Sneak peak: Chapter 1 of "A Quiet Fire"

I have been talking about this one for a while now, even though it was one of the easiest things I have written in a long time. I hope you like historicalish men with conflicted feelings!

Please support me by pre-ordering direct here (you will get chapters 1-3 in the sample!).

A Quiet Fire

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Quincy

The heat had wilted the flowers someone had placed all over the small sitting room where he had been led by a sour-faced chaperone. To Quincy’s sensitive nose, they smelt like death. It would have been reason enough to feel nauseous, but he had more reason still.

He wasn’t going to look up. It wasn’t much, but that much he was entitled to. Well-bred omegas didn’t look alphas in the eye, after all, and Quincy was old enough at forty that it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to be old-fashioned.

Yara had certainly thought him as much, even if Yara herself had been wild enough to— He shoved the thought away and focused on keeping his expression neutral. Yara was gone.

Long gone, according to the council. And since Quincy was still of breeding age, it was only to be expected that he meet prospective alphas.

As far as he could tell, the only purpose it served was for them to prove their power. Unless they enjoyed humiliating him, which he wouldn’t have put past them, either. When there were plenty of young nubile omegas of both sexes available to them, who on earth would claim him? None of the last five alphas to examine him had looked even remotely tempted.

So Quincy would keep his mouth shut and let this stranger circle him, eyeing him up like he could assess how fertile Quincy might be that way. He breathed and tried not to think about it at all.

Yara had been a good friend from early childhood, back when they’d both been betas, and while he’d loved her deeply and he’d enjoyed sexual congress, he’d mostly done it for her sake. In turn, she’d accepted his word that he did not want children—he’d never asked her if she felt the same, because female alphas paid an expensive price when they presented and weren’t able to carry a child.

So it’d been Quincy or no one. But that wasn’t public knowledge, so as far as the council and the alpha in front of him knew, Quincy hadn’t conceived in twenty years of marriage. There were many other ways for omegas to contribute to their household, but in Quincy’s experience, none that alphas approved of.

“Do you prefer cold weather, or warm?”

The question was so unexpected, he glanced up, then hastily back down. He hadn’t paid much attention when they’d been introduced, so it was only now that it registered that the alpha in front of him was Saranian. He was at least a head taller than Quincy, with the dark skin and luminous violet eyes typical of his people, his white-blond hair braided intricately atop his head. Quincy regretted not listening to the introductions more closely.

He didn’t remember the finer points of protocol for foreigners very clearly, not over twenty years later, but an elaborate hair style always spoke of wealth and rank.

“Both have their virtues, my lord,” he said easily. It hardly mattered, truly, it was not like he cared if he made a small mistake when he had no interest in impressing the man.

“You have always lived here, haven’t you?”

He agreed that he had. Yara and he had settled down in one of her family’s many properties when they’d been married. He knew he was lucky to still be close to his childhood home, even if it was now occupied by his older brother now that his parents were gone.

Quincy had been allowed to stay home when she… when she hadn’t come back. Back when she’d taken leave from her tours, they’d gone into the nearest cities together, travelled and drank and met with all sorts of people Quincy would never have frequented on his own.

That had been Yara for you, way too brave bold for this world and somehow getting away with it anyway.

“You’d like my estate, I think,” the alpha said, and Quincy froze, suddenly on high alert. No one had talked about what he would have liked. The alphas who’d seen him were there to determine if they liked him enough to pay the bride price.

“Your estate…?” he echoed, just to fill the silence and pretending his heart wasn’t racing.

It was the right question because the alpha launched into a detailed description of the place and Quincy could just hum and sip at his tea. There was also a twinge of something foreign to his accent, some odd word choices at times, and trying to decipher exactly what kept Quincy entertained for the duration.

Everything pointed to this man being of higher rank than him, and Quincy didn’t know enough about the Saranian politics to guess at what that might imply.

Valgar

Valgar sighed in relief as soon as his door was locked and he could get his long coat off. Although they were not a week’s ride away from Saran, the low valley of the earldom of Veolia was stifling in summer.

“Coffee or something stronger?” his manservant Revel asked. He was old enough to be Valgar’s grandfather, but he refused to retire and in truth, Valgar didn’t think he could do without him.

“Stronger.”

They’d brought along some Saranian liquor despite the trip not being that long. Just two weeks for Valgar to choose an omega who’d give the earldom the heir it needed. They had spent the first one at Merask with no luck.

He made himself sip slowly at the drink, though no flavour could override the bitterness he felt.

Mar hadn’t taken it well. Of course Mar hadn’t taken it well, she was already heartbroken she hadn’t been able to give him a child, and now they were proposing that he replace her like she was nothing more than an aged horse.

It had taken every inch of his willpower to force them to back down from a repudiation. Instead, they’d demanded he take a second omega to do what his first could not. It was so bloody reasonable, too. His people had suffered great losses in the wars with the barbarian invaders, and it was highly likely that the only reason Valgar was alive was that he’d been kept from the battlefield for the very purpose of fathering children.

They were right, he knew it. He wasn’t immortal and he could still catch a bad cold and be lost too—the council of Saran wasn’t willing to give up their strongest bloodline, no matter how many bastards Valgar’s grandfather had got all over their state keeping the powerful water magic they carried well and alive.

That was the other reason he’d married outside Saran. The other reason he had been sent abroad now; they thought his ancestors had kept it a little too in the family by marrying their own cousins for generations and what the magic truly needed was an infusion of fresh blood.

Not peasant fresh blood, naturally, but any foreign omega of respectable family would work, someone with a magic bloodline of their own.

Valgar wished he could refuse them, for his own sake as well as Mar’s, but he was not fortunate in being so blind as to not see how vital their magic was to the war effort. The invaders came in ships and of all the provinces of Aliria, Saran had made the most significant contribution through their water mages.

His own parents had loved him, spoiling him a little, their youngest child and with only a decent amount of magical talent. Once he’d been older, he’d understood they had been fairly confident in being able to keep him home, unlike his older siblings, each of them lost throughout the years of his childhood.

Lavan had been the last one to go, the only one that had felt like a true loss to Valgar himself. His mother’s favourite, too, despite how she’d braced her heart against loving the children she knew she’d had to send to war way too soon. They’d called her own death a withering, which sometimes came upon a perfectly healthy individual, but Valgar knew better; her heart had broken one too many times and she simply hadn’t been able to put it back together.

And now, he’d have to do the same, bring a child into the world just to—

“The bath is ready, milord” Revel announced.

Valgar saw his glass was empty and hoisted himself to his feet.

Please support me by pre-ordering direct here (you will get chapters 1-3 in the sample!).

A Quiet Fire

Buy Now