Vigil: A Dark Fae Why Choose Romance

By Mariah Thayer

When Aisling is chosen by lottery to hold Samhain Vigil in the woods outside her hometown, she couldn't have imagined how completely her life would change.

Attacked by the Faerie Horde? Undesirable, but a known risk.

Claimed by the Four Horsemen of Faerie while at Death's door? Impossible. And yet, the possibility that had never even crossed Aisling's radar promises to make Samhain explosive.

Trick or treat?

Vigil was originally published under Mariah Thayer as part of the Booktober 2022 PNR Charity Anthology collection. It contains graphic content and as such is unsuitable for readers under 18.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mariah Thayer
• Release date: Mar 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798201837754

Mariah Thayer

Mama and Army Veteran publishing dark romantic fantasy.

Book preview

Vigil

A Dark Fae Why Choose Romance

Mariah Thayer

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Copyright © 2021 by Mariah Thayer

Originally published in Booktober 2022: A PNR Charity Anthology

Cover design by K.O. Newman of Whisker and Quill Designs [https://www.konewman.com]

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Contents

Dedication

Author’s Note

1. Aisling

2. Outside the Light

3. Something Wicked

4. Fight for Her Life

5. The Show

6. Cheating Death

7. Rule Breakers

8. Make a Deal

9. Love Hurts

10. Trick or Treat

11. Restored

12. Nothing Comes Free

13. Ninety-Nine Problems

14. Silver Lining, Steel Spine

Acknowledgements

Also By

About the Author

To Jay Ashman.

Thanks for the coaching, mentorship, and support that made this story–and much of my work last year–possible.

Author’s Note

Vigil is a fast-burn reverse harem romance featuring dark fae, fated mates, and mortal peril. It was first featured in Booktober 2022, a paranormal romance charity anthology. M/M and M/M/F/M/M dynamics will be found within. Potential triggers include: near-death experience, fantasy violence, and an exploding eyeball. Intimate scenes and violence are both described in graphic detail, and as such, this book is unsuitable for readers under 18. This book ends in an HFN, with two additional books to follow detailing Aisling’s life in Faerie.

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1

Aisling

Isponged black grease paint carefully over my eyelids on top of the white costume makeup covering the rest of my face. Just like any other Samhain night, I’d be dressing up; unlike any other Samhain night, though, I would not be joining my friends and family at the community bonfire. This costume was not for a party. Tonight, I was keeping watch.

My stomach gave a little growl of complaint as I blended paint over my cheekbones to make them sharp, gaunt. I hadn’t eaten since sundown the night before. I also hadn’t slept. Though it might be counterintuitive, an empty stomach and forgoing sleep strengthened one’s connection to magic. Those tasked with keeping vigil on Samhain need that strength and sensitivity, on the night when the veil is thinnest between worlds.

Drawing around my lips with a black grease pencil, I sketched unnatural teeth, pointed and long. This wasn’t a sexy look. I was going for fierce and haunting–a monster to chase away other monsters.

Samhain, the beginning of Celtic new year and the end of harvest season among Celtic pagans, is the day when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. When our sacred dead come to visit us… and so do other things.

We kept many old traditions in my New England hometown. Not in the creepy human sacrifice tie-a-stranger-to-a-tree-and-feed-them-to-the-god-of-the-orchard traditions–or at least, not in my town anyway. One of many traditions we observed that I had not been tasked with participating in until now was the Samhain watch. Watchers were chosen by a lottery every year, and every witch over the age of majority was in the pool, barring some disability that might exempt them. For the most part it was a duty you performed once, if at all–rarely was a watcher chosen twice. This year, I was one of the lucky baker’s dozen.

What were we watching for?

The fae. Evil spirits. Demons.

Most especially, the Faerie Horde. The Sluagh na marbh. Damned souls that erupted from the Underworld to steal souls, eat babies, and take their victims for a joyride around the world against their will before draining their life force. Especially if they were a witch.

Nearly everyone in my town was descended from Irish immigrants. Those immigrants who still knew about the worlds beyond this one and believed. A powerful, protective coven worked at the heart of the town, keeping it safe and cooperating with others nearby to secure our prosperity and good health. To honor the Goddess in all her seasons.

To honor Her on Samhain, I was going to spend the night in the woods alone. With a monstrous skeleton’s face, tattered black robes, and shitkicker boots.

Untucking the towel from my costume, I reached for said boots and laced them up. Night was falling and I needed to be on the way out to take up my position. My aunts and mom were in the kitchen pulling together the last dishes for the big family meal they’d share tonight in my absence, inviting our beloved dead to dine with them. I could hear their comforting chatter from the guest room at my parents’ house where I’d been preparing for my vigil. Mom laughed, and a sharp pang in my chest bloomed into a squeezing, tight ache behind my ribs.

Slowly, I tiptoed from the room and past the kitchen to the work room. If mom caught me going into our sacred space, she’d want to join and fuss over me, and then the rest of the family would crowd in. I had reached the age where her fussing was no longer an embarrassment to me–I welcomed every moment with my family–but tonight, I felt… different.

While the sounds of their living and working together in my childhood home were striking a tender place in my heart that I didn’t fully understand tonight, I wanted to have a moment alone to get my head right.

Nearly everyone in my family had stood guard at least once. It wasn’t a big deal. I’d be tired, cold, and