Tag Archives: dark fantasy

The Immortal Blood Blitz

 

The Immortal Blood cover

 

A Reign of Blood and Magic, Book 3

Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

 

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: SPK Publishing

A slain god and a crippled queen with stolen powers join forces to battle a mutual enemy in this dark fantasy.

When Queen Cynara summons magic into the king’s forest, she cannot know how a stolen power will cripple her, or that an orb used during her spell has let loose a single droplet of blood. Now, immortal blood is multiplying, and breeding with living creatures, which includes the statue of an undead king.

Resurrected from the dead, Anastacio once lived in the Otherworld. With his godly life reborn, he resolves to find the goddess from his past and avenge the injustice done to both of them, but to thrive, in life and in health, he requires assistance from someone without trust. Queen Cynara has a secret that may provide the answers, but she’s trapped inside her frozen body, similar to the husband she encased in mortar. Why would anyone help her?

How will a god oversee the kingdom; the royal family, a former queen and a true born prince whose secret has been kept from everyone? With help from a witch and Norse goddesses from the Otherworld, might blood and magic seed the ultimate revenge? Or will an enemy hated by everyone claim victory—again.

Other books in the A Reign of Blood and Magic series:

A Reign of Blood and Magic series banner

 

The Scarlett Mark

 

A Reign of Blood and Magic. Book 1

In The Scarlett Mark the first novel in A Reign of Blood and Magic, Princess Scarlett tests her stepbrother, unaware that her behavior will endanger her father the king, threaten her royal sisters, and help her power-hungry step-mother—the queen. The sorceress plans to steal the throne and rid the castle of her stepchildren, but a risk taken forces the queen to banish Scarlett, delivering her to certain death.

The Ebony Queen

A Reign of Blood and Magic, Book 2

In The Ebony Queen, the second novel in A Reign of Blood and Magic, the devil Daemonis schemes with Queen Cynara, enabling her to conjure the highest level of Solomonic magic. Using this mega-spell, she deploys tempests against three princesses, casting a blanket of evil on her enemies. The ensuing storm ushers Ruby into the night, stifles Rose at sea, and threatens Scarlett in a home where she thought she’d be safe. A lord and two guardians cannot protect their wards and not even a god is safe from the queen’s sorcery. But power comes with a price, and unknown to Cynara, the devil has a secret strategy. When a blood moon eclipses the night sky, Cynara invokes her magic in the king’s forest.

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About the Author

Abby Lane

Abby Lane is the author of several novels in genre fiction, including her latest release, The Immortal Blood. She appreciates the many ways myths, fairy tales, and epic fantasy tell a story, and credits Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, with inspiring her love of storytelling. A history enthusiast, she’s traveled to the United Kingdom and France to explore secret gardens and medieval castles, having an avid interest in the Tudor period. Abby shares her life with her husband and adores her adult children, including three special grand pups named Bella, Arya, and Charlie. When she isn’t at her home in Calgary, she’s admiring the ocean from her cottage in Maple Bay.

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Pretty Deadly Blitz

 

Pretty Deadly cover

 

Dark Fantasy

 

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Darkstroke Books

Cinna would quite literally kill for the throne.

She’s spent years forced to serve her wealthy cousins rather than attend society events alongside them, waiting for the chance to prove herself and exact revenge. When a ball is announced at the castle, promising to bring many powerful people to town, she seizes the opportunity to strike.

She bets her best friend, a small-time thief and con-man, that she can land a greater score the night of the ball than he can. They embark on parallel heists. But as their plots unfold, things begin to unravel: by the end of the night, the castle’s on lock down, a duchess is dead, a mansion has burnt to the ground, and Cinna hasn’t stolen anything. Or has she stolen something more valuable than gold and jewels?

Excerpt

How interesting, Cinna thought. She had spent so many hours bent over a stove in the kitchen or crouched before the hearth, stoking flames carefully that refused to light. But she had prepared: this house was waiting tinder, ready to be consumed.

