In the sleepy, rain-slicked coastal town of Ashport sits Smoke & Sable—a speakeasy that’s more doorway than door. Inside, the cocktails are strong, the clientele is otherworldly, and the landlord is a literal judge of the dead. Valentin Vitale is loud, lusty, and very bad at paying for orange juice. Gideon Schuster is pale, private, and excellent at keeping schedules. They’ve been partners — and roommates — since the fifteenth century: two official Reapers on permanent payroll. That is, until a mischievous love-god’s stray arrow bangs Gideon square in the heart. Suddenly Gideon says things he never would, kisses Valentin with no warning, and insists—very politely—that they be boyfriends. Valentin has loved Gideon for a thousand years and is stunned, delighted, terrified… and suspicious. To make amends for suggesting a Western suit over a traditional robe, their boss—Lord Rowan Hale, lord of the Under-Registry—orders them to win over a visiting beauty god and coax him into writing a humiliatingly academic essay on local fashion. Valentin gets a gorgeous houseguest. Gideon is falling in love. Cupid keeps misfiring. The whole mess is, predictably, run through corporate HR. A laugh-out-loud urban-myth, Smoke & Ledger is a modern, comedic queer fantasy about bureaucracy, bad flirtation, and the long, stubborn business of loving the person you’ve known since you learned how to promise forever.