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fantasy – dark fantasy

Fantasy fiction with a dark or macabre edge or tone. Return to general Fantasy

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Word Count: 121650

Summary: The helpless Noble I was once is no more. I am Red Sister Sirana, watching my city from the shadows. Once silent and disposable, I've found a place among the Sisterhood of Sivaraus, coarse, crude, and stirring to my blood. In crimson uniform I walk among sensual consorts, studious wizards, and sadistic Priestesses. I am an initiate with true influence in my underground city, a power both freeing and addicting. Everyone keeps secrets which bind them up if they jerk on the web too hard, and none are more vulnerable than novices wielding new power. Should my own secret come to the surface, I know I can't survive alone. I won't give up what I've found. Neither will the Sisterhood. Sivaraus will always need new Red Sisters, no matter what strangeness we bring with us. In Treasure Revealed, A.S. Etaski weaves threads of intrigue and action in this second tale of the Sister Seekers, where a new fighter tastes her potential in new connections that she must dare to strengthen by choice. Sister Seekers is dark epic fantasy for adults with an ever-broadening scope. The saga genre-hops a bit so things never get stale. Found Family is a core theme throughout. Perfect for fans of entwined plots, challenging themes, immersive worldbuilding, and elements of erotic horror. Sexuality and inner conflict play into character growth with nuanced intrigue, intense action, and fantastical magic.

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Treasure Revealed - A.S. Etaski - Sister Seekers
Treasure Revealed: Sister Seekers 2 SALE
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Word Count: 112,000

Summary: When good men forsake the light, humanity pays the price, and the dead collect. Inspired by the Crusades. Vas was raised by monks to be a clerical healer, one that channels the light of Heaven to mend the broken and cure the sick. But when his uncle dies in a farming accident, Vas defies the will of Heaven by making a deal with a dark entity and turning to the black art of necromancy to restore his friend to life. The price is the lives of several around him, including the sister of the girl he loves. Vas vows to learn from his mistakes and atone for his weakness. But when dark forces seek him out, Vas must choose between watching his loved ones die or becoming darkness itself to save them.

Dark Lament - Simon Graeme - Black Crusade
Dark Lament
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Word Count: 27000

Summary: Kit has loved Elf for as long as he can remember. Since he first met him, when he was but a child. Elf says he loves him but will not consummate that love. How much longer can Kit wait after all he is human and death stands at his shoulder as it does with all humans. Is this a simple love story? Can a love ever be simple? Well no, particularly when a human loves an elf and they are both male. And can anything be simple when fairies come and go as they please and can act as they please should something displease them. What displeases them most? The spread of people not fairy for one. This tale is one of many that result from the impact of the Fair Ones, fairies if you would prefer, on the inhabitants of the realms beyond Fairy. It came about in an attempt to answer three questions. Are the Fair Ones fair? Can you fall in love with someone from another race, another species, another realm? And should that be so, can gender be an issue? Ah well humans, as always, that is for you to decide as you seem to be the only ones with such concerns.

The Weavers of Fair Falls - Tony Farnden
The Weavers of Fair Falls
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Word Count: 103190

Summary: In the garden Nothing is as it seems It’s difficult taking care of a delusional father by yourself. Sixteen-year-old Shaleigh Mallet would rather explore and photograph dilapidated buildings than cater to her father’s dark episodes. But when she’s kidnapped by a creature who carries her atop a flying bicycle into another world, she realizes this wasn’t the escape she wanted. In a kingdom known as the Garden, where minotaurs pull carriages and parties are held in hot air balloons, Madam Cloom and her faerie servant, Teagan, rule over the land with incredible but terrifying magic. Shaleigh must prove that she is the reincarnation of a long-dead ruler, not because she believes it, but because it’s her only chance to survive. With the help of a trespassing faerie, a stoatling, and a living statue, Shaleigh hopes to outwit everyone. She aims to break the bonds of servitude and finally make her way home. What she doesn’t realize, however, is that she’s playing right into the hands of a far worse enemy. Book 1 of the Stolen Series