She couldn’t hear the screams over the roar of the flames, but surely they were there. Strangely, she didn’t feel cheated to have not heard their voices. It was fine that they died in silence.

It did not take long for the neighbors to begin streaming out of their own houses, and she did hear their screams. They swarmed around the flames, politely mute once they realized they could not do anything, full of awe before the enormity of the fire. Cinna blended into the crowd, nearly invisible in her costume.

At last, just as she had always pledged she would, she watched the house fall in on itself.

About the Author

kelsey josund

I am a software engineer and author living and working in Silicon Valley, California. I studied computer science at Stanford University, but I’ve always loved stories in all their forms. I approach writing fiction the same way I approach writing code: I like to know where it’s going, but I want to figure out the details as I go along. Good software is a lot like a good story, full of neat and clever solutions to tricky problems, beautiful at a granular level but also from a distance.

Originally from Seattle, I love getting outdoors and living in places that allow me to escape to the mountains on the weekends, and I care deeply about the ecosystems that humans impact and that impact us. My writing explores these issues while also following classic coming-of-age arcs in science fiction and fantasy. I’m also very interested in stories and characters that complicate the traditional and familiar, leading me to fairytale retellings from unexpected angles.

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Pretty Deadly Teaser Tuesday

 

Pretty Deadly cover

 

Dark Fantasy

 

 

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Darkstroke Books

Cinna would quite literally kill for the throne.

She’s spent years forced to serve her wealthy cousins rather than attend society events alongside them, waiting for the chance to prove herself and exact revenge. When a ball is announced at the castle, promising to bring many powerful people to town, she seizes the opportunity to strike.

She bets her best friend, a small-time thief and con-man, that she can land a greater score the night of the ball than he can. They embark on parallel heists. But as their plots unfold, things begin to unravel: by the end of the night, the castle’s on lock down, a duchess is dead, a mansion has burnt to the ground, and Cinna hasn’t stolen anything. Or has she stolen something more valuable than gold and jewels?

Excerpt

Johann sat on the barstool beside Cinna and sighed. Without acknowledging him, she slid her empty glass forward across the bar.

The bartender poured her another round of top-shelf whisky, which Johann knew she could not afford. He wondered briefly whether the bartender owed her a favor, or if she knew something the man did not want shared, then decided that he didn’t care.

She smiled, settled back on her stool, and turned to him at last. “Have a good day?”

He grunted, which made her laugh. He may not have had a good day, but it seemed she had.

Life of petty crime too petty for you now?”

He shrugged and began rolling himself a cigarette. She sipped her whisky in silence, watching.

In truth, Johann had been in a good mood until he entered the bar and saw her sitting there. Every moment around Cinna was exhausting. She was his favorite and least favorite person at the same time, and he had been looking forward to brooding about her alone with some tobacco and alcohol. That plan was foiled now.

He tipped the cigarette toward her, asking wordlessly for a light. She was always good for that, at least.

She pulled a matchbook from a pocket and drew a match quickly between her fingers to bring forth the flame, then offered it to him.

Neat trick,” he said.

As she pinched the match out again, she asked if he’d heard about the ball they were throwing for the fiftieth anniversary of the accords.

No?”

He could never understand why Cinna made it her business to track things like that, and he certainly didn’t care. Maybe she did not expect him to, because she just shrugged and changed the subject. “Anything interesting in the store?”

With her words, he realized that in fact there was a reason to be glad to see her tonight. “Finish that,” he suggested, gesturing to her still-mostly-full glass. “I have something to show you.”

She raised an eyebrow and took a slow sip, decidedly not finishing the drink in any hurry. “How mysterious.”

Or don’t,” he said. “But I think you’ll find this interesting.”

She considered his expression for a moment and then seemed to decide that he was worth her time. With a half smile, she knocked back the rest of her drink and slid languidly down from the barstool. “Let’s go, then.”

Johann glanced toward the window. It was too wet and windy to smoke outside, so he stubbed out the cigarette and pocketed it, then offered her an arm as they walked out of the dim little tavern into the winter evening. As he had expected, she made no effort to pay or even thank the bartender.

