Jo Mathieson is a prolific writer of queer romance stories. Jo lives with her spouse (also a writer) on a small farm in in Eastern Ontario, Canada, where they grow vegetables and raise heritage-breed chickens.
Story Title: In Like Flynn
tags: dragon, first kiss, genderfluid character, getting together, magic user, mlen, meet cute, mutual pining, nonbinary character, past tense, pov third person limited
Teaser:
Crispin opened the book and held his breath, waiting to see if…
Sure enough, a small cloud of pinkish-gold smoke billowed out and coalesced into the unmistakable shape of a dragon.
Crispin sighed.
“What the heck is that?” Nyle said, starting backwards.
“Name’s Flynn, and who might you be?” asked the dragon, peering at Nyle as it stepped out of the book and onto the table.
“Flynn seems to… live in the book, and absolutely refuses to explain anything about how or why.”
“I think she just likes to annoy people,” said Lucy as she came over with Crispin’s coffee. “And cause mischief, and eat sweets.”
“Not ‘she’ nowadays. ‘It’ will do fine,” the dragon said imperiously, drawing itself up to its full eight-inch height and putting its hands on its hips, which, considering how short its arms were, looked quite comical. Crispin had learned better than to laugh. “Dragons only have gender when they choose to, and currently I do not.”
“Yeah! Non-binary solidarity,” said Nyle with a grin, and held out their hand for a high-five. “I’m Nyle. It’s nice to meet you.” Flynn blew an amused puff of smoke in lieu of smacking hands; it curled around Nyle’s fingers before dissipating slowly.
What’s going on with these Crispin, Flynn, and Nyle, and what lies in their future?