From Bites to Triumphs

Hi everyone, Mod R here.

Magic Tides, Wilmington Years Book 1 will be released next Tuesday, January 17.

I know most of you have seen the news and launched straight into a reread of the series, but for everyone who hasn’t managed it, today I bring you a small recap of Everything So Far. (And yes, I do have to pinch myself that I get to write about my favourite books for a living! #blessed)

Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Shinar, there lived a Prince. He was handsome, brilliant and full of power, a true scion of his glorious family, who brought the kingdom prosperity and enlightenment. Magic ruled the world and oh, did the Prince have magic.

In the tradition of all the best ancient tragedies, the Prince -who would be written into the holy books of men as Nimrod- also had hubris. He pushed both his magic and armies too far to prove to the world his way was best. The balance of magic and tech was thrown off and Nimrod’s time was over.

The era of technology saw him and his Warlord sister Erra retreat into caves, where they slumbered for millennia, kept alive by the trickle of magic that always survives in the world.

And then the pendulum started to swing. Magic came back into the world in our modern age and Nimrod woke up and began to rebuild his power and his towers, waiting for a time to resurrect his kingdom. He called himself Roland, for lo, he was still an arrogant bag of dicks.

He gathered people around him, including his new Warlord Voron and a boy of astonishing magical power he discovered in France and named Hugh d’Ambray. And he kept his vow to not have any more children, because they had a habit of rising against him.

But vows last until love appears, and for the love of the witch Kalina, Roland forsook his plans and allowed a daughter to be born. Whilst still in her mother’s womb, Roland inscribed on her skin a poem to shame the newly awakened gods.

And then the terrible king changed his mind. Kalina sacrificed herself for the baby’s safety, delaying Roland’s pursuit enough for Voron to flee with her daughter. The former Warlord raised Kate as an assassin, with one mission: kill her true father.

It’s now 2040. Magic waves come and go, never lasting more than 24 hours, rendering most technology useless and slowly eating at the ruins of the modern world. Every 7 years, a Flare happens, a wild period of intense magic that last 2-3 days, powerful enough for the old gods and the new to walk the Earth.

Kate is a lowly merc who lives a solitary life, hiding her true identity and magic, and biding her time.

A questionable Client (Small Magics)

Down-on-her-luck merc Kate Daniels gets a last-minute bodyguard gig. Sometimes, a girl just needs a new pair of boots! The job involves guarding polymorph Saiman against the Russian volhvs. At the end of a night full of endars, badzulas and a stolen magical acorn, the World Oak grows on the rooftop and the All Knowing Cat descends straight out of Ruslan and Ludmila, ready for Kate to ask it a question.

Magic Bites: book 1

A vampire piloted by the necromancer Ghastek brings Kate news that her guardian, Knight Diviner Greg Feldman, was killed. The Order allows Kate to look into his murder in their name. What is a good girl like Kate doing calling kitties in a bad place like Unicorn Alley? Meeting the Beast Lord of the Atlanta shifter Pack, of course! During an investigation that involves some of the most powerful factions in post-Shift Atlanta and her newly-acquired teenage werewolf sidekick, Kate discovers the killer is a horrifying creature called an Upir. The final battle sees Kate and her allies defeat him, his monstruous children, and an undead dragon.

Poor Kate, does the epilogue find the shifter you shared food with in your personal space, fixing your house? I’m sure that means nothing… moving right along.

Magic Burns: book 2

Magic and tech waves are building up erratically, indicating a Flare is coming, and it’s affecting everyone. A neophyte coven of witches divinely screws up and summons Morfran instead of the goddess Morrigan. He wants to use the Flare to manifest in the world, but needs an artefact of great power in order to do it. Morrigan sends her servant Bran into the world to find it, and he causes no end of trouble for Kate and the Atlanta shifters. A street kid named Red gives the artefact to Julie, his 13-year-old orphan girlfriend, painting a Fomorian target on her back. Julie ends up in Kate’s care and becomes her ward. Curran has Fabio hair and gives Kate soup, Team Metal Rose is born, Kate’s friend Andrea turns out to be a shifter with a difference and the Shepherd of undead sirens will NOT shut up. Flares really do suck. Kate and the Pack defeat Morfran, but Bran is killed.

Magic Strikes: book 3

Derek, the aforementioned teenage werewolf sidekick, is trying to save the girl he fancies from a life of alleged captivity in one of the fighter teams involved in the Midnight Games. He ends up horribly wounded. Kate, always the Care Bear, gets involved and forms a team of her own to join the Games (a fighting tournament for supernaturals) and gain revenge and intel. She tries to do it behind Curran’s back, but the Beast Lord has other plans (and hot tubs to soak in). They discover the enemy team are rakshasas who are after the prize of the Midnight Games, the Wolf Diamond, which can stop shifters from being able to shift. Hugh d’Ambray, Roland’s Warlord and Voron’s killer, recognises Kate’s true identity after she breaks Roland’s blood sword in one of the fights. The rakshasas take her to their flying palace and Curran rescues her.

Magic Bleeds: book 4

Kate stumbles upon a rapidly spreading magical plague and keeps it contained until Biohazard arrives on the scene (Luther for president!). It’s the opening salvo of Erra the City Eater, the Plague Bringer, master of the 7 undead mages, aka Kate’s aunt. Family! Can’t live with them, can’t let them terrorize your city with magic plagues, am I right?

