Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Under Starlight
    Under Starlight
    Under Starlight
    Ebook53 pages43 minutes

    Under Starlight

    By Kassandra Lea

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In a forgotten part of the city, where unusual beings are free to be themselves, werewolf police officer Warden searches for his boyfriend, Tate. With help from Snap, an odd little fellow and Tate's assistant, Warden descends into the trolls' den to find Tate. Knowing Tate is a feared inhabitant -- if not unofficial ruler -- of the Underground, Warden can only imagine the way things will play out if he isn’t found.

    Tate knows all about magic, and he knows trolls don't generally possess it. Upon discovering a doorway, he's captured and held prisoner. Now his only hope is Warden, who wears the key to Tate's freedom. But freedom comes with a price, and Tate makes a tough decision to ensure the trolls never cause problems again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJMS Books LLC
    Release dateJul 8, 2017
    ISBN9781634864053
    Under Starlight
    Author

    Kassandra Lea

    Kassandra Lea’s stories have appeared in a number of anthologies. She lives in southern Wisconsin. For more information, visit facebook.com/leakassie.

    Read more from Kassandra Lea

    Related authors

    Related to Under Starlight

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2018

      Without the adventof Stockholm Syndrome,how could I havelearned to love myself so much? I’m asking Godand New York, can anyonehelp me? (An all-but-audible “or else.”) The captain’s chair:it’s beginning to smella little too much like me. Again.But the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Taking Sides

      Apr 1, 2022

      Taking Sides
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Longest Silence

      Jul 12, 2022

      The Longest Silence
      11 min read

    • Article

      Intarsia

      Feb 6, 2020

      Intarsia
      6 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      Ready, Set, Let go!

      May 15, 2019

      Ready, Set, Let go!
      11 min read

    • Article

      Getting Up

      Oct 15, 2022

      Getting Up
      20 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2021

      Light delimits the darkness as snowgives shape to the silence of winter trees.Above a rooftop, the shadow of illness hoversindistinguishable from the wraithsof common chimney smoke.Strip skin from flesh, flesh from boneto behold the comical, adumbrat

      4 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt

      Dec 12, 2019

      He was an angry man, and he was an ugly man, and he was tall, and he was pacing. Not much space for it in the new home, just a few rooms lined up in a row, underneath a series of slow-moving ceiling fans, an array of antique clocks ticking on one wal

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      Oh, Corona

      Jan 1, 2024

      Books The Lights by Ben Lerner Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023 128 pp., $26.00 (hardcover) According to the latest Times article on the qualitative merits of bot art, Ben Lerner has lent excerpts from his new poetry collection to a group of venture c

      7 min read

    • Article

      There Is No Crime Here

      Jul 18, 2023

      There Is No Crime Here
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Fantasy

      Nov 20, 2021

      Sweet Fantasy
      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      This is the time of year when stormsspin up from distant dustand sand and make their way to us,and we worry and adjust the scales we carry in our headsto account for luck and prayer.We buy batteries and candles, cordsand water to prepare. There are t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      Are you ready? I nodded. She slid the needle inand the sick cat, who only a moment before had tried toleap to the floor closed his eyes and exhaled. Andthat’s it, she said a little too brightly, pulling the needle out.That’s it? I asked. That’s all t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Pickpocket

      Jun 1, 2020

      Pickpocket
      7 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2019

      Not humble, a quilt takes credit for inventing cinema. Jump cuts? Sure—look: two shepherdesses evading rockets. And here’s rosefilled toile-land again. Other quilts at the bottom of the fulllinen chest running away from bad shepherds in toile-l and f

      2 min read

    • Article

      Clandestine

      Jan 10, 2022

      It was 1980 and I was nineteen, barely into what my mother quaintly referred to as the Prime of My Life. From what I’d learned up to that questionable apogee, there will never be enough time before bony-fingered Decrepitude sinks her yellowed nails i

      12 min read

    • Article

      Novel

      Jul 1, 2020

      The first time he stared down a barrel it was his fingers cradling that clot of steel, and I do mean stare down, because he was sitting cross legged, the pistol was in his lap, he watched both his thumbs flutter around the stiff trigger. It was very

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Glove

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Glove
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Under Starlight

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Under Starlight - Kassandra Lea

      10

      Chapter 1

      Tate yawned, stretching his hands high above his head. Sunrise was an hour or two out still, and he’d spent the better portion of the night helping a family of dwarves get settled in their new apartment. Two stories above ground was a bit of a change, especially when they were used to living in mountains or underground. But the Underground, the collection of rundown buildings across the river from the proper city, didn’t have much in the way of subterranean dwellings. Tate did the best he could, with a promise to find something more suitable.

      He did know of one place…

      Shaking his head, Tate drove the matter from his mind. Later, he could see to it later. Wandering from the bedroom toward the balcony, he caught a brief reflection of himself. Upon returning home, he stripped bare, ditching his clothes in the hamper as dwarves always smelled musty. He was buck naked, from the very tips of his velvety antlers to the bottoms of his feet. And he stepped outside that way, relaxing as the cool air caressed his flesh. In that moment, he allowed himself to pretend he was back home and not lost in this forsaken mortal world. He could almost hear the melodious tune of the sunjays as they greeted the new day, smell the strong perfume of the night-blooming flowers as they shot off one last hooray before closing up until the stars reappeared.

      But when he opened his eyes, Tate was greeted with the now familiar sight of red brick buildings, some splattered with graffiti, and weedy, cracked pavement. Across the inky waters, he saw the twinkling lights of the city.

      And he loathed it.

      Perhaps it was time to pick a place to plant a proper garden, a green space to help those trapped here feel at least a bit cheerier. Yes, that sounded like an exquisite plan.

      Feeling his soul rejuvenated, the horizon turning lighter with each passing second, Tate took to performing the fluid movements of his morning yoga routine, ever mindful not to get an antler stuck in the balcony railing; doing that once was more than enough. When he finished up, the sun now cresting, Tate stepped into his apartment and headed for the door, still in the nude. He fancied a morning run through the streets.

      Well, he actually would have preferred to frolic through the trees like those surrounding his lover’s cabin, but he would make do with what he had.

      When Tate yanked open the door, there was a startled yelp from the other side. A pintsized critter stood in the darkened hallway, its tiny claw raised as though ready to knock.

      Tate, sir, the creature started.

      Tate cut him off. Whatever it is, Snap, it can wait until I return. I shall only be gone a short while. Do make yourself at home.

      But, sir. The plaintive plea followed him.

      The words fell on ears unwilling to listen. Work would just have to wait until later. There was something more pressing that called his name, that beckoned to the very wilderness nestled within his core. By the time Tate stepped outside the apartment complex, he was no longer walking on two human feet, but on four golden hooves.

      * * * *

      As the first rays of light began to break over the horizon, birds welcomed it with melodious songs. Tate sauntered down the middle of the street, ears flicking this way and that, hooves tippy-tapping on the pavement. His white coat shimmered with its own internal light, and he stood much taller than the average stag. Then again,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1