An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds -- much less one that reveals she's a witch with unimaginable power.What's more, when she meets the dazzling but enigmatic Christian Devereux, she has no idea how much her life is about to change. Enemies will hunt her. Friends will turn on her. The terrible curse that makes her blood run black will stop at nothing to control her. And Christian has a sinister secret of his own...Without knowing whom to trust, can Victoria survive her blood's deadly desires? Or will she lose everything, including herself?

    Tris seeks new allies from among the living - and the dead - as an untested generation of rulers face their first battle. Meanwhile, the legendary Dread are stirring in their burrows after millennia of silence and no one knows what hand wakes them and whom they will serve when they rise.Now, Drayke turns to the Sworn, a nomadic clan of warriors bound to protect the Dread. But even the mighty Sworn do not know what will happen when the Dread awake. All are certain, though, that war is coming to the Winter Kingdoms.THE SWORN is the beginning of a new adventure set in the world of The Chronicles of the Necromancer.

    But outcast from her kind, she's been selling herself to the higest bidder - money for her survival in exchange for a magic glimpse into the flames of the future.

    This three-novel boxed set contains Sworn To Secrecy: Courtlight #4, Sworn To Defiance: Courtlight #5, and Sworn To Ascension: Courtlight #6 and totals over 230,000 words.Sworn To SecrecyIn the heart of the Imperial Court, Ciardis Weathervane knows that death is coming for the empire. With her friends by her side and the new triad of Weathervanes, she's in a race against time to convince the court of the same.She must do her best to unite kith, mages, nobles and merchants under one cause - the fight to prevent a war. Soon she is forced to keep a secret that could exonerate her mother of the Empress's death, and is always one move away from stepping into diplomatic chaos.Throw in a daemoni prince who is showing interest in the youngest Weathervane, a jealous prince heir, and a irritated dragon with her own designs on Ciardis, and you have an imperial court in turmoil.Sworn To DefianceCiardis Weathervane returned to the imperial court of Sandrin to unite her foes. But her efforts hit a stumbling block. The imperial kind. She never thought that before rallying an empire, she'd have to fight the emperor himself.An imposter sits the throne and the court she turned to for help is in turmoil. Ciardis hasn't survived assassination attempts, torture and really bad luck to be taken down by her own ruler. So she devises a plan. But first she needs to get Sebastian and Thanar to agree. Each seems to love her in their own way. But neither is listening to her. Pushing them to put aside their differences, in an effort to ward off catastrophe, might be harder than displacing an emperor who would do anything to keep his throne.Butting heads at court isn't Ciardis's only problem. With the princess heir's threat looming she is forced to travel to the mythical city of Kifar, where it is up to her small group to stop the destruction of the entire city while heading a rebellion that could foment a revolution. It wouldn't be the first revolution that Algardis has ever known. But with Ciardis Weathervane at its head--it would certainly be the last.Sworn To AscensionCiardis Weathervane is officially engaged to one man and bonded to a second. She should be planning the wedding ceremony, bearding the nobles of the imperial court in their dens, and exposing an imposter emperor. Instead she's spending her engagement on the lawless road to the western lands.Now with the help of a guide from a tribe of seers, Ciardis is traveling to the ancient city of Kifar. Rumored to hold the only device capable of stopping the blutgott, Ciardis, Sebastian and Thanar must break a half-century's old quarantine in order to enter the fabled city.But the collar of Diamis is not the only thing they seek. The princess heir's pet wyvern lurks in wait for them and the emperor, who has done everything short of challenging the new triad of Algardis outright, wants its head on a platter upon their return.If the unscrupulous bandits don't make short work of them, Ciardis knows that when theyreturn she and Sebastian will have to a face and unmask the man who has stolen the imperial throne. The only question that remains...will that be before or after they're forced to battle a god?

    Inseparable since they were very young, they've always shared everything together, including the darkest parts of their lives. Elena's beginning to realise that her feelings for Karl are growing into something more. But her mother's about to drop a bombshell on her – one that will change the course of her life, and heart, forever. PUBLISHER'S NOTES: For fans of the series, this story includes two parts of Elena's past that were made reference to in The Witching Pen: 1) The moment that Karl turns up on Elena's doorstep having been beaten and 'jumped on' by his father and 2) "The Sex Talk" between Elena and her mother.Book length: short story (over 5500 words)

    Mage. Let the battle of the hexes begin. Penny Lane has eight months to find a suitable husband among the monstrous mages at Rosewood Academy or her mother will lose her home and her life. With only a weasel, her wits and a handful of lollipops, she sets out to tame one of those mages, but can she keep her heart from being bewitched by notoriously wicked, Drake Huntsman?

    His wolf is howling for his mate, and Chris knows it is only a matter of time before his needs override everything else in his life. He casts the spell all the Becketts have used to call their mates to them. What he wants is a woman of an older lineage, of power to equal his own. And she has to accept the one aspect that sets him apart from almost every other wizard: his wolf.What Chris gets is Alannah Evans, a powerful witch of the Evans Coven. The petite, dark haired woman has no problems with the wolf. What she does have a problem with is the fact that Chris is a wizard. Since wizards and witches don’t get along very well, neither should they, but the sparks flying between them can’t be denied. Chris isn’t taking no for an answer. When it becomes clear that an old enemy has targeted them both Chris will wind up engaging his enemy in a duel that could cost him his life.Or worse: Lana.

    Found by a wandering warrior, he learns he may have more strength than he ever imagined possible. A quiet child, Moriko is forced into a monastic system she despises. Torn from her family and the forest she grew up in, she must fight to learn the skills she’ll need to survive her tutelage under the realm’s most dangerous assassin. Young, beautiful, and broke, Takako is sold to pay for her father’s debts. Thrust into a world she doesn’t understand and battles she didn’t ask for, she must decide where her loyalties lie. When their lives crash together in a Kingdom on the brink of war, the decisions they make will change both their lives and their Kingdom forever. If they can stay alive.

    -- Blood Oath of the Iron ElvesFirst in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon...bow and arrow...magic, diplomacy, and oaths -- each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.In this world, Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire's elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He's murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most -- the forest.Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery...but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty's Imperial Army, effective immediately.For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance for Konowa to redeem himself -- even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission...and that the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch -- a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine....