5 Iconic & Dangerous Power Couples of SFF

by a cat

Name a more iconic duo than peanut butter and jelly! Okay, we can. And we will. This is PB&J with magic and swords. 

Your favorite lunchtime sammie can eat its heart out, because here are our favorite dangerous power couples of science fiction & fantasy!

Lev & Sasha from One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

Heavens (or hells?) to Betsy, *insert expletive*—she’s a daughter of Baba Yaga and he’s a scion of Koschei the Deathless, two centers of witchly power at feud in modern Manhattan, and: 

“Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,” she whispered to him. “Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost. Then write me finding myself in your arms, if only for a night, and then write it again. Write it over and over, Lev, until we both know the pages by heart. Isn’t that a story, too?” she asked him softly.

Brb, gotta scream

Olenna & Belthandros Sethennai from The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

Ohhhhhh, this one’s a classic! She’s the crass and sometimes heretical resident librarian of a cult to the unnamed god of death, and he’s a smarmy, insufferable Garbage Wizard (and not a refuse-based practitioner. No, he is trash, metaphorically speaking). Basically, if you run afoul of either of these two, not only is your whole day ruined but probably your life. Regardless, the author of this blog feature would marry Olenna in less than one (1) mortal heartbeat, if ever so lucky. 

Viv & Tandry from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Okay, so as a former professional sword-swingin’ adventure-haver, Viv could choose to be dangerous. That’s kind of not her thing anymore, BUT, sometimes the greatest evidence of strength is restraint. She’s decided to no longer live by the sword, and given the amount of problems her and new barista / perhaps crush Tandry could solve with sharpened steel, we’re talking true strength indeed. Look, Viv might not be super into cutting your heart out anymore, but her and Tandry will melt it, and that’s a whole other class of danger. 

Tennal & Surit from Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

It’s a classic boy (can read minds) meets boy (tasked with brain-dominating mind-readers by dangerous space fascists) bumpy road romance. Basically, Surit accepted a shady promotion track out of desperation and is to turn telepath socialite Tennal into a weapon. Neither of them are super chill with this, but they are in a lot of danger. Their best chance at survival? Faking that mind-sync, and selling it. And that’s pretty much where they’re at when things really go off the rails. 

Callum Nova from The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake & Me from Real Life, please

Hey, I promise I’m mostly okay. Don’t know what wildness will go down when The Atlas Complex comes out, but this is just what’s up right now. 

[artwork depicting Callum Nova by Little Chmura]