"Prelude"

Available in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats. Read on your Kindle, phone, tablet, computer and more

Prelude is a free short story prequel to the Solmere Academy Series: a queer YA fantasy with sapphic rep at its center, a school setting, and a magic system built on class and power. Nessa Halloway has spent years learning to live carefully around the curse: keeping her voice low, her emotions lower, and her presence small enough that the town might forget to be afraid of her. It almost works. Most days. What keeps her grounded is Mara. Steady, kind, unfailingly patient Mara, who has never once flinched at the strange things that happen around Nessa and never asked her to explain them. In a town full of people who cross the street to avoid her, that kind of friendship is everything. But when Mara gets married, Nessa can't keep the joy contained. And this time, her curse doesn't stay quiet either. One unguarded moment in a chapel full of people changes everything, and Nessa is left with a choice: let Mara keep covering for her, or do the one kind thing she can think of and walk away. For readers who like their magic grounded in consequence, their friendships complicated, and their emotional gut-punches earned.