Today I am so pleased to welcome Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes to Joyfully Jay. Sam and Waverly have come to talk share an exclusive excerpt from their latest release, Wildfire (which Sue reviewed here and really enjoyed). They have also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving them a big welcome!

Excerpt

Wilder had one thing. He had the fire. He simply didn’t use it the way most people expected. Oh no, when the military had come calling, he’d given them a resounding, “thanks, but under no circumstances.” His mastery of fire was a skill hard won, and he would decide when it was necessary. He was not a weapon for someone else to wield.

Ward was talking, Wilder realized, and he’d been so focused on the infuriating golden imp before him that he’d entirely tuned him out. “While I agree that you’re not fragile,” he was saying, “neither were the students who were killed. So maybe taking precautions isn’t a bad idea.”

As much as he wanted to mock, to suggest that even if he needed protection, Hermes wasn’t the man for the job, he couldn’t help but remember the man’s speed. The strength in his hands when he’d stopped Wilder from attacking him. Hermes was small, yes, but he definitely was not weak.

It was irrelevant, though, and he shouldn’t be thinking about the man’s hands. “There’s nothing to take precautions for,” he insisted. “Two students have died. No one has attacked me. Why would they?”

“Two elementalists,” Ward pointed out. “They were both in your classes, weren’t they?”

“Matthew was,” Wilder agreed. “He was almost finished. But Rebekah had barely started, and she wasn’t all that promising.”

Ward flinched—of course he did. He wanted Wilder to coddle the students, dress up the facts to make them prettier than they were. The fact was that Rebekah Perry had thought herself a powerful air mage, boasted about her ability to anyone who would listen, but she’d been middling at best.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Hermes chuckled, then again, and a moment later, he was full-blown belly-laughing. “Oh man, I love this guy,” he told Lysandros. “He’s such an asshole.”

Wilder refused to respond to that. Yes, maybe he was a little too honest sometimes, but he told the truth. He didn’t make things up to make people feel better or worse. Was that so awful?

“That’s enough, Hermes,” Ward said, loud in the empty hallway, turning to glare at the man. “Maybe Wilder is a little blunt, but there’s no need for name-calling.”

“What name calling?” Hermes put a hand to his chest, eyes wide with false affront. “I was saying it’s awesome. I mean, seriously, with my dad? The whole family? Hell, the prince of darkness here is probably the most normal, well-adjusted person I’m related to.” He waved a hand at Lysandros’s chest as he said the last, and Wilder had to bite his lip and look at the floor to keep from smiling at the appellation.

“Anyway, if professor hot stuff needs a bodyguard, I can totally make time in my busy schedule to cross swords.” Hermes shoved himself between Theo and Wilder and grinned manically up at him. “Whadaya say, fireball, want a rematch?”

Blurb

Sons of Olympus, Book 1

Wilder Pratt has given up trying to get his life together. Passed up for a promotion, left by his long-term boyfriend, nothing in his life seems to work how he planned. Wilder is just treading water . . . right up until the moment he trips over a dead student outside his office with a golden would-be murderer standing over the body.

Hermes has been running his whole life—from duty and danger, from a father who mistrusts him and siblings who outshine him. But when the students at Banneker College of magic start dropping dead one after another, Hermes’s ass is on the line. He finds himself playing bodyguard to a man who suspects him of murder, but that doesn’t seem enough to keep Professor Pratt’s hot hands off him.

An ancient evil has risen from the depths of Tartarus, and he’s coming for Banneker. The only thing standing in the way of a titanic apocalypse is one disappointing part-time professor and a god who’d rather abandon the world to its fate. But if they work together, they may just save everyone.

• Universal Link
• Goodreads

Bio

Sam is an author of LGBTQIA+ fiction, mostly light-hearted fantasy romances. Most of her books include a little violence, a fair amount of swearing, and maybe a sex scene or two. Or four.

She is a full-time writer who lives in the Midwest with her husband and cat. Someday, she plans to be a full-time writer who lives near the ocean with her husband, cat.

Connect with Sam:

• www.burnswrites.com
• facebook.com/sam.burns.52459
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/FlickerFoxBooks
• goodreads.com/author/show/16897949.Sam_Burns
• amazon.com/Sam-Burns/e/B07123MZ62
• instagram.com/samburnswrites
• Sam@burnswrites.com

Connect with Waverly:

• fawkeswrites.com
• waverly@fawkeswrites.com
• facebook.com/w.m.fawkes
• https://www.goodreads.com/wmfawkes
• twitter.com/FawkesWrites
• instagram.com/w.m.fawkes

Giveaway

Sam and Waverly have brought copies of Wildfire to give away on their tour. Follow the Rafflecopter below to enter.

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