COVER REVEAL
Book Title: In Love and
Death (Spellster and the Hound)
Author: Aldrea
Alien
Cover Artist: Maria
Arteta
Release Date: 7th Nov
2024
Genres: MM Bi-awakening Fantasy Romance
Tropes: Hurt/Comfort, Forced proximity, Forbidden love, Mage/Mage Hunter, Falling for the first time/Learning to love
again, Fish out of water, Sex magic
Themes: Grief, Self-acceptance, Healthy vs toxic relationship.
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 270 000
words
It is part of the Spellster
and the Hound series and ends on a
cliffhanger.
Pre-Order Buy Links
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
In one day, Dylan’s whole
life was destroyed.
In one night, he may have
found the beginnings of a new one.
Blurb
Still grappling with the loss of his home, Dylan has no
choice but to head for Wintervale. His one solace is in travelling the same direction taken by
the enemy. But the truth behind the attack on the spellster tower suggests things aren’t as
clear-cut and the enemy may well be closer than they thought.
Crossing the kingdom also means remaining in the
presence of Tracker, the King’s Hound who Dylan’s repressed desire refuses to let out of his
head. The man’s gentle protectiveness, coupled with his flirting, certainly doesn’t help. It
taunts him with ideas of the night they shared in the tower becoming something more, a
thought that is no less ridiculous than remaining unleashed.
After all, it’s a hound’s job to escort or kill spellsters. They
do not disobey orders. They do not falter. And they do not fall. Especially not in love.
Excerpt
“I thought I knew my role in the world,” Dylan confessed.
“Thought I had survived the ambush because it was my fate to return home, but there’s
nothing left. No home. No friends. No life. So… why was I spared?”
Why?
Tracker knew that question well. The memory of it lay cloaked in the gloom of the Pit, where
a sallow flickering light danced upon broken and battered bodies. Even after all these years,
he recalled how thickly the tang of human blood sat on his tongue. How the only sounds
over his ragged breath were the moans of air escaping the dead, yet the loudest stunned
silence of the witnesses screamed the loudest, echoing in his mind for years after.
The knowledge that he should’ve been the one to die that
day.
A surprising outcome. That was what their mistress had called his survival. Unexpected and
problematic. She had him sent away. Officially, to be trained in seduction, but he knew it was
to have little hopes like love and family literally screwed out of him.
He’d learnt different lessons. Seduction, yes—difficult not
to when it was a requirement to remain working in the brothel’s upper tiers—but also
compassion. They couldn’t replace the family he had lost to Hunk’s betrayal, but
The Gilded Lily had offered a type of kinship. Without it, he wasn’t certain he would’ve
survived the first year.
And if he had died? What would it have been
altered? Which lives would’ve been saved or lost? The spellster protected by an entire
mercenary company? The elven woman who had spent decades feeding on the nearby
village? The countless young spellsters and would-be hounds he had aided in smuggling into
Dvärghem?
And Dylan’s fate?
He bumped the spellster’s arm with a shoulder, hoping that
gentle contact was enough to get the man’s attention without startling him. “I am no priest,
but if I remember my childhood teachings correctly, the gods do not control how our lives
play out, they merely offer alternative paths. Everything else is our choice.”
Dylan remained silent for some time. At first, Tracker
thought he hadn’t been heard, then the man spoke.
“My choices are responsible for my friends dying?”
“I did not say that and this is the last time you will speak
such a lie. No choice you could possibly make would have led to what happened.
That blame lies squarely on another’s shoulders.” Who had made that decision was an
answer Tracker didn’t currently possess, but he was going to find out. And once he did, not a
thing would stop him from dealing out the ultimate consequence. “As for why you were
spared…” He inhaled, unthinkingly breathing in the scent of magic emanating from the man.
The wisps of power might have died down, but that storm-cloud aroma remained a beacon
regardless. “I would say your strength played no small part there.”
Dylan’s face scrunched in confusion. “My strength? I could
be the strongest spellster in the world and it wouldn’t… I couldn’t…” He ran a hand through
his hair, further upsetting the already messy array. “I just feel…” His breath came out in one
shuddering exhale. “I don’t know what.”
“Helpless? Hopeless?”
“Like no matter how hard I try, I’m utterly useless in keeping
all the terrible things from happening.”
Tracker laid a hand on Dylan’s forearm. Even through the
layers of his clothes, the man’s shaking was palpable. “There was no way you could have
predicted what happened. Not the ambush, not the army, not… any other outcome.”
Dylan stared down at his hands. Unformed magic danced
around his fingertips like a rolling fog. “I can’t stop thinking I should’ve done more, should’ve
been more, then maybe they’d be alive.”
He drew the spellster into his arms, sensing the ghosts of
pure magic crackle into something tangible as Dylan stiffened in his grasp, the flash briefer
than a lightning strike.
With his ear pressed to the man’s chest, he heard the man’s
heart thumping at a tempo that suggested Dylan had spent the day sprinting down the road
rather than the steady pace they’d taken through the forest. “I cannot tell you it will get
better, that is not something anyone can judge for you. But I am here if you need me, in
whatever capacity that may be.” He didn’t know if his presence alone would be enough to
help, but he hoped so.
The man’s heartbeat slowly calmed as Tracker talked. Dylan
sagged into the embrace, his arms awkwardly wrapping around Tracker’s shoulders, his
cheek resting atop Tracker’s head. Wetness seeped into his scalp. He ignored it and
tightened his grip to match Dylan’s.
It was a while before the man unwound himself. He dried
his face, giving a self-conscious little chuckle. “I really have to stop crying all over
you.”
About the Author
Aldrea Alien is a bisexual,
multi-award-winning, USA Today Bestselling Author of lgbt & fantasy
romance.
Hailing from New Zealand,
she lives with a menagerie of animals, most of whom are convinced they’re just as human as
the next person. Especially the cats! By day, they wrangle the family. By night, they
write.
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