Showing results by author "Sami" in Fantasy

Syren sacrificed the man he loved to spare humanity from the wrath of the fae. For three hundred years, he’s been stuck on the mortal plane, floating alone in his pool while his powers slipped away. The last fae in the realm, his only companion is a mysterious bird until Audric, King of Aranthe, comes to claim his sword—the instrument that caused the rift between Faerie and the human realm.re for three centuries of touch-starvation.

Can a legendary warrior become a mage? Can a master of the sword take up the staff? With a little help, one swordsman intends to do just that. Master swordsman Leo Faulkner travels to Crestmarch, a frontier town, where he hopes to learn wild magic. Fortunately for him, the beautiful Mage Seer Elizabeth Kincaid agrees to be his tutor.

One night of fun with a gorgeous guy. That’s all I thought this was, but when Ben walked out my door, he left behind more than just a heart that ached a little. There’s no way I should’ve been able to get pregnant, yet here I am. For nine long years, I’ve been fighting to bring my daughter up right, trying to cater to all her unique needs, even as I go to bed every night knowing I’m failing her. So, when I’m offered help by Riley Taylor from the world-famous Crowe Corp, I jump at the chance. But that’s when I run into him.

As a private eye in New York City, it’s Jessica Jones’s job to investigate humanity’s worst, unleashed impulses. Possessing superhuman strength and endurance does nothing to help her process other people’s tragedies, much less her own slate of unresolved traumatic issues. Realizing drinking and hitting things is no way to cope with her problems—no matter how much fun it is—Jessica gives therapy a try. But she finds it hard to look after herself when so many people need help.

Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces to an unforgettable outcast magician caught between two warring empires. Set in the Scar, where the magical, decadent Imperium battles the upstart, technologically-savvy Revolution, Seven Blades of Black follows the exploits of Sal the Cacophony, the most famous and dangerous of all the rogue mages. Among humans, none have power like mages. And among mages, none have will like Sal the Cacophony. Once revered, now vagrant, she walks a wasteland scarred by generations of magical warfare.

She is abandoned by all evil spirits. Instead of cutting the prince's throat, she simply let him go. Now she is supposed to bend the knee before King Tedore in the throne room. Not with her. Never. Better to kill standing than to live kneeling. The swordmaster is in the late autumn of his life, far from home, fleeing from his guilt. A deceased son, a lost daughter, a forfeited title. What remains is to sit on the beach and count the waves. Then the old swordmaster rises and sets out on his last great journey.

Farin and his congenial demon stinker are concentrating on his attempt to become a good squire. A chance at fame comes with the Great Knight Tournament, but the gravedigger’s son learns the sad news of his father’s death and must travel back to his village to bury him. Meanwhile, the bounty on the escaped orphan Aross’ head is growing by the week, and she is being hunted down by the town watch of Hubstone. At the harbor, she strikes up a friendship with the artist Ki.

Her past—a single nightmare. A look into her future shows: it could be even worse. She does everything she can to change it. The prince has lost his father, his home castle, and his land. He is rich only in enemies. King Schohtar's superior force storms the last wall. No artifact and no magic will help against it this time.

Cornwall, 1786. For years, the villagers of Mirecoombe have turned to their Keeper, the old and battle-scarred Lord Pelagius Hunt, mediator between the worlds of men and fey, for help. But this is a time of change. Belief in the old ways, in the piskies and spriggans, has dimmed, kindled instead in the Reverend Cleaver's fiery pulpit. His church stands proud above the mire; God's name is whispered, hushed, loved. And now, death stalks Mirecoombe on the moor. There are corpses in the heather. There is blood in the gorse.

The Youngbloods are a dysfunctional family from hell—literally. The mafia-like demon family got stranded on Earth during an infernal invasion gone wrong and have spent eons maintaining a fragile peace. But Petra Youngblood has strained the family bonds by breaking a cardinal rule: falling in love with a human. And not just any human: the sacrifice required to keep her family immortal. Even worse, the sacrifice, Killian Irons, is part of the secret society hell-bent on killing her family.

Cal Kestis has built a new life for himself with the crew of the Stinger Mantis. Together, Cal's crew has brought down bounty hunters, defeated Inquisitors, and even evaded Darth Vader himself. More important, Merrin, Cere, Greez, and faithful droid BD-1 are the closest thing Cal has had to a family since the fall of the Jedi Order. Even as the galaxy's future grows more uncertain by the day, with each blow struck against the Empire the Mantis crew grows more daring.

I came here to kill Huxley Dawnchaser. I expected the ridiculous extravagance of his estate, his home, and his life. What I didn't expect was the trail of broken people he left in his wake long before he murdered Oberon Gloombringer. I certainly didn't expect to be put in the position of helping Huxley's children pick up the pieces of their own shattered lives. There must be some way I can kill him twice.

For decades, the four families who rule the Summerlands have been locked at an impasse. No one is fighting, but neither has anyone been speaking. We don't have time for that anymore. Mount Slate, the volcano that sits in the middle of the Summerlands, is threatening to erupt, and only the four family heads working together can avert disaster.

A decidedly unusual pairing, half-breed sorceress Armecia and her constantly stoned sidekick, Sir Leonard of Savhael, join forces with a cowardly church vassal and a giantess posing as a nun. Their quest? To catch and kill Zeigfried, a fiery - if not too fearsome - dragon.

For nineteen years, I have carved myself into a dutiful son, a courtier of unimpeachable wit, and a genuine delight at a tea party. Now that my success in society has planted me in the path of Mikhail Vasiliev, it's clear I'd have been better off keeping my head down. Prince Mikhail is the second son of a traitor. Third in line to the throne, he has a reputation for violence, debauchery, and being a thorn in the side of his cousin, King Dmitri. That is until the king decides to get him out of the way—by marrying him off. To me.

The murderess crow longs to return to freedom and independence. But the shadows of the past, the encounters of the present, and the tasks of the future are deadlier than ever. Not only an old enemy, a little girl and a whole nation drain her strength... At Castle Cragwater, Karek finds no peace. The king is fighting a deadly disease, the smoldering civil war and the unrest at court are hardly controllable, and then his comrades also make a terrible discovery.

In the realm of Isodoro, just two things stand between Alliance lands and the spears and muskets of the orcish hordes: the wizards of the Order and constant infighting amongst the orcs themselves. In the Alliance capital, young Wit has just been promoted from apprentice to full wizard - and saddled with the very unglamorous task of traveling to a distant iron mine to inspect it for fraud. Worse yet, he's partnered with Wa'llach, a drunken dwarven prisoner who's killed more people than most plagues. Yet those skills are about to become very handy.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, they say. Well, I'm about to learn just how true that aphorism is. First, I have to meet a queen in hand-to-hand combat and hope I come out as the victor because only one of us will walk away from the training grounds alive. Second, I have to try and find a way to live with the fact that three of my four mates unwittingly betrayed me. Then there's the king, who's looking me over with a speculative eye and not just as his wife's challenger. Most of all, there are the damn Reavers that are slowly gnawing at the edges of Strelae.

Gifted power over life and death, Lysandros has spent millennia in the underworld, listless and alone. The youngest child of Hades and Persephone, he’s been sheltered from the threats in the world above. Theo Ward hasn’t been so lucky. After watching his mother wither away, he’d do almost anything to have her back. Set against the king of Olympus, they must shed their past burdens and learn to trust each other, so they can face down a storm that threatens to wipe the nation’s capital off the map.

This volume contains a variety of imaginative stories from both famous and not-so-famous science fiction writers.