The King & the Stable Boy

TALE OF A MEDIC OUT NOW

Here's a sneak peak of Chapter One! The rest is up in the actual book :)

I was on my knees in the middle of the forest, surrounded by wildflowers and the soft hum of life in the midst the wood. The delicate laughter of nymphs, light chirp of birds, and cacophony of bugs creeping their way around was the soundtrack to my brother's final resting place. I looked down at the altar, placing my hand on it so that the amber looking glass would clear. Within the casing was my twin, or what looks like my twin anyway. His body was... changed to say the least. Upon the altar, protected by the tinted glass encasing lied a  magical entity that held his likeness. In my initial grief, id managed to bastardize the reanimation spell that necromancer's used in their practice. I'd decided to call it a mirror.

The mirror had his eyes closed, in an eternal slumber, never to age past twenty one, just as I had written in at the base of the altar.

Today was our birthday. We both were supposed to turn twenty one and set out to find our mates together. Tears pricked my eyes. He never got to find him or her, never got to see our nation change to be accepting of same gender couples. I know he would've loved to see it. I began to cry not only for what he missed but that poor mate he's left behind.

An empathetic stab went through my heart. They must've come of age and felt it. The emptiness. Where an average shifter or caster would become of age and feel a bond open or a "bubble" (how many people decided to describe the feeling of a present yet unopened link—rather childish if you asked me) form in their psyche, my brother's mate felt nothing likely. I wondered if he knew his mate had died or if he'd just assumed he was one of those the Olympians cursed to a life of second mate-hood. In some regards, I couldn't think of which was worse.