Lantern (Danubian #1)

2023 | LGBTQ+ | Paranormal | Romance

In the black night, I alone uphold the shrine of the seven lantern gods.

The year is 2448. Central Europe, after centuries of decline, has bottomed out in a brutal Dark Age. Warlords and warrior kings now rule the lands, fighting and dying to shelter their region from near-constant invasions long enough to allow a temporary peace.

Hidden through secrecy, camouflage, and a touch of magic lies a monastery deep in the Alps where Wren of Helvetica has been training as an initiate mage for more than half his life. His quiet routine is overthrown when he receives a message from the woman who rescued him from being sold into slavery as a child. Ingeborg herself is a wandering mage but has found a warlord sponsor and is now his court magician.

In the mountains dividing this warrior king's land in half lies a solitary shrine where seven lanterns burn to the gods of an older world. The elderly mystic who manned the shrine has died; whether by murder or natural causes, no one knows. For the sake of appeasing these gods and protecting the peace of the kingdom, Wren has been summoned by the warlord to take this man's place.

Settling into a new life that is much more dangerous and lonely than he's used to, Wren takes up protection of the shrine and trying to reestablish contact with the supernatural forces therein. One day he comes back from foraging to find a large man filling the shrine, a man with humor in his eyes when Wren admits to not knowing who he is.

The two fall together and become not only fast friends but lovers, and it is within the power magnified by their love that the seven lanterns tell Wren about Uli’s secret. In that truth, Wren realizes that it is up to him to secure and maintain the protection of these gods over Uli, and thus also the fragile and precious peace of this Danubian region.

As Wren begins to connect to the deep roots of the mountain shrine and the gods of earth and sky that watch over this gentle, sacred place, he finds himself taking his heart in hand and giving it to a brutal warrior. Though society dictates they cannot belong to each other, Uli is determined that Wren be his.

By the light of the seven lanterns in a dark forest beneath the whirling stars, they hide away in each other and create a precious love that lights the world and gives them strength.

Lantern is a 57,000-word MM standalone romance containing magical realism, mystic mages and dark age warriors. It contains no cheating and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

The Danubian Series contains standalone MM love stories of the Danube River region, past and future, featuring the magic of this world and deeply spiritual men who find home in each other.

Charlie Godwyne (Author)