Old Fantasy

Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last 10 years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison Zalindov, working as the prison healer. When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.

Tales of Old Japan (1871) is an anthology of classic tales compiled by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale. The narratives - adapted from Japanese sources - covers various aspects of Japanese life before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Engaging with an arresting range of subjects such as Buddhist sermons, knightly exploits, ghost stories, fairy tales, folklore, terrifying vampires, noble samurai, and the plots of four Noh plays, the collection also serves as a treasure trove of information on the customs, characters, and places of the time.

Avalon James and Atticus Brightwell have a secret - one that they aren't allowed to discuss with anyone. This secret is shared between two best friends. When you and your best friend turn 10 years old, magical things are said to happen. You both will receive some kind of magical power. It can be a power you can call on time and time again. Or it can be a power that comes once when you need it most. It's your Infinity Year, and the possibilities are endless.

The girl I once pined for is ready to be claimed. Before Claire. Before Sophia. Before all of this—I used to sit in a coffee shop and dream about Emily. Sweet, shy, untouchable Emily. Now she’s back. And she’s not just ready to talk—she’s ready to surrender. When Emily confessed her feelings and revealed just how untouched she was, the harem welcomed her with open arms and warm smiles. What followed was a night unlike any other: candles, silk, shared stories, and a first time that was slow, sacred, and utterly unforgettable. I thought I’d imagined what being with her would feel ...

Magdalys and the squad are flying south on pteroback. South to rescue her older brother. South to war. The squad links up with the dino-mounted troops of the Louisiana Native Guard, an all-black regiment in the Union Army fighting to free their people. They're led by General Sheridan, surrounded by enemy forces in Tennessee and desperate for any edge to sway the tide of battle.

The Beaverton High School Breakfast Club show up for what they thought would be cleaning the locker room with a toothbrush when the morning goes horribly wrong, and they fall victim to a deadly, dark spell. Some jerkwad moon mage shoves the consciousness of Petra's three-year-old into the body of a musclebound barbarian, and she is transformed into a halfling. The kids get stuck as a cleric, fire mage, and other stalwarts of your typical fantasy gaming party.

Wearing panties was overrated, until he walked in... Forced into a blind date by her best friend, Callie hadn't expected to like the guy, let alone love him... When Evan Wright found out he had to go on a blind date, he wasn't happy. But then he saw Callie Harper and everything in his life started falling into place... Warning: Expect plenty of creamy milk and honey, and fantasies that some may find quite naughty. Evan's Fertile Virgin is the fourth short story in the Milk and Honey Series of naughty and some might consider taboo contemporary romance short stories. If you like sexy milking ...

Hilly Creighton never expected to find a man when she peered into a cave near Tombstone, Arizona. Clint Woodrow had no idea how he was pulled forward in time from 1881, and he has been trying to get back home ever since. He doesn’t realize that the cave is the answer - the cave and Hilly.

College never felt this exhilarating. I felt crushed under the weight of college life, watching my confidence shrink with each passing day as I pined after a girl I couldn't bring myself to approach. Then Claire walked into my life with her knowing smile and an offer I couldn't refuse - she'd teach me everything I needed to know about being a man. My education started in this little café downtown, the kind of place where the coffee came in actual cups and the pastries looked like art. But it was her home that changed everything--that first night with her blew past every fumbling fantasy ...

Sanctuary beckons but hides a deadly secret within. An archaic power awakens, but the shadows of antiquity conceal a terrible truth. Fugitives from the Conclave, Dormael and his friends flee with the armlet in their possession. Hounded by their former allies, they undertake a dangerous trek to an ancient ruin—a place where the only things older than the stones are the secrets buried beneath them. Pain and darkness wait in the halls of the dead, but something worse may be closing in from behind. With evil stirring, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Some codes are meant to be broken. Damian Blackburn's life runs on logic and control. As CEO of a cutting-edge cybersecurity firm, he's racing to complete a classified NSA project that could change the face of national security. His past work with the CIA makes him uniquely qualified, but the pressure is crushing. Like many powerful men, Damian finds himself drawn to a strong woman who dominates him in his personal life. In Eden’s presence, he can finally let go of the control he maintains everywhere else. During a romantic night out, their forbidden connection is sealed with a contract ...

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined - this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice. An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside?

I hadn’t set foot in the human world for more than a few hours in over three and a half months. Sure, I was stronger and faster than I’d ever been before, and I had a shiny new sword, but I was seriously chocolate deprived.

Here be an oracle. Despair all ye who seek her. Magic will have its cake and eat it, too. Okay, well. So I was mixing metaphors. I was new to the gig. But as far as I could tell, there were three kinds of people. Those who wanted confirmation that they’d chosen the correct path. Those who wanted to deny there was any sort of destiny at all. And those who wanted to tear it all down. So why was it always the third type that showed up at the door to my 1975 Brave Winnebago, dragging me into their power struggles and using my past against me?

Having fled the defeat at the Green Gulch, Darius and Jerico, believing themselves the last two paladins of their kind, must separate once more in order to survive. While Jerico rushes to the aid of Lord Arthur and the siege at his Castle of Caves, Darius travels east, determined to remove the bounty on his head. But on his way, he encounters a young priest following an older way of faith, whose desire for their return will risk destruction upon all the North. Sacrifice must be made in blood.

After dumping my boyfriend for cheating, his grandfather shows up to move out his belongings. I’m glad to get rid of the jerk’s stuff, but then this hot, much older man suddenly gets a charley horse. Even though I hate his cheating grandson’s guts, I offer to massage his calf and make it all better, which it does. Unfortunately, it puts me in a bind because after my soft hands touch him, it looks like something else on this old man might need a hard squeeze.

Stuck in the shadow realm and straight out of luck, I’m more alone than ever. Even my friends are frightened of me now that they know the truth. Happy mid-life to me! That is, until my demon in rusty armor comes to my rescue. Now, I realize the magical world is so much bigger than I ever imagined, and it turns out, bigger than anyone else did, either. The Knights Templar are determined to stage a comeback at any cost, and my star-lit blood is the key to their plans. With only a demon to guide me, I have to find a way out of the shadow realm and back to Earth before magic is unleashed ...

The narrator - the old nurse of the title - is an old family retainer who has worked in the service of the same family for three generations. She tells the young children about a dark incident that she experienced in the company of the children’s mother, when she was a young woman and visiting her mother’s ancestral home.

Three days. That was all the reprieve we got before one of the five showed up, injured and on the run. The snowstorm that had encased the property, as well as stifled the town, hadn’t even melted away. That wounded prey led our newest adversary directly to me. To Christopher. Inconvenient timing, but not unexpected. It was the betrayal forcing me to stay my hand against that adversary that shocked me. Betrayal from the least likely of sources. Or so I would have thought.

The world is getting older. The world is getting younger. The United States is dead. The Democratic Unity killed it. After catastrophic wars and the Meltdown, the Unity rules from its East Coast citadel, leaving the outlands to savages and its strangely altered plants. Providing free health care, employment, computer-less surfing, and recreational drugs at quite reasonable prices, the Unity mandates retirement at 40 before fatigue and error contaminate a culture of youth, innovation, and vigor.