The Merchant Witch

By K.L. Noone

Sometimes heroic swordsmen need money. So Aric and his half-fairy partner Emrys have accepted a job protecting a wealthy cloth merchant’s caravan. But the job’s more complicated than it seems.

Em’s fairy father is hunting them, and Em’s trying not to draw attention by using magic. Their client, Lady Caris, has demanded that Em stay in a simple single-gendered human form and not shapeshift -- and Aric can see his partner growing more uncomfortable day by day.

On top of that, their client’s hiding a magical secret ... and a dangerous enemy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Apr 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9781685507169

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

The Merchant Witch

By K.L. Noone

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2024 K.L. Noone

ISBN 9781685507169

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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 everyone who loves Em and Aric, and who’s asked for more.

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The Merchant Witch

By K.L. Noone

Chapter 1

Lady Caris is a magician, Emrys said, contentedly draped atop Aric in the aftermath of enthusiastic flexible pleasure, in their too-small tent. Desultory rain dripped onto oiled canvas, overhead; their second night in the Silfren Holt forest was quiet and green and persistently damp. I can’t tell whether she knows.

Aric considered what he and Em had just been doing, versus their present employer’s possible magic, and said, Were you worried about her eavesdropping, or thinking about her while seducing me? It was mostly a joke, especially the second part.

It made Em laugh, feather-light and satisfied. Neither. I was thinking about magic. And me. And then I remembered I needed to tell you.

Magic, and you. Aric ran a hand through Em’s hair—short, ruffled, it brushed like friendly ink along his skin—and considered how to ask the question on the tip of his tongue. He hadn’t worked it out well enough, three days in. He’d noticed enough to notice, because he knew Em pretty well by now. But Emrys hadn’t brought it up either, and that might’ve been a message too.

He said, instead, Are you warm enough? and stuck a hand out for a fold of wool. The tent was nicely outfitted—Lady Caris had money, and paid her hired guards well, which was in part why Aric and Em were here—but designed for portability. Aric had had to figure out an angle that let his feet and his head stay dry, with some negotiation. Fortunately Em was tiny, not to mention magical.

For now. Emrys sat up, kitten-flexible, and handled brief clean-up, with a cloth and what Aric suspected was some equally magical assistance. The warmth brushed between his thighs, cleansing, comforting in a way that had less to do with Em’s cock recently inside him and more to do with the ease of the care, the simplicity of it: Em loving him, matter-of-factly, the way they fit.

He propped himself up on an elbow, shook his head to get a long blond braid out of the way. Watched Emrys: smooth tanned skin, cool winter-grey eyes, the compact slim muscles of someone who knew how to throw a knife or bandage a wound or banish ghosts from a haunted mountain pass. A few scattered scars caught light from the small contained oil-lamp: a kelpie-bite, a line from bespelled iron, a slice across one finger.

Not many scars, because only iron or enchantment or Em’s own doing would leave them, across half-fairy skin. But some. More,