Elain’s realizing that, as head of the Triad, she must carefully balance her personal life with her higher calling. She’s learned the hard way that she can’t save everyone, nor should she. Sometimes, that means allowing painful things to happen, and keeping dark secrets from those closest to her. But Goddess help anyone who tries to harm her loved ones. Ain, Brodey, and Cail are slowly learning to trust Elain in her new role and to do her job, especially as they understand just how powerful she’s become. It doesn’t mean they like it, though. Especially now that she’s pregnant with twins. Unfortunately, the greater good and countless lives are at stake. While Elain, Lina, and Mai struggle to break through the blockage clouding their visions, unseen dark forces are amassing. Now the key to their survival—and their happiness—relies on Elain walking that fire road alone. And it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future. Kit Livingstone's great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part. One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code--a roadmap of symbols--that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets. But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining. The Bright Empires series--from acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead--is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other. "Anything but ordinary . . . Dynamic settings are mixed with unpredictable adventures [and] parallel worlds." --"BookPage"

What starts out as innocent adventure takes a brutal turn when corporate enemies of Kyrena's father decide to use her as collateral damage. Kyrena gets more than she bargained for, but she meets a guy who just might make the difference...and steal her heart.Kyrena Saunders is used to living in a bubble under the thumb of her ultra competitive father. When his work for Jeylani Corporation forces the family to move to the end of the known Universe for the sake of profit, Kyrena thinks things can't get any worse: Until she discovers that Omega Station's chaotic urban melting pot is just what she needs to escape her sheltered life. She jumps at the chance for a day of freedom exploring one of the giant 'Domes' covering the surface, and she can't wait to see real live aliens for the first time. But will she get more than she bargained for? As her father's corporate enemies try to kidnap her, Kyrena finds herself becoming collateral damage in a high stakes game of corporate politics. She has no choice but to turn anywhere she can for help...whether those helping hands be alien or human.

The fouth part in the series Apollyon's Saint. Not alone, the Abomination's rejected by the heavens and lost to hell, join Cains forces. The stitched together soul named only in the bible as the concubine of Bethlehem. Named by Cain as heavens harlot, tortured by an entire village and cut to pieces by her lover. As well as the mighty king Abimelech, all seek to recruit Gabriel in destruction.Standing alone in this world, we face the important question of how singular we truly are. What unites us, and what divides us?Perhaps the answers lie in self-knowledge - or perhaps the way out is to place faith in objective reality.Who is it that grasps at straws - the scientist within you, or the poet within you?Which is more valuable in this world: Facts, personal truth - or faith in higher planes of existence?These ten poems (with some prose) explore what is, and perhaps always was and will be, the greatest dilemma of human existence.I find my own answers, but leave it to the reader to find their own.

ChiarOscuro is an online fantasy series being published at https://chiaroscuroseries.wordpress.com/. In an alternate world where humanity is just discovering it's full potential after being setback five millenia ago, the darkness that once threatened humanity has returned and now a select few in this world, whether willingly or unwillingly, will play a role in keeping humanity's flame burning.ChiarOscuro Episode Three A Snake Eating Its Own Tail (Words 9,355).The group are close to reaching the top of the mountain to bring Baruto down to Lemekia. However, Dasha, Wex, Isa, Dakar and Manny will have a task on their hand which they would have never imagined earlier that day and the shadow of Decabia nears...SERIESChiarOscuro is an ongoing online fantasy series being published at https://chiaroscuroseries.wordpress.com/. Taking place in an alternate world where humanity is just discovering it's full potential after nearly being brought to extinction five millenia ago, the darkness that once threatened humanity has returned, seemingly with the intention to finish what they failed to do 5,000 years ago.ChiarOscuro is made up of 'Books' each one containing an Episode (these normally span a week or two) and a chapter is released throughout the duration of an episode. The official site will be the first place to find the newly released chapters at first, as well as extra pieces that delve deeper into the lore, world and characters of ChiarOscuro and once the Episode has concluded, it will be shortly be available as a single 'Book' to read in full.So follow a small select few in this time where the world's and humanity's certain is uncertain and travel with them to meet many different cultures, people, beliefs, customs through deserts, mountains, the city of nine walls and even the parts of the world the human eye cannot see...SERIES SUMMARYTaking place in a world where at the dawn of human civilisation, a catastrophe struck nearly bringing humanity to extinction and close to forever changing the world as we know it.They called them Demons, twisted, ruthless creatures with no seemingly other drive than to conquer all those weaker than them as they were the strongest and fittest and Earth seemed close to falling into the hands of these strange beings, who came to our world with no warning and legends speak of skies literally tearing open as Demons invaded our world.However, humanity as it always seems to do, fought back and though most of the people living at that time were forever lost, the Demons were defeated, the remaining leaving this world or scattered as they fled the humans only hours before they had been slaughtering mercilessly.It’s been 5,000 years since those events, though many dismiss the tale as legend and humanity has only recently started picking up again, there have been some strange reports recently across Aludin and with the mysterious Decabia to the east, the era of peace may soon be coming to the end and new heroes will have to answer the call to defend humanity’s flame once again, as they did so 5,000 years ago.