Stolen - Marlena Frank - Stolen Series
Stolen
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Word Count: 125650

Summary: My sister deserved her death, but I didn't kill her. The infamous Sisterhood couldn't care less - it's the perfect excuse to make their move. My name is Sirana. I am a young Noble trapped in a most wretched spot: accused of assassinating my sister, the Matron's heir. If I take the blame, I am next on the sacrificial altar. Dark Elves live for intrigue in our underground matriarchy. We bend the rules for the cunning and the bold. To survive, I must play the game. Court intrigue, demonic rituals, and mind-rending trials against deadly foes surround me, pervasive webs spun by our sadistic priesthood and the Queen’s brutal enforcers. Through it all, the Red Sisters delight in watching me. I must prove myself beneath their ravenous gazes, or I will become the next meal for our dark goddess. A.S. Etaski spins the first threads of an intense and epic tale with No Demons But Us, in which the trials of a young Davrin Elf test her resolve to rise from the depths of fear and hatred tearing her down. Sister Seekers is mature, dark epic fantasy with an ever-broadening scope. Found Family is a core theme throughout the saga, and fans of Dungeons & Dragons will discover homebrew grounds. Perfect for fans of entwined plots, challenging themes, elements of erotic horror, and immersive worldbuilding. Sexuality and inner conflict play into the character growth with nuance, intrigue, action, and fantastical magic. The series begins underground with an isolated race of Dark Elves whose intricate webs first ensnare then catapult us to places a Red Sister can only imagine in her dreams.

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No Demons But Us - A.S. Etaski - Sister Seekers
No Demons But Us: Sister Seekers 1 SALE
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Word Count: 47,000

Summary: A collection of tales filled with monsters, be they human or beast, ranging in setting from dystopia to pitch black noir and even general silliness. From the ludicrous to the frighteningly plausible; from deep space to after the end of the world. There are clumsy werewolves and bloody revenge, monster sleep overs and a dieting fad sure to kill your appetite. Whether looking into the past or the future, you're sure to find that stuff gets really weird.

Shotgun Bastards and Other Stories - Andrea Speed
Shotgun Bastards and Other Stories
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Word Count: 73000

Summary: “Your bullets can’t kill me. I’m already dead. Inside and out.” When his fiancée is brutally murdered on Valentine’s Day, Ash Corvus is unwittingly plunged into the nightmarish world of the Arpadeem, or as the movies call them… Vampires. What begins as a personal quest for revenge becomes a struggle for the fate of the city itself as Ash’s search takes him into Cedar Rapids’ secret criminal underworld. Ash must cast off his humanity and become a monster himself if he hopes to bring vengeance upon the monster who murdered his love… the man with the scar. A dark, violent thriller from the author of The Weller and War of the Worlds: Goliath!

Vengeance for my Valentine - Adam J. Whitlatch
Vengeance for My Valentine
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: An innocent girl, a vampire, an old lady, a ghost, and a werewolf must combine their talents to defeat an evil billionaire and his hired professional killer…In Night Home: the Vampire Next Door Book 1, the fact that vampires truly exist was almost made public when a story presented as fiction seemed all too real to a vampire hunter.In After Dark: the Vampire Next Door Book 2, a community of vampires quietly hiding on the west coast needed to defeat a serial killer before being blamed for his acts of terror, while at the same time one of them found himself falling in love with a suicidal young woman who expected him to kill her.In All the Way to the Moon: the Vampire Next Door Book 3, vampires on the west coast consider whether to reveal their existence and communicate with others of their kind. Laura, no longer wishing for death, and finally finding happiness in her young life, discovers to her horror that her wealthy and powerful father intends to kill her. To survive she must flee her new home and leave her new friends behind, and travel far to find safety, unaware that a hired killer is not far behind.Fortunately she has a werewolf to help protect her.

