by Jade Kerrion
He frowned. It could not be this simple. Everyone knew—everyone saw—the powerless fae he had become. “They know I can’t…”
“The power to lead isn’t in there.” She glanced at his gray bracelet. “It’s in here.” She placed her hand over his heart. “You led your people, kept them safe through a terrifying night, and showed them hope. You gave them everything. Why would they now denounce a prince for whom they’ve willingly risked their magic, even their lives?”
Her touch steadied against his rapidly beating heart. “Your people need you now. They need you to lead them into the future you set in front of them. Don’t turn your back on them just because you’re afraid. You don’t have to do this alone. You have the council—”
“And I have you.” He turned and gripped her waist. “Will you be their princess?”
“I…”
“You said you loved me.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t looking for a sudden promotion.”
“You already rule,” Varian murmured. “You’ve changed the minds and swayed the decisions of princes.” He smiled, his skin tugging around the scars on his face. “Make it official.”
“What will your people think?”
“Why don’t we ask them?” He drew her into a lingering kiss bathed by the light of the full moon.
The crowd roared with delight. The witch who saved their prince belonged at his side.
Varian finally broke their kiss to smile against her cheek. “As princess of La Condamine, does it mean you’ll cast no more illusions?”
She arched an eyebrow. “I make no such promises. A girl’s got to have some secrets.”
He laughed. “What do you have to hide from me now?”
Nithya shrugged. Her smile was that of a woman wise beyond her years, a woman both witchy and fae. “Illusions unveil silent hearts. It unveiled yours.”
Varian smiled as her words settled like a whisper of love over him. He glanced up at the night sky—at the single patch that gleamed a deeper black. Within that patch, stars glittered with piercing light, shining down upon a battle-scarred prince and the woman beside him who spun life-shattering illusions with a flick of her wrist and the flash of a smile.
Sometimes, the truth begins with a lie.
THE END
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Isa Fae Collection: Faction 5
Warp
Following the apocalypse, human witches sought refuge with the fae. But no new magic exists in the fae's world, except that twined deep within humans' souls. The price for the humans' safety? Tithes, slow executions of witches designed to release magic back into the world.
From the day she was born, the world's known that Lilith was destined to be a tithe. Lilith , however, has other ideas. With spells placed throughout her psyche, she's a loaded trap. And Fin's gonna be the one to spring it.
When her magic backfires, their fates are bound together. But her fate is to die...even if it kills him, too.
Chapter One
Her mother Hayanna named her Lilith. Worldbreaker. Temptress. Cursed.
Hayanna was gifted with premonition. The first time she held her child's squalling body in her arms, a vision came to her. Her child's number coming up in the lottery, and the gray-eyed man leading the young woman away to die, her magical potential a tithe and a tribute to their fae hosts. And a bloody war which would see the gray-eyed man himself executed, tearing through the Aitala community like wildfire.
Hayanna's lessons said the future was mutable. But she'd never had the heart to believe in miracles or fairytales. Even the word was somewhat an irony, since her people had lived among the fae for generations. The bedtime fancies she'd been reared with were fantastic accounts of the old world. Of nonmagical people nonetheless managing to shape the world in powerful ways, with no awareness of their own society's mortality, or their individual powerlessness. The hubris that destroyed them put to use for the public good, even as it failed to warn them of the fate they were creating for themselves.
She refused to nurse a child who would soon be dead. She refused to tell her those stories, leaving the child with her father for weeks on end without so much as a word of concern. Eventually, Hayanna never came home.
Hayanna named her Lilith. Corrupted. Poisoned. Doomed.
Lilith's father said it was morbid. He named her Lyra Alessandra, gifting it to her for her name of names. The key to her power. He whispered her stories instead, though she rarely seemed to find them magical. He told her her name at every opportunity, challenging her to prove them wrong.
But Lilith she was born, and Lilith she remained. The taint followed her through her youth; why tend a flower destined to be plucked for someone else's dinner table?
Her people named her outcast. A dead woman walking. No kind teachers, or loving embraces. Why waste effort on one already dead?
And with that slip of paper unfolded in the largest marketplace on a busy afternoon, Hayanna's vision came true.
Lilith stood tall as the fae Collecters called her name. The fae now would call Lilith a thief and a living battery, holding powerful magic to which they were entitled, evident in the continued rise and fall of her chest.
She refused to be Lilith or Lyra, for neither woman had ever truly existed. She was someone else shaped in their shadow, guided only by a vague idea of their image.
She kept her eyes down as they singled her out, ready to lead her away to be unmade, unshaped. Broken into the most core elemental components, so the world could feed on her remains.
Lots of fire, knowing me, she thought, bitter that her own anger wouldn't be enough. Maybe a little ice, too, for my heart hardened long ago. She smiled with bleak good humor, knowing that with hardness came strength, and poison.
As she had every night for years, she promised herself she wouldn't go down easy. The world would feel her passing, even if the brunt of it would be borne by the one who would unmake her. At least they'd think twice before killing a human as though slaughtering a cow, with no ear for their victim's protests.
