“And yet, how awkward if I was, considering the adult nature of our relationship later…”
“But I love the childhood friends to lovers trope!”
“It usually involves a years-long separation,” he said. “Because ten year olds hitting puberty is not romantic. If Tristan starts getting handsy with Cassandra I am sending him away for ten years.”
“Oh god. You’re right. I guess I finally understand why it was forbidden now. Sometimes the rules make sense when you’re older.”
“But not too much sense.” He kissed me.
The French doors opened, and Mom and Dad peered in.
“Need help?” Dad asked.
“There’s already too many of us, Grandpa,” Cassandra said, with the bluntness of a kid.
“Well, then, maybe I should put the inflatable Santa out there.”
“No! Dad, no, not until the faeries are gone. At least. And only in the corner of the grounds, please, you know how the witches got weirded out by your Santa with a guitar…” The wiccans were offended. Not really because of the religious aspects, but because they thought my dad was tacky, which was not untrue.
He dumped a cold six pack on the counter and waved his hand like he didn’t give a fuck. “Okay, I’ll put it up next weekend.”
Firian left me to grab a Guinness before they were gone.
“If anyone’s hungry we have a pot of stew here,” Mom said. She set it down and Viktor immediately announced he was hungry.
Harris took his hand and led him over to get a plate. Dad started putting up ornaments. A few minutes later, my grandfathers showed up with instruments. At this point, it was just a given that we’d have some Christmas carols and witchy songs, plus a few old Wild Eyed Boys hits. Hearing the music, some of our friends came in to listen. Ignatius and Ina were dancing, Professor McGuinness and Professor Adams were talking on the sidelines, our kids were getting hyper running around with other kids…
“We’re not going to get any sleep before the faeries get here!” I hissed to my guys as I hung Santa Pikachu on the tree. “And you know the fae are going to look amazing.”
“We could all slip out and go to bed,” Montague said. “One of your folks would put the kids to bed. Hopefully it won’t be Rhys reading them Hans Christian Andersen again.”
“Oh lord. So many nightmares that year.”
“We really wouldn’t get any sleep if we slipped out and went to bed,” Harris said.
“We never do.” Alec held a sprig of mistletoe over my head. “Just give in.”
I smiled and lifted my face for a kiss times four, and then I asked my mom if she could put the kids to bed.
Oh, endings! They are so hard to write for me. I get sad saying goodbye to one group of characters. As you can tell, I feel like Charlotte and her guys had a lot more to do in getting their new alliance settled, but I know it’s a good life and I think their future battles were more on the diplomatic front. If there is one thing that surprised me here, it was Montague. I originally planned for him to sacrifice his immortality so he would live the same amount of time as the rest of the group, but as I was writing him, he kinda told me in one of those subtle character-to-author things that this wasn’t really the ending he wanted. Harris ended up being the one who gave up something, which was not what I planned either! So the book ended up being even more about accepting that sometimes we outlive the people we love…but not the love. Is that a little too deep for a RH? Well, I have to let the characters be themselves. I am an anime fan after all, so you know a little pathos just HAS to sneak in to my romance now and then. This was my first story like this where the guys were best friends beforehand and I loved how much they cared about each other too.
But, now we’re on to a different dynamic. Fae Sworn is the first book of Daisy’s story and I’m excited for it too. Daisy is outrageous on the surface…but she also has a heart under it all, and she needs someone to love her. She is not prepared for it to be these faery men though…how WILL it ever work out? The preorder is up now so I hope you’ll join me on another paranormal adventure.
As always, thank you for reading and please join my Facebook group and come hang out! And sign up for my mailing list to get a free copy of the Witch Among Warlocks prequel novella, The Wild-Eyed Boys!
More Romantic Fantasy from Lidiya!
A Witch Among Warlocks
Prequel: The Wild-Eyed Boys
Book One: The Fairer Hex
Book Two: Boys Over Powers
Book Three: A Fine Necromance
Book Four: Battle of the Hexes
Available in audio soon!
Finishing School for Faery Brides
Book One: Fae Sworn
Guardians of Sky and Shadow
Book One: Priestess Awakened
Book Two: Priestess Bound
Book Three: Priestess Unleashed
Also available in audio!
Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow
Book One: The Glass Princess
Book Two: The Shadowed Crown
Book Three: The Crystal Queen
Brides of the Sinistral Realms
(Reverse harem paranormal romance)
Book One: Tempted by Demons
Book Two: Captured by Dragons
Book Three: Guarded by Wolves (Coming soon!)
Fairy Tale Heat
Every book is standalone and can be read in any order, although some characters might pop up in later books!
Book One: Beauty and the Goblin King
Book Two: These Wicked Revels (A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Book Three: Rapunzel and the Dark Prince
Book Four: The Beggar Princess (A retelling of King Thrushbeard)
Book Five: The Goblin Cinderella
Book Six: The Mermaid Bride
Book Seven: Tasting Gretel
Book Eight: Taming Red Riding Hood
Queen of the Sun Palace (Darker romance set in the Fairy Tale Heat universe)
Book One: Prisoner of Silk
Book Two: Prisoner of Mirrors
Book Three: Prisoner of Dreams
About the Author
Lidiya Foxglove spends most of her time writing, drinking hot cocoa, messing around on the internet, and drinking tea, before reading about 15 pages of any manga with lots of pretty boys in it, and then falling asleep. Sometimes she also does yoga and gardens, but not as often as she claims.
[email protected]
Battle of the Hexes Page 27