All the Way to the Moon - Rose Titus - The Vampire Next Door
All the Way to the Moon
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Billy Ninefingers knows three things. First, the feud that cost him the use of his sword hand is not over. Second, if he doesn’t pull himself together and become the leader the Rowdies need, he’ll lose everything his father left him. Third, despite Bastard John’s best efforts, there’s no way he’ll ever take up farming. All he needs is a plan, a mountain of luck, and the love of a good woman. Well, she doesn’t have to be good, but a few scruples would make a nice change. A plan would be nice too, since luck is never on Billy’s side. Billy Ninefingers knows one thing. He’s doomed.

Billy Ninefingers - Connie J. Jasperson - Billy's Revenge
Billy Ninefingers
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: In Night Home: The Vampire Next Door Volume I, the fact that vampires truly exist was almost accidentally made public when a story presented as fiction seemed all too real to an amateur vampire hunter, who at the end, was made to remain silent about the secrets he discovered. But it doesn’t end there: the tale circulates as far as the west coast, where a small community of vampires have been quietly hiding; and to them, also, this story is too close to reality to be just a fantasy. But while they take the time to decide whether to attempt contact with their own kind so far away, they have their own local problems to deal with. A savage and barbaric serial killer, suspected of being a vampire, lurks in their own city, stalking the innocent at night. Will the vampires be able to stop the killer before they are blamed for his acts of extreme horror? And that’s not all. A beautiful yet tragic and suicidal young woman wanders like a lost angel from out of the darkness and into their midst, hoping a vampire will make her end swift and easy.

After Dark - Rose Titus - The Vampire Next Door
After Dark
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: When college student Muriel Aubrey inherits an old house in a small town, she imagines that moving into the rural community will be deathly dull. But the old house once belonged to her eccentric granduncle, a professor said to be researching something mysterious before his untimely death. Then Muriel finds the research notes that had been hidden away in the old Victorian; and she discovers what the professor was researching: vampires. It isn’t long before Muriel meets residents of the small town who knew the professor almost a century ago, and learns that everything he wrote in the notes he kept is true...And then she finds herself stalked by a vampire hunter.

Night Home - Rose Titus - The Vampire Next Door
Night Home
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Word Count: 45,000

Summary: Kyle, a young newcomer to New Orleans, is haunted by the memory of his first lover, brutally murdered just outside the French Quarter. Marc, a young Quarter hustler, is haunted by an eccentric spirit that shares his dreams, and by the handsome but vicious lover who shares his bed. When the barrier between these men comes down, it will prove thinner than the veil between the living and the dead…or between justice and revenge.

Skin - Christian Bales
Skin
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: Rose Titus, author of The Vampire Next Door Trilogy, now brings together a collection of her best short stories. Here in this book you will find tales of vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, space aliens, and even a few angels. These stories answer questions such as where do we go after we die? What is the future of this planet? And what is the future of humanity? There are also stories of young runaways, old hippies, worried mothers, troubled families, love gone horribly wrong, selfish billionaires, people who find themselves suddenly homeless, old men with their recollections of days gone by, and girls gone wild! There may even be a murder or two.

Key 13 and Other Stories - Rose Titus
Key 13: And Other Stories
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Word Count: 73,667

Summary: Lord Morgorth is haunted by dreams of his father. Though Morgorth killed him, his father's presence and brutality won't completely die. But now he has more to worry about—in the form of the Council of Mages' inquiry into the duel between Morgorth and an elder of the council. Morgorth expects sabotage and prepares accordingly. He fears for Aishe's life, knowing that the best way to sabotage the inquiry is to eliminate the witnesses. He sets into motion a desperate plan that, though it will protect Aishe, could put a strain on their relationship not easily removed. Yet the true danger lurks unseen, and it will take all of Morgorth's skill, strength, and devotion to Aishe, to save his mate from the hold of a foe Morgorth has yet to tangle with: a dream demon. Now Morgorth must throw aside caution, restraint, and fear if he is to save the one most dear to him. He must call upon the power of the one thing he hates more than even his father: a stone of power. But even if he manages to save Aishe, his mate's experiences in Dreamworld—at the mercy of the dream demon—have changed him forever and could shatter their bond irrevocably.

