Located in a multistory in Manhattan, the Elysium House offices spanned five floors, sandwiched between a financial advisory group and an insurance company. Elysium was in the top ten publishing houses for popular fiction. They'd had at least one book ranked above twenty on the fiction bestsellers for seventy-three weeks straight, a dozen total since the start of the year. Over the last decade, the company had developed a reputation for being able to outmaneuver the larger publishers, recruiting new talent before anyone else was even aware the writers existed. It was almost like their acquiring editors had some direct line to rising writers.

Substantive editor Castiel Novak's office was located on the third of their five floors. It had no windows; he didn't care about having an exterior or corner office. It was, however, easily accessible from the elevators and a quick turn from the stairwell. It also was not on the same floor as the reception desk, the conference rooms, or the main lunch room. To him, this made his office especially favorable—or, in a word, quiet.

He had just sent off another round of suggestions on Hurrand's new psych novel and was preparing to look over the third edit of a detective thriller when his cousin Gabriel strode in and shut the door.

"Hiya, Castiel. Hope your day is going better than mine is…"

Gabriel was the youngest son of Chuck Shurley, founder and owner of Elysium House. For him and Castiel, Elysium wasn't just an employer, it was a family business—Castiel's mother was Chuck's sister. Castiel had worked at Elysium for ten years, joining almost straight out of graduate school; Gabriel had been there seventeen years and was currently one of their top acquiring editors. But their family ties to the owner didn't mean work was always smooth sailing; it more often garnered them resentment than status among the rest of the employees. Somewhat isolated and always under the watchful eyes of the office rumor mill, it had become their habit to gripe to one another. Well, Gabriel did most of the griping… but he seemed to appreciate Castiel's dry sense of humor and analytical takes on his problems, and Castiel enjoyed getting glimpses into the company's projects outside his own inbox.

Gabriel glanced at the pile of drafts on the only other chair in the room, his expression flickering in annoyance as he settled in to stand in front of Castiel's desk.

"Hello, Gabriel." Castiel closed his email to focus on the conversation. "Bad news from the meeting today?"

"Of course!" Gabriel raised his hands to the ceiling. "Instead of revving up on The Rain in August, they're pushing Uriel's new urban fantasy. Like the market needs one more universe of vampires and faeries…"

Castiel sighed. The Rain in August was one of theirs. Technically, the various departments were pools to be shuffled as necessary, but his older cousin kept Castiel almost permanently occupied with his assignments. Gabriel had similarly claimed the time of several other employees throughout the company. He said he recognized talent and saw no problem using it when anyone bothered to question him on it, but Castiel had noticed that they all had some other traits in common… A certain interest in diversity and representation of marginalized groups, a bit of the unconventional. Charlie, who worked in social media marketing and was one of the few people besides Gabriel who bothered to try to interact with Castiel on a daily basis, had dubbed their subset of employees "Team We're Here and We're Queer".

"We published one of those last year," Castiel pointed out. Their urban fantasy publication, Archangel's Fury, had done just okay—good enough for a sequel, at least.

"Yeah, but ours had some fresh characters at least," Gabriel protested. "The main in this one is, guess what, a dark and broody young woman with a mysterious past who just wants to leave it behind her. At least until a similarly mysterious and hot male vampire enters her life…" He fumed, his amber eyes blazing.

This type of loss was unfortunately common for them, and it never had made much sense to Castiel. Although Castiel was the taller of the two cousins and had been called attractive more than once in his life, Gabriel was a whole different creature. Broad shoulders, smooth caramel hair, a strong jawline, piercing light brown eyes, and a smile that seemed amiable and easy... Castiel couldn't help but think of him whenever the word charisma came up. Gabriel could walk into a room and turn a meeting around. In a fitted suit and on a mission, he was all but unstoppable, all warmth and charm and confidence. Castiel was never surprised when Gabriel managed to win a new manuscript.

What did surprise him, however, was how often Gabriel seemed to be thwarted at the meetings held to assess the status and priority of Elysium's upcoming releases. At first, Castiel had thought perhaps all the other acquiring editors were just that much better than his cousin, but after meeting most of them and seeing Gabriel work, the only explanation Castiel could think of was that the Editor-in-Chief, Gabriel's older brother Michael, didn't want to seem to be playing favorites.

