Stranger Magics
Hall of Thorns
No one holds a grudge quite like a faerie...
All Colin Leffee wants is to be left alone: to run his used bookstore in peace, and to quietly drink himself to sleep every night in an attempt to drown out the memories of eight-hundred-plus years of existence.
Unfortunately, when a sullen teenage changeling is flung out of Faerie and onto his doorstep, the long-suffering, wayward son of Titania knows his dreams of solitude are dust. Colin—or Lord Coileán, as he is known to his family and the rest of the court—must track down Meggy, the love of his life, and figure out how her child ended up in Titania's clutches to begin with.
But with family, it's never simple. He finds Meggy, only to have her and their daughter yanked into Faerie—and the doors between the realms slammed and locked behind them. Now, it's not just their lives at stake...but the fate of magic itself.
Always the loner, Colin reluctantly joins forces with an intensely stubborn wizard, a young priest-in-training who fancies himself a knight, and his half-brother Robin (the last most definitely not by choice) on a quest to reopen the doors and restore the balance between the realms. And with exiled queen Mab plotting in the shadows to take Titania's throne, and the wizards of the governing Arcanum hiding their own agenda, Colin can't be sure whom to trust—or whether he'll live long enough to see the mission through.
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The Faerie King
Ruling Faerie isn't all it's cracked up to be…
Colin Leffee—Lord Coileán these days—has it all. His once-lost love is back in his life and willing to give him another chance, their daughter's magical bind and fake memories seem secure, and his hold on his mother's vacated throne hasn't wavered during his six-month reign. True, ruling a faerie court comes with the headache of superintending his quarrelsome people and placating his hostile siblings, but Coileán envisions smooth sailing ahead.
But then his resident would-be knight stumbles onto a baby dragon. A sea monster in south Florida sends the merrow into a panic. The captain of his guard learns a secret with consequences for the future of the courts. Meanwhile, the Arcanum has its own nasty surprise in store for the novice king.
And with Mab's demise, a new power is rising in the Gray Lands—one willing to do whatever it takes to seize his birthright.
For Coileán, the cost of his throne may be everything—and everyone—he holds dear.
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Witch-Blood
Nothing's ever simple for a witch-blood…
Unwanted, neglected, and with only the faintest glimmer of magical talent, Aiden Carver spent a miserable childhood in the heart of the Arcanum, convinced that he was nothing more than a dud among wizards. At fifteen, he learned the truth, which was no better. He was witch-blooded, the child of a wizard and a faerie—and not just any faerie, but Titania, late queen of one of the courts. With no future in the Arcanum, Aiden took a chance and moved in with his newfound half brother, Coileán, who'd inherited their mother's throne. Relatively safe and appreciated for the first time in his life, Aiden began to embrace his position as a high lord of Faerie, albeit a hopelessly untalented one.
But nothing good lasts forever.
With the arrival of a mysterious stranger in a dream, Aiden's new life falls apart. Oberon, the old king who long ago led his court into exile, has returned to Faerie with an army. Coileán has been incapacitated, and if Aiden wants to live, his only choice is to flee. Though stranded in the mortal realm with Joey Bolin, his all-too-mundane friend, and Georgie, a young and very hungry dragon, Aiden is determined to rescue his brother, no matter the cost. But as he soon discovers, Oberon isn't working alone, and the fate of the courts hangs in the balance.
For Aiden, saving Coileán could mean facing Oberon. But whoever heard of an insignificant witch-blood taking on a faerie king?
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Blood Magic
Ruling Faerie is hard. Sharing Faerie is harder…
One year after killing his rival king, Oberon, Coileán wakes from his long sleep to find that matters aren't quite as he left them in Faerie. His teenage brother, Aiden, has kept his throne warm, but Aiden's brief reign hasn't been without consequence. After months of searching, Aiden has yet to locate Oberon's heir, the one faerie powerful enough to control his unruly court—a faerie, it so happens, who wants nothing to do with the mess Oberon left behind.
Then there's the matter of Aiden's wizard sister, Helen Carver, the heir apparent to the Arcanum, who's about to marry Joey Bolin. For some of the Council magi, it's abhorrent that their future leader is tying herself to a mundane, but it's almost treasonous that her groom still lives in Coileán's backyard.