Carnelian: Dreams and Visions - M.D. Grimm - The Stones of Power
Carnelian: Dreams and Visions
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Word Count: 76,765

Summary: Home. Family. Those words often invoke a sense of love and comfort. But for the dark mage Morgorth, they mean hate and pain. As the seventh son of a seventh son, many believe Morgorth's destiny is to become the Destroyer. His father embraced such a future and trained Morgorth through torture and fear to become his weapon. Morgorth managed to escape his father's cruelty, but not the nightmares that still haunt him. For many years he's lived with the stain of his father's savagery, but now he must confront his nightmares head-on. His father has found a stone of power. Morgorth must return to his land of birth, to the memories he's tried his entire life to suppress. Aishe is determined to help Morgorth defeat his inner demons, but he knows he might not be enough to save Morgorth from embracing his darkness. They know it will be a fight to the death and that Morgorth won't be the same if he survives. With Aishe by his side, Morgorth hunts for his father, and finds answers to questions he never dared to ask—and must live with the truths they reveal.

Emerald: Good and Evil - M.D. Grimm - The Stones of Power
Emerald: Good and Evil
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Word Count: 73,151

Summary: Time travel. For mages, it violates their number one rule: what the Mother has written, let no one unwrite. The Mother writes the destinies of the creatures on the world of Karishian. If her writings were undone, it is feared that Creation itself could be undone. The dark mage Morgorth takes this rule to heart, but there are others who do not. Morgorth is about to claim a stone of power when it is stolen from him by a female mage he hasn't seen in decades. As they struggle for the stone, she activates it, and Morgorth is unwillingly plunged into another time and another place. It isn't long before he realizes what time he's found himself in and there are a few familiar faces. Most notable is a much younger version of Aishe. His mate. Living with a tribe who will be massacred, caring for a young lad who will become his mate, and fighting a battle against a mage who can travel from past to future at a whim—Morgorth's life has never been easy but now he must contend with the will of the Mother. Unable to change the future and the tragedies of Aishe's life, he must decide what his role in his mate's past will be, and ask himself one vital question: how does one defeat time?

Agate: Then and Now - M.D. Grimm - Stones of Power
Agate: Then and Now
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Word Count: 70,034

Summary: Every story has more than one point of view. As the mate to the dark mage Morgorth, Aishe has learned a lot about magick, love, and himself. He tries to find a home with Morgorth, to be accepted into his world; to survive in a world full of magick, treachery, and deception. But all the while he struggles to keep a secret about his past and their intertwined destinies. Despite all the obstacles thrown at both of them, Aishe is determined to stay by Morgorth’s side, no matter what the future brings—even if that future turns dark with death should Morgorth embrace his grim destiny. But when Morgorth leaves with his mentor to collect another stone of power, Aishe is left behind. It is then a surprise attack comes and Aishe, determined to protect and defend his new home, decides to take the invaders on by himself. It might prove too much for him to handle...especially when he learns the one who leads the invaders is a mage. This book allows us a glimpse inside the mind of Lord Morgorth’s better half, a dialen named Aishe: his motivations, his personal sorrows, and his struggle to find a place to call home.