Since there wasn't much they could do about the business decisions, he tried to let Gabriel voice his frustrations without fueling more. "I'm sorry to hear that… Where does that leave The Rain in August?"

"Oh, the usual," Gabriel growled, crossing his arms. "Mainly online ads, some press releases, the author doing whatever stores they can get into… Like those aren't a dying breed. Just once, I'd like to see this house put some big events behind something a little outside the mainstream. Damn Adler and his insipid pandering..."

Castiel didn't like to speak ill of other employees, but Zach Adler didn't exactly endear himself to anyone. The man was inconsiderate and only interested in what would sell big. Technically, his job, of course, but most editors at least had special interests or pet projects. Adler always struck Castiel as a bit mercenary.

Gabriel kept going, working himself into another rant. "When Bobby Singer retired, they sent most of those writers over to Adler, but the guy is just dropping half of them on the floor. I get it, they aren't all big names, but sometimes, you gotta make up in volume what you can't get in bestsellers. I heard today he not only bumped Heidi Wesford's book five to next year, even though it's been ready for six months at least, but he also completely tossed Dean Winchester's latest, that guy Bobby nursed through his first publication a few years back. Christ, I almost thought Singer was going to adopt the man..."

That caught Castiel's attention. His reading interests didn't often overlap with the old Singer standbys, but Salvation Ridge had made it onto his radar when it was published. What could have been a cookiecutter story about survival in the days of colonizing America was made interesting by the inclusion of a pair of clearly lesbian women settlers. There had also been the main character's incredibly close relationship with another male character. Word from the editing floor was that the relationship had been less vague before Singer's initial rounds of feedback. While it certainly was nowhere near the level of representation Castiel wanted to see in modern fiction, the very fact that it had been published in a traditional genre was heartening.

Castiel interrupted Gabriel just as his cousin was starting in on Adler's other projects. "Wait, the Winchester manuscript… What was it?"

Gabriel shrugged. "No clue. Only got as far as Adler. Why, you have some hidden obsession with the Wild West?"

"No, it wasn't—Salvation Ridge actually showed up on a lot of queer representation lists."

"Seriously?" Gabriel's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That doesn't seem possible. Singer wasn't Good Ol' Boys or anything, but he was definitely a strong conservative. Old guard."

"It wasn't anything explicit," Castiel admitted, "but I read it. It could have been better—I got the feeling some things got disjointed in editing—but there was something about it. Something real. It wasn't just some formulaic action novel."

"Well, too bad for Elysium House then…" Gabriel tilted his head toward Castiel's desk. "If you thought he had potential, I'm sure some other publisher will snap up his next manuscript."

"... Do you think you could get a copy of it?" Castiel asked after a moment of hesitation.

Gabriel met his eyes, probing.

"You really think it's worth a look?" he countered. "I mean, I love you, Cassie, but there's no way I'm getting into the olden times adventure genre. Not my bag."

"Just… I have a feeling there might have been more to Salvation Ridge. I'd like to see something from Winchester in its raw state. Even if you won't pick it up, maybe..."

Castiel trailed off. Maybe what? He could take on a side project? He was pretty sure that would not be viewed with kind eyes, given Dean Winchester was likely to have to publish at another company.

"Hey, okay," Gabriel said when Castiel didn't continue right away, "don't grind your gears. I'll see what I can do. Ol' Zach isn't going to like me nosing around something he gave the hard pass on… but that just might be a perfect reason to do it."

The grin Gabriel gave him had a vengeful edge to it, and Castiel remembered abruptly how scary his cousin could be when something got under his skin. One of these days, he half expected Gabriel to have some sort of massive showdown with Michael in the middle of a weekly meeting.

"Catch you later, Cassie."

"Castiel."

He corrected Gabriel this time; he didn't want that nickname accidentally slipping out in a professional setting. Gabriel just waved a hand toward his desk and exited, leaving the door open behind him.

"I'm already regretting this," Castiel sighed to himself.

But that wasn't true. What he was doing was wondering if he'd kept a copy of Salvation Ridge. It was time for a reread.

Castiel was able to hunt down a spare of Salvation Ridge after lunch, and by the next morning, he was more convinced than ever that he needed to get a look at Winchester's new manuscript.