He knew she only walked with her arm through his to humor him, but still it felt nice. The cold wind erupted in his face and blew back the hood he’d lifted as they went out the door, sending a shiver of icy rain down the back of his shirt. Though she wore a much lighter jacket than he did, Cinna seemed unbothered.

They passed in and out of the blue light of evening and the flickering oily yellow of streetlamps, descending through narrow streets toward his pawn shop. Passersby paid them no mind, in a hurry to get home as the temperature dropped. Before long, the rain would turn to snow and the puddles to ice.

He released her arm to dig out a key and led them inside, not bothering to light a candle. He preferred the shop like this: gloomy, dusty, dark. It reminded him what he hoped to one day escape.

She looked around as they walked deeper into the shop, studying various wares on the towering shelves. If he didn’t know that even Cinna had standards, he would have thought she was casing the place, selecting which trinkets she would come back for when he was not around.

What did you want to show me?” she asked, leaning her arms against the counter as he walked around behind it.

He wanted to let the suspense build, loving her attention on him. He shrugged out of his damp coat, and turned slowly as if considering his options, theatrically stalling in a way that, as hoped, made her laugh.

I’m starting to think you just wanted to trick me into coming home with you,” she said, a smile in her rich voice.

He grinned and leaned across the counter in a position mirroring her own. Close enough that he could smell the smoky whisky on her breath. “Maybe I did.”

She laughed again, then leaned away. “I’m missing my nice barstool and whisky.”

What did you do for that, by the way?”

She smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

He sighed, well aware that she was as in control of this interaction as she ever was, and ducked below the counter to retrieve what he had thought to show her. It seemed silly now.

But he saw the sparkle in her eyes when he deposited the shoes on the counter with a flourish and knew he had been right. “They’ll fit you,” he said.

She lifted one in her hand, bringing it close enough to admire in the low light. They were truly beautiful, made of gleaming black leather embedded with tiny jewels, a delicate arch lifting upon sturdy but artful high heels.

She studied him over the shoe she held, eyes bright in the darkness. He had no idea what she was thinking, but he liked the hint of a smile on her lips.

You can have them,” he said, completing the thought he’d implied already.

She shook her head and set the shoe back down. “I have no use for anything like this,” she said. “You know that.”

He smirked and picked up the shoe that she had set down, holding it carefully in one hand with the other flat below the heel. With his thumb, he made some slight motion where she couldn’t see, and a slender knife dropped into his palm, pricking a tiny burst of blood where it made contact. Her eyes flickered to his face quickly enough to catch his grimace, but then they shared a smile.

She reached for the knife. He closed his fist around it and pulled away.

I have a weakness for pretty things,” she said slowly, picking up the other shoe and looking for the mechanism that would reveal the blade, “but usually I can ignore it. When beauty is combined with danger, though…” She grinned at him and he warmed at the sight of her honest happiness. “You know me well.”

And he did. Well enough to know that her real weakness was not that she liked objects that were pretty and dangerous, but rather that he knew as much. He was fairly sure she did not know his own.

But he would play into what she thought she knew. He set the knife he’d already extracted onto the counter and took the shoe from her, holding it aloft to show which jewel was actually a lever. “Someday I’ll get you every beautiful weapon you can imagine,” he said.

Gilded daggers?” she asked.

He nodded. “Swords inset with rubies.”

Guns that shoot not bullets but diamonds?”

He lifted his hands and parted them, as if to say he’d give her the world. She laughed, and he did too.

You talk a big game,” she said, lifting the blade by the hilt and tipping it back and forth. He watched her, seeing that she was thinking, wondering what she thought.

Cinna?” he asked.

The thoughts that clouded her face drifted away and she smiled. “What do you say to a wager?”

He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Friendly competition between friends?”

Something like that.”

What are your terms?” he asked.

That ball,” she said. “Two weeks away. Everyone who’s anyone will be there. The king will empty his vaults to show off his treasure. It’s the ultimate target.”

I’m not seeing how this is a competition,” he said slowly. Understanding sank through him.

