Showing results by author "Elaina J. Davidson" in All Categories

The year is 2020. We have seen fires in Australia, locust plagues in Africa, both flooding and drought elsewhere, and riots and marches, too, but all pales in comparison to what 2020 is really about. A global pandemic. We have endured lockdown, and it appears it will befall us more than once as this virus runs its course.

A latticework creates a mesmerising pattern, one which pleases the eye and draws the onlooker closer. Emotional lattices are connected strands that amplify the human experience; our melancholy, our mistakes, and our residual power. Fourteen lattices by a diverse author makes Latticework an occult treat, worthy of fans who dip into the disturbing and diabolical. This collection of soulful tales embodies the macabre and the metaphysical, with insights so serrated it cuts to the marrow.

These are the afterthought tales - bite-size chunks of a life’s grander design, something to gnaw on briefly before moving on. A few recorded moments in time that will ask of you a few minutes of your day. A breathy laugh might follow, or "Oh, yes, I see myself in there!" Maybe, a morsel gifts a smile, while a tale creates a sense of wonder. Enjoy!

Harry leads a solitary existence, tending bar because it allows him to interact with people without becoming involved. His life isn’t a normal one, after all. When the woman perfectly dressed and groomed takes a seat in the shadows and asks for wine, something about her calls to him. He answers that summons, and it changes everything, for they have something extraordinary in common. His dreams, and hers, will never be the same again.

Fire spews and ice follows. The world Drakonis is near death, and all life has fled. Except for Brennan, the thief who hears mysterious directions to Castle Drakon on the wind, and the brothers Bastian and Cole who choose to follow her. Then, there’s Halley, an exotic dancer from the burning cities, and Audri, who refuses to speak. These five are the last, and it is their task to ensure at least memory remains, or Drakonis will be eternally forgotten.

Alayna lives as a recluse in the giant redwood forest far from prying eyes. When intruders break into her home with the intention of robbing and using her, a man with vivid green eyes becomes an unlikely saviour. The instant they see each other their fates are sealed. Ben and Alayna have the kind of attraction that reeks of a celestial mandate. Alayna realises what Ben truly is, but he’s too young to know his real self. She sends him away to discover his destiny, awaiting his return.

On the banks of a river, a boy sees and hears a girl laughing - the most glorious music to his ears - and falls in love. Time, however, is not the same for them. Erin is human; Kell is something other. Kell watches her from the shadows under the willow at the water’s edge, refusing to surrender to their differences.

The war of eternal darkness is about to commence on Valaris. One battle is already behind the team, the disastrous events upon Ardosia, and now it is time to look ahead to the stability of Valaris, or the same fate awaits her. Hidden from humankind are 14 sacred Valleur sites, each built upon a node of power. Vannis of the Valleur advocates unveiling the sites to restore balance to the earth, balance he claims will aid them in the fight against Margus. The Darak Or has other ideas, and unleashes his soltakin....

Rayne of the Mantle searches for the magician Aven to confirm rumours of the dara-witch Infinity’s presence on Valaris. He isn’t prepared for what he actually finds. Changeling children bent on murder, a secret Society of Sorcerers, the mysterious waif Averroes, and the Maghdim Medaillon, a magical coin that creates a thread of light between two realms.

A mist-ridden hill on an empty plain conceals an abyss able to swallow worlds, and is discovered in a place forbidden to all. Ancient beings and shadowy spheres of influence tell a new tale of what was and what is. While objects of power come forth to manipulate and threaten, among them the mighty Valleur Throne, the swords called Lumin, Catharsis, and Nemesis, the true connection is the Maghdim Medaillon, a magical device thought forever lost. Realms entwine when slim fingers one day find the golden coin hidden in a sterile desert.

As the Warlock Tymall steps up his murderous campaign against his kin, the Vallas, Torrullin vanishes into a realm created by dreams and need. Paramount is his search for the means to end his son’s reign of terror, and the answer no longer lies in reality. He will suffer the labyrinth of his soul and negotiate the marker stones of his past.

The real truth about the Valleur through the ages is uncovered when exploiters delve the green hills of Echolone for gold. After an ancient door is discovered in the bowels of the earth, it serves to unmask the hidden power Elianas carries within, a power that places him on the same pedestal Torrullin, as Elixir, already inhabits.

Grief-stricken over losing his wife in childbirth, Karydor commands that his son be drowned. Carers choose to hide the newborn instead. The child, when his father realizes his terrible mistake, vanishes without a trace.

A woman abandons her newborn at a motel in the back of beyond. Adin grows up unloved, bullied, and no one remembers him. He doesn’t exist. Until he sees a poster for a missing girl on a lamppost. There is an instant connection to little Sunflower, kidnapped for ransom, only to disappear after the money is paid. He exists because he must find her. Alone, he searches, a journey that takes him into the wild places, meeting along the way some interesting characters.

Ivy moves into an overgrown cottage in the back of beyond two days before Christmas. She soon discovers that the old place keeps old secrets. The mirror above her mantlepiece is not what it seems. Ash and oil footsteps appear from nowhere, as does writing on a wall.

What does the god of fire demand of Brendan? The problem isn’t his pottery skills. No, the problem lies with his backyard kiln. Every vessel Brendan fires in it ends up shattered. His fault? Oh no!

She will choose her own fate. Chloe runs away from her family home because she will not marry the man her brother deems suitable. After all, in the 21st century, the choice is hers to make. Muddy footprints reveal that she is being followed. Is it the man her brother has chosen for her? Is it a stranger who preys on lonely women? Or is it a ghost?

The universe is populated, and many worlds are far-flung and forgotten. Until the day Gabryl, a man both alive and dead, his body reposing in a sarcophagus, his spirit roaming as a shifting being, bellows a call to arms. Eurue, as world and civilization, after ages of isolation, will now step into the ultimate arena.