In a time of superstition and fear, Elouise hides a secret, one that will set her on a path of tragedy and revenge.Originally published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine – issue 54 – as Lex Talionis.Without You, I Am Only A Dream.This poetry ebook has poems that are all over the map. Most of the poems touch upon things like acceptance, compassion, existence, humor, love, mindfulness, nature, relationships, romance and more...Five poems speak of passed loved ones. The cover image is a photograph of the Parisian Pont Des Arts, which is also known as a "love locks" bridge. Couples in love attach padlocks with their first names written on the padlocks. Then, they throw the keys into the Seine to symbolize their committed love.Just as the bridge symbolically connects two points in space and time, two hearts in love, and carries many stories locked forever on its structure, this ebook of poetry is similar in function and design. Hence, the cover image is as you see it on this ebook.

Fifteen-year-old Sebastian Hanks is suddenly surrounded by secrets and prophecies when he finds six mysterious trunks in his attic. He and his siblings are forced to journey from their home in Ithaca, NY to find the key that will unlock the answers explaining why their lives are turned upside down. Chased by unknown enemies and protected by strangers, they may not be ready for the truth.The future world of Armistoria, and its beloved king, is in peril. Its people are being deceived into a soulless, hopeless eternity by an evil force known as Asheron and his followers, the Sepulcher. In time past, what some call the present, fifteen-year-old Sebastian Hanks and his five siblings, the children of two famed archaeologists from Cornell University, can be found at their home in Ithaca NY. Until now the children have been living careless lives, with no knowledge of their destiny in a future world. One evening, just before Christmas, six mysterious trunks arrive in their attic. Suddenly finding magic in their lives, Sebastian is forced to lead them on a mission to find a key that will unlock the secret inside the trunks. Along the way, they meet Gina, who becomes a close friend and confidant, and Cyrus, a mysterious man who insists on protecting them. Not sure who to trust, the children find themselves unexpectedly in danger, being chased by unknown enemies. Sebastian and the others discover they are the key to saving Armistoria and must use the trunks to search for seven seals that, when united together, can provide everlasting peace to the human race. But will they be able to find the seals before they fall into the wrong hands? Will Asheron’s evil follower, James Tildon, overpower them? This is an amazing journey of Sebastian Hanks and his siblings who find themselves in an unexpected world of magic changing their lives forever.

Prince Eldric Dalth had a sixth sense; he knew when his daughter was up to something. This was another of those moments. He and his soldiers sat atop a hill that overlooked an orc encampment. Princess Elanya was inside one of the tents. What she was up to only the Great Mother knows.A Tales From Nilrus Short Story.He must find the ghost train, he must discover what happened to his father, and so he returns to the site night after night trying to get a glimpse of the train. One night he finally encounters the train and he finally enters the train. Once inside he finds he will never leave his father again.

Felix has to live a life in silence as he agrees to become a hermit. He can only think about his son at the monastery. Will he ever see him again? A broken heart and illness might get him killed.Felix has to live a life in silence as he agrees to become a hermit. He can only think about his son at the monastery. Will he ever see him again? A broken heart and illness might get him killed.Felix scrubs at his eyes, determined to be calm while facing his unexpected fate. He looks at Lady Meridan and finds her blinking and sniffing. She clears her throat with the gentlest of coughs. “Well then. You’ll be taken to the hermitage at once. Always remember you are not to speak to anyone for any reason. From dawn to dusk, whenever you’re not doing what needs must, you are to pray for the health and good fortune of the household. Understood?”

This inaugural issue of the Fiction Vortex magazine is stuffed with incredible stories, tales that will take you through the verdant valley of coming-of-age-fantasy, over the jagged summit of hard science fiction, into the dark cavern of cerebral horror, and back out into the sunlit meadows of humorous satire. All stories and reviews were published on FictionVortex.com in May 2013This inaugural issue of the Fiction Vortex magazine is stuffed with incredible stories, tales that will take you through the verdant valley of coming-of-age-fantasy, over the jagged summit of hard science fiction, into the dark cavern of cerebral horror, and back out into the sunlit meadows of humorous satire. All stories and reviews were published on FictionVortex.com in May 2013.Fiction Vortex focuses on publishing speculative fiction. That means science fiction and fantasy (with a light smattering of horror and a few other subgenres), be it light, heavy, deep, flighty, spaceflighty, cerebral, visceral, epic, or mundane. But mundane in a my-local-gas-station-has-elf-mechanics-but-it’s-not-really-a-big-deal-around-here kind of way. Got it?Basically, we want imaginative stories that are well written, but not full of supercilious floridity.There’s a long-standing belief that science fiction and fantasy stories aren’t as good as purely literary fare. We want you to prove that mindset wrong (not just wrong, but a steaming pile of griffin dung wrong) with every story we publish. It’s almost like we’re saying, “I do not bite my thumb at you, literary snobs, but I do bite my thumb,” but in a completely polite and non-confrontational way.