Her life was her protest, and her death would be its culmination. They'd never harvest without fear again, if she had her way.
Years of clandestine training, of careful rituals and cautious tests, and she could only pray it was enough. She could only pray that the mire of enchantments and scripts sculpted in her own psyche would be effective.
She would make her pain an atomic bomb from legend, razing whatever corner of the fae's complacency she could.
Perhaps in time, they'd call her terrorist. Murderer. Certainly, they'd call her selfish, a rebel and a traitor. But the names would mean nothing to the knowledge that she wouldn't die alone, an unaccompanied sacrifice.
The gentle fae man with the steel-gray eyes would die, too. He stood next to her, his presence meant to comfort and intimidate in equal parts. He might look at her kindly now, for the sake of the people surrounding them, but she knew the kindness would dim, replaced by brusque efficiency as he plucked one of her hairs to work his magic.
Even from where she walked at his side, she could feel the power in him. A void yearning to be filled with the energy bound in her flesh, the power trapped in her blood, and the unquantifiable weight of her very consciousness. Even his palm on her arm felt hungry, as though his very touch would be enough to shake her soul from its moorings.
The nameless woman's jaw clenched, lest she smile at imagining her captor dead. Her eyes drifted up a moment, just long enough to catch her executioner's. The wary look in his eyes suggested he knew what she had planned, and her blood ran cold. The newfound fear in her face seemed to reassure him.
As he led her through the crowd, everyone they passed tucked a pebble into her pocket. For luck and remembrance, she thought bitterly, and because her life wasn't worth mourning with flowers or cards. Not with the resources needed to create such things being the 'gift' her demanded ti
the would provide.
No, better to send her to her grave loaded down with rocks. At least they could simply dump her body in the harbor without needing to further weigh her down. The weight of their 'regards' could bind her to the sea floor for eternity, or at least until the coarse clothes she wore decayed off her swollen flesh.
She snorted,humorlessly.
“What's so funny?” he asked. “What're you smiling at?”
She refused to so much as look at him in response. Since he wasn't going to give up, she gritted her teeth and answered him. “That woman there owes me money. Guess she lucked out, huh?”
Surprisingly, he grinned. “You've got a dark sense of humor. I like it.”
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline, and she shook her head. "Not enough to not harvest me, though."
His fingers found hers, and squeezed. Perhaps it was a precaution to keep her from running, or perhaps it was sympathy. She refused to hazard a guess.
She would find no comfort in his warm touch or calloused fingers.
The rituals were carefully planned, carefully executed. She knew that in twelve hours, she'd be dead.
Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction entwine in the world of the DOUBLE HELIX
“The Double Helix is the kind of series you’d expect to see with a movie deal. I loved, loved, LOVED it. I fell in love with the characters and will be reading all four books again in the future…a treat I reserve for my favorites.”—Full Time Reader, Amazon Reviewer
“I wish I could award more than 5 stars. This phenomenal series continues to astonish and delight.”—Hillel Kaminsky, Amazon Reviewer
MIRIYA
Thirty years into the First Genetic Revolution, society’s tolerance for human derivatives is wearing thin. Clones and in vitros are regarded with suspicion, and mutants with resentment. Yet in spite of the hostile environment, some alpha telepaths—like Miriya Templeton—have thrived.
Her luck is running out.
Destiny has set her life on a collision course with Danyael Sabre, the alpha empath who can kill with a touch. Whether he becomes friend or foe, whether he and she live or die, will depend on the choices she makes. On her decisions hang the outcomes of the Second Genetic Revolution. Miriya, however, does not believe in destiny, nor want any part of the revolution. It is up to the enforcer, Jake Hansen, to convince her otherwise, and he is running out of time.
PERFECTION UNLEASHED (Double Helix #1)
Winner of six literary awards, including Gold Medal, Science Fiction, Readers Favorites 2013
When the perfect human, Galahad, escapes from Pioneer Laboratories, the illusory peace between humans and their derivatives—the in vitros, clones, and mutants—collapses into social upheaval. The first era of the Genetic Revolution was peaceful. The second escalates into open war.
The alpha empath, Danyael Sabre, prefers his cover of anonymity until he finds out that Galahad looks exactly like him. The lab-created Galahad holds the key to Danyael's forgotten childhood; their mistaken identities could prove fatal; their conflict will shatter the world order.
Two men, one face. One man seeks to embrace destiny, the other to escape it. But destiny has a name—Zara. Assassin.
PERFECT BETRAYAL (Double Helix #2)
1st Place, Royal Palm Literary Award 2013
Danyael Sabre, an object of desire, would much rather not be. An alpha empath by birth, a doctor by training, and an empathic healer by calling, he is stalked by the military that covets his ability to kill, not heal. Bereft of two days of memories, he goes on the run under the protection of an assassin, Zara Itani.
The more he uncovers of his lost hours, the more he doubts everything that once anchored him. He knows only that he endangers those around him and that he is falling in love with Zara, who hates him for reasons he no longer remembers.
As forces—both powerful and ruthless—threaten those he cares for, Danyael has only two options. He can betray his values and abandon the path of the healer, or he can wait to be betrayed, not by enemies, but by his friends.