I’m not saying we do this together,” she clarified. “Let’s see who can land a bigger score that night.”

Risky, Cinna.”

Fun, Johann.”

She still twirled the knife between her fingers. He held only an empty shoe.

What’re the stakes?” he asked. He could never read her, much as he tried to. Maybe that was why she was so entrancing.

She shrugged, grinned, stood up straight. “Not high enough for you?’

Not high enough for you,” he replied. 

She laughed. A chill went down his spine.

Let’s decide once I win, shall we?” she asked.

He frowned. “That’s hardly fair.”

Her laugh this time was abrupt and biting, but her smile was friendly. “Then beat me.”

He drew a breath, considering. Cinna was not a fool: she would have a plan already, and he would be starting from behind if he agreed to this. But Johann was not a fool, either. Perhaps he needed something so risky and high-profile if he wanted to impress Cinna and break free of the ridiculous hold she had on him. Maybe this would show him that he did not need her approval to be strong.

Walk me home,” she said before he could reply, setting both knives down on the counter. “It’s late.”

He slid the knives back into their sheathes and put the shoes on the counter. “Are you keeping them?”

She lifted one by the heel, then the other. “I’ll wear these the night of the ball,” she said. “And I’ll see you there?”

He grinned, shrugged into his coat, and made up his mind. “If I do things right, you won’t.”

They headed back into the night, which had darkened fully by then. She did not live far away —the city was dense, with a small footprint—but even a woman as dangerous as Cinna knew better to walk home alone through those streets. Looking at her now, though, he was fairly sure she was the threat, not the one in danger. If someone thought to target her for a mugging, that would be their last theft.

The rain had let up but the paving stones had grown slick, just on the edge of icing over. Their breath clouded before them. Cinna held onto the shoes more firmly than she did his arm.

When they reached the mansion where she worked as a servant, they hesitated. He caught an inscrutable dark look in her eyes as she gazed up at its gabled roof and bright windows, and wondered for the thousandth time how Cinna had come to live the life she did. But if she shared that with anyone, it was not him.

About the Author

kelsey josund

I am a software engineer and author living and working in Silicon Valley, California. I studied computer science at Stanford University, but I’ve always loved stories in all their forms. I approach writing fiction the same way I approach writing code: I like to know where it’s going, but I want to figure out the details as I go along. Good software is a lot like a good story, full of neat and clever solutions to tricky problems, beautiful at a granular level but also from a distance.

Originally from Seattle, I love getting outdoors and living in places that allow me to escape to the mountains on the weekends, and I care deeply about the ecosystems that humans impact and that impact us. My writing explores these issues while also following classic coming-of-age arcs in science fiction and fantasy. I’m also very interested in stories and characters that complicate the traditional and familiar, leading me to fairytale retellings from unexpected angles.

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Facebook

Twitter: @kelseyjosund

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Shadowspeak Blitz

 

Shadowspeak cover

 

Realm of Skuggar Series, Book 1

 

Dark Fantasy

 

Date Published: February 21, 2021

Publisher: Fox Pointe Publishing LLC

Rune’s mother is uncaring and her brother is too young to protect her, so when Rune’s father sells her to the depraved city of Wraith at the young age of ten, no one stops him. His last words to her are of a debt he cannot pay. The shadows who’ve kept Rune company as long as she can remember seem to know what he speaks of and yet they keep their silence.

And so Rune grows up living in servitude to Wraith’s brothel and its manipulative mistress, Agata, all while having only the faintest recollections of her forgotten childhood. Years later when she finally escapes Wraith, a wild place wrapped up in hedonism and old world ritual, she vows to never return…

When a child prince is kidnapped by a masked killer in a neighboring kingdom, however, Rune no longer has a choice. Joined by Weylin, her old love and a fellow Wraith runaway, she returns to the accursed city and the shadows of her past.

Not all is as it seems as threads of memory begin to unravel, revealing old lies and dark secrets.

The debt of her past may be too high to pay.

The shadows are speaking.

Death is waiting.

