Prequel novella starring Remi, the red witch.

    Instead, there are herbal remedies and traditional techniques that have been painstakingly recorded in lieu of using the mystical arts. Fee knows this, so she keeps her magic a secret.Except her best friend, Xavi, is deathly ill. He’s also the crown prince. Saving him is important, not only for her, but for the entire kingdom.Fee’s desperation to save her friend means she can barely contain the magic inside her. And after the tiniest of slips, Fee is thrust into a dark and secretive world that is as alluring as it is dangerous.If she gives in, it could mean she can save Xavi. But it also means that those who wish to snuff out magic might just snuff her out in the process.

    Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja's otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back... by stealing Gisele's life for herself.The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele's sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja's tail, she'll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of "The Goose Girl" about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

    Now, it is Mortristan’s doom to find what his father never could: something worth living for.But when Mortristan is forced to hunt an intruder in the God of Manna’s paradise-city, he learns just how enslaved he is. As bad as life is with the God of Manna, it’s impossible to live without him. Can Mortristan really sacrifice everything he has to find just one thing that’s lasting?The God of Manna has reigned for millennia and he does not take rebellion lightly…The world needs a savior. And if Mortristan doesn’t find a way of escape, he will too.This book is available for free at: https://www.thescratchingquill.com/go...

    After making a deal with a mysterious immortal, he was sent to a new world in hopes of gaining the offered reward - a chance at a better life with his family. However, Keith failed to realize that this deal did not come with an expiration date, no matter how many times he died. After dying for the dozenth time, Keith renegotiates with the immortal. This new deal will see him sent to the world of Raiah - a world filled with monsters, cowardly monkeys, and a system of magic very similar to the fantasy roleplaying games his brother used to enjoy. Completing a quest to hunt the most dangerous monsters on the planet, is the price Keith will need to pay to regain his old life. It’s a good thing that all of his experiences in his previous lives translate to Skills in this new one because if Keith fails this time, the price he will need to pay will be far steeper. We Hunt Monsters is a crunchy LitRPG in an epic fantasy setting. Fans of Dakota Krout, Will Wight, and the Monster Hunter games will enjoy this new series by the bestselling author of the Rise to Omniscience and Buryoku series.

    Burnett, and the Risky Business team are confronted by new perils and discoveries in their extraordinary quest for both treasures and what might be explosive, historical findings.New friends and new adversaries make their quest a suspense-filled thrill ride.Will they find the elusive treasure galleon, is the legendary golden library in Ecuador real?REVELATIONS - Volume 2 of the Risky Business Chronicles will engulf you as a virtual participant in this amazing adventure.It is the second book in Hep Aldridge's action and adventure series about Dr. Colten X. Burnett and the Risky Business team.

    Carter doesn't believe in aliens. And he certainly doesn't defend his dad's claims that they exist, even if they aired on national television. But then, the girl he's falling for starts doing strange things, magical things, things that seem a bit out of this world.Kokab hungers to be a Perfect in a world where her emotions are her greatest flaw. But when her planet faces extinction, her sympathy makes her the perfect ambassador to persuade humans to accept her people. Failure means invasion, but success means she will never become a Perfect.Ags dreams of graduating from the Academy and becoming a guardian of Earth. Obsessed with all things human, she's eager to spend time on the unique planet. But when she uncovers an impending invasion, she's willing to lose everything, including herself, to stop it.

    Little did he know that the job that only he could do would end up having him looking after thousands of uploaded minds for what would amount to more than 10,000 years. Earth is one step away from a nuclear war, and Paradigm Alpha’s solution to saving what they can of humanity is to upload their brains to The Doomsday System. But while most of the minds would be stored while they sleep, Jeff doesn’t have that option. As the only one who can seem to be uploaded digitally and remain awake, he will be kept alive, as it were, in order to help humanity 10,000 years from now. However, thanks to time compression in the system, it will only be 1,000 years for him. Can Jeff survive mentally for that long? That is where The Doomsday System’s game might help. Join Jeff as he explores this unknown world from one end to the other for the next thousand years. However, there is one tiny little issue. The class the AIs gave him, Battlemage, which sounded so awesome at the time, is broken. He is a Battlemage who can’t seem to use magic as a normal Battlemage. This is safe for teens as there is no sex and no extreme swearing.

    But despite his intent to return Ryia to her world to avoid the risk of war, her wanton disregard for propriety soon forces Barrick's hand, and he takes her over his knee and spanks her soundly.The shameful chastisement merely leaves her need for him burning even hotter, however, and before long Barrick has cast aside diplomatic protocol and claimed Ryia savagely. But taming his mate will require more than just ravaging her thoroughly, and by the time he is done she will be begging for mercy as climax after painfully intense climax is ripped from her helpless body.Publisher's Note: His Caged Mate is a stand-alone sequel to The Hunter's Mate. It includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don't buy this book.

    The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her . . . for a price.Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.

