Midwinter Firelight

By K.L. Noone

Kit Thompson, empath and Bow Street Preternatural Division constable, is looking forward to Midwinter. His lover Harry, Viscount Sommersby, is visiting, and Kit has plans to show Harry his London ... and plans for Harry in his bedroom.

But Kit’s Chief Magistrate needs him. And the case is important. Personal. Taking up Kit’s time.

Even worse, Harry wants to help. And Kit could use Harry’s magical talents. But that means endangering Harry ... something Kit’s sworn never to do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685504144

K.L. Noone

K.L. Noone loves fantasy, romance, cats, far too sweet coffee, and happy endings! She is also the author of Port in a Storm and its upcoming sequel, available from Less Than Three Press, and numerous short romances with Ellora’s Cave and Circlet Press; her fantasy fiction has appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress anthologies. With her Professor Hat on, she teaches college students about Shakespeare and superhero comics, and has published academic articles and essays on Neil Gaiman’s adaptations of Beowulf, Welsh mythology in modern fantasy, and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.

Book preview

Midwinter Firelight

By K.L. Noone

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2023 K.L. Noone

ISBN 9781685504144

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review. This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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For Brooke, who asked if there was more.

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Midwinter Firelight

By K.L. Noone

Chapter 1

December, 1802

No, Kit Thompson said, for approximately the fifth time, to his Chief Magistrate. I’m not working, Sam. It’s Midwinter. And you’ve been telling me to take time off for years. And I’ve got Harry—Viscount Sommersby—in Town. No.

Sam Rookwood, head of Bow Street’s Preternatural Division and Kit’s superior officer, steepled both hands on his desk. Gazed at Kit across them.

Behind him, sleet drifted across London in thin veils: grey, sharp, not quite snow yet. The city lay winter-logged and candlelit, a sprawl of Midwinter cheer and greenery, defiant against the icicle afternoon. The Preternatural Division offices, by contrast, formed a tidy oak-lined nest of neat case files, shelves, Sam’s desk, and—out along the hall—Kit’s own office, which he did not use, mostly because he’d always been better out in the field and he had Sam for the paperwork.

He said, Have Alice do it. Their junior constable had a knack for spirit-writing, ink, and indeed almost any sort of liquid. She could use the practice, and you said it wasn’t life-threatening. Art theft, you said. And neither landscape was terribly valuable.

They weren’t. Sam hadn’t moved. Alice is visiting family. In Surrey. And Peter’s got his young man at the printer’s shop, the one he thinks we don’t know about, and I don’t want to call him in; it’s a holiday.

"I’ve got a young man, Kit said, pointedly. A viscount. Who, might I remind you, has never been to London before." True. Harry Arden, Viscount Sommersby, had spent his entire life on the Fairleigh country estate, for complicated reasons having to do with his family, his older brother’s health, and Harry’s very specific magical gift.

Harry was here now. In Kit’s townhouse, because his own family house hadn’t been opened in years. Probably reading in Kit’s small library, out of the rain and snug. Or, possibly, reading naked in Kit’s bed. Acres of golden-spiced freckles, spread out against creamy linen. Summer-sunshine hair. Equally sunny cheerfulness. He’d been there when Kit had left. When Kit had been forced to leave, due to a peremptory message summoning him.

If he went home now, perhaps Harry would still be in bed. Kit let himself consider this idea, with longing.

Yes, Sam said. So you’re in Town. And it’s one night. One supper-party.

And it couldn’t wait.

Sam actually hesitated. That was almost certainly deliberate; the Chief Magistrate had not earned his position without knowing how much to reveal, and when. It’s…personal.

Kit looked at him. And then, slowly, sat down in one of Sam’s uncomfortable visitors’ chairs. All right.

Sam paused again. This one looked more genuine. I thought you’d keep arguing.

No. You need me.

I do. But…

Are you going to argue against your own interests?

A smile flickered across Sam’s face: behind tired hazel eyes, through the lines that’d begun to frame his mouth. No. I won’t ask you for much. I need you to do what you do so well, and read the guests for me. Lady Carness’s party, in two nights. He tossed an invitation Kit’s way, across the desk.

Kit took it—heavy paper, expensive, very nice—and weighed it in one hand. He was, without exaggeration, the best empath the Preternatural Division had; he was possibly the strongest in England, at least that they knew of. He was a better receptive talent than projective, though he could do both if pressed. Listening in, hearing guilt, greed, desires, responses…

He could certainly do that. And he would know if a party guest had plans regarding art theft, particularly