Life as a shifter-mage hybrid has always been tough for Sunaya Baine. Ostracized from her clan and forced to hide her forbidden abilities, she’s never fit in. So when she’s offered a position at the Enforcers Guild, Solantha’s crime-fighting organization, she jumps at the chance to prove her worth.
But when Sunaya swaggers onto her first day at the job, the last thing she expects it to be partnered up with a spoiled rich girl. Annia is a Lone Wolf enforcer--one who doesn’t play well with others. The two of them will have to play ball though, because a little girl has gone missing, and if they don’t find her soon, she might just fall prey to Solantha’s dark underbelly of magic and crime.
In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution.
Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last twenty-four years. But while chasing down a shifter-hunting serial killer, she accidentally loses control of her magic in front of witnesses, drawing the attention of the dangerous and enigmatic Chief Mage.
Locked up in the Chief Mage’s castle and reduced to little more than a lab rat, Sunaya resists his attempts to analyze and control her at every turn. But she soon realizes that to regain her freedom and catch the killer, she must overcome her hatred of mages and win the most powerful mage in the city to her side.
With the silver murders solved and her training as a mage underway, Sunaya figured her life would get easier. But between the Chief Mage's packed schedule and the grunt work demanded of her as an apprentice mage, magic lessons are few and far between. Worse, her apprenticeship leaves little time for her job as an Enforcer, and without bounties Sunaya’s money pouch is drying up -- fast.
Even so, when Shiftertown Inspector Boon Lakin asks for Sunaya’s help digging deeper into the murder of a fellow Enforcer, Sunaya has no trouble making room in her life to help him. The trail leads them to a series of crimes victimizing shifters for the entertainment of vicious humans. Sunaya and her friends race to identify the perpetrators and free the survivors, and the stakes are heightened when she discovers one of the victims has a connection to her. But if Sunaya is not careful, she may end up a very dead shifter herself..
With the sudden disappearance of Iannis, the Chief Mage, Solantha has erupted into pandemonium. Citizens are rioting in the streets, the Mages Guild is on a misguided warpath, and shifters and humans are fleeing the city in droves. Ridden with guilt, Sunaya defies the Mages Guild and goes off in search of Iannis, trekking into dangerous, uncivilized territory to try and make things right. But Sunaya's relationship with Iannis isn't the only thing at stake -- if she doesn't find him soon, the Resistance might just succeed in plunging the Northia Federation into a devastating and bloody civil war.
With the rebellion now in full swing, shifter-mage hybrid Sunaya Baine has no time for distractions. She must find out the true identity of the Benefactor and pull the plug on the Resistance's funding before they succeed in their grand plans for genocide and destruction.
But the heat is upon Sunaya now, and it demands to be sated. And since the Resistance has marked her for death, she can no longer walk freely amongst the very people she is trying to save. Death, danger, and desire hem Sunaya in on all sides, and with her friends caught up in their own problems, she cannot truly count on anyone except herself.
Does Sunaya have what it takes to wrangle her unruly shifter instincts and embrace her heritage as a mage once and for all? Or will she succumb to the forces around her, and finally lose her way?
For most women, being newly engaged to the love of your life is a time of celebration. But Sunaya’s happiness is overshadowed by loss. Her friends have not returned from their quest to bring back Noria, and though the Resistance has been beaten back, they are far from vanquished.
When the Minister sends Sunaya and Iannis to destroy an important Resistance stronghold, Sunaya is torn between the desire to help her friends and defend her country. But soon she finds that the two are not as unrelated as she imagined . . . and in order to accomplish both, she must put her trust in a man who has betrayed her.
If Sunaya and Iannis thought there would be time to rest after returning from their last mission, they are sorely mistaken. The Minister sends them to face off with yet more dangerous enemies—this time in a lawless port in remote Garai, where pirates and slavers thrive, and everyone is fair game.
To hide their undercover mission, Sunaya and Iannis travel to Garai as official guests to a state funeral. But Sunaya’s luck runs out when she finds out her father is on the guest list, and worse, runs straight into him and his family. For now, her deadly secret is safe. But once they discover her true identity, they may not be willing to suffer her alive. . .
Home from their travels at last, Sunaya and Iannis are confronted with a threat against which even their strongest magic is largely helpless. The very ground under their city is becoming increasingly unstable, and there are disturbing predictions of an impending quake the likes Solantha hasn't seen in centuries.
While their hands are full preparing for disaster, Iannis's most dangerous rival returns to Solantha, intent on finding anything he can use against Iannis. It isn't long before Fenris too is in his crosshairs, his dangerous secret perilously close to being exposed. Sunaya is fiercely determined to protect both her friend, and the man she loves, but will her efforts be enough? With old and new enemies as well as the might of nature ranged against her, one false step or indiscreet word can spell doom for all three of them...
Join Sunaya one last time for this final installment in the Baine Chronicles series...
Even as Sunaya's fairy-tale romance with her handsome, powerful Chief Mage is celebrated in the media, all Sunaya wants is to get past the endless duties and social engagements of her new role, and spend a bit of private time with Iannis. Doing her best to ignore the many naysayers poo-pooing their match, she counts down the days of these last stressful weeks before the wedding and much-needed honeymoon.
But as it turns out, dealing with snooty mages and uppity politicians are the least of Sunaya's troubles. For Sunaya and Iannis have failed to reckon with an ancient and powerful enemy, who does not want their union to take place, and will go to any lengths to separate them--including murder.
Torn from her friends and family, faced with harrowing dangers with no one to call to for help, Sunaya must fight for her love and happiness against overwhelming odds.
Whether or not Sunaya survives to see her wedding day rests entirely on her overburdened shoulders. And despite being ill-prepared for the challenges ahead, Sunaya has every intention of making her latest enemy regret their attempt to keep her from the man she loves most in the world.
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