Darkness on Fire by Alexis Morgan
My rating: 3.5 of 5 flamess
In this novella, Penn Sebastian-the warrior who nearly lost his hand when it was severed by an Other- is given a mission. A real mission, not just busy work. His sword arm is still weak, but he’s getting better with his left arm. He’s just not good enough to go back to active duty protecting the barrier.
A phone call comes in from an anonymous source that they are needed in a normally inactive section of the barrier. But no one knows why the woman is behaving so nervously.
When he meets Jora, he is shocked by two main things. 1, she is an Other, a Kalith. 2, she inspires feelings of protection, not rage.
Jora’s parents left their world and settled on earth where Jora was raised. Her parents never really adapted, and told Jora horror stories of the Paladin warriors who kill her kind who seek the light (her home world is dark). Calling in the Paladins is like calling up her own personal bogeyman and inviting him into her home.
 The problems they have to overcome are more than just being natural enemies, but also to see why someone has been tampering with the Barrier in the middle of one of the world’s largest supervolcanoes (the Yellowstone Caldera). They also needed to figure out who was working against them-if it was humans, Others, or both. I was happy Penn found that he doesn’t have to be a warrior to be worth something.
One of my favorite things about this series is that it’s a paranormal romance without vampires, shifters, angels, or demons. Don’t get me wrong, I love each and every one of those kinds of characters, but every now and then, it’s nice to read a PNR that’s different.
A good addition to the Paladins of Darkness series.