Athos, the famed Musketeer, has become a Paris sideshow. His antics mask a menacing heartache from cruel memories of his first true love, Milady, and he is driven to attempt a suicidal dare that he believes will end his suffering. But his plan backfires, and Athos finds himself at the country château of the Comtesse de Rochefort, a woman he must seduce to save his crumbling reputation. But Nicole, a pious and married woman, shows him compassion and sees through his pain, and love builds between them. Now, tested by both God and the sword, Athos must fight for her love to seek his own redemption.
"La Femme Nikita" meets "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in Steel's debut novel which contains the perfect combination of humor, suspense, and sensuality. In one fateful night, a beautiful doctor is swept by a patient into a world of intrigue, vampires--and an even more dangerous world of love.
Petrodor is a city of alleys and shadows, where life is cheap and the only respected currency is blood. Sasha, the wilful yet talented heroine of Sasha, returns to battle in Joel Shepherd's stunning second volume of A Trial of Blood & Steel.Away from the hills of her Lenayin homeland, she is fighting a new battle in the dark alleys and wealthy houses of Petrodor. An influential trading centre, Petrodor holds the key to preventing the coming war between Lenayin and the mighty Bacosh. Together with her mentor Kessligh, Sasha attempts to navigate the political intrigues of the port city and find a way to stop the war.It is the serrin, the beautiful but dangerous people from beyond the Bacosh, who will be the pivot in this struggle. How much can Sasha trust her old serrin friend Errollyn? And how much can she trust herself?
Death is a fickle thing. For most, it's a force of nature, but Agil Novan sees the reaper in a different light. As the greatest swordsman of all time, he cherishes life more than most, and he's lived one full of both struggle and success. After all of his accomplishments, he too must face the reaper and its scythe. When challenged, however, the swordsman is not one to go without a fight. After parrying it once and then impressing the reaper with a show of the blade, he is offered something more. A second chance at life--one that he's all but forced to accept. Now, stranded in an unfamiliar land with an unfamiliar body and far too many questions, Agil has his life threatened at every turn. Still, he is determined to survive. He knows what the reaper did to him. And he has never been one to let vengeance go unfulfilled.
Ivar was a young boy when the unthinkable happened. A Coup ripped his family apart and left his father dead. With his beloved city in ruins. Ivar and his mother are forced to leave as refugees.In a foreign land, he is forced to fight for the regime that helped topple his father's kingdom. He spends ten years learning the ways of war and the way the regime operates. With anger as his emotional fuel. He causes events that bring about his captor's downfall.Blood comes with every sword...
Spurning her royal heritage to be raised by the great warrior, Kessligh, her exquisite swordplay astonishes all who witness it. But Sasha is still young, untested in battle and often led by her rash temper. In the complex world of Lenayin loyalties, her defiant wilfulness is attracting the wrong kind of attention. Lenayin is a land almost divided by its two faiths: the Verenthane of the ruling classes and the pagan Goeren-yai, amongst whom Sasha now lives. The Goeren-yai worship swordplay and honour and begin to see Sasha as the great spirit—the Synnich—who will unite them. But Sasha is still searching for what she believes and must choose her side carefully. When the Udalyn people—the symbol of Goeren-yai pride and courage—are attacked, Sasha will face her moment of testing. How will she act? Is she ready to lead? Can she be the saviour they need her to be?
For two hundred years Tracato has been the center of enlightenment, as the serrin have occupied human lands and sought to remake humanity anew. But the serrin have not destroyed Rhodaan’s feudal families entirely, and as Tracato faces the greatest threat to its survival in two centuries, old rivalries are stirring. Sasha must assist her mentor Kessligh to strengthen the Tracato Nasi-Keth, yet with one royal sister siding with the feudalists and another soon to be married to Tracato’s most powerful foe, her loyalties are agonizingly divided. Worse still, from Sasha’s homeland the Army of Lenayin are marching to make war upon Tracato. Can she fight her own people? Or must she join them, and fight not only her lover Errollyn, but to extinguish the brightest light of hope in all the land—serrin civilization itself? From the Trade Paperback edition.
TARMUN VYKERS His awestruck opponents call him The Reaper, an iron-willed man with no memory of his past, a ruthless champion who has risen to the level of death incarnate. But The Reaper has collected a legion of enemies as he cut a bloody swath through the greatest of heroes and villains. And these dogs have finally had their day, exacting a revenge both cruel and creative. Wandering lost, horribly disfigured and unable to fight, Vykers stumbles across the bones of a half-buried skeleton that can transform his ruined body in an inconceivable way. But first he must make a devil’s pact with… ARUNE A secretive, ghostly sorceress with ambitions of her own. If Vykers wants to wield a sword again, he must surrender to Arune that which he holds most dear. But can he trust this ethereal enchantress to hold up her end of their dangerous bargain? Vykers has few good choices, and he must make them quickly, for an impossibly talented and savage wizard has arisen to threaten all of humanity… THE END OF ALL THINGS Once an autistic boy hardly able to speak, The End has evolved into a supernatural terror bent on extinguishing all life. A fearsome and unequaled tactician, The End is the only person who doesn’t fear “The Reaper.” To have any hope of defeating this bloodthirsty mage, Vykers must gather the strangest, most dangerous cohort of killers ever assembled. Then he must seek out the only weapon that can defeat this terrible adversary… THE EPIC BATTLE Behold the greatest clash of men, monsters, and Fey that the kingdom has ever known. Vykers, at the head of his outnumbered contingent, launches a desperate attack against The End, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. But The End is a creature worthy of his name. He has forged a secret weapon, a wicked and terrible instrument that will break through Vykers’ defenses and exact a devastating toll. Only one thing is certain, this extraordinary battle will end in a way that no one could have predicted!
The page-turning conclusion and final instalment of the Trial of Blood & Steel Quartet. The Army of the Regent Arrosh advances on the forces loyal to Saalshen, homeland of the serrin people, as the serrin's friends are in full retreat. Their only hope is to reach the city of Jahnd - the serrin word for Haven - across the River Ipshaal, the only human city in Saalshen itself.