Making matters worse, Coileán receives tidings from the Dark Company, the mortal realm's mercenary spymasters. His daughter, Moyna, who carries a murderous grudge, now leads the remnants of Mab's shattered court, and she has new friends who will stop at nothing to reshape the magical world.
War is brewing both within Faerie and beyond its borders, and keeping the peace will take new alliances and teamwork. But even that might not be enough to stop the enemy in the shadows.
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Where do you run when the world unravels?
Three months ago, Badger Parsons's life was under control. Her colleagues respected her as a police detective. Her personal life, if not exciting, was at least uneventful. And while she was only a witch like her father, dependent on a powerful wand to pull off even the simplest of spells, she'd become a regional coordinator for the Fringe, the worldwide confederation of witches and lesser fae: first in, last out, and a person to depend upon in times of trouble.
Then came the Arcanum coup—and the slaughter.
With her family murdered and her fellow Fringers dead, kidnapped, or in hiding, Badger's on the run for her life. Only speed and luck have kept her a step ahead of the Arcanum assassins hunting her down. Her trusty wand has cracked and grows weaker by the day. And then comes the desperate call from Seamus, her former fiancé, whose untamed power may have finally turned fatal. He needs Badger's help now more than ever, but the wizards on her trail won't hesitate to kill him, too.
If they can locate a gate to Faerie and escape the mortal realm, they just might survive. But with the Fringe unraveled, someone has to evade the Arcanum and find the missing…
and who's better suited for the job than a detective?
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Dreams and Nightmares
Some family secrets can't stay buried.
One year after her world fell apart, wizard-in-training Badger Parsons has built a new life from the rubble. The former police detective now hunts for her scattered people, the Fringe, witches and lesser fae hiding from the murderous Arcanum. Rescuing the missing is no easy task, but Badger has an ace up her sleeve: she's learned the art of navigating a dream space in which the magically talented are beacons in the darkness—"sleepwalking." True, her control isn't perfect yet, but the sleepwalkers of the rogue Minor Arcanum have proven to be capable assistants. With her fiancé by her side, her cousin and a couple of teenage wards eager to help, and a pair of wizards sheltering them on a secluded ranch, what more could she need?
But late-blooming Badger is still discovering the extent of her talent, and her abilities as a wizard are far greater than she knows. When she learns of another extraordinary wizard in her family, the truth threatens to destroy her alliance with the Minor Arcanum. If she can't make things right, her little band will be on their own again.
And as Badger soon realizes, an enemy more powerful than the Arcanum lurks in the shadows. This time, it's not merely the Fringe at risk—the whole mortal realm lies in the crosshairs. If the Minor Arcanum and the last of the Fringe can't work together, there may soon be no one left for Badger to rescue…
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Unraveled
No one ever said the long game would be easy.
In the wake of the Arcanum's deadly coup, the magical community is left reeling. The murderous new grand magus has tightened his control over the world's wizards, most of whom have no idea how many innocents were killed in his power grab. Those Fringers who escaped death or captivity—witches and lesser fae with only a modicum of talent to protect themselves—have fled to the wilderness or taken to the lonely roads, always fearing a wand at their back. With hundreds of hostages hidden somewhere within the Arcanum's control, Faerie's king and queen are faced with a difficult choice: risk losing the kidnapped or play the long waiting game.
But outside the Arcanum's surveillance, its victims and opponents work to undermine its grip on the mortal realm. A ragtag rescue squad continues to scout for missing Fringers, and an amateur spy embeds himself in the sleepy town at the grand magus's doorstep. The architect of the Arcanum's protective wards desperately searches for a way to break them, while the refugees forced into exile just try to keep hope alive.
And the ancient consciousness of Faerie itself has taken an interest in a child glimpsed through the tiniest of holes between the realms—a little girl with the uncanny ability to make gates through the Arcanum's impenetrable wards in her sleep.
But as the standoff continues, not everyone proves adept at picking up the pieces. And now, one of the most powerful leaders among them may be on the verge of unraveling, too…
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The Stolen Child
Who can you trust when your life is a lie?
