It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.
This month, I'm sharing some snippets from A Harmony of Fire and Earth, the second book in the Elemental Magicae duology. This book picks up right where A Dance of Water and Air ends (if you don't want spoilers, proceed with caution!). Arden and Edmund have reached relative safety in Edmund's home kingdom and are preparing for their wedding, but as personally happy as they are, they know their countries are still in danger. They believe there is a way to protect them, but they need powerful wielders of Earth and Fire magic to help. Arden sends for two he trusts—Rhys and Briallen—and they bring Gaz, a powerful Fire wielder, with them. Rhys fell in love with Gaz a long time ago, but his friend doesn't know it. And almost no one, including Rhys, knows that Gaz is actually Prince Gareth, Edmund's brother long thought dead and in hiding for his own safety. Gareth agrees to return home to help his brother, knowing that it could put him in danger and destroy the relationship he begins with Rhys along the way. Since Valentine's Day is this week, it seemed like the perfect time for a first kiss snippet.
Gaz’s indrawn breath was sharp and loud in the quiet of the night. “Do you?”
“I do.”
“It might not be a good idea.”
“I know. But it might be a very good idea too.”
Laughing a little, Gaz shook his head.
“Do you not want me to kiss you? If so, just say, and I’ll never mention it again.” He silently recited every prayer he knew that Gaz wouldn’t say it.
“It isn’t that I don’t want you to. It’s just—”
Rhys didn’t let Gaz finish, and maybe that was wrong. He didn’t even consciously make the decision to close the distance—only a step or two—between them and press his lips to Gaz’s. It was a whisper of a kiss at first, light and soft. But Rhys was stunned to be kissing Gaz after all this time. Just that fact was glorious.