by M.L. Blackbird
November 1st 2021
Genres: Adult, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Urban Fantasy
Among the immortals that inhabit our world, Arnaud Demeure is known as the man who can fulfill your one true wish or who can also conjure your worst nightmares.
Eight invitations are sent to eight immortals, and when Arnaud Demeure hosts a party, no one refuses his request. Why have they been summoned? Is it for a celebration or does a sinister fate await them? After all, in the ways of Magick, a party can also be a ritual to end the world.
As the mystery deepens, the attendees must overcome their personal grudges to unravel the threads of Demeure’s grand plan that has been centuries in the making. But, with one of the guests secretly working with their host to sabotage the group’s every move, it seems impossible to look behind the curtain to learn Demeure’s true intentions.
With each guest hiding dark secrets and darker intentions, will they be able to uncover Demeure’s mysterious motives or will the party prove to be the deadly nightmare that they each fear?
EXCERPT:
Had you walked with us on the roads of Paris in the old days, you
would have heard many stories. And yet the nightcrawlers cared only about those
talking of a man: Arnaud Demeure. The one with the gift to fulfill any wish.
Only one rule—it had to be your one true wish.
If while walking in the shadows of a dark alley at midnight, you
met one of ours and asked him, “What news do you bring, brother?” They would
respond, “Have you heard of Arnaud Demeure?” And if by the witching hour, while
hunting for prey, you talked with those of us who spy and report, they would
tell you, “Arnaud Demeure . . .” So, when dark gave in to the light, on your
way home to escape the sun, you thought, What’s my true wish, Arnaud Demeure?
Consider what you’d do if that fine little man invited you to his castle. Imagine, any wish you have he’d grant it, if it is true. They say the hardest thing for those like us is dying. Others say it is to stay human as time carries us around. But we are like you. We want something; we don’t know what it is and never get it. For you, it’s years, for us, centuries. Now you understand why that night many years ago, when I received his invite, against any logic, I accepted.
In high school, he spent way too much time watching B movies, playing video games, and reading everything he could get his hands on, provided it wasn’t recommended by any authority figure.
M.L. spent most of his college years and adult life writing in languages only machines can understand until he decided to put some of his stories on the page.
After a few years spent in Scotland, now M.L. lives in Seattle with his wife, his cat, and a large assortment of books. When not writing, he still enjoys playing video games and explaining board game rules to his friends.
M.L. also writes as Sebastiano Merlino.
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