Showing results by narrator "Dave Cruse" in All Categories

Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, prince of dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - right up till a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands.

Abbagael Coldhollow’s desperate journey forces her to cross the shrouded borders of the Witchlands. There, the question that has haunted her soul will be answered once and for all. Returning from the Forsaken Continent, Telwyn finds Myriad in bloody chaos. What can one man do against the tide of tragedy and war? A dark excursion to find the Mirrors of Manticore may hold the answer.

Lt. Jack Reilly was just settling into his new life on the colony planet called New Harmony with his partner Major Mitchell, and his girlfriend Kayla. Most days in Fleet Investigations were not much more than witness interviews, low-level cases, and data work. But just as life was getting simpler, the job pulled them back to the front lines. Pirates had stolen the fleet's newest warship. Reilly and Mitchelle are called in to help figure out who the pirates are, and what they intend to do with the deadliest ship ever built before innocent lives are lost. 

Opportunities there are few and far between...that is, unless you're willing to put on a uniform. For ace-pilot Deborah Allen Riker (aka “Admiral Dare”), life had never been easy. She's defended Earth against countless enemies, both alien and human alike. Now she's retired. Committed to a life of solitude and studying the aliens she spent a lifetime fighting...until she finds herself dragged into a new conflict. A conflict she never saw coming.

Dragons once soared in the skies, but that was before the Transformation, before they took human form. Now, demonic forces stand to obliterate them. When left mortally wounded, Darnuir, the Prince of Dragons, can only be saved through a dangerous rebirthing spell. He is left as a babe in human hands. Twenty years later, Darnuir is of age to wield the Dragon's Blade. As the last member of his bloodline, he is the only one who can. He is plunged into a role he is not prepared for, to lead a people he does not know.

The Three Races must work together if they are to survive, but they have another problem - Castallan. The traitorous wizard has raised a deadly rebellion, and declared himself King of Humans. He believes himself safe in the bowels of his impenetrable Bastion fortress, but Darnuir, now King of Dragons, intends to break those walls at all costs. To face these threats, all dragons, humans, and fairies must truly unite; yet old prejudices may undermine Darnuir's efforts, once again.

Fleeing the kingdom he once ruled, Lochlan Stormgarden leads the survivors of the Bloody Red Night across Myriad on a desperate quest for safety. With tyrannical High King Morlan's legions and the lethal bone ministers constantly dogging his steps, Lochlan discovers that the only refuge might be a legendary contagion-cursed fortress deep in the heart of the Gorrack nation.

The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel's and Morlan's eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight...yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen. 

Like a long night's slumber disturbed by disquieting dreams, 20 years have passed since Morlan Stormgarden's exile. The realm of Myriad waits in uncertain peace, for the Gray Hour Massacres remain unsolved. Tempted by the lure of adventure, High King Lochlan Stormgarden begins to ponder his royal destiny. A daring plan is hatched, the high king's throne is left vacant, and Lochlan meets Ariana Kurtz, who might be the love of his life if she doesn't kill him first.  

I was drifting alone in intergalactic space...in a suit of busted up Battleborn armor. My oxygen was almost gone. No power. No heat. I was freezing. The only question left to be answered in my life was the manner of my death. Would I suffocate...or die of hypothermia?

Lt. Reilly is back. He took the job that Mitchell offered him in the Military Investigations office on New Harmony, got his commission reinstated, and finally had a chance to figure out his relationship with Kayla. Yet one of his cases turned out to be much, much bigger than he expected it to be. He and Mitchell soon find themselves in the middle of a black-ops cover-up, intergalactic conspiracy and the beginnings of a new war that threatens to rip the Alliance apart from within.

Ebenezer Krow is a relentless man who charges through life, holding himself and everyone else to the letter of the law. Krow’s nephew, his employees, his business associates - even mankind in general - all feel the castigating burn of Krow’s glare. One night, on Christmas Eve, Krow is visited by his long-dead business partner, Marley Chastain. The ghost warns Krow that three spirits, one of them a devil, will assail him throughout the night. But will the harrowing experience be enough to tear the scab from his sin-scarred soul?

Jack Reilly’s luck ran out just before the war did. Released on a medical discharge shortly after the end of the war with the Serkins, he went out into the galaxy looking for a job. Signing onto the Glacier Runner 17, an old and rundown cargo ship, Rielly finds himself working for a clueless captain, mixed-up in an intergalactic conspiracy, on the run from assassins, and involved with two women in relationships that he could only call "complicated".

As winter wanes, the fragile bonds of the Three Races begin to break. With Darnuir recovering from his addiction, and Blaine reclusive in the hallways of his Order, it falls to Lira to manage the mounting tension between the humans and zealous dragons before catastrophe strikes from within the city walls. In Brevia, King Arkus unveils his new weapons to the Assembly of Lords, but is it a gift to his people or a threat? Cassandra fears the latter and vows to curb her father’s new unchecked power that she herself helped to create. 

I watched as the alien weapon’s neutronium hull fractured and then exploded. The antimatter-driven explosion engulfed the remaining three ships. Even neutronium is not impervious to antimatter. In one final act of love, my wife had saved us. A piece of my heart died that day in the Paradise system. In a way, the wound never healed. I learned to live with it. I raised our son as best I could. I carried out the mission. But I missed the woman who represented everything good in my life.

Hope and jubilation are transient riding compassions as the Knights and squires depart Castle Liberum for a tournament of nations. Those spurious emotions quickly evaporate, as a journey meant to unite the fracturing realms of Verngaurd promptly turns into a battle for survival. Dark creatures spread roots of death and deceit, infecting ancient alliances, intent on turning the soil red with civil war. Can the Knights fight through the gathering enemy forces and turn back the coming storm before the sands of time run out?

The only ones who understand Daisy’s struggles at school are her horses and Kajri, the unicorn that appeared out of nowhere. Kajri wants to go home, but Daisy doesn’t know how to help. Ana wants to help Daisy, but her parents are sick. The unicorn horn could be the key to saving them. Yet her actions could be the death of both the unicorn and her friendship with Daisy. 

For generations, a sentient AI watched over the world, solving all of humanity’s problems. It was an era of objectivity, social equality, and ecological recovery. It should have been a golden age. Now, three strangers are on a pilgrimage through the arid, lonely sagelands and underpopulated cities of the Systemic era to the seemingly innocuous town of Prower. There, they'll uncover the secrets that lay buried beneath the town and learn the truth about their half-remembered pasts. In the end, they'll choose between their sanity or solving humanity’s final, most intractable problem.

After 2000 years, the wise men of Bethlehem are released from the Witch of Endor's curse and find themselves in North Hampton in the 21st century. Longing to return to their homes, they soon realize they can't...not until they complete their mission to save a Jewish child from the Dark Lord and destroy the Witch.

When James Kreider receives the devastating news his life is shortened from cancer, he is immediately filled with shock and disbelief. At 60 years, Jim is too young to die and believes he has a whole life ahead of him. When the reality of his impending demise sinks in, Jim methodically prepares for his final days, including trying to heal old wounds. With a dash of life's regrets and unfinished business, Jim's hours are spent pondering the legacy he will leave for his friends and children.