Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Fantasy

After manifesting thorned magic and nearly destroying his hometown, Kieren Belltower is summoned to join the Magic Service—an institution in charge of magical affairs—and start an apprenticeship with a high-ranking magician. But instead of the mage assigned to teach him, Kieren is greeted by his haughty and annoyingly handsome senior apprentice Esten, who clearly has more important things to do than chaperone some newbie.

Repressed scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne has two skills: reading dead languages and hiding in his office at the Ladysmith Museum. After the tragic death of the friend he secretly loved, he's ruthlessly suppressed any desire for another man. So when handsome ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty approaches him to translate a mysterious book, Whyborne wants to finish the job and get rid of the detective as quickly as possible. Griffin left the Pinkertons following the death of his partner, hoping to start a new life. But the powerful cult that murdered Glenn has taken root in Widdershins, and only the spells in the book can stop them.

I was born in blood and pain. I should have been thrown to the wolves with my mother’s body, my soul destined to roam the woods with my sisters. But fate laid its cold hand on me as I entered this world, wrapping its icy fingers around mine and leading me towards a life I could so easily have never seen.

The strangest thing about Annie's new reality isn't that she's now in the body of a seven-year-old child, the beloved Lillith, feared dead by her family after a particularly nasty bout of pneumonia. It's that she's constantly having to conceal her adult intellect, which is not only advanced but otherworldly. Sure, being a young woman and a grad student in twenty-first-century America had its challenges, but this life as Lillith presents even tougher obstacles. She must tread carefully to conceal her vast knowledge of biology, math, physics, and . . . being an adult.

Five short stories that give glimpses into the lives of Griffin, Jorie, and the other characters from Second Nature.

I may not know where I come from, or who I am, but I’ve done my best to build a life for myself. I know a handful of people in town, I have a nice place to live, and I enjoy my job. I look just like everyone else. But I don’t feel like everyone else, because I feel…everything. The emotions of others get tangled with my own as they race through my heart and sink into my soul.

With his pack done bailing him out, Karter is left alone and with no one to care. If he doesn’t get his life in order, he’ll end up dead. When he’s dragged in by the people who will happily put a silver bullet in his head, they give him an opportunity instead of death...to feed vampires - aka a walking blood bank. To feed the enemy is unheard of, but with nowhere else to turn he reluctantly goes.

"All the women of my family had gone to war... Now my turn had come... So, it is the custom that a free woman leave her mother's house to bind herself and those of her blood to a neighboring clan, either by the sword or by the cradle." So begins the story of young Tamras, as she embarks on her journey to become a warrior's apprentice. This epic story is not about battles and armor, but rather about relationships, coming of age and wisdom, and deep insights into the human experience.

Talented in magic, the young elven woman Ruethwyn didn't fit in in her hometown but was scheduled to attend the most renowned academy of magic in the kingdom and was even building up the courage to confess her love in the hope it might be returned. That all ended in a dragon's fire. Resvarygrath the Gilded destroyed Ruethwyn's village, killed her parents and teacher, and stole away the young women of the village. Maimed by the dragon's flames, Ruethwyn was spared by a curious dark elf who gave her a chance; she had two years to rescue her beloved or risk losing her forever.

Sellsword Des is traveling alone in a dry and dusty southern land after a spectacular bust-up with her best friend. She’s running low on coin, so when a former client, Karina, offers her a job leading her caravan’s security through brigand country, it feels like a gift. Des has done the route before, but she isn’t sure about leading solo. She recommends Cap, a rugged old mercenary, to head up the crew. Maybe she’ll even learn a thing or two about how to lead in between the delightful distraction of Karina’s flirtations and keeping the marauders at bay.

The fallen angel of fruit Rosier lives among cold caves and fiery demons with a soft heart succumbing to comfortable misery. He shares a bed with the monster who'd been his most beloved friend in Heaven, captive now to a beastly body of eternal rot. If there is any love left between them, it's surely a ghost fading with each daybreak. But when the devil commands Rosier to have the Earth bloom with its first fruits—Rosier must confront whether there is really any life after falling from paradise and whether there is really any solace in abandoning all hope.

Nox and Amaris learn their dreams of reunion come at an unspeakable cost. Passion and politics collide as the two young women learn to navigate an unknown future in the kingdom of Raascot. With new titles thrust upon them, Nox and Amaris find themselves more uncertain than ever of who they are meant to become—both to their people and to each other. Humans, fae, and monsters are on the precipice of war, and time is running short in their search for answers. Victory will take more than just battles as alliances shift and new threats emerge.

When Cassidy Nolan agreed to take over as the Alpha for Chicago's North Side werewolf pack, she knew she was in for a challenge. Four months later, and she's wondering how things deteriorated so far so quickly. Her sister—the Hunter of Chicago, a genetically-engineered werewolf/vampire/demon slayer—has disappeared, and wolves from her pack are vanishing without a trace. Complicating matters is the lone wolf in town whose motivations Cassidy isn't sure she trusts.

On a cold day deep in the heart of winter, Rowan’s father returns from an ill-fated hunting trip bearing a single, white rose. The rose is followed by the Huntress, a figure out of legend. Tall, cruel, and achingly beautiful, she brings Rowan back with her to a mountain fastness populated solely by the creatures of the hunt. Rowan, who once scorned the villagers for their superstitions, now finds herself at the heart of a curse with roots as deep as the mountains, ruled by an old magic that is as insidious as the touch of the winter rose.

Nyssa Blacksea is a wanted woman. The Empire she once served now hunts for her and her unlikely new companion, Quinn. It's only a matter of time until the two women are found and executed. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, Nyssa and Quinn hatch an insane plan—offer the Empire its oldest enemy in exchange for their freedom. But the path to their freedom is fraught with assassins, heart-breaking betrayal, strange gods… and a dangerous queen who demands Nyssa to submit.

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them. Marney Honeycutt, a luster-touched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns.

Into the starlit night, with your love to guide me, I go… In a small coffee shop in the second district of Vienna, as the city and the wider world change almost beyond recognition, twelve happy years pass for three lovers. Gabriel, Florian, and Solomon manage their small business and work to support their growing family, building a legacy for the future. Gabriel, however, is still bound by his agreement with the guardian nature spirit of Augarten, and so he must go.

Some people are born lucky. Then there’s me, destined to be loved by the man who knows my darkest secret. My gift has followed me my entire life—the ability to see the threads of fate. I can see the red thread tying together two people destined to love one another. But my gift has another side to it. A darker side. I can also see a simple black thread tied to the fingers of those who aren’t aware of it, connecting them to the person destined to kill them. And when I look down at my own finger, I can see the red thread stretched over to Bishop King.

Victor Bayne honed his dubious psychic skills at one of the first psych training facilities in the country, Heliotrope Station, otherwise known as Camp Hell to the psychics who've been guests behind its razorwire fence.

In the aftermath of a cataclysmic nuclear winter, Eryn, a boy with special abilities, wanders across the ice, where he discovers the last vestige of human civilization in Antarctica. The abduction of the first extracorporeal birthed twins born into this all-male society leads to a fast-paced rescue mission that uncovers millennia-old secrets and the true origin of humans.