Showing results by narrator "Jess Nahikian" in All Categories

Captain Shea Lara is the leader of The Veiled Duchess, the most feared pirate ship in all of Nereid. And now, after completing her former mentor's final score, she's retiring. Everything she's known seems to be coming to an end. Until a night in her favorite tavern, when a mysterious stranger drags her back into the fold with an offer for a score, she can't refuse. All she has to do is kidnap the crowned princess of the northern Queendom, Joana of Arethusa.

As a teenager, Hannah Jacobs was excited for a sleepover with her older sister Casey, but a blizzard altered their plans. Sometime that night, an unknown killer broke into Casey’s apartment in Laramie, Wyoming, and brutally stabbed her multiple times, leaving her for dead. Ten years later, Hannah is still haunted by the murder of her sister that fateful night, and with no viable suspects or evidence, the case has long turned cold, nearly forgotten by everyone except her. Determined to uncover the truth, Hannah shutters her Private Investigation firm and travels to Laramie.

A missing king, rumors of war coming from the North, and a Southern prince determined to preserve the peace that has lasted a generation. An agent, known only as The Traveler, is sent across time and space to protect a prince in a medieval era while keeping her true origins a secret. The prince, along with four loyal companions, journey North to find a missing king who can provide stability to a strategic realm. The Traveler must quickly earn the trust of this small group and finds herself growing attached to the one man distrusted the most.

No matter how many times Amara's family moves, the monster follows. Her mother dismisses her fears as childish. Her dad seems to believe her, but doesn't do anything about it. After what happened to her friend Avery, Amara avoids getting close to anyone new. Until Lacy. Now with the bright girl from Ms. Linus's fifth-grade class at her side, Amara is terrified for her safety - but maybe with Lacy's help, she can finally get rid of the monster once and for all.

In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term. From rural backwoods to Park Slope brownstones, Barb's characters face impossible, awful situations, testing their inner strength and understanding of reality. Covering quiet horror, weird fiction, supernatural horror, slasher horror, topical dark fiction, and more, these stories spotlight supposedly familiar terrors and fears in new and unexpected ways.

Who would've thought my life as a single mom could get tangled up with seven rugged tattoo artists? My focus has always been on raising my daughter, shielding her from the scars of my past. Love life? Non-existent. Until my adventurous friend dragged me into Swan and Rose, a tattoo parlor that screamed trouble and temptation. In a heartbeat, I'm thrust into a world of art, redemption, and seven sinfully alluring artists. Yeah, you read that right—seven. Each guy's got a past as colorful as their tattoos. And despite their rugged looks, they're hiding something more.

Fire and ashes! The city is burning! Young mage’s apprentice Thomena is gifted in the elements of wind and water, but she yearns to learn the secrets of fire. When she discovers another mage is the one starting fires around her city of Orlaun, her resolve is tested by tragedy and roaring infernos. She needs to win the trust of the toughest heroes around, the fire-fighting vigiles, but they are hard to impress. Can she save Orlaun before the fires consume all Thomena cares about?

Captain Shea Lara and the crew are back in this thrilling sequel to The Veiled Threat, The Veiled Descendants. It's been a year since she struck the deal - a year since she promised to marry her princess, a year of adventure, darkness, and change. Her fiancé has chased Shea across the Nereidan seas, but now it's time for her to come back to Arethusa. The storm has arrived, and none of them are prepared for what’s coming.

Every night, in the college's ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn't there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

The Silver Lining of Tomorrow is a collaboration of poems and tidbits for all the Daddy’s girls out there. Traci Mahrt lost her father Melvin at the early age of 24. With a collection of poems found after his passing, Traci weaves in her own poems and shares her own life experiences with love, depression, and finding God.

Study Break, a collection of interconnected contemporary Young Adult short stories written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity.