Amethyst Bow and Arrow - M.D. Grimm - Stones of Power
Amethyst: Bow and Arrow
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Word Count: 61770

Summary: Morgorth is considered a villain by his own people and known as Dark Mage of the North. But now all he feels is light and love as he pursues a budding relationship with Aishe, a dialen of the Ravena tribe. Morgorth hardly believes his good fortune. He has allowed Aishe into his home, into his bed, into his heart. He laughs more, smiles more, and feels happier than he ever has before. He should have known such bliss never lasts. The Council of Mages, the ruling body over all mages on Karshian, knows he has Rambujek, a major stone of power—a stone won from an evil sorcerer. They also know his destiny—to become the Destroyer. Fearful, they send two emissaries to take the stone from Morgorth, using whatever means necessary. This includes tricks, threats to those under his protection, and the threat of war. A war Morgorth knows he would never survive. Conflict soon arises between him and Aishe. Their tenuous relationship is put into jeopardy, their very beliefs about themselves and their love is put into question. Morgorth doubts if he should keep Aishe in his life. He doesn’t know if he can protect Aishe from his enemies. Or from the monster he might become.

Peridot War and Peace - M.D. Grimm - The Stones of Power
Peridot: War and Peace
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Word Count: 72014

Summary: Lord Morgorth is a dark mage on the planet Karishian. He’s considered a villain by his peers and relishes the title, having embraced the role early in his life. However, not all of his actions are necessarily villainous. Despite owning several of the Stones of Power—gemstones infused with powerful magick—he doesn’t use them, preferring to keep them hidden away and out of destructive, power-hungry hands. He hates them more than anything. So when a sorcerer gets a hold of a major stone, Morgorth has no choice but to go after him. But, to his irritation, he is not alone. Aishe is a dialen whose tribe was massacred by the sorcerer, and is now on a mission of vengeance. The attraction is instant between them, but Morgorth keeps his distance. Because of a traumatic childhood and a deadly destiny, he has no desire for emotional complications. But Aishe’s very presence challenges Morgorth's resolve. Not only does Morgorth admire Aishe’s strength and intelligence, but he begins to see Aishe as a friend. As their hunt continues and their time together lengthens, their bond deepens, as does Morgorth’s fear. If he becomes the monster that destiny claims he will be, will he hurt Aishe? Will he harm the one person who sees right through him? Who accepts him wholeheartedly? Determined to not let that happen, Morgorth keeps Aishe at a distance. But when Aishe is kidnapped by the sorcerer, what will Morgorth do to get him back?

Ruby: Lost and Found - M.D. Grimm - Stones of Power
Ruby: Lost and Found
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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: WILL YOU BE ONE OF THE INVITED? A forbidden midnight market is coming to town. The Night Bazaar isn't new. In fact, it's as old as civilization. Its first recorded appearance was in Sana'a, around 700 B.C.E. with secretive merchants from the East who presented covered stalls of exotic goods and arcane services. Various mentions appear in obscure and controversial works from around the world. The only common element is that the market opens at midnight, closes before sunrise, and may appear for up to a week in the same city . . . Paris, 1796 . . . London, 1888 . . . Berlin, 1936 . . . San Francisco, 1906 . . . but never in the same venue each night. And never again in the same city. There's just one catch: In order to find it, you must be Invited. Tonight, The Night Bazaar opens in a parking garage somewhere in Manhattan. A whole subterranean city full of antique costumes, alchemical treatments, magical dentistry, palmistry, Tarot, tea leaf-reading, and water-, glass-, and crystal-gazing, oddities and objets d’art, medical curiosities and surgical instruments. Other lost arts and body alterations are offered in certain alcoves. Through the narrow aisles throng jongleurs, freaks, charlatans, mountebanks, faeries, prostitutes, and acrobats. The scents of opium, perfume, tobacco, greasepaint, incense, plastic explosive, alcohol, and sex permeate the air. But each object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. (This is the summary of volume one. However, The Night Bazaar anthologies need not be read in any particular order; they are all designed to stand alone as well.) The Bazaar sells that which cannot be had elsewhere. Everything you’ve read about but thought had passed away, or perhaps never existed. How wrong you were! Your guide is Madame Vera, a tall, thin woman of uncertain age, ethnicity, and trustworthiness. The stories within are your invitation to join us. It seems you have already spotted something you desire . . . but don’t head off that way, not just yet. You have all night . . . but not a moment more.

Filter House - Nisi Shawl
The Night Bazaar
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