Dark Ages Literature

I've spent my life in a cage designed by my father—at his mercy and whim. I'm penniless, powerless, and frequently reminded that I'm nothing more than property to barter amongst his powerful friends. Until the eve of my twentieth birthday, when I learn my future holds more misery than my past. It's the day he's waited for—the day he sells my hand to the highest bidder. I have no choice and no voice. But that's not how my story ends. They say a wolf will chew off its foot to escape a trap, and that's precisely what I do when I flee into the arms of my father's greatest enemy.

The strongest of them all. Eyes blacker than the darkness they all fantasize about, but have never seen. An abomination. Hemera Harkibel has spent her life concealing abilities she doesn’t fully understand. She is hated and feared because of her black eyes and inhuman strength. When her people’s underground cave system is attacked, Hemera is thrust above ground into a dangerous world where the sun’s rays can kill in seconds and enemies are tracking her every move.... Hemera comes to learn that her very existence is a threat in the war brewing between humans and Halves.

Logan Ragsdale and his younger sister, Ariana, have been marked, chosen to be unwilling participants in a war between angels and demons. Logan can sense something's not quite right. Like an unexpected chill on a summer's day, he can feel the unseen closing in. He's had these feelings before, and each time, someone close to him died. He's afraid this time it might just be Ariana. Logan's fears are soon confirmed when he discovers their new friends aren't human, but rather representatives from Heaven and Hell sent to Earth to ensure he and Ariana accept their roles.

Death sets the plot in motion: the murder of Nica Baker, beautiful, wild, enigmatic, and only 16. The crime is solved, and quickly--a lonely classmate, unrequited love, a suicide note confession--but memory and instinct won't allow Nica's older sister, Grace, to accept the case as closed.

Alicia Erian's characters are brave, disarming, affectionate, and deeply flawed. They inhabit the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome. The Brutal Language of Love challenges traditional notions of right and wrong with what has become Erian's signature—an achingly stylish humor and a deep understanding of the brutal truth about human nature. These surprising, provocative, and deeply resonant stories marked the emergence of a major talent.

Victor Standish: Urban legend, abandoned child, mocker of monsters: “I learned to walk on cat-feet by living on the streets of too many hard cities for six years...since I was seven. I know why dogs howl at the dark and why cats prick up their ears after midnight. All too often I hear the beating of black wings and the scratching of half-seen shapes on the pavement hidden by shadow. I have always known I am an outsider, a stranger no matter where I roam among those who are still men".

Kealin and Tulasiro journey North with haste and the half-elf of Urlas knows he may not return. His challenger has haunted his mind and struck down his loved ones; Vankou, the god of death, will not take another. Kealin will have vengeance for the fallen. Armed with the god-sword gifted to him by a fallen deity and the blood of the Dwemhar surging in his veins, Kealin prepares for the final battle. But the seas he once sailed upon have changed much in the last few years. The world quakes as all the energies of magic swirl towards a gathering in the heavens above the dark parts of the north.

Donner Lake is famous for its dazzling waters, dramatic mountains, and the travelers trapped there long ago who did unspeakable things to survive. But for lonely Nora Sharpe, Donner was where a girl named Grace glided into her life one night and exploded her world.

Wrongly accused of her brother’s murder, Sonara’s destiny was to die, sentenced to execution by her own mother. Punished and left for dead, the shadows have cursed her with a second life as a Shadowblood, cast out and hunted by society for her demon-like powers. Now known as the Devil of the Deadlands, Sonara survives as a thief on the edge of society, fighting for survival on a quest to uncover what really happened to her brother and whether he is even dead at all....

It would be easier for Thomas Mullen to move on from what he'd seen if Sarah stopped calling. It would be even better if she stopped appearing to him, and only him, to remind him of what he was powerless to stop. But months later, after Thomas loses his phone and the random woman who recovers it arranges to return it to him, his predicament intensifies. This woman tells him that while she's had his phone, his mother has called. His mother really needs him to call her back. And who is Sarah?

Calidan Darkheart has survived monsters, men and the first years of the Academy, but will he be able to survive a higher power than his own? As a young student at the Academy and freshly dealing with the loss of a dear friend, Calidan must endure a new trial, one that will test every fiber of his being. Alone in the dark, Calidan the Imperator has so far managed to avoid the clutches of a rampaging beast, but now seeks to escape and fulfill his lifelong dream. Intent on saving his best friend Cassius and heading deeper into the wastelands, he seeks a prey that will eclipse all others.

Timothy’s journey into the magical and enchanting world of Mielikuvitus has taken a dark and dangerous turn. Having rescued his younger sister from the labyrinth beneath the Torn Mountains, Timothy emerges to find Mielikuvitus under siege. The Dark Entity holds the world under its dark banner as it amasses an army to destroy everything.

A land has fallen. An escape was made. It's a victory, but at what price? Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake - one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption.

The academy killer returns. Underrealm's Academy for Wizards is in mourning after students and instructors alike have been murdered in its halls, but the killer is now far away across the nine kingdoms - or so they believe. When Ebon learns of a new threat within the Academy, he and his friends must work quickly to stop it - for if anyone knows the terrible secret they conceal, they could all be put to death. As the school's danger looms, and Ebon faces increasing suspicion from the new Dean, he must infiltrate the family Yerrin and learn a dark truth if he hopes to survive.

When a demonic parasite turns her classmates into an army of sleepwalkers, 16-year-old Jo must confront her celestial identity and reveal the mystery of existence. With the help of her best friends and a Galactic Compass, Jo unleashes the cosmic powers of creation to prevent the Lord of Darkness from enslaving all of humanity into obscurity. Will she be able to decode the artificial system in time to save her friends and the sacred Light?

It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route. Here is rehab, where Ben - the only son of a rich South Dublin banker - is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam.

Los Angeles brims with opportunity in 1959—though not for aspiring fashion designer Cordelia Mai Yin, the first-generation child of Vietnamese immigrants, who finds the city unkind to outsiders and as dispirited as her own family. When Cordi rents a cheap loft in an old apartment building, she quickly warms to kindred souls Tessa, Audrey, and Silly. They also want better things and have pasts they’d rather forget. That they all share the same middle name makes their friendship seem like destiny.

An assassin with a secret. An angel with a strange power. A war that threatens to destroy them both. Cora is an assassin who never misses her mark. But she has a deadly secret: Her blood can create the most powerful magical elixirs in the world. And she's been hunted for it her whole life. When a powerful demon blackmails her, threatening to expose her secret, she has to do one last job to buy her freedom: Kill a Nephilim named Vince. Cora figures this will be an easy target. Until Vince time travels, appearing in two places at once.

Ses is the daughter of a business mogul and a terrorist, each trying their best to kill the other while pretending she doesn't exist. An apprentice jailer of the gods, Ses spends her days learning to forge the tools needed to maintain the gods' prison. When the prison is mysteriously attacked on her sixteenth birthday, Ses is forced to flee after the secret of her parentage is revealed.

For decades, Hudich, the leader of an evil army, had been held prisoner in a world called Pekel. Before releasing him last summer to save Max's friend Cindy, Max's grandfather neutralized Hudich's magical powers with the aid of an advanced high-tech collar. Unfortunately, Hudich's escape allowed him to relay a centuries-old secret to his followers that helps them find a powerful weapon. With the aid of this new weapon, an ancient magical gateway, the enemy kidnaps Max's mother.