There were some parts of his first book that were entirely predictable, old standby plot points that could have been churned out on any television series. Other sections showed a depth and realness to the characters worthy of classic literature. Again, Castiel had the same feeling he'd remembered—that parts had been heavily edited. The phrasing clearly went flat, the author's voice lost.

There was something new that jumped out at him as well as he went over the book. How detailed and impactful the descriptions of the setting were, from the old growth forests of the western divide to the behavior of the wildlife. It might have been excessive if it weren't for the sheer beauty and liveliness of the prose. Castiel wasn't sure he'd ever felt anything that could compare to the depth of the love that Dean Winchester seemed to have for the natural world.

In the office that morning, he made an uncharacteristic trip to the break room down one floor from his office, where marketing lived. He didn't have to wait long for Charlie to make an appearance; she tended to take frequent breaks from the open-floor social media bay to think over her next steps during the walk to and from the coffee machines. She looked as peppy as ever that morning, long red hair swinging freely around her shoulders, neon green earbuds visible between the strands. Her "I'm only talking to you because I forgot my book" t-shirt and studded jeans were as far from editorial office wear as she could get; he could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen her in true business attire. She held her ever-present tablet in one hand and was muttering something under her breath as she made her way, head down, to refill her coffee tumbler.

"Hello, Charlie," Castiel said as she grew closer without noticing him.

Charlie jumped back, nearly stumbling over her own rainbow-bedecked hightops. "Holy s—Novak, did they have a fire drill on seven or something? What brings you to the marketing lair?"

"Did you ever read Salvation Ridge?"

Castiel didn't bother with trying to weave small talk into a segue; Charlie seemed to mostly follow his strange topic jumps without complaint.

"Umm… who by?"

"Dean Winchester."

"Doesn't ring a bell…" Charlie frowned, looking up to one side as she racked her brain. "Wait... Winchester... That name is familiar though… Oh. Was that the one with the lesbian frontierswomen?"

"Yes!"

Castiel felt vindicated for an instant. If Charlie remembered it too, perhaps he wasn't that far off base.

"I didn't read it—"

Castiel's excitement evaporated.

"—But," Charlie continued, seeing his expression, "a lot of people online did. I mean, they were a little disappointed that the gay characters didn't have larger roles, but most thought it was pretty good. I mean, how often do you get a serious action novel from a major publisher with rep in it anyway, right?"

Castiel tilted his head. It wasn't their usual material, so hoping Charlie had read it had probably been a long shot.

"I was hoping to get a second opinion on it. I hadn't thought of it in awhile, but I heard the author had submitted a new book."

"Well, maybe I can slip it into my reading list… How long was it?"

"Easy read, for you."

Charlie was almost as voracious a reader as Castiel himself. Their tastes didn't always overlap, but that was why she made an excellent person with whom to compare impressions. Castiel held out the copy of Salvation Ridge he had gone through the night before.

"Okay, I'll try to get to it this week and report back." She tossed him an informal salute.

Castiel considered for a moment whether to let her in on Gabriel's mission. Glancing around the break room and finding it empty, he continued in quieter tones. "I might be able to get an initial draft of the next manuscript… If I do, I hope you'll consider following up with that."

"I feel like I'm getting homework assignments… Sure thing, Mr. Novak!"

The last part was clearly said mockingly, in a higher, more childish voice.

"Need I remind you that I re-read the entire Tolkien oeuvre last year on your whim…" Castiel crossed his arms and gave her an unsympathetic stare.

Charlie laughed and mock-punched his shoulder. "And you loved every second of it, you nerd."

It was spoken with affection; Charlie and Castiel were both proud geeks.

"Okay, I'm getting my caffeine and getting back to work." Charlie waved the tumbler at him. "You in for Tuesday Trivia?"

"I will be there," Castiel promised.

"Yessss. I got Kevin from copyediting to commit too. We're going to destroy this week!"

Charlie bounced off happily, and Castiel made his way back to his office before he could be waylaid by anyone he'd rather avoid.

Gabriel came through with the Winchester draft; Castiel hadn't doubted he would, really.

"Don't go showing this around too much," his older cousin muttered, slipping Castiel a hard copy. "Trying to keep off Adler's radar for now."

