Alex Draven's Fiction

Saffron Stains

Introduction / Extract / Reviews / Extras

Saffron Stains is an urban fantasy story, set in the South West of England. Kael and Jem are faei folk living together amongst humans - Kael is an elf, Jem has a mixture of brownie and elf heritage, which means he has to work a lot harder than Kael at the shape shifting and illusion magic that elves are renowned for. Magic which Kael is convinced is harmful.

Jem is tired of watching Kael come and go from the fae court, tired of wondering whether his beautiful lover needs him more than he needs his family. He waited patiently the last time Kael disappeared, but he's not sure he can do it again, and when Kael doesn't come home one night, Jem wonders if it's all over for good.

Kael would much rather be home with Jem than be in the fairy court with his mother and sister, but he has obligations. Obligations that lead to him neglecting the one thing he truly cares about. Can Kael find a way to convince Jem that he wants to come home?

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Extract

Before the beginning.

The first night Jem had slept well enough, curled up in the middle of their bed, expecting to find Kael's long fingers tangled in his hair when he woke up.

The second he’d spent sitting at the kitchen table, watching a cold cup of tea, and an unmoving door.

By the third night he was trying to focus scrying spells through desperation and sleeplessness, and cursing the enchantments that obscured even the smallest courts. He was pacing, and uncharacteristically torn between going out to hunt in person and being in the cottage in case someone came.

The fourth night he spent unconscious on Sasha's sofa, the fifth with a row of empty bottles and thin strands of gossip cutting into him.

A round week since Kael had kissed him and left him boneless on their bed, the white sheets were soaked with watered blood, stained with saffron, sharp with broken glass.

Because the whispers of gossip had not lied.

Because Kael was free from the courts, and still not in their bed.

Because no scrying bowl that could show him that was ever going to show him anything else.

Extras

The air from the open window was still blissfully cool, but the light that crept past the curtains was starting to thicken and honey, and Kael did not need to look at a clock to know that soon Jem would wake and be about his buisness for the day, all energy and activity. For now, though, he was at peace, sleeping soundly, the long line of his side from shoulder to knees one elegant, bare sweep, their sheets tangled around his calves. The movement of his ribs was almost imperceptibly, and Kael reached out with one care filled hand, fitting it around the rise of Jem's hipbone, needing to feel the heat of him, to know that he was real. Jem stirred but slightly at the touch, exhaling and stretching, rolling slighty more to the front and drawing Kael in. Kael settled himself close behind his lover, hips to buttocks, chest to back, burying his face in the tangled mess of Jem's hair. A prickle of sweat started to form almost at once, where their skin touched, but Jem didn't pull away, and Kael breathed his own muscles lax and heavy, and let the light from the window creep so slowly towards them.