Atho: a world struggling under the iron fist of a corrupt government. Sirotištes take children for both warranted and unwarranted reasons, wars rage on with no end in sight. Magicians and humans on both sides fight for survival. One hopes to overthrow while the other desires complete domination.In this, the first book in the series, Loslin and West Kelser lose their parents and are sent to live in a sirotište. Reunited after seven grueling years, they are thrown yet again into the midst of the chaos. Their pasts and their parents' legacy force them into the wars. Loslin, who has the Gift and captains a ship, attacks cruel and abusive slave owners. He and his brother, West, are destined for an inevitable fate. Loslin is pursued by a certain admiral of the government, who holds a scroll that is mysteriously linked to the Kelsers. They have to face each other's pasts to tie into the future… together, or not at all.

Her scars ran so deep, her soul had been severed in two. Michelene had killed and run-but not far enough, or fast enough. They'd found her. Azriel had but one rule. No attachments. This rule had kept him alive. He'd lived by it-until her. She'd found her savior in a man whose past was even darker than her own and whose soul held shadows of that dark. He made her body explode in ways she'd never imagined possible and gave her heart something she'd long given up... hope. Michelene was his saving grace. The only thing which kept the darkness from consuming him. She was his to protect and cherish. God help anyone who challenged that--because Vengeance would be his.

This fascinating book uncovers the hidden stories behind Pakistan’s fixation with blasphemy–tales of revenge, political scheming and sovereign betrayal. Hussain’s account opens in nineteenth-century colonial Punjab and traces blasphemy killings to the present, linking their emergence to polemic encounters between Hindu and Muslim revivalist sects, namely the Arya Samaj and the Ahmadiyya. It offers, for the first time, the arresting backstories to the assassinations of Pandit Lekh Ram, a leading Hindu nationalist; Swami Shraddhanand, an early progenitor of Hindu nationalism and the principal advocate for converting Muslims; and Rajpal, the Hindu publisher of a sensationalist book on the Prophet Muhammad. Revenge, Politics and Blasphemy in Pakistan then maps the curious afterlives of these killings, illuminating the most critical moments in Pakistan’s history: 1953, when outraged protestors smashed stores owned by religious minorities, triggering the country’s first state of emergency; 1974, when Islamist parties pressured Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to put blasphemy on the constitutional agenda; 1984, when Zia-ul-Haq transformed Pakistan according to his Islamist vision, which included more severe punishments for blasphemy; and the twenty-first century, when digital media has dramatically increased the visibility of blasphemy killings, prompting political parties to demonstrate their commitment to the cause.

Vengeance isn’t just a team of enforcers, they’re a destination where all morals and good sense get checked at the door. Every server at the roadhouse I work at knows that Vengeance is a package deal. The three enforcers for the Ruthless Reapers don’t just share a job, they share you for one night if you dare to go to one of the rooms upstairs with them. Whenever they come into the roadhouse, they stare at me. Three wolves just biding their time until I agree to be their next meal. But you know what? Hard pass. I’m on the last six months of my five-year plan to become a certified doctor. And giving my body to three outlaw bikers is not one of the items on my sensible checklist. Besides, I’ve learned the hard way you can’t trust anyone but yourself. So, nope. No way. Uh-unh. It doesn’t matter if they make my stomach flutter and my seriously neglected nether regions stir with some very bad thoughts. I’m not budging from my five-year plan. But then, my aunt’s boyfriend attacks me. One moment I’m calling Vengeance as a last resort. And the next I’m waking up in their bed. Vengeance has me now. And Reapers don’t date. They POSSESS. New plan. Figure out how to escape from these three men before they convince me to give them everything they want. My body, my mind, my heart—maybe even, my soul.

The Sethian Shield is weakening—one of the Banished Ones has already escaped. Was it a flaw in the Shield's design or something more sinister? And more importantly, will any more of them escape? Rahg learns he needs to travel to a foreign land to complete a mission, and Darstan must accompany the mysterious Aenaila...somewhere—but where? Find out what happens next as the ages-old battle that originated on Nelstar continues to claim lives.