A Time Apart

By Alexa Piper

Cora has become a potent mage while away in China, but upon returning to her job as a PI’s assistant, she finds things have changed quite a bit. Her best friend has become engaged to a demon he summoned, her boss is taking a trip, and her favorite barista is one of the magical denizens of Fairview.

Valerian is just about ready to let life get comfortable around him. With his mage girlfriend Cora and their pretty and impressionable lover around him, that shouldn’t be a problem. But when Cora tells him she doesn’t love him and never did, comfort is the furthest thing from his mind.

Will Fairview’s premier private investigator’s office ever be the same with the accountant marrying a demon? Will a trickster’s games ruin the happy reunion several people are looking forward to? And most importantly, will the desk ever be satisfied? The Fairview gang is ready to find out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Oct 16, 2020

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Piper

A Time Apart (Fairview Chronicles 5)

Alexa Piper

Cora has become a potent mage while away in China, but upon returning to her job as a PI’s assistant, she finds things have changed quite a bit. Her best friend has become engaged to a demon he summoned, her boss is taking a trip, and her favorite barista is one of the magical denizens of Fairview.

Valerian is just about ready to let life get comfortable around him. With his mage girlfriend Cora and their pretty and impressionable lover around him, that shouldn’t be a problem. But when Cora tells him she doesn’t love him and never did, comfort is the furthest thing from his mind.

Will Fairview’s premier private investigator’s office ever be the same with the accountant marrying a demon? Will a trickster’s games ruin the happy reunion several people are looking forward to? And most importantly, will the desk ever be satisfied? The Fairview gang is ready to find out.

Introduction

Faintly Fuckable Reader,

You are back! I am surprised that you’ve endured these slow-paced tales -- but then, I am not really surprised, for with every page you turn here, there is a chance you may encounter me. And you and I have a special relationship, have we not? Get the plum wine. Let us drink to that.

But you will and must turn pages, wade through wordy prose, endure middling metaphor. Poor Piper! Unless she gets to write gore and decapitation, she is simply no good.

And therefore, she will distract you with a shape-changing cloud monster, also known as nue, because a single word would be too simple. The nue is immensely teachable, and I am growing increasingly fond of him. Other shapechangers are hellhounds and werewolves… And really, why does one need that many canines? I hear they shed.

A certain snake-demon healer threatens the innocent with his flaying skills, and because teeth are appealing, there are vampires. I, alas, only have a sweet tooth. Let’s drink to that!

Fair Fuckable Reader, it is time to turn the page now, time to lose yourself in finding me. You may dream of me hereafter, and things we dream are not always mere dreams.

With a turning of the page, the tale begins.

In burning love,

Valerian Smith

Prologue

Eris found himself beleaguered by witches. Eris, the incidentally witch-beleaguered, was not one for planning. Things he did just mostly happened to work out as if all his deeds were one great trick, hence people liked to call him trickster, never mind he preferred to be called archer.

Tertia, the youngest witch, had taken to calling him honey, which was altogether worse than trickster.

You look thoughtful, honey, she said to Eris.

Eris was thoughtful. He had been sitting on the cushioned windowsill in the house in Fairview he and the sisters -- wicked, and three -- had air-bnb’d, and he had been staring out that window for a good while. The window was in need of cleaning, and last night’s downpour had left dusty streaks on the outside of the glass, but the red-and-white checkered cushions were comfortable, and so Eris overlooked the dust.

Do I? Eris said. His fingers itched. He wanted to take his bow, his quiver, and leave, but whenever he did, the witches waylaid him. Well, they got him laid. It was different, Eris supposed.

We have been thinking, honey, said Tertia and ran her fingers up his shoulder to his neck and cinnamon brown hair. We are about ready to head back to Morrowvale. Fairview is dull and cold and rainy, and there simply are better places to be a witch.

Hmm, Eris said. He was not one for picking a destination and just going there. His kind knew to drift and let themselves be drawn, and Eris could feel nothing draw him to Morrowvale. But Tertia did try to draw him, the way she touched, the way she smelled, like sage and magic and bones cast in the darkness.

We were thinking you should come with us. Tertia had nimble fingers. Eris had grown too fond of her fingers entirely.

Hmm. Eris was changeable. He had spent a considerable amount of time in girl-shape. He wondered if going back to breasts and a soprano singing voice would make the witches want him less, but he didn’t want to change yet. He liked stubble and a flat chest, liked his cock, which was a clear indication he should keep it.

