"Fusion Zero: The Rainforest Trial: A New Madrid Magic Prequel Short Story"

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Magic wasn’t supposed to return to Earth. Reed Hollis was supposed to make sure of that. As a Pelan operative embedded on Earth, Reed’s mission is simple: keep humans from discovering the truth about the sealed realm he came from—and keep Pelan magic from igniting where it doesn’t belong. But when a DARPA research trial in the rainforest goes violently wrong, fourteen people vanish and something impossible stirs in the air—something wrong. Back in New Madrid, the project’s lead—Dr. Marcus Mason, a brilliant young physicist whose ambition is starting to outpace his caution—announces he’s hired new support: Keidi Aster. Young. Brilliant. Carrying a lineage Reed hoped was gone forever. She doesn’t know who she really is. She doesn’t know what she carries. And she has no idea that her arrival is the first tremor of a disaster that could tear open two worlds. She shouldn’t affect him at all. But one look at Keidi Aster sends Reed’s instincts surging—desire and danger tangled so tightly he can’t tell them apart. He knows her lineage, her risk, her danger… yet his magic still pulls toward her, instinctive and unmistakable, answering something he cannot rationalize away. Welcome to the world of New Madrid Magic. This romantasy/urban fantasy short story is the spark that ignites the New Madrid Magic series, where science pushes too far, magic pushes back, and connection is as dangerous as it is inevitable.