an Adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

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Two hundred years after the Great Persecution of sorcery, the hypocritical Grand Council hires Akila the mercenary to retrieve Tad, an orphaned boy rumored to speak with the dead, to solve the murder of a council member and her family. Fearing Tad’s lawful execution after fulfilling the council’s request, Akila vows to save his life at the expense of hers.

First, Akila must free Tad from a witch and his forest prison, and then protect him not only from political factions but from mystical forces reaching from beyond the Nether, drawn by the boy’s necromancy. Only by understanding his chilling power and evading silver-tongued men and women will Tad discover what life, death, and freedom truly are.

Will Akila make the ultimate sacrifice to secure his future?

an Adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

(mock cover)

Detective Peter Doyle settled on the sleepy Isle of Nonn to get away from a life of renown and tragedy, but when two identical deaths without apparent foul play occur exactly one month apart, the local constable seeks Peter’s talent for solving difficult crimes.

His search for truth delivers him to the edge of a hidden world, one he stepped into as a child at the expense of his right leg. There, he draws allies both mystical and mundane, but his search triggers echoes of a buried past that will come looking for him if those echoes are heard.

Time will run out for Peter if he doesn’t unravel twisted triangles of obsession, control, and unrequited love with tragic consequences. He must choose between allowing justice to prevail or seeking vengeance to end the horrors of the past and present once and for all.

an adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

(mock cover)

Elizabeth comes from nothing. She has nothing to lose and everything to gain. When opportunity bursts into her ramshackle home, she sets one foot forward into a world of magic where women are forbidden to tread.

She bides her time, plays by the rules, and hopes to prove herself and earn the rights given freely to boys and men. When a star falls from the sky, she seizes the moment to change her life.

Now, Elizabeth must protect her vision for a new, compassionate magic from those who would wield it to annihilate, but how can she do that without using the destructive runes she has been taught?

If she waits to be invited into places of privilege, she will wait forever, while an empire swallows her homeland.