Varon Cambeul has made it to the top: Royal Magician of the Kingdom of Lothia, at the right hand of the king, who is his lover. He has always kept the promise he made to his mother and his apprenticeship master: he has used his magic for good.<br><br>This promise is tested when the king asks him to make a curse that will be cured by the king so everyone will love him. Helping the king is using his magic for good, right? But is Varon doing this because he has fallen in love with the king? What about those who will suffer from the curse and slowly be transformed into ghosts, people like Theo and Russell in the town where the curse is released?<br><br>Can Varon undo this great wrong? Can he save Theo and Russell and the others as they turn invisible? How can he love someone who is not doing good?

Gavin Booker, a school librarian, leads an orderly, normal life. Work, jogging, friends from work, his son every other weekend. Gavin is also a secret. He is a hybrid, or part-fairy. And in the Columbian Empire, hybrids are under an automatic death sentence.<br><br>In this alternate version of the USA, magic is illegal. So is loving another man. Fairies are locked away in ghettoes, and magical beasts, such as gryphons, unicorns, and pegasi, are kept in zoos. The others, tree and water spirits, talking beasts, fauns, and the rest, are in hiding.<br><br>This is the world in which Gavin grew up. He survived, thanks to his mother. He can never forget he is different: ministers preach against people like him constantly. Hating the <i>other</i> is a part of every school’s curriculum.<br><br>But things are changing fast, and seemingly for the worst. Earthquakes, volcanoes, killer storms are frequent occurrences. The medicine Gavin takes to suppress his body’s glow isn’t working. The spells cast by his doctor, a witch, are losing their power. If anyone finds out what Gavin is, he is dead.<br><br>The Empire always goes after its marginalized people. Can Gavin survive the coming catastrophe? Will he ever recover from losing the boys he loved earlier in life? Can he find the fairy man who has haunted his dreams before it is too late?

Sometimes, we get second chances -- at love, to make things right, to say good-bye the way it should have been said. Darian promised his dying husband Randy he <i>would</i> go through with the plan to teach summer school in Bath, England. Randy insisted; it was always Darian’s dream to live in England, go, do it. But once there, in Tintagel, on a street in Coverack, a small Cornish seaside village, Darian sees Randy. Grief can make us see things, right?<br><br>So Darian tells himself, until the man whom he buried, whose ashes he carried with him to England, sits down beside him on a bench in front of Bath Abbey, with screaming seagulls nearby. It seems the dead <i>can</i> come back. But why and how? Has Randy come to take Darian with him? Or is something else going?

Home, a place where we belong and are safe and loved. Home, the house in which we grew up, a neighborhood, a culture, even a country. Home is a state of mind, it is a place of the heart, and in the heart.<br><br>Finding home, coming home, and bringing home the one we love is a journey, a journey that can be a dangerous adventure. For the lovers in these stories, adventures can include quests and fighting dragons and demons, past and present, physical as well as mental and emotional. Rocket launchers need to be dodged, the Wild Hunt needs to be outrun. For some of the lovers here, home has been lost, or they have been forced to leave, as is too common for LGBT+ youth.<br><br>In this collection queer positive speculative fiction stories, explore the idea of what and where home is in the lives of these lovers. Will they survive their quests, defeat their monsters? Will they find a place to call home?

Their leap of faith could unleash magic ... or plunge them into darkness.<br><br>Henry Thorn has worked at Larkin's since graduating high school. He likes it -- especially when he can use his secret skill of hiding inside shadows so his boss can't find them. Without that talent, he would never had survived growing up different.<br><br>When a hire enters the store, Henry's other latent talent kicks in. He can smell an emotional response even before he lays eyes on the redhead.<br><br>Jamey Currey came out, and his conservative parents promptly kicked him out. He, too, is different -- he senses Henry's attraction the moment they met. The first time they kiss, torrential rains fall from skies split by lightning.<br><br>Their kiss also awakens the Watchers, diabolical hunters who will stop at nothing -- even extermination -- to keep magic suppressed. With the help of a friendly coven of friendly witches, the boys embark on a quest to discover an ancient key to restoring magic to the world, and to understand mysteries of their own hearts.<br><br>The question is, will this quest cost them their lives?

Fairy tales. Prince Charming fights evil, wins the princess, lives happily ever after. Three sons, three wishes, witches, dragons, a quest, and happily ever after.<br><br>These stories are part of our cultural fabric. The stories change in retellings to reflect contemporary culture, such as Princess Charming, or heroes and heroines as people of color. In this collection, queer characters take center stage in stories that grew out of questions:<br><br>What if the prince falls in love with Cinderella's gay stepbrother? What if Rumpelstiltskin doesn't really want the Queen's child but rather the King himself? What if Beauty and the Beast are two men?<br><br>These stories explore metaphors of magic and the magical, this time, with a gay perspective. What price must be paid for happily ever after? Duty or love? Is love worth great sacrifice? <i>Once upon a time ...</i>