FaRoFeb 2025 Micro Story 3
GASLAMP FANTASY ROMANCE
Part 1
by Jen Lynning
“My cousin is out at present, Lord Autumn,” Noelle said, shifting her teacup to hide the spine of her hastily closed book. Why did he have to come calling today of all days?
“I am not here to see your cousin.” A crease formed between the fae’s fiery red brows.
Noelle glanced at the treatise she had managed to procure without her family’s knowledge. It had taken considerable effort to arrange a free afternoon for study, and now this fae lord was going to make it all a waste. Usually, she enjoyed watching him trample all over the normal rules of polite society (though mostly she envied the way people scurried to accommodate him). She was convinced he sometimes said and did things just to see how the humans around him would react.
She had no intention of playing his games, though. The faster she got him out of the house, the better. “Aunt Beatrice is making calls with Eliza, and Uncle Richard isn’t due back in Town for at least a week. I’m sorry you came all this way when no one is around to see you.”
“Miss Franklin.” His voice vibrated with power, fae magic turning the syllables of her name into a spell.
She couldn’t look away from him, her treatise forgotten. “Yes?”
“I am here for you.”
Find Jen Lynning’s books at jenlynning.com.
Part 2
by Jacquelyn Benson
The irresistible lure of the fae lord’s words compelled Noelle to rise from her chair—and to nearly drop her book. The feel of the precious volume slipping through her fingers snapped her back to herself.
“Pardon,” Noelle said as her back stiffened with outrage, “but did you just use Compulsion on me?”
The flush that pinked the top of Lord Autumn’s obnoxiously fine cheekbones was the only sign that he felt even remotely shamefaced. “Yes, well. There’s something of a situation afoot, and I’d prefer not to stand about explaining everything in great detail while it grows progressively worse.”
Noelle narrowed her eyes at him. “I am afraid you are going to have to do at least a bit of explaining if you desire my assistance with the matter.”
Lord Autumn narrowed his eyes back at her. “If I do, will you give me your answer without asking me fifteen blasted questions?”
Noelle met his steel-gray gaze, refusing to be intimidated by it as she considered his terms. “Fine,” she curtly agreed.
“The manticore has broken loose, and I need a virgin to lure it back again,” Lord Autumn replied flatly.
Noelle felt her own cheeks flare with color. “That’s why you’re here? Because you require a virgin? As bait?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “You’re the nearest one I could think of. And that’s three more questions.”
Noelle clenched her teeth as she bit back a less-than-perfectly-polite response. “And how did the manticore get loose?” she hissed instead.
“That’s four,” Lord Autumn retorted with a pointed glare.
Noelle seethed inwardly. Bloody, insolent, self-important, irresponsible …
She forced herself to smile. Based on the suddenly wary look on the fae lord’s face, the effort was only partially successful.
“Fine, then,” Noelle said coolly as she adjusted her grip on her carefully—and secretly—acquired copy of The Anatomy and Behavior of Chimerical Creatures. “You will have my aid.”
Find Jacquelyn Benson’s books at jacquelynbenson.com.
Part 3
by Stephanie Burgis
After the insupportable way he’d spoken to her, though, she would only be offering it for the sake of the manticore’s safety—so she kept her lips tightly sealed throughout the long carriage ride they shared to the Tower of London, and she refused to allow the uncharacteristic anxiety in his expression to soften her determination.
If Lord Autumn didn’t consider her worthy of his respect, then she felt no need to save him from his own obnoxious ignorance. Therefore, when they finally arrived at Lion Tower, she refused to take his proffered arm as they stepped onto the open exercise yard, lined with locked wooden enclosures, and she patiently waited for her moment.
Roars sounded all around them from every trapped, non-magical lion, but the manticore herself prowled on all four leonine paws atop the high viewing platform normally reserved for human visitors. From that lofty position, she smirked down at her colleagues in their enclosures, spine-covered tail waving behind her, golden mane floating in the breeze, and strongly defined human facial features drawn into lines of smug amusement.
“My lady manticore!” The fae lord’s voice rang out across the yard, resonating with the purity of a bell as he stepped forward and gracefully indicated Noelle beside him. “We’ve brought you a visitor I know you’ll wish to meet. May I present Miss Noelle Franklin?”
Already braced, Noelle nipped safely behind him just as the manticore began to lash her tail.
Venomous spines that would have killed any mere mortal showered across the yard to land in the fae lord’s chest. Immune to their venom as he was, he still let out a pained grunt with each new impact. …
And Noelle murmured, “I know you don’t care for my opinions, my lord, but you may be interested to learn it’s unicorns, not manticores, who care for human chastity. You’ve mixed up your chimerical creatures, I’m afraid.”
Find Stephanie Burgis’ books at stephanieburgis.com.
Part 4
by Colleen Cowley
“Er,” Lord Autumn said from behind the shield spell he’d belatedly erected between them and the manticore. “I’ll just … escort you out.”
She smiled. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“The virgin speaks sense.” The manticore’s melodious voice was like speech via a brass quartet. “The only sense I’ve heard all day.”
The fae lord, rumpled in an annoyingly appealing way, glanced at Noelle with a question in his (annoyingly appealing) eyes.
“The spines’ venom won’t kill you, my lord, but now the manticore can find you wherever you go,” she explained. “And you do know what ‘manticore’ means?”
He swallowed, drawing her attention to the bit of his throat not hidden by his fine collar. “My expertise is in spellcraft rather than—”
“It means ‘maneater,’” she said with perhaps more relish than was entirely fair.
