Showing results for "Blood" in Dark Fantasy

For as long as she can remember, Arken Asher has been searching for answers—driven by an insatiable hunger, a need to understand the meaning behind her dangerous arcane secrets. She's finally taken that leap into the unknown, leaving her simple life behind to attend the Arcane Studium, a prestigious college of magickal arts & sciences nestled in the heart of Sophrosyne, the City of the Gods.

For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fuelled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry. When Sciona finally achieves her ambition and becomes a Highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome – and instead of a qualified lab assistant they give her a janitor. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor.

For more than a hundred years humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other - and themselves: dwarves are killing their kinsmen, and elves are murdering humans and elves, at least those elves who are friendly to humans...Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting.

Centuries before A Game of Thrones, an even greater game began, one that set the skies alight with dragon flame and saw the Seven Kingdoms turned to ash.

So began the Targaryens’ bloody rule, with fire and blood. Setting brother against brother, mother against daughter, and dragon against dragon.

Chronicled by a learned maester of the Citadel, this thrilling and bloody history of Westeros tells the story of where the battle for the Iron Throne began…

Lidan Tolak is the fiercest of her father's daughters; more than capable of one day leading her clan. But caught between her warring parents, Lidan's world begins to unravel when another of her father's wives falls pregnant. Before she has time to consider the threat of a brother, a bloody swathe is cut through the heart of the clan and Lidan must fight, not only to prove her worth, but simply to survive. Ranoth Olseta wants nothing more than to be a worthy successor to his father's throne. Then his home is threatened by the aggressive Woaden Empire....

It all started when the dark and mysterious stranger (he wasn’t that tall) showed up at my children’s reading hour. Of course I noticed him. I’d been single (and bored) for longer than I care to admit. Me, I’m Anushka (Noosh) Rosetti, head librarian. He turned out to be a vampire. And not just any vampire: Vlad Dracula. Although he goes by another name, these days, and he says he’s changed his violent ways. He definitely seemed more of a lover than a fighter. At first.

In a world of perpetual night, vampires rule and humans have no chance of escape. On the surface, my life must appear lavish as a courtesan for the vampire royals. What is the cost of all this splendor? My blood, my body...and my soul. After being arrested for war crimes, I volunteered to become a consort to the three kings to allow my family time to escape. But when the malicious leader of the human rebellion demands I betray my new lovers, even I'm surprised to discover my loyalties have shifted. My body now craves the touch of my vampiric kings....

Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day to be her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him. But her assassination attempt is thwarted, and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries to kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court.

Of course, if there were only one thing under Liscor, there would be far less to fear. However, the dungeon continues to be a threat. At the same time, Goblins continue to roam northern Izril, but not all of them are as hostile to people as Tremborag or the Goblin Lord. Will the Unseen Emperor of Riverfarm make that distinction, however? A reckoning is coming as old faces and new reemerge. And all the while, The Wandering Inn is still serving food and respite and even plays to adventurers and Antinium alike. But something is coming from the dungeons. And it—they—are hungry.

For Carmella Hunter, a witch blood with practically no magick, being surrounded by powerful friends has taken its toll. For once it would be nice to be the one doing the saving. Stuck in a dead-end job in Piccadilly's favorite bakery, Carmella spends her days making cinnamon rolls and her evenings feeding the homeless, all the while dreaming of making a difference. One huge pastry order for the Covens annual meet and an attack of flu germs leaves Carmella delirious with a fever - too delirious to avoid a fateful bargain with a djinn named Paimon.

Set 20 years after the events of the Riftwar, Prince of the Blood follows the adventures of Prince Arutha's sons in the dangerously unstable Great Empire of Kesh. Twenty years have passed since the end of the Riftwar. Prince Borric con Doin and his twin brother Erland have been summoned back to their father's court in Krondor. Prince Arutha has decided he needs to tame his spirited progeny and teach them statecraft and responsibility.

Sometimes I wonder what life was like before magic burst into existence, before the Magical War of 810 destroyed our world. What it was like before there were Wyrd Blood, or we were forced into hiding. And that's what I've been doing for years, hiding me and my crew. But that's about to end. My crew is starving and things are getting dire. When I get desperate enough to try and steal from Ryker, one of the toughest men around, things go bad and my Wyrd Blood origins are outed. But it's not all bad. Ryker can help keep me alive from the mysterious illness that's been plaguing me

Zeus has gone too far this time. There are some things I can forgive, but this isn’t one of them. My only option is to recruit an army of monsters to destroy the god who’s supposed to rule over us all. In order to do that, I have to make two trips. First, I must visit the monster council—who all hate vampires—and beg for their help in the battle to come. Second, I’ll need to travel to hell to free the Fomorians, an enslaved species of monsters who have been locked away for thousands of years by my biological father. I’ll save my mates, kill a god, and reclaim the crown.

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realises that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets.

Jarl Beckström dreams of one day becoming a great warrior. Sadly, he had the misfortune of being lowborn-classless, unable to level up. He lives the mundane life of a poor mud-farmer, subjected to the whims of the infamous battleborn and the magical fireborn. But legend says that deeds of great courage can change a person's class. When the Clan Lord's son unexpectedly disappears, Jarl sees an opportunity to prove himself a hero and rise above the lowly station of his birth. He goes against the traditions of his people to seek his destiny...and possibly even his death.

Imagine a promise broken long ago, a vengeful father, a vicious curse and a mountain ruled by dragons . . . And then imagine them all again . . . This is the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, retold as it always should have been.

In the aftermath of the war between Pendrath and its neighbors, peace has finally come to Camelot. For Morgan Le Fay and her friends, the calm is short-lived. A storm grows on the horizon. As a terrible evil that has been waiting hundreds of years begins to sweep through the land, Morgan and Draven must race to the aid of their allies, leaving their youngest and most vulnerable new family member in the care of trusted friends.

I am the last remaining Sylvian. The final warrior in a line of Lycan-Undead hybrids. Because of the demon that resides within me, I mistakenly slaughtered my family when I was ten. But my family is not just any ordinary family. My father was the king. I’ve been on the run my entire life, wanted for treason. But now my enemies have my daughter, the only person on this earth I have left to love. For her, I will fight.

Aileen Henderson didn’t choose to die. That choice was stolen from her, brutally, at the hands—and lips—of a monster. With a singular kiss, Lord Ragnor Rayne condemned the twenty-one-year-old to an eternity she never wanted. And a future she refuses to accept. Despite the fury now coursing through her veins, Aileen fights the pull of attraction to Ragnor, a need with a will of its own. But now, she’s determined to make her way without the vampire lord’s help.

As secrets of Castle Ravenspire come to light, Elise and Valen discover their enemies hold more power than they ever imagined. It will take more than blades to defeat them: fulfilling a dangerous request from Valen’s imprisoned brother, destroying a prophecy of fate kept in the hands of Elise's brutal sister, and an unwilling alliance with a shadowed thief from a neighboring kingdom that might end in victory or more death. Blood is calling. War will answer.