Category: Uncategorized

People stumbling into Jack Hawthorne’s little town of Reeve’s Creek isn’t anything new. It happens from time to time. Those who need a safe place to hide from the world. Not the same way he needs a safe place, mind, but he lives with it and keeps to himself on the edge of town.

Then two come at once. One is an irritating blip on the radar of his quiet life no matter how much this stranger upset the town, and the other … well, Sheriff Mason Carrow is there to turn Jack’s world upside down. Which is unexpected, and Jack can handle that. Mason likes to hand him surprise after surprise, though, and Jack’s in too deep before he even knows what hit him.

The monster in the swamp on the western edge of his territory is something else. It’d take some real special care to deal with, if Jack manages to keep the good Sheriff Carrow from getting in the middle of that mess.

Ezekiel knew he should’ve paid better attention to his mom. If he had, finding himself in the unfathomable Abaddon might have been a little easier to deal with. Zeke might have understood what he was about to face.

Instead he’s faced with the angel Haziel at the end of a sword, stuck in an existence he doesn’t know how to navigate, heading toward a war humanity had no knowledge of.

Haziel promises to see him safely through the battlefield. Along the way Zeke finds purpose and courage, grace and depravity. At his journey’s end, will Zeke want to leave his angel behind when the time comes?

Selati, a big construct forced to work in the cobalt mines of Ilmare, is terrified of the overseers. Danger dogs his every breath, somehow the leader of his ragged work crew, and he finally has enough when the mine itself almost kills him. Humans or no humans, he refuses to let his crew die down in the dark. As his crew takes their stand in their bid for freedom, rescue comes. Freedom in the light and a whole new life awaits.

It’s a duty Aleledai takes great pride in, saving his fellow Caniean. Humans might have created them to mine and nothing more, but like all things, the Caniean are not the mindless beasts humans intended to work to death for resources. Selati’s rescue is probably his greatest accomplishment, because something about this one becomes everything Aleledai was missing, that made freedom perfect.

Humans don’t let go of their things easily, though and war is coming, no matter what the Caniean want. The price of freedom is always high. Aleledai only hopes the price isn’t everything he’s found worth living for.

Justin Nesbit, soldier turned prospector, crash lands on a planet in a star system that doesn’t exist on any map. He’s taken prisoner by the natives, and finds himself thrust into a strange new culture, a strange new language … and strange new feelings. From the start, Sajah, the alien leading the natives, is intensely interested in him.

Sajah is a big and strange alien, unlike anyone Justin has ever encountered in his life. Fumbling through cultural and language barriers, they become friends. But one crucial moment of misunderstanding changes Justin’s entire situation and leads him down a path to a choice he never imagined in his wildest dreams.

Rich has lived in the North Carolinian wilderness for over two years, and while he’s heard the stories, he never actually believed they were true. Even after witnessing it for himself, Rich still isn’t sure he believes in what’s happening around him. He knows one thing for sure — he’s going to have to rescue the man he thinks is being sacrificed, no matter how much he hates violence.

The guy on the table is a honey-coated wet dream, and Rich isn’t sure what to do after saving him from what appears to be a cult in the middle of the forest. So much for the quiet life.

War awaits on Ilmare, between the humans and the constructs they created. Considered flawed designs by their creators, Selati and his other sentient comrades live the life of refugees on the run, hiding and fighting in Ilmare’s vast jungles. They want only the freedom to pursue their newly awakened sentience away from human interference.

Aleledai taught Selati all he knows of a life without chains and suffering. Neither can know what tomorrow will bring, rather all too well what it could take from them both. On the cusp of war, Selati returns to his lover to spend one last night in the peaceful world that only exists in Aleledai’s arms.