In a struggle between gods, a young witch and the village she protects are caught in the crossfire.
The dark god's cult aims to sweep up not just the village but the entire country. An unlikely force must stand against the onslaught.
Brygida, who comes from a long line of water witches serving their goddess, now challenged with a gift of dark power.
Kaspian, a second-born son who thought he'd spend his life painting instead of tending the rulership . . . until the murder of someone very dear to him.
And the Madwood, a slumbering forest full of apparitions, whose strength or madness could change the world forever . . .
Can Brygida and Kaspian stem the dark tide of the cult together? Or will they, their people, their lands, and everything drown in the mortal inevitability of blood, demons, and a waking wood with an insatiable hunger . . . ?
Most would say the 'sweet' and 'quiet' Signorina Arabella Belmonte has lived a quiet life as a young noblewoman in her family's castello. But little do they know she pens treatises criticizing the realm's warmongers . . . and now there's a price on her head. As she struggles to hide her seditious activities, a chance encounter with a unicorn leaves her with four hooves and a horn of her own-and a form she can't control. The dark-elf queen has offered her a chance to acquire that control . . . if Bella can find the unicorn who turned her.
Prince Dhuro of Nightbloom has never met a problem he couldn't solve with his fists-that is, until he fought his sister for a place in the army's elite forces and lost. When the light-elves defeated them and his father was executed, Dhuro's inner demons laid claim to the whole of him. Now Immortal beasts are growing in power and threatening his people.
Dhuro has a chance to help his people win, but his mother, the queen, sends him on a fool's errand instead-helping a human newly turned unicorn find her sire, and asking the impossible: whether the Elder of the pacifistic unicorns will stand with them against the beasts ravaging his people.
Contains mature themes.
After her life nearly fell apart, Brygida finally knows her place: away from the village, with her mothers, healing the slumbering wood to keep the nightmares at bay. Her family grimoire warns that the wood may never be allowed to wake, and she claims that duty for her own. Her mind does turn to the new lord of Rubin, but wishing for more almost lost her everything, and she's not about to lose her witchlands to its nightmares caused by the villagers. That is, until the dreaded cult arrives . . .
Kaspian has never wanted the rulership, but when his father passes away, he has no choice but to ascend to lord. With tensions high between the village and the witches, trust lacking between him and his subjects, and a heavy heart turned toward the wood, Kaspian can't help but wish for someone to take it all away . . . And then a familiar face from his past comes to grant it.
The cult arrives to cleanse the so-called stain of witchcraft upon Rubin, and it won't stop until Brygida and her mothers are dead. But with demons closing in and the wood ready to wake, the cult's violence could destroy not only the region of Rubin, but everything. Can Brygida and Kaspian stem the dark tide of the cult together, or will they and their people drown in the mortal inevitability of blood, demons, and a waking wood with an insatiable hunger?
Before the night of the winter solstice, Brygida has everything: her mothers, a full heart, and possibly a place in two worlds. But between those worlds is the darkness, and when it comes time to make the offering to the dark god, the lady of Rubin falls in . . . and so does Brygida.
The land of Rubin is caught in a wolf's maw. As a smaller, weaker region, it relies on Lady Rubin's gift of diplomacy to stave off ruin. But as the heavy snows appear, she disappears without a trace. And Brygida, true to her ill-made offering, becomes the village's prime suspect-along with her mothers. When she's attacked by a demon and marked, she believes the same demon may have taken Lady Rubin. To defeat it before the mark reaches her heart and kills her, and to avoid a clash between her mothers and the village, she agrees to help Lady Rubin's son Kaspian find her. As the winter deepens and the search stretches, however, demons and spirits begin to emerge in great numbers . . . with great hunger . . .
Plagued by strange creatures and malevolent foes, Brygida and Kaspian search for Lady Rubin, praying to find her alive. If they succeed, it could balm the divide between the witches and the village, as well as that between Rubin and the bloodthirsty land at its border.
Beneath the murky waters of the lake, an ancient being slumbers, and Brygida is its servant. Kept sheltered in the woods by her mothers from the nearby village, Brygida has never had so much as a friend-until the day she meets a charming stranger painting by the lake. He invites her to the village's harvest feast, but her taste of the forbidden ends with a murder.
Called into service for the first time, Brygida must take up her ancestral duty as Reaper of Death and solve the murder within three days. If she brings the murderer to the lake on the third day, the being she serves will be sated. If she fails, Brygida herself will be drawn beneath the murky waters, and the village massacred. There's only one problem: the main suspect is her charming painter, Kaspian.
As Brygida investigates, the dangers are many and answers few. The village and her family stand against her, and with time running short, the lake demands a price. Brygida believes Kaspian is innocent, but can she stake her life on it, when failure means condemning the rest of the village, and being dragged into the deep . . . ?
After a failed courtship in an ally kingdom, twenty-one-year-old Princess Alessandra returns home to a land torn apart by mutual hatred between the humans and the dark-elves. The 'Beast Princess,' as Aless is known by courtiers, confidently sets her mind to ways of making peace, but her father has already decided for her: she is to marry one of the mysterious and monstrous dark-elves to forge a treaty. While she intends to preserve the peace, the Beast Princess has plans of her own.
Prince Veron has been raised knowing his life is not his own, but to be bargained away by his mother, the queen of Nozva Rozkveta, to strengthen the dark-elf queendom. When his mother tells him he is to marry a self-absorbed, vile human, he is determined to do his duty regardless of his personal feelings. After arriving at the human capital, he finds the 'Beast Princess' rebellious and untamed-and not to be trusted.
Aless and Veron face opposition at every turn, with humans and dark-elves alike opposing the union violently. Can two people from cultures that despise one another fall in love? Can a marriage between them bond two opposing worlds together, or will it tear them apart for good?
Contains mature themes.
A mage apprentice and her master... Against three hundred mercenaries sieging a town.Seventeen-year-old mage apprentice Rielle accompanies her master, Leigh, on a mission to save a viscount from a town under mercenary control. But mercenaries aren't the only newcomers to town. When the mission goes awry, Rielle must choose whether to follow her orders or her conscience.Fans of Throne of Glass and the Valdemar series are sure to enjoy this sword-and-sorcery short story, a prequel to the romantic epic-fantasy series Blade and Rose.Listen to "Winter Wren" today and dive into a medieval world sensual and dark, full of magic and greed, love and blades, where factions vie for influence and there are no easy choices...