Ten-year-old Roslyn Carver longs for something better than the childhood she's spent largely underground. Though raised in the heart of the Arcanum and surrounded by the greatest wizards in the world, she dreams of a future elsewhere.
Still, Ros knows too well what dangers lurk beyond the Arcanum's thick walls and strong wards. Only the grand magus is powerful enough to keep the murderous creatures of Faerie at bay—the creatures who left her an orphan and killed hundreds more before they were driven back to their realm. But every time she hops onto her bicycle, Ros fights the urge to ride as far as her legs can carry her, away from the stifling Arcanum and her distant, often disapproving grandparents. For now, however, her only respite comes with sleep: her visits to the kindly man in the stone-walled room, the recurring dreams that seem curiously real.
But Ros's world is about to change. Old enough to begin her formal instruction in magic, she soon learns much more than the Arcanum had planned—secrets that call into doubt everything she's ever known about her place in the world.
Ros isn't an orphan at all. She's a hostage.
And if she wants to escape the Arcanum, she'll have to fight for her freedom.
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Lady of the Realm
What do you do when Faerie asks a favor?
As a child, Ros Bolin escaped the Arcanum's clutches and helped topple a regime. Ten years later, having grown up in the relative safety of Faerie, Ros is adrift, anxious to make a life for herself beyond her parents' house but unsure of where to begin.
That is, until Faerie comes to call.
Kura, the realm's consciousness, feels the stirrings of an unknown threat and asks for Ros's help. Unfortunately, that means taking a position in the mortal realm as Faerie's liaison to the Arcanum—an Arcanum different from the one Ros fled but no less dangerous. With the help of her friends—a pair of wizards, an untrained faerie, a former foe, and a highly protective dragon—Ros searches for the cause of Kura's distress while trying not to throw fireballs at the infuriating new grand magus.
But the danger is greater than Ros imagines. If she can't solve the mystery, then Faerie and the Arcanum may fall. And the foe in the shadows is poised to set in motion a chain of events that not even Kura can stop…
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Born of two worlds, belonging to neither…
Orphaned as an infant, Maria Corelli exhibits frightening power from an early age—a precocity endangering everyone around her. To the Arcanum, it's evident that the child is a promising young wizard.
Deep in Maria's ancestry is a blood tie to one of Faerie's most prominent families, a secret that must be hidden once she's old enough to make her Arcanum debut. In the meantime, alone and friendless, she finds a refuge in Faerie and begins to learn to control her talent. With only a drop of Fae blood, however, Maria doesn't fully belong in that realm…nor will she ever truly be accepted by the Arcanum if her secret is revealed. Torn between worlds, Maria struggles to find a home and forge a place for herself.
As internal dissent threatens to rip the Arcanum apart, Maria will have to decide where her loyalties lie. But Maria is playing a game with deadly stakes, and even her power may not be enough to save her.
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Heir of Afallon
It's not every assignment that ends in a quest…
For Kitty Connolly, family is a complicated subject. Her father died when she was a child. Her mother, a powerful but disgraced magus, wants nothing to do with her. Her baby sister, Beth, hardly knows her but hates her all the same.
But Kitty has found her own sort of family along the way. Maria, her best friend, is more like a sister. Her colleagues on the Arcanum's Away Team respect her, even though she's barely a witch. And then there's Marcus, her…well, that's complicated.
When her boss announces yet another of his grail quests, Kitty goes along with her work family, no matter how hopeless the mission. Though the Away Team has uncovered moldering books of magic, long-lost wands and other artifacts, and even an ensorcelled faerie lord in the field, everyone knows that the hunt for the grail is a fool's errand.
Stumbling onto an ancient secret, however, sets Kitty on a quest of her own—one that will change her family forever. Of course, no quest was ever easily won, and Kitty's journey takes her deep into the Gray Lands, a place where her paltry talent for magic is useless…and whose queen, having once been humiliated, is eager for revenge. For Kitty to succeed, she'll need more than a little help from her friends, if not a miracle.
And for the Arcanum to survive the coming storm, she'll need to uncover an extraordinary sort of magic.
