Healing Fire
Sean Michael
Genre: Gay Fantasy, Dragon Shifter
Publisher: ARe Books
Date of Publication: August 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-943576-18-0
Word Count: 41,000
Cover Artist: Erin Dameron Hill
Book Description:
What will it take for a dragon prince to defy his father and fly on his own?
Prince Jules, the least favorite of the Dragon King's children, lives simply, banished to his rooms and the amazing adventures found in his books. He has never left the palace or shifted into his dragon form…he's never done anything.
Dragon shifter Lem is assigned to Jules as the prince's new bodyguard, and is determined to keep Jules safe from the Graithen, who killed the prince’s previous guardian. Lem grows to hate how the King hides Jules away, and longs to show him how to fly. His love for Jules also grows but it is forbidden, like so much in Jules' life.
Excerpt:
Lem was worried
about the prince. Jules didn’t sleep. He didn’t eat. He didn’t do anything but
lie in his bed. Lem knew how to defend Jules from outside threats. He did not
know how to defend the prince from himself.
The little
prince was never cruel. He barely spoke, he barely moved. Lem had been told
that Jules used to spend most of his time reading, staying in his suite with
his bodyguard Mabon.
Lem, of course,
knew Mabon—all the bodyguards knew each other by sight—but not very well. The
strong dragon had been older and had had more training than Lem currently did
when he’d been called to the prince’s side almost two hundred years ago.
Lem knew they
were very big wings indeed that he had to fill. He also knew, without question,
that the blame would fall upon him should Jules die. And rightly so. He was the
prince’s protector. He just wasn’t sure how he could protect Jules from
himself, for surely that was what the danger was at this time. It made Lem
think. What would Mabon have done?
There was a
private courtyard off of Jules’ rooms, meant solely for the prince’s pleasure.
Lem knew that no one else was allowed back there, not even gardeners. The area
was completely cut off from the rest of the castle by high, windowless walls,
and the only entrance was through the door in Jules’ quarters. Perhaps a little
air, a change of scenery would be good. Decided, Lem went to Jules, the prince
still curled up in his nest as he had been earlier this morning. And yesterday,
and the day before that, and the week before that, since Lem had been here.
“Your Highness,
let’s go out to the courtyard. I can hear the fountain, but have never seen
it.”
Jules looked at
him for a moment, the green eyes beautiful, if so sad. One slender hand waved
as if to say, “go.”
Grunting, Lem
girded his loins against his own training, which said he didn’t do this, that
he was never to touch the prince if he could avoid it. He bent, picking Jules
right up out of his nest.
“What?” Jules
sputtered.
Dragons needed
sustenance, sunlight. They needed it. Lem clung to that thought and stayed the
course.
“We are going to
the courtyard.”
He didn’t put
Jules down. The prince would probably curl back up in his nest, or possibly
find a nook or cranny to hide in, and Lem was not having that. He was taking
his prince into the sunlight, even if it meant he was disobeying his prince’s
wishes. His job was to protect and defend.
When Lem pushed
through the door into the courtyard, he gasped as the sunshine touched his
skin. It had been days. Days. He could feel it, energizing him, warming him. He
had been so busy worrying about the prince, he’d forgotten his own need for the
warm touch.
He wanted to
close his eyes and bask, but he didn’t. As private as this space was, that
didn’t mean impenetrable. There was still the air, and he was no longer
guarding the door from Jules’ quarters. So he kept his eyes open, stayed aware,
and walked toward the lovely fountain that had pride of place in the center of
the surprisingly roomy courtyard.
“Can you feel the
sunshine in your bones?” he asked even though he knew Jules could, the dull
sheen on Jules’ skin already beginning to warm, to take on a hint of vitality.
It was obvious
to Lem that he had done the right thing. Master Anselle had always told him to
follow his gut. Worried as it had made him, he had. He sent a silent prayer of
thanks and love to his teacher. Every lesson, no matter how strange or hard or
simple, was proving to be useful in the guardianship of his charge.
Prince Jules
lifted his face to the sun, the motion simple, instinctual. It gave Lem his
first real look at the prince’s face.
Unlike the
thickset, heavy dragons that made up Lem’s caste, Jules had the delicate,
gentle features of the ruling class. Perhaps the most beautiful features Lem had
ever seen. The sadness in them did not dim Jules’ beauty in the least.
Lem let himself
memorize the fine cheekbones, the long, slender nose. He imagined Jules’ dragon
would be quite small, but perfectly formed. He’d never seen a royal in dragon
form, but had heard that their scales were impossibly beautiful.
Moving to the
fountain, he took in the form of the tree that was in the center of it, water
pouring from its boughs. Such wonderful magic!
“My mother
formed this for me.” Words, actual words, offered freely. This was indeed a
magical spot.
“It’s beautiful.
Is the water healing?” Lem asked as he sat on the bench that wound its way
around the fountain.
Jules nodded.
“But it cannot heal me.”
About the Author:
Sean Michael, often referred to as "Space Cowboy" and "Gangsta of Love" while still striving for the moniker of "Maurice," spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and pursuing the Kama Sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to "Chicago."
A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.
Barring any of that? He'll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.
For more information on other books by Sean, visit his official website: www.SeanMichaelWrites.com
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