Showing results by narrator "Liam" in All Categories

It was never meant to be more than a dare: A party game. A dare. A single kiss. That’s all it took to flip my world upside down. I’ve always classified myself as straight, and as far as I can tell, so has he. I didn’t think one kiss would change that, but I was so wrong. Now, I can’t stop thinking about him. My best friend. Aspen. His taste is branded in my memory, his touch seared in my skin. And I want more. Which is why I start tossing out new dares. Riskier ones that toe lines we never thought we’d cross. But there’s so much more at stake here. Like my heart.

Celebrate a decade of Critical Role with this anthology featuring the perspectives of ten characters who fought alongside – and against – Vox Machina, with a foreword by cast member Liam O’Brien. In these ten stories, see the legendary adventuring party anew through the eyes of some of the most memorable characters whose lives were touched by Vox Machina.

Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization, they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

For weeks, we retraced our steps back to Mistfell and the lingering shadow of the Veil at the boundary between realms. Traveling through the kingdom, I denied the evidence in front of me, unable to fathom that I wasn’t the lost princess of Faerie. Instead, it is Fallon who must fear the consequences of her heritage. Which leaves me with a single, unanswered question. Then, I awoke, caged high above the throne of the Queen of Air & Darkness.

An immediate sensation when it was first published in two volumes in 1945, Popper's monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the Left and Right and is credited with inspiring anticommunist dissidents during the Cold War. Arguing that the spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific investigation should also apply to politics, Popper traces the roots of an opposite, authoritarian tendency to a tradition represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel.

Every psychopath in the Mulvaney family has a role to play. Archer Mulvaney is the gambler, a drunken reprobate making his living as a high-stakes poker player. Very few people know the real Archer, not even his brothers. But there is one man who knows far too much. Mackenzie Shepherd spends his days photographing endangered wildlife. He’s also the brother of a sociopath and son to the woman who literally wrote the book on raising one. When his mother asks him to head a secret government project, it seems like the perfect excuse to run away from his life.

Ever since we met two years ago, Eden Burkehammer has made everything better. The big defenseman sets me at ease. He’s a beast on the ice—brutal and physical—but when it’s the two of us, he turns to me with these unexpectedly soft brown eyes. This gravelly laugh that makes my whole body smile. And yeah, I might have thrown a glance his way a time or two in the steamed-up locker room showers—you know, just curious. But he’s my best friend. My teammate. Roommate. I don’t want to mess with that. Just the thought of losing him sends a cold zap the full length of my spine.

They say I'm a monster. Cold. Unfeeling. A man born to rule with bloodstained hands. They're not wrong. I don't feel guilt when I kill—only euphoria. There's nothing like the rush of holding someone's life in my hands, knowing I control the exact moment it ends. Life is weak. Fragile. Death is the only truth. Then I met Remi Cain. Quiet. Obsessed with the beauty of death, just like me. The second I see him, I want him. Not just his body, but his darkness—the parts no one else sees. I want to own him, break him, bind him to me with blood.

When half your face is covered in a big, blotchy birthmark, you get used to the staring and the whispers. You get used to feeling unwanted. Until he walks into my bar.... Tall, gorgeous, and all kinds of out of place. And the way he looks at me ain’t like no way I've ever seen before.

The day Clint sees his son, Joey, off to basic training, the young man he’s devoted his life to extracts one promise from him: spend the summer doing something selfish for a change. The request seems harmless enough until Joey puts his best friend, Raven, in charge of seeing it through.

Moms are good at one thing: the guilt trip. It’s the only reason I’m at the funeral of a man I’ve never had anything to do with. I’ll show up, make her happy, and get out. At least that’s what I think until I learn daddy dearest has left me a crap load of money and the obligation to learn about the family business. All from his eldest son who looks nothing like the rest of us.

Celehar's life as the Witness for the Dead of Amalo grows less isolated as his circle of friends grows larger. He has been given an apprentice to teach, and he has stumbled over a scandal of the city—the foundling girls. Orphans with no family to claim them and no funds to buy an apprenticeship. Foundling boys go to the Prelacies; foundling girls are sold into service, or worse. At once touching and shattering, Celehar's witnessing for one of these girls will lead him into the depths of his own losses. The love of his friends will lead him out again.

The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties – all single, all with PhDs – they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home.

I've given up a lot to pursue a career in professional wrestling, and I'm not going to have it all derailed by an uncouth ghoul with a huge chip on his shoulder, who decided he disliked me for no reason on his very first day at Goliaths. Vince Burke has been the thorn in my side for five long years, but things have taken a turn for the worse. Management is threatening to get involved. I refuse to let Burke take the life I've worked so hard to build from me, so I try to be on my best behaviour at work, but something about him just gets to me. He consumes my thoughts. I can't stand him.

Failing to make it in pro ball left me absolutely devastated. Baseball has been my life, my dream, but it’s time to move on. Becoming a sports agent was always my back-up plan, and now that I’m interning at the biggest queer-focused firm in the country, I’m doing my best not to let my bitterness toward baseball affect my future. That’s really difficult when I’m assigned to babysit Kelley Afton, hotshot rookie pitcher for Philly. He has everything I ever wanted, and he doesn’t even appreciate it. I didn’t become an agent so I could soothe the ego of diva athletes.

The first time I witnessed death was my mother's when I was eight years old. It devastated me. The second was at sixteen when I stumbled on my stepfather's body after he was brutally murdered. That one screwed me up in a different way. Since then, I've kept my shadows at bay, my secrets locked up tight. That is, until Stone Wakefield joins my college hockey team.

He makes me lose all control. Ex-Special Forces and current CEO of Sinro Enterprises, I sacrifice my personal life and health to lead mercenary teams dedicated to wiping out high-profile criminals. My working hours are endless. My schedule is rigid. I leave no room for normal things like relationships. Until a pretty little thief breaks into my high-rise and shatters what I'd come to believe was peace. I find myself hesitating to pull the trigger for the first time.

Their authoritative presence is felt before anything else. My heart skips a beat and my blood runs cold. They’re here. The voluminous cloaks cover their bodies entirely, and their faces are mostly concealed by their hoods. Standing with their broad shoulders squared and hands tucked behind their backs, they emanate sheer masculinity and dominance.

Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. He and his twin brother live together, party together…kill together. In the Mulvaney family, murder is the family business and business is good. So, when an experiment separates Asa and his brother, Asa is forced to navigate the world on his own for the first time in his life. Zane Scott is a small-time crime blogger and amateur sleuth, but he dreams of a byline in a major paper someday. When he winds up at a boring fundraiser beside Asa Mulvaney, they share a passionate encounter that leaves Zane with an ache in his chest and a story.

Mercer Bentley Palmerston is an outcast—the pariah of his family—so what better source to get dirt on the Palmerstons than their black sheep? Intrigued by his lingerie, Blake sees an opportunity to get closer to Mercer, but he has no idea how much trouble he's invited into his life by taking him in. Mercer might be a brat, but Blake has no interest in taming him. He's a sly demon with ever-changing rules, a larger-than-life personality, and covers his weaknesses with sharp wit. There's more to Mercer than his outright refusal to behave, and Blake is the only one who realizes why.