Castiel had to fight to ignore it until he got home that evening—he had too many upcoming deadlines to slip in any pleasure reading. Once safely ensconced in his apartment, he sat down in his living room with the manuscript and didn't move for several hours.

He had been hoping for something truly revelatory, and in that respect, he was disappointed. The draft was fairly polished; Dean Winchester had obviously taken the lessons from his first editor to heart. But there were still the achingly beautiful phrases painting the scenery, the moments of authentic emotion and depth from his characters. And, to Castiel's surprise, a good deal of humor, some of it slapstick and absurd, some sarcastic. There had only been a few mildly amusing asides in Salvation Ridge. This second manuscript left Castiel with the same feeling he had when reading Winchester's first book—that he was only seeing part of the full picture. There were sections where it felt like the author had self edited, suppressing parts of the story he felt wouldn't fit the mold. All authors had to do that, but to Castiel, it was palpable here. Instead of the story naturally flowing inside the lines, it felt jarringly cut away at points.

What made Castiel almost cheer was seeing several LGBTQ+ characters front and center. Not the main—Dean Winchester, if he had ever had that idea, had probably edited it right out of his head—but people directly around him and integral to the storyline. The modern setting of this book made the cast that much more diverse.

After a night of too little sleep, he was a little bleary eyed when he passed the draft off to Charlie the following day, with the caution that it was the only copy.

"Hey, I'm going to get Rowena to look at this stuff too."

Castiel gave her a look; he wasn't as comfortable with Rowena MacLeod, one of Charlie's friends in sales. "G—I don't want it to get around that I have that," he whispered.

"It won't. Promise."

He sighed as Charlie, undeterred, scurried off with the manuscript to have who knew what sort of conversation with Rowena about it.

It was an impatient three days, on Castiel's part, before Charlie bugged him to come by her apartment after work to discuss the Winchester works. That sort of invitation from anyone else would have made Castiel ill at ease, but he'd finally broken through to that level of acquaintance with Charlie a few years ago when she had to go to a conference and begged Castiel to feed her frogs.

He showed up at Charlie's about an hour after they both had left Elysium and found another guest already seated at her kitchen table with a cup of tea.

Rowena MacLeod was striking in any setting, but the woman looked positively out of place in Charlie's tiny kitchen. Today's suit was an expensive-looking dark green coat and slacks, set off with gold jewelry and matching green cat eye makeup. Her dark red hair fell in thick waves and ringlets down her back. She turned to Castiel as he entered and gave him a slow, feline smile.

Castiel didn't exactly dislike her... She did strike him as someone with her own agenda though. Older and more senior within the sales department, Rowena had helped them sell more than one book to management—in exchange for their help on some of her pet projects, of course.

Charlie made Castiel his own cup of tea, and the three of them sat down together. Salvation Ridge and the untitled Winchester work were laid out on the tabletop.

"Charlie here tells me you've taken an interest in dear Mr. Winchester's work, Castiel," Rowena opened, her Scottish accent lilting across his name. "I have to say, while it isn't exactly what I would expect of your reading shelf, I can see a certain appeal in his prose. He certainly paints a beautiful picture of this fine country."

Castiel glanced at Charlie and found her watching him, a reproachful look already in her eyes. The message to him was clear: Be nice.

"Yes. Rumor has it that one of the editors turned down his submission already, but I remembered his last book… I thought it had unmet potential."

Rowena nodded. "I could see some spots that could have been improved and elaborated… But I checked, and it really didn't do too badly for its genre. Sales were top rate, specifically, and in general, in the more adventure type category, it was still in the top five for the release year."

Charlie nodded. "I can't see a reason we wouldn't take another like that, right?"

"Well, my dear, the problem is that the market for the genre is so small. It's, quite frankly, a bit of a niche interest these days. Bobby Singer was the only one who was really avid about it within the company, and now that he's gone…"

"Do you think we could sell it?" Castiel asked, getting to the point.

Rowena's eyebrows went up. "Without an acquiring editor? Not a chance. ...Unless you had someone in mind…?" Her look turned knowing.

Castiel looked over at Charlie again and she made a small shrug. Might as well go for it.

"I was thinking of asking Gabriel Shurley. We've worked with him on many publications. We… have a rapport."

"I'm sure you do…" She looked amused. "But this is so far outside Mr. Shurley's markets that I'm not sure even I could sell it to him, Castiel."

