Title: Magic, Monsters, and Me
Series: The Magicals’ Alliance, Book One
Author: Timoteo Tong
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 06/06/2023
Heat Level: 2 – Fade to Black Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 126400
Genre: Fantasy, YA, coming of age, LGBT, angsty, supernatural, magic
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Description
Sixteen-year-old Elijah Delomary wants to be a normal boy, riding his skateboard, reading his favorite books, and playing with his familiar, Boxey. His mother expects him to practice magic and fight the monsters who are hurting ordinaries, but he’d rather spend time with his new best friend, Austin.
As their friendship deepens and an old nemesis—Devlina, the Queen of the Gloom—threatens to destroy the universe, Elijah has to decide what’s more important: magic, family, or love?
Magic, Monsters, and Me
Timoteo Tong © 2023
All Rights Reserved
A twig snapped behind me. I turned quickly, spotting a shadow moving toward me through the trees and underbrush of the forest. I scrambled to my feet, summoning two silver daggers.
“Oa pudo vovo destrùja llacoma lloromo!” I shouted, while frantically pulling my hands back ready to fling the magic energy at the unseen monster.
“No, you’re not going to destroy me for approaching you,” Áurmiddo responded as he stepped out of the darkness of the forest into the surrounding field that was bathed in silvery moonlight. He was short, like me, with brown skin, hazel eyes, and curly brown hair, streaked with blond.
“You should be in bed,” Áurmiddo said, deepening his voice to sound like our Camp Counsellor Rafi. “It’s forbidden for Magicals to roam the forest at night because there are Áucúitus and other monsters out there looking to feed on you.”
I laughed, the daggers dissolving into the night air as Áurmiddo climbed up the flat-topped granite rock that overlooked Shasta Lake.
“You screamed like a Càaxhasta; you know that right, Elicêo?” Áurmiddo said, using the translation of my name in the Old Language.
Áurmiddo and I sat down on the cold rock. He sat cross-legged while I wrapped my arms around my knees to keep warm as the night chill set in.
“I didn’t scream like a banshee!” I retorted. Last year, a banshee haunted my friend April’s house, screaming suddenly in the middle of the night and frightening the family until Barn and I banished her back to the Gloom where she belonged.
“Sure, Elicêo, sure,” Áurmiddo said. “We’re pùfladantos right now. Being here away from camp,” he added.
“You’re right, we are scofflaws,” I said. “We’re enjoying nature. And you should practice your English while you’re here in this Dimension.”
“English is boring, monotone. Nothing makes sense. There are no rules. I’ll stick to Minervan, thank you very much,” Áurmiddo said sarcastically.
“You’re welcome. What’s the point of traveling seven thousand years to the future and across six dimensions to attend summer camp if you’re not gonna learn English?” I asked rhetorically.
“I’m here to study Qu’el, magic! And you should practice your Old Language with me because I’m a native speaker,” Áurmiddo said.
“I’m fluent!” I responded.
“You need to work on your atombras santùallen, on your nouns, as you call them in English. You tend to mix these words up, especially the genders. A noun ends in u when referring to a class of people for whom knowing their gender is irrelevant, such as a Máunadu, a witch. An o is added to nouns for boys like you and me because we identify as such—I would call you an Encantreino. An a is added to nouns for girls such as Vêrnadetta—who’s a Coaugela so it ends with an a and not an o,” explained Áurmiddo.
“I called her Coaugelo once by accident!” I said.
“If you’re not going to use the right noun, default to the nonbinary u, in case you don’t know how the person identifies. Okay, Elicêo?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Finally, remember to make nouns plural. All you have to do is add an s to the respective gendered versions of the words. For example, you and I are Encantreinos, more than one Coaugela would be referred to as Coaugelas, and a mix-gendered or nonbinary group would be called Coaugelus,” Áurmiddo said.
“I’m trying!” I exclaimed. “Mom put me in Old Language immersion classes after school last year. Her goal was to improve my accent.”
“Work on pronouns; your accent is fine, Elicêo,” Aurmiddo said. “Not like those wizards from Southern Minerva. They have terrible accents. They speak like they have rocks in their mouths.”
“Astroístus are the worst,” I added. “They think their poop doesn’t stink merely because they can fly around, harness lightning and thunder, and because everyone thinks of them as superheroes.”
“And when they wear capes and tights—” Áurmiddo added.
“—they look so funny!” I finished for him.
We both laughed really hard. This was our spot, high above the lake, nestled in the mountains, where we watched the stars together. Cassiopeia in particular was our favorite constellation.
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Timoteo K. Tong grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles dreaming of living in a rambling Victorian mansion. He currently lives with his husband and way too many plants in San Francisco. He is obsessed with cheese pizza, drinking cola, and daydreaming about magic. He sold his first book when he was age eight, a story about his beloved stuffed animal named Crocker Spaniel. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators International.
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