ZARA
1st Place, Royal Palm Literary Award 2016
The alpha empath, Danyael Sabre, languishes in a maximum-security prison. His life sentence should spell emotional freedom for the assassin, Zara Itani, but true to her contrary nature, she travels the solitary and hazardous path from hate to love even though it is far too late for her and Danyael.
Meanwhile in her hometown of Beirut, international political conspiracy simmers on the brink of renewed military conflict. Zara’s loyalties will be tested; her beliefs challenged. She could start a war, or she could stop it.
Tell me who you love and I will tell you who you are....
Zara will finally discover who she is, but what will it cost Danyael this time?
PERFECT WEAPON (Double Helix #3)
An alpha empath, Danyael Sabre is powerful, rare, and coveted, even among the alpha mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution. Betrayed by his friends and abandoned to a life sentence in a maximum-security prison, Danyael receives freedom and sanctuary from an unlikely quarter—the Mutant Assault Group, an elite mutant task force within the US military. Physically crippled and emotionally vulnerable, Danyael succumbs to the warmth of friendships and the promise of love he finds within their ranks.
Friendship and love, however, demand his loyalty, and Danyael rises to the challenge of training and leading the assault group's genetically modified super soldier army. The super soldiers are faster and stronger than the military's human soldiers; their animal instincts spur ferocity and fearlessness in battle. Who is the perfect weapon, though, the super soldiers or Danyael, the alpha empath, who can, with a touch, heal or kill?
Adversaries swarm like vultures around carrion; the pawn is once again in play. The threads of betrayal that sent Danyael to prison spin into a web, ensnaring him. When a terrorist group strikes Washington, D.C., how far will Danyael go to defend a government that sent him to prison to die?
WHEN THE SILENCE ENDS
2nd Place, Royal Palm Literary Award 2013
When you choose your friends, you also choose your enemies.
Seventeen-year old Dee wants nothing more than to help her twin brother, Dum, break free from the trauma in their childhood and speak again, but the only person who can help Dum is the alpha empath, Danyael Sabre, whom the U.S. government considers a terrorist and traitor.
The search for Danyael will lead Dee and Dum from the sheltered protection of the Mutant Affairs Council and into the violent, gang-controlled heart of Anacostia. Ensnared by Danyael’s complicated network of friends and enemies, Dee makes her stand in a political and social war that she is ill equipped to fight. What can one human, armed only with her wits and pepper spray, do against the super-powered mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution?
America, nevertheless, is ripe for change. Exhausted by decades of belligerence between humans and their genetic derivatives, the clones, in vitros, and mutants, society is on the verge of falling apart or growing up. Which path will it choose, and can a mere human, her sassy attitude and smart mouth notwithstanding, light the way to a better future?
In her quest to help her brother become normal, Dee will learn what it means to be extraordinary.
CARNIVAL TRICKS
1st Place, Royal Palm Literary Award 2015
In a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution, Kyle Norwood is an honest-to-God human and proud of it. His deadly skills come from hard work and not genetic sleight of hand. An easy mission to protect two Proficere Labs scientists turns into a shoot-out that leaves a scientist and a federal agent dead. Worse, the research data the scientists were carrying disappears.
In a world where human derivatives are hated and feared, Sofia Rios is almost human. When a fight during her waitressing shift turns fatal, a dying scientist launches her into the shady world of scientific espionage. The unwilling trustee of research that people would kill to obtain, Sofia turns to the man who steps out of the shadows to pro
tect her, even though he appears as dangerous and disreputable as the people who hunt her.
Together, Sofia and Kyle must unravel the truth behind the illicit information she carries before one or both of them are killed. Their mutual attraction sparkles, but the spark could just as easily become an explosion if Kyle ever finds out that Sofia is a despised telekinetic.
PERFECTION CHALLENGED (Double Helix #4)
An alpha empath, Danyael Sabre has survived abominations and super soldiers, terrorists and assassins, but he cannot survive his failing body. He wants only to live out his final days in peace, but life and the woman he loves, the assassin Zara Itani, have other plans for him.
Galahad, the perfect human being created by Pioneer Labs, is branded an international threat, and Danyael is appointed his jury, judge, and executioner. Danyael alone believes that Galahad can be the salvation that the world needs, but is the empath blinded by the fact that Galahad shares his genes, and the hope that there is something of him in Galahad?
In a desperate race against time and his own dying body, Danyael struggles to find fragments of good in the perfect human being, and comes to the wrenching realization that his greatest battle will be a battle for the heart of the man who hates him.
XIN
3rd Place, Royal Palm Literary Award 2016
When the trail of Danyael Sabre’s stolen blood exposes illegal scientific research at a Chinese laboratory, it unleashes a designer drug with terrifying side effects and imperils the decades-long peace between China and America.
NSA analyst Mu Xin, the clone of a Shang-dynasty queen, steps into the fray to stem the chaos, but in a land where ancestral worship and beliefs in incarnation exist alongside cutting-edge genetic engineering, will Xin find herself trapped or liberated by her past?