"...What do you think, Charlie?" he asked. "I mean, it has queer representation."

"Ehhh…" Charlie wiggled her hand. "When we take something on for that, it's usually the main character."

Castiel cocked his head. "Did either of you… get the feeling Winchester had heavily edited himself. Maybe… toned down the story purposely?"

"Are you suggesting that the book could change genres?" Rowena asked.

Charlie sat up. "Ooo, cross-genre… Sneaky."

Rowena picked up the manuscript, looking thoughtful. "But would Mr. Winchester go for it…?"

"I think he would." Castiel said, with more surety than the evidence probably warranted. He'd have to remain confident, since this was his idea.

"Well…" Rowena inclined her head. "He's already writing gay characters in a hostile market. That takes some amount of commitment to inclusion."

"So… How do we sell this to Gabriel?" Charlie asked, eyes darting between Castiel and Rowena.

Rowena looked at Castiel and raised an eyebrow. "How indeed."

"Cass—tiel," Gabriel groaned, stumbling and narrowly avoiding using his nickname. "Come on… The last thing I want my name on is some old white guy book glorifying man over nature. Why don't I just shoot myself in the foot and save myself the pain."

"That is not fair, Gabriel. This book has the potential to open the genre and make it more accessible to modern readers." Castiel used some of the phrasing Rowena had suggested for getting Gabriel to look at the Winchester manuscript. Across the table, he saw her smile in satisfaction.

The smile was quickly squashed as Gabriel turned suspicious eyes on the older salesman.

"Is this your doing? Didn't think I'd see you put yourself in the position of selling something like this, Rowena."

"Mr. Shurley, I am merely helping your teammates communicate with you. I normally would not be involved in this type of literature, but when they asked for my help, of course I was happy to add my support to their cause. We're just one big team here at Elysium, are we not?"

Castiel saw Gabriel's frown deepen; he hated being called Mr. Shurley, like his father and brothers. Castiel should have warned Rowena about that…

"This is so far outside what I want to do as an acquiring editor here… And have you looked at this guy's bio? He made his name hunting big game. He writes blog articles about backpacking and stalking bears. He lives in the middle of goddamn Kansas, among the corn. No, wait, that's Iowa. What the hell is Kansas? Wheat?"

"Kansas's leading export is actually aircraft parts," Castiel corrected.

Gabriel stopped short and did a double take at Castiel, opened his mouth, then shut it and shook his head. "Whatever!" he finally burst out.

"Gabriel…" Castiel locked eyes with him, willing him to understand. "It isn't about the plot. Or even the author. It's about the characters. There's so much potential here. I can feel it."

Gabriel cast eyes around the table, where Charlie and Rowena sat.

"Are you going to sell it?" he asked Rowena. "And you," he turned to Charlie, "are you going to try to push this on Gen Z?"

"What's the worst that can happen?" Charlie asked him. "People already read his last book just because there was a gay couple in it. People want to read books where gay characters are just doing things. Not special books about being gay. Just books where people happen to be gay. This could be one of those books! We should be in all genres!"

Charlie had scored a point, Castiel thought. Gabriel scowled at them all for another moment. It was the same scowl Castiel had seen whenever his cousin couldn't get out of some family responsibility.

"Didn't you say something the other day about 'making up in volume what you can't get in bestsellers'...?" Castiel raised an eyebrow.

Gabriel glanced at the ceiling, as though asking for divine intervention, then sighed. "Fine. I will take a look at it. And if it has potential, and if I decide to piss off some people and bring it up to the group for purchase, and if I am able to pull it off... the three of you will be working on it from now until release. No protests!" Gabriel jabbed a finger at Rowena.

Rowena, who had straightened and started to open her mouth, snapped it shut before taking an audible breath in and regaining her composure. "Fine."

"I'm in!" Charlie raised a fist. "Go, Team We're Here and We're Queer!"

Castiel smiled thinly at her before turning back to Gabriel, who was glaring at him. His cousin knew who had instigated this little ambush.

"Obviously, I'm in too," Castiel added.

"Yeah, you bet you are." Gabriel lowered his head and his expression softened for a moment. "For what it's worth…" He flicked his eyes up to Castiel, mouth pulling into a battle smile. "I hope this Winchester guy is a real pain in the ass."