Magic & Secrets (2025)

About this item

An ancient creature's devious plan will turn mortal enemies into mates. This world once belonged to the ancient ones. They spawned mankind before the changing climate forced them underground into the darkness. They hid for thousands of years becoming mere myths while humans built their empire. The ancient ones never truly went away. Their magic burned its way up from the darkness, twisting forests, animals, and mankind. New species were spawned—from Elves, Vamypres, and a variety of Shifters to magic-wielders like Sorcerers and Witches. The humans' technology struggled to push back the tide of the new magic folk. In desperation, they secretly turned to the magic of an ancient one to create the nearly unkillable Bane Shifters. Their new army of male super soldiers were capable of shifting into whatever beast suited the mission. The Bane Shifters' greatest proved to be a race of female warriors called the Armgard birthed using a different ancient one's magic. The battle scarred the Seven Territories before the Bane Shifters were finally triumphant at wiping out the Armgard. As payment for their sacrifice, they demanded to be retired to a quiet area. A hundred years have passed since the Bane Shifters took refuge on the no man's land of Mt. Elysium. They kept to themselves just as they promised the humans. Until one day, trouble came to the mountain and stole the lives of their kind. Three Bane Shifters members soon leave the mountain to hunt for the killers. What they find is a world changed by ancient ones' magic. A rising force has recreated their old nemesis, the Armgard, using the magic of a different, more violent ancient one. Three sisters belonging to this new warrior line have been sent to hunt down the magic folk behind the slaughter at Mt. Elysium. Young warrior Calla has long dreamed of the Bane Shifter called Roque. She is always drawn to him as he will act as her doom. What she finds instead is herself separated from her sisters, rejected by her mate, and lost in a world where the rules no longer make sense. Only if Roque and Calla accept their mate bond can they defeat the rising storm coming for the Bane Shifters and all of the Seven Territories.