Tertia was obviously not satisfied with his response. Her hand had drifted down to the cock Eris so enjoyed, and she drove home one of the reasons Eris enjoyed it with her nimble fingers.

We were thinking we should leave tomorrow, said the witch, voice growing husky.

Hmmm, he said, trying to resist the way she made him hard, but that was, well, hard.

Come to bed, Tertia said. I want you. We want you.

All three of them could be blunt like that, and none of them had any qualms about telling Eris exactly what they wanted of him. Oh, Tertia had claimed him first, but no witch, no wicked one, kept a lover for herself if she had sisters.

Coffee, Eris managed. He looked past Tertia to the living room framed on one side by a dining table behind which an open-concept kitchen dominated about a third of the visible space. The exit was to the right of that.

Like an archer diving for his prey, he ducked in order to escape Tertia’s kiss.

I need to get coffee! he said, sliding off the windowsill and out of Tertia’s arms, which were closing like a lusty jaw.

We have coffee here. I like the idea of getting you caffeinated before I get you naked. She turned and followed him.

Eris had enjoyed the witches getting him naked. They were good at that, arguably better than at all the witchy stuff, but fucks and feathers, he needed to leave. The house was too small, and it smelled of smoke and witchcraft, and all the cat figurines that lined a shelf in the living room were irritating.

I need a latte! he said, reaching for his bow and quiver, both of which had collected a slight trace of dust in the umbrella stand, and really, they did not belong in an umbrella stand. What had he been thinking?

Prima said she wants to milk you, Tertia said in a husky voice. She was rounding the oval dining table slowly. With her mouth. Oh, she was a beautiful witch, all of them were. And Eris liked them. But he needed to move, even if the thought of Prima’s mouth on his cock made said cock twitch.

I’ll just go get a latte at the Queene Bean. He stumbled to the front door ass first, and ass first, he walked into Segunda, who stood in his way, stark naked.

What you need, the second witch said, is someone riding your cock and lapping up your cum.

The thing about male anatomy was that it could develop a mind of its own, and Eris’s cock stirred further at the possibility of being ridden.

I need it foamed, Eris said, because another issue with male anatomy was that it cut off higher brain functions the harder it got.

I’ll get you foaming, added Prima. She stood in the door to the bedroom that split off from the hallway and wore some lace that was far more revealing than it should be. And the standards for lace were not very high.

No, I -- Really. I need to go. With an effort, Eris walked around the horny witches and managed the door. Fucks and feathers, doors are hard when your dick is harder, Eris thought but managed. The bow in his hand felt good, felt right, even if his cock seemed to complain that Tertia would have felt righter.

Once outside, he pulled the door closed behind him and turned his head up to the overcast sky. The air smelled of rain and freedom and mischief, and Eris loved it. He ran down the sidewalk, evading pedestrians and umbrellas opened against the slight drizzle, mostly by tourists who had no idea of how to handle Fairview weather, which was with a great amount of stoicism.

Back in the house, the oldest witch turned to her sisters. Well, that one’s gone, Prima said. And good riddance.

But I liked him, said Tertia, pouting. She looked back over to the window seat Eris had occupied only moments before.

Segunda stretched, unconcerned about not wearing a stitch. He was good with his tongue, but I think his heart was never in it, she said.

Oh, hearts, said Prima, putting a hand on her lace-encircled waist. An overrated bloody piece of meat. I liked his cock much better than his heart, although we never got very acquainted with the latter.

Let’s go home then, sisters, said Tertia. She would find someone who adored her, she was sure of that, if only she kept looking.

Chapter One

Cora felt jet lagged. The trip to China hadn’t been this bad, but then of course the trip back had been more exhausting in the bedroom department, seeing as how Valerian had insisted they make the most of the jet. And Jirou had about as much stamina as Valerian.

Perhaps instead of mage training, I should have focused on Cardio, Cora thought as she walked up from the subway and straight to the Queene Bean to pick up her regular order. Fairview was rainy, as usual, but nowhere near rainy enough for Cora to pull her hood up or even adjust the collar of her light jacket.

She pushed the Queene Bean’s door inward to the jingling of the bells that hung above it. The yellow and maroon theme that was broken by orange and white here and there worked, strangely. A picture of the Bard held pride of place on the center wall. Hexagonal bookshelves picked up the bee theme, as did the small plastic bees glued to them here and there.

June, the barista, beamed when she saw Cora, and because Cora had really closed a gap of learning in the magic department, she stopped in her tracks and stared at June.

"You’re… uhm. Hi, June. You are