“I am feeling a bit peckish,” the manticore called down, this time like dueling oboes. “Also immune to spells, you know.”
Noelle nodded. “There’s only one thing to be done when a manticore has the upper hand. I’ll tell you, if you grant me a Favor.”
She watched unreadable expressions flicker over his unreasonably handsome face. Fae went to some lengths to avoid granting Favors to humans, for good reason.
Humans, for equally good reason, were usually wary of accepting. Let alone demanding.
Lord Autumn’s lips settled into an alarming smile—the most appealing he’d looked to date. “Miss Noelle Franklin,” he murmured, “you are much more intriguing than I realized. You have yourself a bargain.”
Find Colleen Cowley’s books at colleencowley.com.
Part 5
by AJ Lancaster
Noelle sucked in a breath as the magic of the bargain flowed over them both, making her excruciatingly aware of Lord Autumn for a heartbeat before the sensation faded. The only consolation for such appalling intimacy was that it appeared to have unsettled Lord Autumn just as much.
“Time for lunch, I think!” The manticore leapt from her perch. Landing only a few yards away, she let out another menacing roar, revealing sharp teeth between disconcertingly human lips.
“Miss Franklin?” Lord Autumn said urgently.
Noelle stepped forward. “The best way to deal with manticores in Mortal is to return them to Faerie and offer them the protection of your estate once there, so that they may not be captured again.”
Lord Autumn reared back. “You want me to invite this man-eater home with me?”
“She will promise not to eat you, won’t she?” Noelle gave Griselda a hard look. The manticore had been a touch too convincing earlier with her talk of peckishness.
Griselda stretched languorously, extending her claws. “I suppose so, if he includes all my blood here in the Tower in this arrangement.”
Lord Autumn cast a startled glance at the locked enclosures. “But you are the only manticore here.” Venomous spines rattled, and he added hastily, “Of course. I shall escort you and any of your kin in the Tower to Faerie immediately.”
The manticore settled back on her haunches, looking as docile as a house cat. “Done. Thank you for your help, Miss Franklin; you make an excellent conspirator.”
Behind them came the soft meow of a kitten.
Find AJ Lancaster’s books at ajlancaster.com.
Part 6
by Anne Renwick
Disconcerting to hear such a sound emerge from a beak. One containing three tiny rows of teeth, no less.
“Is that a griffin?” Lord Autumn squinted at the tiny creature as it flapped tiny wings and half-ran, half-flew up the stairs to its mother’s side. “Something seems a bit … off.”
“Manners.” Noelle elbowed him in the ribs. But he was correct. The kitten was an adorable, if unfamiliar, chimera cavorting atop the platform. A sweet feathered face. A furred lion’s body. Eagle’s wings. And a jointed scorpion’s tail.
“Meet Dolph, my son.” Griselda’s proud introduction emerged on a purr. “Growing children require a healthy diet.” She tipped her head. “One assumes you have the means to feed those who reside upon the grounds of your estate?”
The blood drained from Lord Autumn’s face. Noelle didn’t envy him his new responsibilities, but it served him right, prepared as he was to sacrifice an innocent virgin. She took a moment to revel in the discomfiture of a fae, a rare sight to behold.
“Of course,” he replied with a polite bow, then growled at Noelle. “How did this happen?”
“I think the Keepers of the Menagerie need to examine individual enclosures for structural integrity, beginning with the griffin’s aviary.”
Griselda shot them a sly grin.
Noelle flipped through the pilfered copy of The Anatomy and Behavior of Chimerical Creatures, commending herself for having the foresight to tuck the tome inside her oversized reticule.
Shoving the treatise into his hands, she stabbed a finger at the relevant section. “There’s a man by the name of Mendel who’s made a study of rare instances of chimeric interspecies breeding. The intergenerational transmission of cat-like traits is a complicated mathematical–”
“Please stop.” Lord Autumn snapped the book closed and slid her a considering look. “I don’t need the details. What I do need is a zookeeper.”
Find Anne Renwick’s books at annerenwick.com.
Part 7
by S.C. Grayson
Inspiration struck Noelle as she contemplated the bestiary clutched in Lord Autumn’s long, pale fingers.
She couldn’t stop the upward turn of her lips as she said, “I may be able to help you with the matter of a zookeeper.”
The fae’s brow furrowed as if he were about to ask a question before his mouth fell open in realization. “You can’t mean … yourself?”
“I didn’t have this tome on me because magical creatures are a passing fancy,” Noelle pointed out as she reached out and plucked the bestiary from his now-slack fingers.
“Miss Franklin, I’m not sure it’s entirely proper,” Lord Autumn blustered.
Noelle plucked a venomous spine from Lord Autumn’s (unreasonably broad) chest, careful not to prick her own fingers as he stifled a wince. The success of her plan had made her uncharacteristically bold, and she wasn’t willing to relent now that the idea had taken hold.
“Nonsense,” she argued. “You need a zookeeper, and I require a good excuse to continue my studies on chimerical creatures without reproach. Besides, I’ve always wanted to live in Faerie.”
“You would”—Lord Autumn cleared his throat forcefully as spots of color deepened on his sculpted cheekbones—“live with me?”
Now, Noelle truly couldn’t contain the devious smile that twisted her lips. “Being a zookeeper is an around-the-clock job. Staying with you will give me plenty of time to come up with a suitable Favor to ask of you.”
Lord Autumn blanched even as Griselda cackled in glee.
Yes, this would be quite an agreeable arrangement indeed.
Find S.C. Grayson’s books at scgrayson.com.