The family saga continues at Rockglass Manor. As she recovers from that fateful evening at the now-deceased Phin Black's house in Whitechapel, Faith prepares to wed her beloved Jack, although she lacks a ring, as of yet. Her cousin Margaret likes to inquire about this as much as the elder of Faith’s two half-sisters, Enid, loves to ask when Faith will, again, become the "lady of the house". Having grown up an orphan, Faith cherishes her new family, teasing and all.

A life without feelings, a life without decisions; that’s the only life Evangeline knows. Because of the manufacturing of Remedy, her community of Impetus has discovered a way to survive and prevent the self-destructing mistakes of The Before by inhibiting feelings, creating a society that relies wholly on logic and entrusts Impetus to make all the decisions for its people. A chance encounter results in a friendship between Evangeline and a boy outside of Impetus named Gavin who challenges Evangeline to reassess her conviction in the world she has always known.

When the "bane of my existence" asks me what I’m looking for in a man and offers to help me get him, I’m pretty sure I’ve died and gone to hell. But the idea of Barclay Scott in my clutches is too delicious to resist, and just like every horror movie ever made, I get into the car with Prince Smarming and let him take me to a house party in the woods where all kinds of fun and games are to be had just off the path. Even silly kissing games like truth or dare, where the consequences of the truth are worse than any dare. Truth: I’ve realized it’s not Barclay Scott I want.

Summoned by letter, Holly Shaw and five of her cousins—virtual strangers to each other—have gathered at a grand house in the rugged wilds of Alaska. Equally unfamiliar to Holly is her great aunt Lydia, the woman who has called the family together and is dangling a massive inheritance before them. Her condition? They must remain in the house, with Lydia and her butler and caregiver, until she passes. Anyone not in residence at that time is out of the will, their share of the money split among the others. That night, everyone settles in. And the next morning, the murders begin.

Psychic. Mystic. Target. Arabella, the last Oracle, knows what it's like to lose. She doesn't have friends, she doesn't have family, and now those she's aligned herself with are vanishing - even the one pledged to her for all time. Someone is hunting Arabella on the busy island on which she's taken refuge. Someone with an old soul but a new grudge. When a mysterious boy shows up to lead her into a trap, Ari lets him do it. She knows the boy is a Herald - a signal of bad tidings - but she's got bigger problems - and so does he.

Heir to Hell and the Dark Forest of Malum, Klara has been called upon to take her place as High Queen of Malum. Though Klara has no intention of ruling, her guardians want her head on a spike. Klara's only option - escape to Kalos, Fae ruled lands free from dark magic. To survive the perilous journey, she needs help.... A Leprechaun with a talent for smuggling. A mischievous demon with swaying loyalties. The soul of a greying Warlock. Lycaon siblings with a talent for deception. Destiny has an awful habit of catching up with those who run.

When one of the people she loves most dies and begins to appear, wan and beseeching, in the household mirrors, Faith realizes she must act quickly. Accompanied by their wisest friends, she and Jack travel far abroad, seeking the stone that will help her break the 3,000-year old curse that formed Paradoxia. There is no guarantee that they can do it but, with Faith carrying a future bearer, they know they must try.

In a distant magical realm entangled in chaos, a young woman named Arianna prepares for her royal coming of age ceremony. When a were-dragon crashes the ceremony, she finds her life as a princess ripped away from her. After a successful escape and a chance encounter with two unlikely companions, she finds herself on a journey to find the elusive mage known only as the Architect. However, the nefarious Kem’Vaar and his legion of were-dragons hunt the young princesses every step. With a mysterious force awakening inside her, will Arianna reach the Architect?

When Faith is summoned from the baby farm in suburban London, where she's grown up, to serve as a companion to her cousin, Margaret is stunned. The family home Rockglass Manor is in Mayfair, an elegant part of London. Faith is sure her life will vastly improve. Yet, when she reaches Rockglass Manor, no one seems to be waiting for her, other than the cook and the housekeeper. Her cousin Margaret is trouble, and Faith finds herself rocketed into a situation that she doesn't understand, at all.