A Unique System of Dark Animal Magic Fuels This Excerpt From The Beasts We Bury
As a genre, it often feels as though romantasy can do anything. Dragon riders? Death magic? Long lost princesses? Arranged marriages? Deadly competitions? Forbidden love? Dark curses? Check, check, and triple-check. (Especially on the dragons thing.) But sometimes, a premise manages to stand out from the pack, and such is the case with D.L. Taylor’s The Beasts We Bury, which features a darkly unique magical system that involves summoning animals—but only after killing them first.
Mancella’s gruesome magical abilities are a constant reminder of the horrors inflicted on her by her father, the Prime, in an attempt to strengthen her power, and she finds herself drawn to a young thief plotting rebellion—in more ways than one. What follows is a story with complex political intrigue, ambitiously plotted world-building and a central relationship laced with sexual tension, danger, and the ever-present threat of betrayal.
Here’s how the publisher describes the story.
Daughter and heir to the throne, Mancella Cliff yearns for a life without bloodshed. But as a child, she emerged from the Broken Citadel with the power to summon animals—only after killing them first. Her magic is a constant reminder of the horrors her father, the ruler of the realm, has forced upon her to strengthen their power.
Silver is a charming thief struggling to survive in a world torn apart by Mancella’s father’s reign. When a mysterious benefactor recruits him for the heist of a lifetime, a chance to rob the castle, Silver relishes the opportunity for a real future—and revenge. But he’ll have to manipulate Mance and earn her trust to pull it off.
As the deception and carnage mount, Mance must find a way to save her realm without becoming the ruthless monster she’s been bred to be. And when Silver discovers that his actions are fueling the violence that Mance wants to prevent, he’ll have to choose between his ambition and the girl he’s falling for.
The Beasts We Bury won’t hit shelves until February 4, but we’ve got an exclusive sneak peek at the story for you right now.
My fighting techniques come from the Captain, and they’re characterized by structure, strategy, and discipline. Silver, on the other hand, is pure chaos. I’m stronger than he is, and I have much better form, but he uses the environment around him in a way I can’t help but respect. One minute he’s leading me away from the fire so I can’t see what direction his hits are coming from and the next he’s spinning me around until the flames blind me. He kicks rocks into my path, uses sparking embers to distract me, and at one point even chucks an entire flaming log at my head. I duck just in time and it lands with a thunk behind me.
Off to the side, Vie and Rooftop are sitting cross-legged on the ground, whispering back and forth. I think they’re placing bets. As the log rolls to a stop, Vie’s mocking laughter reverberates around the cave, bouncing from rock to rock until I hear it from every angle.
I grit my teeth and the animals within me grow restless, growling and gnashing their teeth at the indignity of losing to such cheap tricks.
So the next time Silver charges toward me, I let him get close, close enough to feel his breath on my cheek.
Then I drop to the ground.
In the space I just abandoned, the space directly in front of Silver’s face, I summon my grizzly bear. She surges into being, a fur-covered giant with swiping claws and a gaping maw. Her full, throaty roar booms through the cavern, drowning out any trace of laughter. It also drowns out whatever expletive Silver utters as he scurries backward, away from the kind of beast he’s probably never seen up close.
But I’m already behind him. As he stumbles away, I sweep his legs out from under him, and slam him face-first into the ground, twisting both his arms into a neat restraint behind his back. As the bear disappears, I dig my knee into his spine, making it clear that he’s not going anywhere.
Beside us, Vie’s on her feet, a dagger in each hand, but Rooftop is frozen, jaw dropped. It’s several breaths before anyone speaks. The only noise is the crackling of the fire and the faint whistle of the wind in the crevice outside.
“All right,” Silver says finally. “You win.”
“Not yet,” I disagree. “We’re playing to the death, remember? So how would you like me to kill you? Any preferences?”
He chuckles, and I feel it vibrate through his back. “What are my options?” he asks, turning his face to fix those caramel eyes on mine.
“Let’s see . . .” I scrunch my mouth to the side, pretending to think about it. “We could do a hard blow to the temple, a snapped spine, a nice strangle—”
“I’m failing to see what exactly would be nice about a strangle.”
“Well,” I say, leaning forward until my hair drapes across his shoulders, caging the two of us in, and lowering my voice to a whisper. “I’ve heard that you can also kill a man by hitting him so hard between the legs that he goes into shock from the overwhelming, vicious pain of it. Compared to that, I’d say strangling is pretty nice.”
He shifts beneath me uncomfortably. “Okay, well, I’m definitely voting against that one.”
Then suddenly he raises one knee and turns sharply to the side, throwing me off-balance. I crash to the floor behind him and he uses the momentum to push me back farther, flipping toward me in the process. I don’t go down easily, though, and soon we’re rolling, both of us wrestling for the upper hand, careening across the stone floor of the cavern.
It’s only when a stick digs into my side that I stop, realizing how close we’ve come to the edge of the bonfire. In my moment of hesitation, he straddles me, pinning my wrists on either side of my head. Both of us are breathing hard.
For one heartbeat, I blink up at him, stunned, and he stares down at me with an unreadable expression. The heat of the flames washes over me, and his dulcet eyes seem to liquefy and turn molten in their flickering light.
The Beasts We Bury will be released on February 4, but you can pre-order it right now.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB