Sigmann, son of Phoenix, spent a century and a half as Daemon, the first person ever Awakened to power of flame and lava. Branded a demon by the tyrant who condemned him to life in the heart of Fjordlandi’s largest volcano, he had embraced all they told him he was. He grew hard to keep from being shattered. And he was so accustomed to a life of darkness broken only by the light of lava that it has taken him three and a half years to embrace not only freedom, but a life lived in daylight. A journey back to who he is by rights: Sigmann, secondborn son of the seraph known as Phoenix.

He has spent the last few years in Ellas, to fulfill an agreement another made and let the Ellesian scientists study him. He’d expected it to be a new form of slavery. Instead, he found new friends, a new family…and a new threat.

Ever since she was a child, Perla has demanded attention and brought laughter and joy wherever she goes. And ever since she was on the cusp of womanhood, she’d been looking for her perfect match. She knows he’s out there–her seraph grandmother told her so, when she gave her a prophecy that Perla has been both clinging to and dreading every since. A prophecy of love found…and sacrifice made. But hey, prophecies are notoriously vague, right? She’s happy to believe there will be centuries between finding her true love and that eventual need for sacrifice. 

And she knew the moment she zapped Sig’s palm in the volcano in Fjordlandi that he is the man she’s been waiting well over a century to find. And finally, after years of near-daily messages, they’re friends. Maybe leaning toward more than friends. And nothing like a little world-obliterating extinction event is going to get between her and her man.

Probably. Maybe. Hopefully… Right?

Together, Sig and Perla venture inside the enormous Sustone volcanic system, where lakes of lava and super-heated aquifers prove a challenge even for them–two of the most powerful Awakened in the world. But failure isn’t an option.

Terrifying, pale strangers have emerged from the volcano…

Strangers who don’t speak Zamaran. Strangers with odd, pink skin and hair like cornsilk. Strangers who can melt a crossbow bolt in midair. Strangers her neighbors are quick to call demons. But Imani, called upon by her father, one of the five leaders of their region, recognizes people when she sees them, and she sees in them a chance to do something she’s been studying for her whole life:

Communicate, building a lexicon word by word.

And the words they convey…the paint a picture she knows is true. Because the volcanoes of the Riftlands have been increasing in activity for years. Whole villages have had to be evacuated. Regions have been dying.

These strangers claim they can stop it. And Imani is desperate enough to believe them.

The Awakened fan out across the world…

in an attempt to stop disaster before it can kill them all. 

But it will come down to one question they all must answer:
How much are they willing to give for others?

Volatile

is a gripping novella to read between

Amazed and Alight.

Aziza Kallis has done the unthinkable–she’s won the title of Archa of all of Clan Ares, a title usually reserved for a woman twice her age. She shouldn’t have competed so young, that’s what her detractors say…but Aziza knows she is the best warrior among Aresian women. She’s undefeated in their town’s weekly sparring matches, not only against the women, but even against the men. She excels at battle strategy. She has dedicated herself fully and completely to all that makes Clan Ares the best clan in Ellas, and she has pledged her loyalty to Ares and to the king.

And that king is paying attention.

Stefanos set the kingdom on its head when he won the Laurel Crown thirteen years ago at age seventeen, though no one was surprised when he successfully defended his reign at twenty-seven. Now, he’s universally acknowledged as the most intelligent man not only in Ellas, but likely in the world. And he has one goal: Awaken magic in Ellas.

He’s willing to do anything–absolutely anything–to achieve it. He was willing to play the villain when an Accord with Fjordlandi was scorned and his promised magical wife refused to honor the agreement her father had made. And it turned out better than expected, when he ended up with the Fjordic Machine that can scientifically predict magic-producing matches. So now, he’ll marry a stranger in order to bring magic to his people.

Because if he fails, he has reason to believe the whole world will pay the price.

But not everyone in Ellas is as eager for magic as the king. There are those who think it the greatest evil and who have been working for centuries to keep magic from arising among Ellesians.

And sparks continue to fly…

between Daemon, the Aflame who agreed to spend the next few years in Ellas being studied, and Perla, the usually-buoyant princess who isn’t about to let the gruff man who caught her eye in Fjordlandi escape so easily…especially when she desperately needs him to do what she can’t and make sure her brother has a friend as he grieves his wife’s diagnosis.

The workings of a Machine…or of Theos Elyon?

It’s a Machine’s results that throw them together. A king’s dictate that rewrites her world.
And her uncompromising determination to do what’s right once she learns the truth about the god she’d always served and who she should have been serving instead
that will shake a kingdom to its core.

Book 3 of the Awakened Series, 

will leave you

Amazed.