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Exiles of Conota
Fleeing her fate was the easy part…
One year ago, Lady Imaranta of High Vale escaped Conota—the so-called Gray Lands—and joined her human mother in the mortal realm. Living in a small Oklahoma town as Hope Lozano, keeping her true appearance masked by magic, she's tried to blend in and make a life for herself as she adjusts to her freedom. But the locals still regard her with suspicion, she knows precious little about her new home, and then there's the tiny matter of the dead to consider. Cynaeli are natural mediums, and Hope, who's particularly gifted, has to contend with a constant stream of requests from the departed. Still, even if Hope's path forward isn't entirely clear, she thinks she has matters under control.
That is, until Arik shows up.
Another highborn cynaeli in Oklahoma would be dangerous enough, but Arik is wounded and weakening…and he carries an ominous message. Back in Conota, no one has yet stepped forward to claim the late queen's throne, and the rival factions are massing their armies. Worse still, Arik's father fears that another of his sons might be the missing monarch—a son who, like Hope, fled Conota. Now, an insatiable force is loose in the mortal realm, hunting him down, and no one in its path is safe.
If Hope and Arik want to save Arik's brother from a bloody end, they'll need to go on the run—and with lives and a throne in the balance, they'll need help from the living and the dead.
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Shadow of the Magus
Some secrets should stay buried…
From where Kitty Connolly is standing, the summer looks promising in Glastonbury. With her boyfriend by her side, her sisters preparing for glory at the Arcanum's annual Games, and the Away Team's resident dragon off on paternity leave, Kitty sees smooth sailing ahead, a season unbothered by pesky fires in need of smothering.
But that's before Kitty meets Quinn Dellucci, a young wizard in desperate need of remedial training. All Quinn wants is a job in art conservation. Unfortunately, her stress can blow up cars. She never expected to stumble across magic, much less the nasty surprise hiding in her family tree.
And Quinn's not the only concerning discovery. A mundane archaeological excavation in the west of Ireland draws the Away Team's attention when a stone coffin wrapped in spells is found deep beneath a parking lot. Inside that coffin lies the key to one of the Arcanum's greatest cover-ups…and a clue to the location of a legendary grail.
The Away Team excels at retrieving misplaced magical items. But sometimes, things go missing for a reason, and not all that is lost should be found…
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Crown and Chain
The only constant is change…
On the surface, the realms coexist more peacefully than they ever have. The Three of Faerie keep the chaotic elements of their courts in check by holding their people on a tight leash. Arik, the young king of Conota, enjoys calm in his land and eagerly anticipates the birth of his first child. And while Toula's quarter-century as the Arcanum's grand magus hasn't always been easy, her tenure has brought stability to the mortal realm's magical factions.
But placid waters can hide nightmares in their depths.
In Faerie, long-brewing resentment against the Three is poised to boil over, and a new power on the ascent threatens old alliances and the tenuous peace. While Toula attempts triage, a movement from within the Arcanum sees a prize within its grasp: the grand magus's chain of office. Meanwhile, the Away Team stumbles across a forgotten artifact from Eadwig's past, a weapon of war with catastrophic potential.
Regimes that rise must one day fall, and this time, magic may not be enough to avert the impending disaster…
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Realm and Reign
Where there's smoke, there may be fire…
Cici Connolly knows all about magic. How delicate spells were constructed. How enchantment, applied properly, could move worlds.
How magic was lost forever twenty-five years ago.
Born into a compound of refugees from Faerie and the Arcanum, Cici grew up under far too many watchful eyes in the Alaskan wilderness. Now, she longs for her freedom—at least a few years in the wider world. She wants to explore distant lands and play on tropical beaches with her friends by her side. And whether their overprotective parents approve or not, she and her longtime boyfriend, Gawain, want to make their relationship official.
But then the strange smoke-like mist arrives one morning—whisps of dark magic drifting from the forest beyond the compound's wall. Perhaps Conota wasn't destroyed after all when Faerie fell.
Perhaps some spark of Faerie may yet exist.
Cici doesn't know what the hints of dark magic foretell, but she'll need to fight to save what she holds dearest in her rapidly changing world.
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