Deirdre always thought she was a human—until her destructive faerie magic was unlocked.
Seventeen-year-old orphan Deirdre moves to Neo-London, a city created after an attack by Unseelie faeries, and becomes caught in the tension between the city faeries and the human military.
Deirdre develops uncontrollable magical abilities after having her fortune told—making her the target of Alan Callaghan, an extreme anti-faery general.
His sons, Iain and James, cross paths with Deirdre and are pushed towards the opposite sides of the conflict between humans and Fae. Iain is a rookie soldier in the Iron Guard trying to atone for past mistakes and keep his family together. James is a fourteen-year-old aspiring scholar fascinated by faeries and eager to leave his life in the city behind.
As Alan conspires to control the city, Deirdre and James plot to leave, seeking answers about her magic and James’s disappeared mother. However, when Deirdre is framed for a treasonous crime, their quest for answers becomes a desperate quest for freedom.
The Changeling’s Fortune is the first installment in the seven-book YA Fantasy series, Winter Fae’s Blight. The series can be read through Amazon and Smashwords.
Magic never plays fair…
Though Deirdre and James have escaped Neo-London and survived the monstrous Fachan, dangers both human and Fae close in on them.
General Alan Callaghan, James’s father and the leader of the Iron Guard, hunts Deirdre to harness her magic as a weapon against the faery Courts. And a dark curse is attached to James, connected with the disappearance of his mother.
But their greatest worries are close at hand—James’s brother Iain, a soldier sent to capture Deirdre, is traveling with them.
After discovering his father’s role in the king’s assassination, Iain’s loyalty to his father and the army is tested. Although he is wary of Deirdre’s powerful and unstable magic, he believes in her innocence. But by aiding Deirdre, a fugitive, Iain risks treason.
With the appearance of Alvey, a young half-elf runaway from the Summer Court, new truths about Seelie faeries come to light, making Deirdre doubt both her search for her parents and herself. But as they clash with both the oppressive Iron Guard and bloodthirsty Unseelie faeries, Deirdre will have to decide if she can trust those around her, as well as the magic within her.
Everyone is drawn to magic for a reason.
As Deirdre, James, Iain, and Alvey travel to the Wayfaring Festival, seeking answers for the brothers and magical materials for Alvey, forces Fae and human close in.
Deirdre’s fight to control her magic evolves as she begins to connect with it on a deeper level. Yet she risks losing everything to General Callaghan, the leader of the Iron Guard, who hunts her to harness her power into a weapon. Meanwhile, James begins his own quest for magic, drawing him closer to the Master, a sinister being who holds the fates of James and his mother.
Joining the group is Cai, a wandering swordsman connected to the mysterious amulet Iain found hidden in an Unseelie dwarf’s treasure horde. As Iain is faced with the ever-increasing danger of their journey, he believes the skilled, if uncooperative, man could secure both their safety and an end to the war before it begins.
But facing imminent dangers both within and around the group, each of them is forced to make decisions that will alter their journey and even the fate of the country.
Though protected behind a barrier of magic, the Realm of the Summer Court is anything but safe…
Deirdre, James, and Iain finally reach Seelie Court to warn them of the impending war and heal Deirdre’s stolen magic. However, their greatest challenges are yet to come.
Deirdre must prove she can regain her magic and control it or risk losing her chance to belong in the Realm. When Iain volunteers to be her champion, he must undergo a trial of his own to prove his claims about the Iron Guard by joining the perilous Wild Hunt. James continues his quest for magic by communicating with Cecil, the enigmatic emissary of the Winter Court. Although the monstrous Cait Sidhe cannot be trusted, can James trust the man behind the beast?
As Alan and the army draw nearer to the Summer Court with each hour the dark magic aiding him threatens to destroy not only him but Kallista—and everything he is fighting for.
Are you prepared to pay the price for power?
After standing trial in the Summer Court, James is sent on a quest to kill the Cait Sidhe, the monstrous faery cat who manipulated him into betraying the Seelie faeries and destroying the magical barrier that protected them. When the time comes to kill the beast, James decides to trick him into helping undo his mistake. But the man beneath the beast, Cecil Morris, is just as dangerous, and his manor, Heatherfield, is full of wild and deadly magic. In trying to reach Cecil, James risks being pulled into the darkness with him.
Cai, accompanying James to Heatherfield, escapes from the Cait Sidhe’s prison and fights for his life against Heatherfield’s deadly magic, determined to keep his oath to kill the beast even if it means making James his enemy. Kallista and Alan, also captives in the manor, face a fight of their own as Alan’s Unseelie magic slowly consumes him.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Noble Faery Deirdre and her human champion, Iain, head into an ancient tomb to find her drachma, an item that will help her control her powerful magic and save the Summer Court from destruction. She must undergo a trial to earn her drachma, but dark forces lurk inside, waiting to use her magic against her and against all she loves.
There is no escape from the Winter Court.
Deirdre and Iain are trapped in the Winter Court after the young faery was lured there by the Winter King. He assigns an unwilling Raisa, the Winter Queen, to train Deirdre to control her wild, unstable magic, a task that is fraught with peril for both women. Iain is isolated, encased by protective magic – but it may not be enough to keep him safe from all the dangers and schemes of the Unseelies.
As the Unseelies embark on their Wild Hunt and pave the way for an invasion, the Iron Guard moves to recall their people from the area of the Summer Court, led by Edgar Windsor, the heir to the throne and Alvey’s uncle. He and his men are on a collision course with both the Seelies and their captive, General Alan Callaghan, who is guilty of high treason. With his fate uncertain, Alan dreams of reconciliation and forgiveness from his family. But he must first grapple with his crimes against the Seelie faeries and the human army.
A broken curse. A forbidden magic. A final battle.
When the Winter Queen spirits away her champion to her court, Iain Callaghan is at the mercy of the bloodthirsty Unseelies and their ruthless king. As he tries to save the queen and sabotage the Court, can he trust an old enemy if it means his survival?
Meanwhile, Deirdre battles the Winter King’s forces as well as her own prejudices against her Unseelie heritage, while her adoptive sister Alvey tries to bridge the gap between the human army and Seelie Court by cooperating with Vera, a defector of the Winter Court. Working alongside them are Alan and James, who are also hatching a risky rescue mission to both help Iain and turn the tide of the war.
As old memories emerge, Raisa must choose whether to try and trust again, connecting with both her past and Sir Cai—or to make a stand with the Winter Court and its legions of monsters and faeries.
In this thrilling conclusion to the Winter’s Blight series, Deirdre and her allies must fight not only to save the country but also their futures.
Linnea is a Swedish princess reluctantly settled into her role as the middle child: never as influential as the eldest and never as beloved as the youngest. With her fiancé missing in action for nearly a decade, her future is uncertain. But when the Norwegian king curses her younger sister, the fate of Sweden itself is at risk. As war breaks out, Linnea goes on a quest to meet the king and strike a deal that will save the lives of her family and her people — even if it means using her own life as a bargaining chip.
But quests rarely go as planned, especially as she uncovers the secrets of Norway’s royal family and the hidden purpose of the war…
This loose retelling of the classic fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” takes place near the end of the Viking Age when the old, fierce gods of myth and the new, omnipotent Christian God were both considered equally true and real. It can be found on Amazon. Happy reading!
M.C. AQUILA 