Ballad of the Nine Bound

Toby Richmond is on the verge of failing his final year of high school when he mysteriously transforms into a magical flying reindeer and finds himself outside the gates of the North Pole. There, he discovers eight other young men bound by the same curse. For the next hundred years, they belong to Santa as his mythical reindeer. Their duty is simple: establish a hierarchy, pull the sleigh, and never reveal what they have become. They’re free to return to their human lives between duties. But beyond the safety of the North Pole, thirteen legendary Krampuskin are hunting them, their strange new powers are only beginning to emerge, and the newly formed herd can barely decide whether they’re friends, rivals, or outright enemies. Toby has problems of his own. He still needs to graduate. Which means rehearsing for the school Christmas show for extra credit, all while hiding the fact that he occasionally has antlers. Then he finds an enchanted toy with no owner. As Toby forms an unlikely friendship with the abandoned doll, both begin questioning the rules governing their existence and who gets to decide what their purpose is. With Christmas approaching and the weight of their servitude closing in, a devastating betrayal will force Toby to decide how much of himself he is willing to sacrifice to keep someone else whole. Ballad of the Nine Bound is a mythic contemporary fantasy about found family, loyalty, identity, and nine young men discovering that being bound to a role doesn’t mean surrendering who they are.