Do you ever wonder what goes on in the mind of an author? If so, here's your chance to see what the muse does when nobody is looking? So come and travel with me as I see where the muse wants to visit next.In Wanderings of a Muse, the author shares her thoughts on everything from the meaning of words to one shots. Contained within these pages you will find tales of Greek Gods and Camelot. Memories and ruminations about colors and books will stretch your mind.Will you dare to find out where the muse wanders?

The end draws near.... The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight. The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age. Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way--at long last--to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways--the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn--have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost. This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series--the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007--brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near. Dovie’andi se tovya sagain. It’s time to toss the dice.

Cross swords with a blue-skinned pirate and unravel the mystery of the masked spellcaster in this second book of the Stone of Tymora trilogy! Though robbed by a masked spellcaster and left for dead by a demon, twelve-year-old Maimun refuses to give up the magic that rightfully belongs to him. After reuniting with dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and Captain Deudermont's crew, Maimun sets off on a sea-faring chase that will test both the strength of his spirit and of his friendships. As perilous storms rock Sea Sprite and vicious pirates bombard its decks, a mysterious force gathers in the Moonshaes, determined to bring Deudermont's ship - and Maimun's quest - crashing to an end on its shores. In this second book of the Stone of Tymora trilogy, R.A. Salvatore and his son Geno continue their gripping tale of coming-of-age in a world filled with magic, featuring a cameo of R.A. Salvatore's signature character Drizzt Do'Urden.

Athletics are everything for eighth-grader KT Sutton. She’s a softball star, and she’s on track to get a college scholarship and achieve international fame. Then one day during a championship game—in the middle of an important play—she suddenly blacks out. When she wakes up, she’s in a different world. One where school is class after class of athletic drills, and after-school sports are replaced by popular academic competitions. One where KT is despised for her talent, and where her parents are fixated on her brother’s future mathletics career rather than KT’s softball hopes. KT is desperate to get back to reality as she knew it, but bits and pieces of disturbing memories and dreams make her wonder if something truly awful happened there. What if she’s lost something a lot more important than a softball game?

Readers of Peter Lerangis s Seven Wonders and Brandon Mull s Five Kingdoms will love the mesmerizing Egyptian setting in the fourth installment of this epic survival story series Hylas and Pirra finally arrive in Egypt, only to find that the dagger Userref guarded is missing. Even worse, Telamon and the Crows are also in Egypt to hunt for the dagger, and they'll stop at nothing until they get what they've come for. But when Hylas realizes where the dagger is hidden in Egypt s ancient tombs, buried with the restless souls of the dead it's going to take all of his courage to slip inside. And as his otherworldly visions grow stronger, Hylas isn't confident that he'll have the strength to make it out alive. With Havoc the lioness and Echo the falcon at their sides, Hylas and Pirra must rescue the dagger and make a daring escape...before the gods of Egypt consume them all."

Defiance by C. J. Redwine is rich postapocalyptic YA fantasy perfect for fans of Graceling and Tamora Pierce. While the other girls in the walled city-state of Baalboden learn to sew and dance, Rachel Adams learns to track and hunt. While they bend like reeds to the will of their male Protectors, she uses hers for sparring practice. When Rachel's father fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the city's brutal Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector: her father's apprentice, Logan—the boy she declared her love to and who turned her down two years before. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can't be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

It was a slender length of rusted steel, tapered to a point at one end and jagged at the other, as if it had broken. A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her. This was the tip of a rapier. Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure. The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain. Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her. After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari. Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine. . . .

Roger Hill and his friends start the universes largest super hero group to destroy crime wherever it may be.Roger Hill and his friends are given their first mission as the newly created United Planetary Council's Vexars. Their mission is to stop the terrible rash of bank robberies being committed by a group of money hungry super villains.

Vampire P. I. Jack Fleming is playing babysitter to Gabriel “Whitey” Kroun, a dangerously unstable mobster—and newly-created vampire—with deadly secrets to hide. As Jack tries to unravel the mystery surrounding Kroun’s undead state, he gets caught between his charge’s violent outbursts and some syndicate torpedoes looking to rub them both out, leaving him vulnerable to an even deadlier threat— the return of an old enemy desperate to unlock the secrets of Jack’s vampire immortality.