Ward: a magical barrier with varying levels of protection. A ward can be something as simple as a proximity alert — “someone walked into my garden” — or as complex as full on defense — “someone crossed the threshold and have now burst into flames”. The severity of the ward depends on the complexity of the sigils used to create them, and wards can have many layers, each one with a unique purpose. Personal wards can also be used, such as in clothing or embedded into jewelry, though they tend to be expensive and difficult to foolproof.
Were: a person infected with the were virus, a much mutated strain of the vampirism virus, resulting in altered physiology and magical ability. They can be identified by their heterochromia, or different colored eyes. They are the newest magical race and viewed warily by the general public for a variety of earned and unearned reasons. Identifying mating feature is marked change in behavior, including highly increased territorial instinct and the urge to nest. Pronounced ware.
Pronunciation guide for names of important characters in this book
Camille Dia Solbourne: kam-eel dee-ah soul-born
Viktor Hamilton: vick-tor ham-uhl-ton
Margot Goode: mar-goh good
Theodore Solbourne: thee-oh-door soul-born
Valen Yadav: vah-len yah-dahv
Andy Yadav-Coran: an-dee yah-dahv cohr-an
Kazimier Rione: kaz-eh-meer ree-own
Benny Reeve: ben-ee ree-vuh
Ruben Andreas: Roo-ben ahn-dray-ahs
Linnea Stafford: Lin-ee-ah staf-ord
Also by Abigail Kelly
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Strike: The New Protectorate Stories Volume Three
Passion is electric.
After a millennia of longing, Hele has finally gotten her chance to live. A lightning elemental with a voracious hunger for knowledge and experience, she takes to her new life with a gusto that surprises everyone she meets. After two years of learning how to navigate the world she’s been thrust into, Hele is only missing one thing: love. She wants one particular dragon, but when he turns her away, she decides that life is too short to wait.
Vael has been a loyal soldier of the Draakonriik for nearly one hundred years. He’s never wanted anything more than to serve his clan and his leader… until the day he snatches a beguiling elemental from the sky. For two torturous years, he’s resisted the call of his Chosen, trying to give her a chance to fly before he claims her and hides her away in his nest.
But when Hele decides to set out on a quest to find a mate, that resolution goes up in smoke. His lovely elemental is about to learn a very valuable lesson: a dragon will do anything to win his Chosen.
Available in Kindle Unlimited, ebook, and paperback in May!
Burden’s Bonds: The New Protectorate Book Three
He’s chosen to be alone.
Kazimier Rione, half-orc spymaster of the Elvish Protectorate, doesn’t want a mate. He’s got too many rough edges and too much baggage for any woman. That’s why he’s done everything in his power to stay away from a certain lush little witch that makes every instinct bristle. A glimpse was all it took to seed a dark obsession, but it’s one he knows he can never act on.
She was burned by fate.
Atria Le Roy learned her lesson a long time ago: the blessing of a mate is not for her. A witch groomed for a secretive priestesshood from birth, she’s spent years throwing herself into her potentially world-changing research and running from her complicated past. Now that research is about to come to fruition — if only she and her research partner can survive being hunted by the factions desperate to get their hands on it.
Keeping their distance is impossible.
When his witch is threatened, Kaz knows that rescuing her will mean giving in to the pull of fate, but doing nothing is not an option. He’ll do anything to protect her, even if that means kidnapping her and going on the run himself. With every mile they cover and danger they face, the fire between them burns hotter. She wants to escape her past, the bounties on her head, and the overbearing, beautiful orc holding her captive. He wants to possess everything she is — to be the breath in her lungs and the magic in her soul — and be utterly possessed in return.
Surviving will mean giving in, leaving the past behind, and letting the fire burn…
Available in Kindle Unlimited, ebook, and paperback in December!
Consort’s Glory: The New Protectorate Book One
Margot Goode, healer extraordinaire, knows that being noticed is the fastest way to getting herself murdered — or worse. But even with a secret like hers, she can’t stay cloistered forever. On her own in San Francisco, she’s on the hunt for the one person who can stop her magic from turning against her in a catastrophic meltdown.
Margot doesn’t expect things will be easy, but even she is surprised when someone plants a bomb in her Healing House, nearly killing her and wiping out her anonymity in one fell swoop. Attacking a healer is an egregious breach of the laws that keep the races from war. Attacking Margot Goode, granddaughter of the terrifying Goode Matriarch and leader of the most influential coven in the country, is not just blasphemous — it demands retribution.
Theodore Solbourne, newest sovereign ruler of the largest Elvish territory in the West, has waited his entire life for the woman he will one day claim as his consort. With the power to keep her finally in his grasp, he’s planned their meeting down to every last detail… only to have all the carefully crafted steps in their courtship blown away when she’s nearly killed before he can even say hello.
With her life and his kingdom on the line, there’s no time for subtlety. Earning the trust of the woman he’s been mad about his entire life just became much harder: the speculation of war is sweeping through the city, a goddess’s acolytes call for justice, and a traitor’s shadow looms over his household. But nothing, not even Margot’s single-minded determination to keep him out, will stop him from winning her heart.
Available in Kindle Unlimited, ebook, and paperback!
Empire: The New Protectorate Stories Volume Two
Love blooms in the dark.
After a lifetime of service to the Amauri vampire family, retired assassin Harlan Bounds lives his life exactly as it pleases him – on his private estate, surrounded by beauty, and unbothered by the bloody politics of the criminal underworld he left behind. He doesn’t need or want for anything... except, perhaps, the tantalizing witch hired to look after the acclaimed rose garden on his grounds.