Gilded Mask: A Rough Gay M/M Mardi Gras Quickie

I come to New Orleans to make content, not mistakes.

Mardi Gras is chaos wrapped in beads and bad decisions, and I’m supposed to turn it into a glossy feature “Crescent City Real Magic or Tourist Trap?” Easy money. Shoot a few tarot tables, write something clever about spiritual grift, get on a plane.

Then I walk into Paradise Lost and meet Eamon.

He’s a tarot reader with ink on his skin, velvet on his table, and eyes that see straight through my bullshit. Three cards and he reads my whole the running, the empty airports, the way I only ever commit to the next shot. I’m supposed to keep my distance, frame him like every other subject.

Instead, I end up sprawled on his reading table with his hand down my jeans and my camera digging into my spine.

It should be a one-night, Mardi Gras–grade mistake. Rough, hot, forgettable.

Then my editor spins my photos into a hit piece, Eamon’s rival sends masked thugs to smash his shop, and my work becomes the weapon that might finish him. To fix it, I have to burn my career, pick a side in a mystic turf war, and stand still long enough to fight for someone who actually believes in something.

Now the drag queens are rallying, the stained glass is bleeding color across broken glass, and I’m shooting the one story I never planned the moment I stop running.

I’m Tarian Voss, disaster photographer, commitment-phobe, professional runner.

And for the first time in twelve years, I want to stay.

Gilded Mask is a rough, high-heat M/M Mardi Gras quickie featuring a jaded photographer, a stubborn tarot reader, drag-queen justice, smashed windows, filthy chemistry, and a hard-won HFN.