Chaos and Conjurations

Chaos and Conjurations By K.L. Noone and K.S. Murphy Published by JMS Books LLC Visit jms-books.com for more information. Copyright 2023 K.L. Noone and K.S. Murphy ISBN 9781685504205 Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License. All rights reserved. WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review. This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Published in the United States of America. * * * * K.L. Noone— For everyone who read and loved the first one, for Awesome Husband for all the patience, and for Kells for the delightful shared writer-brain and shared joy in writing. K.S. Murphy— For Lyssa. Thank you for all your kindness, support, and magic-cartoon bonding. For everyone who wanted to join Henry and Theo as their story continues. And, as always, for you, Luni, for being wonderful and sharing your words and brains with me while we bring our boys closer and closer to their happy ending. * * * * Chaos and Conjurations By K.L. Noone and K.S. Murphy Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 1 Theodore Burnett had at least six problems. Regrettably, only one of them could be solved with bracing mint tea and shortbread biscuits. Outside the room, autumn whipped its way toward winter in England, here on the Tourmaline family farm. Trees rustled, leaves shimmering in fiery colors; wind howled, though the rain had let up for the moment. Theo, sitting on the side of the sturdy bed with its folded patchwork quilt, felt memories at his fingertips. They lingered, rose, left traces under his skin, in his thoughts. Mud and sleet and despair. Battlefields and marching. Napoleon’s forces and French magicians. Clandestine meetings at inns, brothels, docks, seedy pubs. Bare skin and seductions and secrets, information murmured amid pillow-talk or stolen from messengers’ pouches while they slept. Flashes of lightning, spellwork and spycraft, damp boots and grief and shouted orders and the need to get up and carry on. A village with a flower-name, ash on the air, and guilt that screamed at his bones. The memories weren’t Theo’s own. He knew they weren’t. And the war was over, if raw and unhealed in some ways. He knew that too. That was the second, and possibly also the third, of his problems. Or at least the secret they’d found, himself and Henry together, lay at the heart of those. He’d been trying and failing not to think about that. Spies, conspiracies, cultists and dark magic, a murder and an attempted murder, and no proof of any of it… He took a sip. Felt the delicate curve of the cup against his mouth, real and present. Let cool mint and wintergreen and willow and sweetness—along with the College of Wizardry head physician’s magical soothing infusion—ripple across his tongue and the lingering whispers in his head. “It’s perfect, thank you.” “Have a biscuit?” Henry, hovering on the edge of a battered footstool and poised for action at any second, nudged the plate closer on its tray. Theo gazed at him for a second, arrested by lamplight and beauty: auburn and gold in the lines of his lover’s cheek, faint scruff of whiskers, sharp jaw. Henry’s eyes were winter-blue—like so many of his family, he had the Tourmaline eyes, pretty and sky-hued and kind—and worried, just now. His hair stood up in equally worried red spikes, because he’d been running a hand through it. His face was still thin, though he’d put on a bit of weight, these last three weeks here at his family’s home. Since being healed of that curse, that draining-spell, that slow death. Since Theo had saved him, more or less, and then had needed saving in turn. And then they’d got magically tangled up together, which accounted for problems number four and number five, in terms of complications physical and emotional. Henry added, about the biscuits, “They’re very good,” with the world’s most hopeful expression. He watched Theo’s response as if waiting for either happiness or heartbreak. Captain Henry Tourmaline, Theo considered, with fondness, would always worry about others. Henry, even as a soldier and a former spy and a member of His Majesty’s Magicians’ Corps, one who’d fought and killed on and off battlefields, had done it all to protect his England, his land, his people. Henry was good, fundamentally, through and through. Like, apparently, the biscuits. Theo took one, because he could not disappoint the man he adored. Henry’s expression brightened with relief. Nibbling a corner, Theo added, “It’s excellent. Thank you again.” He wasn’t in truth very hungry. He hadn’t been for some time. “We could stay another day. Three. Another week.” “We can’t and you know it. The Headmistress wants me back in the Library, doing my job. I want to be back in the Library. I’m feeling well enough to travel, and we can’t