, and the Dark wizard Myrin sits on the throne.
But soon after his return, Sam learns of a resistance fighting in his name, led by a courageous knight, a defiant prince, a pissed-off unicorn, and a half-giant who wants to smash everything in sight. If he has any hope of defeating the villains who have taken their home, Sam must face the consequences of his choices—and the friends he left behind.
Coming in Spring 2018 to
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
More from TJ Klune
Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City Of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident.
Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam’s pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the King’s Wizard, Morgan of Shadows.
When Sam’s fourteen, he enters the Dark Woods and returns with Gary, the hornless gay unicorn, and a half-giant named Tiggy, earning the moniker Sam of Wilds.
At fifteen, Sam learns what love truly is when a new knight arrives at the castle—Knight Ryan Foxheart, the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.
Naturally, it all goes to hell when Ryan dates the reprehensible Prince Justin, Sam can’t control his magic, a sexually aggressive dragon kidnaps the prince, and the King sends them on an epic quest to save Ryan’s boyfriend, all while Sam falls more in love with someone he can never have.
Or so he thinks.
Sequel to The Lightning-Struck Heart
Once upon a time, the wizard’s apprentice Sam of Wilds got his happily ever after in the arms of his cornerstone, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. A year has passed, and while Sam’s been captured five or six more times since then, things are pretty great. His parents are happy, Gary and Tiggy still eat sass for breakfast, Randall is somehow alive despite being older than the gods, the King rules with a gentle hand, Kevin the dragon is as gross as ever, Morgan sighs a lot, Ryan continues to be dashing and immaculate, and Sam is close to convincing Prince Justin they will be best friends forever.
Life is good.
Until it’s not.
Because Vadoma, the leader of the gypsy clan and Sam’s grandmother, has come to the City of Lockes with a dire prophecy written in the stars: a man of shadows is rising and will consume the world unless Sam faces his destiny and gathers the five dragons of Verania at his side.
And she brings along her second-in-command, a man named Ruv.
Ruv, who Vadoma says is Sam’s true cornerstone.
Three years ago, Bear McKenna’s mother took off for parts unknown with her new boyfriend, leaving Bear to raise his six-year-old brother Tyson, aka the Kid. Somehow they’ve muddled through, but since he’s totally devoted to the Kid, Bear isn’t actually doing much living—with a few exceptions, he’s retreated from the world, and he’s mostly okay with that. Until Otter comes home.
Otter is Bear’s best friend’s older brother, and as they’ve done for their whole lives, Bear and Otter crash and collide in ways neither expect. This time, though, there’s nowhere to run from the depth of emotion between them. Bear still believes his place is as the Kid’s guardian, but he can’t help thinking there could be something more for him in the world… something or someone.
In the small mountain town of Amorea, it’s stretching toward autumn of 1954. The memories of a world at war are fading in the face of a prosperous future. Doors are left unlocked at night, and neighbors are always there to give each other a helping hand.
The people here know certain things as fact:
Amorea is the best little town there is.
The only good Commie is a dead Commie.
The Women’s Club of Amorea runs the town with an immaculately gloved fist.
And bookstore owner Mike Frazier loves that boy down at the diner, Sean Mellgard. Why they haven’t gotten their acts together is anybody’s guess. It may be the world’s longest courtship, but no one can deny the way they look at each other.
Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.
But something’s wrong with Mike. He hears voices in his house late at night. There are shadows crawling along the walls and great clouds of birds overhead that only he can see.
Something’s happening in Amorea. And Mike will do whatever he can to keep the man he loves.
It begins with a message that David cannot ignore:
I want to see you.
He agrees, and on a cold winter’s night, David and Phillip will come together to sift through the wreckage of the memory of a life no longer lived.
David is burdened, carrying with him the heavy guilt of the past six years upon his shoulders.
Phillip offers redemption.
Readers love the Tales From Verania by TJ Klune
The Lightning-Struck Heart
“The Lightning-Struck Heart a stunning fantasy novel that I am certain will go down as one of the top m/m literary picks of the year 2015.”
—Joyfully Jay
“…this book was just the confirmation of the great talent TJ has, a terrific gift he absolutely needs to continue to share with us.”
—Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
A Destiny of Dragons
“All told, A Destiny of Dragons is the perfect summer read. It’s got action! Adventure! Romance! Danger! Hilarity! Snark!”
—The Novel Approach
“A Destiny of Dragons is an absolutely brilliant continuation of The Lightning-Struck Heart…”
—Open Sky Book Reviews
“This is pure unadulterated pleasure, a fabulous fantasy read. I loved it.”
—Sinfully: Gay Romance Book Reviews
When TJ KLUNE was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid—he didn’t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video-game company, much to his chagrin). Now, over two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder. But that’s okay, because he’s recently become a full-time writer and can give them the time they deserve.
Since being published, TJ has won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance, fought off three lions that threatened to attack him and his village, and was chosen by Amazon as having written one of the best GLBT books of 2011.
And one of those things isn’t true.
(It’s the lion thing. The lion thing isn’t true.)
Facebook: TJ Klune
Blog: tjklunebooks.com
Email: [email protected]
By TJ Klune
Burn
How to Be a Normal Person
Into This River I Drown
John & Jackie
Murmuration
Olive Juice
Wolfsong
AT FIRST SIGHT
Tell Me It’s Real
The Queen & the Homo Jock King
Until You
BEAR, OTTER, AND THE KID CHRONICLES
Bear, Otter, and the Kid
Who We Are
The Art of Breathing
The Long and Winding Road
TALES FROM VERANIA
The Lightning-Struck Heart
A Destiny of Dragons
The Consumption of Magic
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Consumption of Magic
; © 2017 TJ Klune.
Cover Art
© 2017 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
ISBN: 978-1-63533-558-3
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-559-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017908744
Published November 2017
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America