Kate defeats Erra but not before aunty affects Curran, who slips into a coma for 11 days. A still-battered Kate must endure challenges from the Pack—as Curran’s Consort— and manages to defeat them all.  Curran is super pleased when he wakes up (not) and tears the Pack a host of new ones.

Magic Slays: book 5

Cutting Edge Investigations, Kate and Andrea’s new business, is involved in finding Adam Kamen, a scientist who built a device that can “eat” magic. A shadow organization called the Lighthouse Keepers are also after the device, because they want to get rid of all magic in the world. They have infiltrated all the important factions with their agents.

Julie begins to go loup after a shifter attack. Kate must do the unimaginable to save her life, and binds her with a blood ritual under the guidance of Roland’s voice. Curran sets a hard boundary around this being a one-time deal, as the bond is one that robs people of consent.  

The Lighthouse Keepers’ new magic-destroying device in Atlanta airport gets deactivated after a huge battle, which Kate & co win. The world survives to tell another postapocalyptic tale.

Magic Rises: book 6

Julie is not the only child whose life was put in danger by Lyc-V during puberty. The shifters have huge child mortality rates and the only thing that can help is Panacea, a magical concoction of very secret recipe. Curran is offered a large amount of panacea to sail over the ocean to Georgia (the country, not the state), ancient Colchis. Desandra, the daughter of a Carpathian shifter Alpha, is pregnant with twins who have different fathers. Whichever heir is born first will inherit a strategically important mountain pass, which both the fathers’ packs want. They need Curran to keep the peace until the birth.

It’s in fact a trap set by Hugh d’Ambray, who is trying to separate Kate and Curran. They survive murder attempts, a spoiled shifter princess, Warlords and secret ancient beasts. Colchis is not an ancient land for naught, and when enough is enough, Astamur the Shephard opens a volcano underneath Hugh’s castle. Our Atlanta heroes escape, with one major loss to their roster (RIP Aunt B, she was a real one). They sail back home with plum-enthusiast Desandra, her children, and Christopher -one of Hugh’s prisoners- who reveals he knows the recipe for panacea.

Magic Breaks: book 7

While Curran’s away, a certain Warlord who can’t let things the fluff go comes to Atlanta to make trouble and kill a lot of people, trying to get Kate. He manages to teleport Kate and Ghastek to Mishmar, which is a labyrinthic Kafkian nightmare prison built by Roland to enclose his mother’s bones. Curran rescues her and Ghastek, and Kate meets her grandma, who gives her one of her bones (as one does) to have as a new sword, called Sarrat.

Kate goes to save her friends from Roland. One thing leads to another and she claims Atlanta in an ancient bond with the land’s own magic that her family have the power to forge (oops). Kate and Curran step down as Pack leaders as part of a new compromise with Roland.

Magic Shifts:  Book 8

Curran’s adoptive sister George asks K&C for help when her fiancé, Eduardo, goes missing. Kate and Curran find a kindjal dagger in his trash and off they go on his trail. His disappearance is linked with the djinn who is causing trouble at the Guild of Mercenaries.

Kate learns (too late) that she cannot use her powers against djinn, as she herself draws her magic from an Ifrit ancestor.  She barely recovers from her stroke due to her claim on the land and Doolittle’s ministrations (Honey Badgers *do* care!).

With the help of a ghoul, and after a very heavy fight with yet another of the djinn’s greedy victims, they retrieve the cursed earring. Kate and Curran take turns carrying it to a box that can contain it, which only Eduardo can close.

Kate and Curran set a date!

Magic Binds: book 9

Kate and Curran are trying to get ready for their wedding- they have the right volhv and everything! But tensions are growing with Roland, who is taunting his daughter by kidnapping Saiman and activating sleeper cells in the ranks of the Pack. There isn’t much time for dresses and mailing invitations. Roman, Wedding Planner Extraordinaire, to the rescue.

Kate gathers allies for the fight against her father, like the God of Darkness (Go Cherny! Go Cherny!), the spirit of her aunt, and even Atlanta’s People faction.

The battle for Atlanta is won, with many losses. Kate and Curran get married on Ivan Kupala night and are expecting a baby.

Magic Triumphs: Book 10

Kate and Curran are navigating life as parents to a 1-year-old bundle of terrifyingly powerful joy. Anxiety grips Kate because she knows nothing will stop Roland from trying to kidnap or kill her son.

And that’s not the only danger in town: entire settlements of people go missing and Kate even finds a massive grave puddle of liquefied corpses. The druids reveal it’s an ancient enemy of her bloodline, the dragon Neig, powerful enough that Kate must bargain with Roland to help her win the battle.

Erra and Curran are preparing in secret for just this eventuality. They know that Kate and Roland’s lives are linked, and if one dies the other will follow. Curran devours elemental gods to gain power and turn himself just  divine enough for one act of miracle.

Neig is defeated, but Roland betrays Kate. She stabs herself in order to kill him, which forces Roland to take the magic of the dragon and become the anchor of the pocket realm Neig lived in. Curran uses his divine power to resurrect Kate and accidentally revives Erra in the process too. He returns to being “just” the kick-ass shifter First we know and love.

Julie’s bond with Kate is severed in the moment of Kate’s death, and in order to survive the shattered link and find herself, Julie leaves Altlanta with Erra in search of their luck.

But that’s another story for another time. Kate and Curran have gained their Happy Ever After and a new type of adventure awaits.

You can read that adventure this coming Tuesday.