In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

Some years ago, the Great Delacorte, a famed stage magician, came down with a stroke that left him in a vegetative state, able to move only his eyes. The entire action of the novel is witnessed through these eyes as Delacorte sits in the Magic Room of his country estate, a room custom-tailored to display stage illusions. Delacorte's son, Max, has taken his name and place as an illusionist in every effort to replace his father. Max is supported by his wife Cassandra and her amazingly identical lookalike younger brother Brian. But for the past year, Cassandra has been poisoning Max's food with arsenic and a sleeping pill. She wants the act all for herself--but Max has his own ideas, and his revenge is the big dish that Matheson sets before us in this dazzler that offers top-flight fun!

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, and Karen Russell, This Census Taker is the poignant and uncanny new novella from award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville. After witnessing a profoundly traumatic event, a boy is left alone in a remote house on a hilltop with his increasingly deranged parent. When a stranger knocks on his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation are over—but by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? Is he the boy’s friend? His enemy? Or something altogether other?

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity. When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent. Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

Inspired by the gothic classic Wuthering Heights, this stunning new fantasy from the author of the Books of Pellinor is a fiercely romantic tale of betrayal and vengeance. In a savage land sustained by wizardry and ruled by vendetta, Lina is the enchanting but willful daughter of a village lord. She and her childhood companion, Damek, have grown up privileged and spoiled, and they’re devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But Lina’s violet eyes betray her for a witch, and witches are not tolerated in a brutally patriarchal society. Her rank protects her from persecution, but it cannot protect her from tragedy and heartbreak. An innocent visitor stands witness to the devastation that ensues as destructive longing unleashes Lina’s wrath, and with it her forbidden power. Whether drawn by the romantic, the magical, or the gothic, readers will be irresistibly compelled by the passion of this tragic tale.

In this haunting, entrancing novel, Michel Faber introduces us to Isserley, a female driver who cruises the Scottish Highlands picking up hitchhikers. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. A grotesque and comical allegory, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory — our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion — to present a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok.

Welcome to a ‘perfect’ world. Where war is illegal, where harmony rules. And where your date of birth marks your destiny. But nothing is perfect. And in a world this broken, who can Amity trust? From the bestselling author of the Angel trilogy comes Broken Sky – an exhilarating epic set in a daring and distorted echo of 1940s America and first in a new trilogy.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots. The children were tutored but, according to his brother William, the tutor taught them little if anything. Le Fanu was eager to learn and used his father's library to educate himself about the world. He was a creative child and by fifteen had taken to writing poetry. Accepted into Trinity College, Dublin to study law he also benefited from the system used in Ireland that he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university as and when necessary. This enabled him to also write and by 1838 Le Fanu's first story The Ghost and the Bonesetter was published in the Dublin University Magazine. Many of the short stories he wrote at the time were to form the basis for his future novels. Indeed, throughout his career Le Fanu would constantly revise, cannabilise, embellish and re-publish his earlier works to use in his later efforts. Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide. One of the themes running through them is a sad nostalgia for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand in mute salute and testament to this history. On 18 December 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. The union would produce four children. Le Fanu was now stretching his talents across the length of a novel and his first was The Cock and Anchor published in 1845. A succession of works followed and his reputation grew as well as his income. Unfortunately, a decade after his marriage it became an increasing source of difficultly. Susanna was prone to suffer from a range of neurotic symptoms including great anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including her father two years before. In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died in circumstances that are still unclear. The anguish, profound guilt as well as overwhelming loss were channeled into Le Fanu’s work. Working only by the light of two candles he would write through the night and burnish his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism. His work challenged the focus on the external source of horror and instead he wrote about it from the perspective of the inward psychological potential to strike fear in the hearts of men. A series of books now came forth: Wylder's Hand (1864), Guy Deverell (1865), The Tenants of Malory (1867), The Green Tea (1869), The Haunted Baronet (1870), Mr. Justice Harbottle (1872), The Room in the Dragon Volant (1872) and In a Glass Darkly. (1872). But his life was drawing to a close. Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.

December 21, 2012 - Will that fateful day destroy our world, or did the Mayans have something else in mind? Maya Delaney knows.Maya Delaney is just an average sixteen-year- old. She learns that she is meant to fulfill an ancient Mayan Prophesy and bring forth a New Age on earth. Will Toltec, an evil society bent on keeping her from her destiny succeed? Or will that destiny destroy her?December 21, 2012 - Will that fateful day destroy our world, or did the Mayans have something else in mind? Maya Delaney knows. Unfortunately.Maya Delaney is just an average sixteen-year- old. She’s busy dealing with exams, her soon to be ex-boyfriend and fitting in. But Maya’s got bigger problems. She’s hiding a major secret from her dad and having strange visions she can’t control. In her struggle to figure out who she is, she learns that she is meant to fulfill an ancient Mayan Prophesy and bring forth a New Age on earth. Will the spirit magic Maya wields be enough to defeat Toltec, an evil society bent on keeping her from her destiny? Or will that destiny destroy her?

Heartache High’s Primer for Students, as written by Stephanie Johnson, Heartache High Permanent Student. Ever been in love with someone who didn’t even know you existed? Or someone who broke up with you? Congratulations; you’ve just enrolled at Heartache High. Oh, but didn’t anyone tell you? Once you’ve enrolled, you can never leave. (Includes the first chapters of Heartache High: The Wakening.)You can never leaveHeartache High’s Primer for Students, as written by Stephanie Johnson, Heartache High Permanent Student. Ever been in love with someone who didn’t even know you existed? Or someone who broke up with you? Congratulations; you’ve just enrolled at Heartache High. Oh, but didn’t anyone tell you? Once you’ve enrolled, you can never leave.(Includes the first chapters of the soon to be released novel, Heartache High: The Wakening.)