    A private, prestigious boarding school located on a beautiful, pristine island, it's everything she's ever dreamed of. If she could only stumble upon the right guy there, everything would be perfect.Following a rocky start, Tracy settles in and comes to love the island. Everyone is fascinated by the new girl, and Tracy is quick to make friends and meet not just one, but two different guys.However, it doesn't take long for her friends to help her discover a latent ability deep within herself... an ability that is unlike anything she's ever experienced.And her ability is coveted. There are others who would take advantage of her, to make use of her powers for their own gain. Suddenly, Tracy starts to realize that underneath her perfect little getaway might lurk a threat. A danger. And as she gets deeper and deeper involved, finds herself lost in a world of love, lies, and supernatural magic.

    That is, until Emma discovers she has the power to turn terrifying creatures of the night to ash with a single touch. That one moment unveils a hidden world of supernatural beings, both good and bad.Suddenly her best friend is acting strange, the new guy that's mysteriously in every one of her classes is too beautiful to be human, and an ancient, powerful being is stalking her.To top it off, the "good guys", the Giborim, aren't convinced that Emma can be trusted. But their unofficial leader, Blaze, becomes her unwilling protector--and perhaps something more--setting fire to millennia of hard-set prejudices.Especially when her newfound power awakens a deep and dark hunger that can only be sated with death.

    A small miscalculation sends her through the roof of an enchanted chateau. Stranded until her broken leg mends, Elle is forced to rely on the good will of the sour chateau owner —the cursed Prince Severin. Prince Severin—the commanding general and staunch supporter of his brother the crown prince—is cursed to look like a beast until a maiden falls in love with him. However, he has given up all hope of shattering the curse after several painful and failed attempts to break it. As such he has only disdain for Elle, leaving her to the devices of his bossy servants. This suits Elle perfectly as she dislikes the entire royal family, Severin included. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the chateau servants are determined to break the curse and spend the majority of their time pushing Elle and Severin together. After bonding over gardens, animals, and terrifying squirrels Elle and Severin show signs of friendship, and perhaps something more… But not all love stories can end that easily. After all, Elle is not what she seems, and Severin’s life is placed in danger when hostilities flare between his brother and the monarchs of a neighboring country. If they really want the love of a lifetime Elle, a loyal liar, and Severin, an indifferent beast, will have to use every trick they know to survive.

     With her trusty French Bulldog, Stanley, by her side, Kiki buys on old fixer-upper and has big dreams of turning the home into a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, the old home, known as Agua de la Vida, is more work than she anticipated. When a sexy contractor gives her an estimate to restore the place, Kiki is in a quandary - she is attracted to the blond, blue-eyed hunk, but repelled by the money he estimates a restoration of the house will eat up. What's a girl to do? Trace Rocklin is that sexy contractor. Or, at least, that's what he pretends he is. The truth is that Trace was a CIA assassin, now returning to his home town to try and forget that part of his life by going to work in the family construction business. But trouble follows him, even as he falls for the owner of a derelict old house. Soon, Kiki is in danger and Trace is drawn back into the world of intrigue he's trying so hard to forget. In order to save Kiki, and himself, he must temporarily return to that job he's trying to forget - he must become that assassin again. It's flirty fun with a hint of terror in Pasadena, California as Kiki and Trace fall in love, and Trace must reconcile the deadly part of his past once and for all. The Fountain is a stand alone contemporary novella linked to the de Lohr Dynasty

    But while his mother can walk the Path of Verdure (to make plants grow faster) and his grandfather the Path of Ash (to move the earth around), Hei Louw is just unable to cultivate Qi in his core and has to make do with his limited abilities. And so the three of them are tending the fields one afternoon, bickering as usual, when they see a black fog descend upon them from the sky. They try to protect themselves from this thing, but the dark miasma kills everything it comes in contact with. As it turns out, every living organism—be it animal, plant or man—that was able to cycle the ambient Qi is slain on the spot. Now alone on his mountain, in a strange world that keeps on mutating, Hei Louw the Qi-cripple has to fend for himself and use his knowledge of plants to survive. Taking it one day at a time, he manages to build a small hut and slowly recreate some semblance of normalcy. However, one night, as he’s eating by the fire, he’s attacked by some monstrosity that seems to have been affected in disturbing ways by what he has come to call the ‘Blight’. Right away he knows that he will be no match for the corrupted beast which is larger, stronger and much more fearsome than the dog it used to be. His life hanging by a thread, Hei Louw decides to go for broke: he opens up his core to the Blight and lets the foul poison fill him up. That suffices to grant him enough power to best the beast. And thanks to his condition as a Qi-cripple, he manages to eject the Blight from his core before it has a chance to reduce him to a pile of rotting meat. That night, Hei Louw makes a promise to himself; he will turn that former weakness of his into absolute power. And so he embarks on a journey to test and master this new ability. He will use the Blight just like former cultivators used Qi, and learn to walk a new, Broken Path. But if the corrupted dog was only one of many dangerous beasts lurking within the mountains, and Hei Louw sets on a mission to hunt them down, he must beware. The mutated creatures are not the sole threat to his existence. Not only can the Blight kill him if he’s not cautious, the vile substance has a tendency to infest the mind and turn people crazy. That will reveal to be all the more problematic when Hei Louw finally stumbles upon other survivors…