Excerpt

I glance at the waiting shadows, my only friends in a world full of change and want and darkness.

Help. Please help.

The air in the circle grows thick as they press closer, seeking a way in. Their threads tangle and knot together, weaving among the circle’s branches …

Nothing.

The gray skuggi presses forward in determination, clawing at the resistance between us; a bead of sweat trails down my spine at its lack of success—at the futility and hopelessness.

And then Papa turns back to me.

Rune … a debt … I cannot pay.” His eyes roll and I see their whites.

He speaks of the skuld.

A shadow snaps back, She cannot know of it—not yet.

About the Author

Raven Eckman

Raven Eckman is an author, freelance editor, and overall literary fangirl. She always knew books were her passion, well before her grandmother’s challenge to read a book a day when she was young.

She obtained her B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Arcadia University. Since 2016, and the launch of her editing business in 2018: A New Look On Books, she’s been working with a range of authors, both self-published and traditionally published, on short stories and novels from horror to contemporary in YA and Adult fiction.

Shadowspeak is Raven’s debut novel. She is currently working on her second novel.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her fluffy pup, Atlas.

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Vow Unbroken Blitz

 

Vow Unbroken cover

 

Faerie Tales, Book 3

 

Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

Release Date: May 28, 2021

In the third book of the Faerie Tales series, the story expands. In the outset story, Fergus, Aoife, and Niamh hunt down the reincarnation of Tamlin so that they might break the curse.

On the inset story, Aoife attempts to find Cu Roi Mac Daire’s weakness, so she can use it against him. She finds darker secrets await outside his castle’s walls.

Fagan, now going by Fergus, takes up Tamlin’s offer to train with the fae warriors so that he might gain favor with Mab. The prospect of ever seeing Aoife again is bleak until the legendary Cuchulainn, Mac Daire’s sworn enemy arrives.

(This book is written to stand alone, but reading Warrior Tithe will give you the backstory of the characters.)

If you’re a fan of Maas, Black, Armentrout, or Martin, you’ll love this take on the fae and legends of ancient Ireland.

Faerie Tales Fantasy series banner

 

Tam Lin: A Modern, Queer Retelling

 

Faerie Tales, Book One

Published: October 2020

Never break a promise to the fae…

After a fight with his fiance, Tom Lane needs a change of pace–more accurately, an escape so he can lick his wounds. He travels to Ireland in search of his Ulster-Scots roots.Though he was adopted as a child, Tom is adrift in adulthood and hopes the history of his biological family will help him understand himself and what he truly desires.

While on holiday, he meets Fergus and Aoife, sexy tour guides looking to show Tom a little more than the scenery. Their whirlwind romance sweeps him off his feet, and Tom dreams of making a life with his new lovers. But not all is merry and twee in the Emerald Isle.

Tom soon learns the truth of his past…and the history of his legendary ancestor. The stories he’s heard his entire life aren’t stories at all: they’re warnings. But when Tom finds himself facing the Wild Hunt, it might be too late to listen.

Warrior Tithe

Faerie Tales, Book Two

Published: March 2021

Sparks fly between an unlikely pair with a spurned sorcerer hot on their trail.

Aoife, a kelpie, flees a marriage trap laid by her father, Mannan mac Lir and the sorcerer king Cu Roi mac Daire, only to fall prey to an iron snare in the mortal realm.

Fagan, a poor cottar, with nothing left to lose takes pity upon the kelpie he finds in his snare, setting her free. When the kelpie transforms into a beautiful fae maiden and offers to take him to the queen of Sidhe to repay him for his kindness, he joins her on her journey.

However, Aoife is keeping secrets.

Her betrothed Cu Roi mac Daire will not let his betrothed go so easily. His life and his kingdom depends on it.


About the Author

T.J. Deschamps


T.J. Deschamps likes to build worlds with words. She lives in the American Pacific Northwest with her three children, two cats, and a very friendly tortoise. In her spare time, she loves to enjoy her beautiful state, read, dance, lift weights, and might possibly be a dragon.

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