Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.

Generations ago, ships full of refugees from a vast war accidentally blew into a narrow, sheltered harbor between the cliffs of two mountain ranges. The people called the vast and fertile valley beyond the harbor the Vale and settled there. The Vale was also home to wild animals, dragons, and magical creatures called elves...and magic. As the years passed, humans with no actual magical talent came to be born with a Gift--a single ability. Among the Gifted, only healers are widely accepted, but for others fear and distrust has led to prejudice, persecution, and even murder. Although elves, humans and dragons essentially live in peace together, the nearly immortal elves are intent on preserving the Vale's isolation from the rest of the world. At any cost. Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.

Generations ago, ships full of refugees from a vast war accidentally blew into a narrow, sheltered harbor between the cliffs of two mountain ranges. The people called the vast and fertile valley beyond the harbor the Vale and settled there. The Vale was also home to wild animals, dragons, and magical creatures called elves...and magic. As the years passed, humans with no actual magical talent came to be born with a Gift--a single ability. Among the Gifted, only healers are widely accepted, but for others fear and distrust has led to prejudice, persecution, and even murder. Although elves, humans and dragons essentially live in peace together, the nearly immortal elves are intent on preserving the Vale's isolation from the rest of the world. At any cost. Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.

For the daughter of a gentleman during the English Regency, life can be a whirlwind of parties, balls and outings--all to catch a suitable husband. For Georgiana and Cecilia Rowland and their friends, finding and securing the right husband is further complicated by misunderstandings, prejudices, rebellion against social restrictions, uncooperative suitors...and sometimes their own wayward hearts. Mr. Peregrine Tyndall has often been called the laziest man in London. Even still, stirred to the enormous task of matchmaking when a hunting accident suffered by his cousin makes him realize he stands in real danger of inheriting an earldom--with all its tedious responsibilities. In his opinion, the perfect girl to marry his cousin and give the earldom another heir than himself would be their childhood friend, Portia Freestone. Mr. Tyndall doesn't know what formidable obstacles lay before him in this endeavour. However, when he joins a house party at the earl's country home with this match on his mind, everything seems to go wrong. In the first place, his normally obliging friend Portia has a secret. She has no wish to marry the earl--she likes him very well but the man she secretly wishes to marry is Mr. Tyndall himself. An even bigger problem is Miss Frances Armitage. She and her little sister Eleanor had been left in his guardianship, a duty he has benignly and completely neglected up to now. A furious Miss Armitage is about to descend on Lakeford Hall to demand that Mr. Tyndall take up his duties to her and her sister in a responsible manner--even if she has to force him to do it!

Karen Montgomery was an ordinary woman until she stumbled into the extraordinary... A bargain with elves worth its weight in gold. A plague of sinister ladybugs. Rogue vampire hunters, including one who tries to turn over a new leaf--with disastrous consequences. A ghostly huntsman of the Wild Hunt wishing for redemption. Karen's life will never be the same again. One wrong turn sends Karen down a road that shouldn't exist, to the site of an old accident and an even older mystery. With reformed vampire hunter Russell Moore's help, Karen finds the key to the mystery. But Russ keeps his own secrets...some of which are deadly. When old friends from Russ' past come to call, Karen realizes his secrets might just mean his doom. After a terrible incident three years ago, before Karen met him, Russ wants only to live the rest of his life quietly in Beth-Hill. But his secret might not allow him the new lease on life Russ longs for.

The orcs of Grimwood summon an ancient evil. . . A mountaineering expedition to retrieve a griffin's egg goes horribly wrong, at least for most of the climbers. . . A soldier begins to believe his commander is not what he seems. . . A dungeon door poses a problem for an experienced party of adventurers. . . A unique trap appears to be inescapable, but for one desperate plan. . . Here are five tales set in the good old days of fantasy gaming, when friends sat around the kitchen table late into the night rolling dice and sharing adventures. Relive the spirit of the past (or even the present!) with stories of epic combat and base trickery, stories that any adventurer would be proud to tell over a mug of ale at the local tavern. Includes the short story The Trap, co-written by special guest author Tony Rudzki.

Situated in Beth-Hill, where imagination meets reality, is The Rose Emporium, owned by elderly and not-a-little-odd Rose Duncan. The large Victorian house smackdab in the middle of nowhere is a cross between a pawn shop and an antique store that caters to supernatural creatures needing to barter. Rose's twenty-something niece, Abby Duncan, discovers that the world isn't made up of just run-of-the-mill, ordinary humans but an entire spectrum of unusual beings. With her preconceptions about what's normal and what's not turned upside-down, Abby is in for a whole lot of startling truths, mysteries--about herself and the people and places around her--and danger. Abby Duncan's elderly Aunt Rose has always been a bit odd. And now she's off on a mysterious trip, leaving Abby behind to run the Rose Emporium, an unusual sort of antique shop. Such an extraordinary store would have been a perfect place for Seth and the others, her friends from the Renaissance Festival, to take a break from traveling between Faires. But when tragedy strikes and Abby and the others discover the true nature of the Rose Emporium, they'll have to travel into Faerie itself before their tightknit group is whole again. Abby doesn't know much about her family history, but she's about to find out the truth...whether she likes it or not.