Book Title: Cursed (A Balance of Magic #2)
Author: Jackie Keswick
Cover Artist: Jackie Keswick
Release Date: March 23, 2022
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Tropes: Friends to lovers, love vs. duty, soul mates, found family, worlds in peril, two against the world, hurt/comfort
Series Themes: the world is fragile, short-term decisions have long-term consequences, gifts are given for a reason
Length: 77 000 words
It is the second book in a trilogy.
The book does not end on a cliffhanger. Raijin and Sandro’s story ends on a HFN. The main story arc continues across all three books.
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Two friends. Two worlds. A selfish desire that threatens them both.
Blurb
Two friends. Two worlds. A selfish desire that threatens them both.
Raijin killed a witch and found himself cursed.
Sandro went to Raijin’s aid and became an assassin’s target.
Neither expected that they would trigger the biggest upheaval their world had seen in a thousand years.
And that it needed the love between them to lift the curse.
Cursed, the second book in the Balance of Magic series, is a slow-burn m/m fantasy romance featuring friends-to-lovers who become soulmates, irate death gods, curses, inept, narcissistic politicians, curious, compassionate witches, and a found family.
“I don’t understand how your gift works,” Raijin said later. They were sitting by the fire, picking over the remains of their dinner and sharing a bottle of wine and the bag of small, crunchy biscuits Sandro had dug from his pack.
It wasn’t the way Raijin had been taught to hunt, but Sandro enjoyed his luxuries. Not just the clothes—and he could look stylish in a thick flannel shirt and a woollen vest—but wine and chocolates and coffee. He had little rituals, too, that reminded Raijin of his father.
Rakurai endured privations without complaint, but if he had the opportunity, he loved nothing better than to drink tea on his veranda. While Raijin grew up, traders had often stopped by the manor to offer wagashi and rare fruit jellies, knowing that they’d find a receptive audience in Rakurai.
Sandro cultivated small pleasures the way Rakurai had done, and Raijin found it endearing.
“Tell me about your gift,” he said again. “I couldn’t feel you using it.”
“Have you ever seen a watcher at work?”
“My mother had the skill, but I don’t remember if she used it in my presence. I was very young when she died.”
“Do you remember her at all?”
“Yes,” Raijin said immediately, but then he hesitated. “Maybe. She took me waverunning. And she would sing to herself while she worked. Whether or not she used her talent around me I really couldn’t say.”
“You were lucky, having your father to teach you.”
“Agreed.” Raijin took a sip of wine and caught Sandro’s gaze as he set the glass down. “How did you learn about your gifts?”
“I taught myself,” Sandro said unexpectedly. “Just before Pietro sent me to the Custodia, I overheard one of the hunters wonder if I would be as skilled a watcher as my mother had been. I had no idea what they spoke of, but the words stayed with me. Then one day—years later—I came across a book about watcher skills. Reading it felt as if someone had opened a door.”
Raijin stared at him. “You taught yourself the skills of a watcher?”
“Yes.” Sandro’s tone implied that there was nothing special about it.
Raijin had noticed that Sandro often downplayed his own achievements and made his clan’s unacceptable behaviour appear commonplace. “You should be proud of yourself,” he said. “I don’t think many Yuvine could have done this. Jumon himself always acknowledged the debt he owed his teachers. Developing such a skill yourself is—”
“I had a book to work from, Raijin. It’s not as if I invented my skills. But Jumon…? How do you know what the first Yuvine said and did?”
Raijin remembered the care his father and his teachers had taken and reminded himself that nobody had done the same for Sandro. “Jumon founded the Yamakage clan. We have his writings in the clan archives, and my father made sure I read them.”
“You actually read Jumon’s words?”
“Yes.”
“I envy you.”
The words were so unexpected, so heartfelt that Raijin needed a moment to compose himself. “We do get time off duty, don’t we? We can visit the Yamakage library, and you can read what you desire.” Then he spotted the flaw in his offer, and it made him smile. “At least, you can look at Jumon’s writing while I read it to you.”
Sandro’s green eyes narrowed. He studied Raijin as he’d studied the fire Raijin had lit with a lightning bolt… as if he didn’t trust it was real. “You’d really do that,” he said after a moment. “And your clan would let you.”
Raijin held out the dish of biscuits, unable to say what was on the tip of his tongue. That he was beginning to hate the way Sandro had been forced to grow up and wished he could erase those memories.
Jackie Keswick was born behind the Iron Curtain with itchy feet, a bent for rocks and a recurring dream of stepping off a bus in the middle of nowhere to go home. She’s worked in a hospital and as the only girl with 52 men on an oil rig, spent a winter in Moscow and a summer in Iceland and finally settled in the country of her dreams with her dream team: a husband, a cat, a tandem, a hammer and a laptop.
Jackie loves unexpected reunions and second chances, and men who write their own rules. She blogs about English history and food, has a thing for green eyes, and is a great believer in making up soundtracks for everything, including her characters and the cat.
And she still hasn’t found the place where the bus stops.
For questions and comments, not restricted to green eyes, bus stops or recipes for traditional English food, you can find Jackie Keswick in all the usual places
Blog/Website | Facebook group | Facebook page | Twitter
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