S.A. Archer's Blog, page 3

Rise of the Unseelie!

 New Release!

 Rise of the Unseelie 

 Now available from Amazon!




 In the wake of the Collapse that killed most of the Sidhe, only Donovan - former assassin for the Unseelie Court - stands between the abandoned ‘earthborn’ Sidhe and the predators after their blood, bodies, and magic. Fighting vampires, Changelings, and wizards in modern day Ireland, Donovan must train the teen-aged earthborns into an Elite fighting force before the last of the fey are destroyed.



Outside threats pale to the dangers within, as one of the earthborns becomes a deadly wild card in their midst.






* You’re looking at almost 74,000 words of intense Urban Fantasy action and adventure! *


Note: The Rise of the Unseelie is one of three companion series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe. These three storylines take place concurrently, and have cross-overs and interweaving storyline threads that closely bind the three mini-series. The Champion of the Sidhe mini-series follows Lugh’s story. The Touched mini-series takes place from London’s point of view.





P.S. - Don’t get confused! All 15 episodes from all three mini-series are also available in a 2 volume collection (Scattered Magic and Remnants of Magic). So why do we have the episodes released in different ways? Some folks only want to read one or two mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the stories YOUR WAY!

Katy Perry - Wide Awake

 If you've read Uprising, then you know about the young woman Donovan rescued from the wizards. This song is perfect for her, as she wakes up from her coma, and as she wakes up to the truth about the life that came before the Collapse of the Mounds. There are major revelations for all involved in the action packed finale to the Rise of the Unseelie mini-series, and it set the stage for the action and intrigue coming in Season Two!





enjoy: Katy Perry - Wide Awake

Uprising - Sneak Peek

Uprising - Rise of the Unseelie #5






Chapter One


The music was dying.



Way far away, so far that Malcolm shouldn’t even hear it, the music just barely, barely played on. Just a whisper. Just a melody that his ears strained to catch. Even cupping his hands behind his pointed elven ears didn’t help. Nor trying to hum along.



But it was out there. Playing for him.



So very far away.



Dying… bit by bit.



And very soon, it would be gone forever.



Malcolm opened his eyes when Donovan’s deep voice covered the music. “Bloodhounds are trackers. It’s what you do best.”



Even though the breeze tugged at Donovan’s night-black hair, the movement of the rock dust in Donovan’s magic only stirred to that Sidhe’s will. Malcolm could see Donovan’s strength of focus through the tight, slow coil of power. You might not know it to look at Donovan, who seemed pretty controlled most of the time, that he commanded such devastating magic. He could tear a gash open in the world big enough to swallow this whole town and not even tense a muscle. Donovan was that kind of badass. Sometimes, when he was close, Malcolm could even smell the earthy scent of his magic and hear the crushing grind of rocks. And as impressive as all that magic was— and it was truly brilliant stuff— that wasn’t even the most amazing thing about Donovan. Not by a long shot.



Malcolm shook out his hands, like that could cast off some of his nerves. Getting ready for business, he shoved up the long sleeves of his t-shirt, showing off the leather bands around his wrists that Donovan had given him to cover the scars. “I’m ready. It’s just… It’s real faint.”



“We’ll find this Sidhe. Just point the way.” Donovan bound a blindfold over Malcolm’s eyes, and then lifted the headphones slung around Malcolm’s neck and settled them into place. The cushions completely encased his ears, so that if Donovan said anything else, Malcolm couldn’t hear it.



With the world closed out, all that Malcolm sensed came from magic. Even from the rooftop of his apartment building, he still caught glimpses of the lights whizzing and flickering out of the Glamour Club across the street. The magic noise from the club wasn’t too bad, though. Not so much that he couldn’t still hear the music. Straining to catch the tune again, Malcolm gripped the headphones with his hands, like that might help pick it up somehow.



Once before, he’d tracked magic; his own magic that still lingered on one of the humans that he’d Touched. And he’d found a fragment of his magic and followed it back to the person attached to it, only it wasn’t the exact human he’d been looking for. Magic was tricky. Slippery. Constantly moving and flexing. And very weirdly, it reached into the fabric of everything. Like little bitty threads. It moved through the sky. It moved through the ground. It went all over the place. Picking out just the thread that he wanted from the current flowing around them was extra tricky. Especially this faint little tune.



But he’d studied it real good. When he’d found the human whose body still held traces of his own magic, Malcolm had found this music, too. The human stole the magic; Malcolm was straight-up positive about that. That human witch, Flora, was all about stealing people’s magic. And this music belonged to a Sidhe, no doubt about that either. It was Touch magic, and only the Sidhe could make that.



A little less sure, Malcolm figured this Sidhe was a lass. The tune had a girly sound to it, he thought. Kinda higher pitched. Like violins or flutes. Kinda… well… pretty. Dainty, even.



He didn’t know. Whatever. Didn’t matter. Lass or bloke, Malcolm meant to find her. Him. Whatever.



Reaching out toward the fibers of magic flowing all about him like neon gossamer strands of ghostly pixie hair, Malcolm stretched out his hand. Shifting his fingers through the energy like caressing the soft whispers of a stream, Malcolm listened for the music he knew by heart.



And the thread he sought curled about his fingertips. A fine thread so fragile it might snap if he tugged on it. Rather than pull on it, Malcolm tilted his head to follow it with his blindfolded eyes as far as he could see before it was lost in the ocean of magic. “That way.”



The solid warmth of Donovan’s hand gripped Malcolm’s shoulder. And in the next second…



Slip!



The stretching, sliding sensation of teleportation startled him. The lurching movement nearly upset his stomach. Just like in a dream where the ground suddenly drops out so you jump to catch yourself, Malcolm jolted. Only Donovan’s hand kept him steady-ish on his feet. Malcolm widened his stance, hoping to overcome the sense of tilting. If he could open his eyes maybe he could orient himself better, but he didn’t want to mess with the magic. Not now that he had a grip on the thread he wanted.



Donovan’s hand stayed tight and when the wooziness settled down, Malcolm whispered, “I’m alright.” But he couldn’t hear himself outside his own head, which was weird and only made him feel even more disconnected from the ‘real’ and more immersed in the magic.



Malcolm lifted his hand. The thread still interlaced about his fingers. The slack lessened. Turning with it, Malcolm faced the wind. The scent of grass and trees brushed over his face. Other magic sounds reached him through the silence of the headphones, but Malcolm ignored them. Only the music mattered. The fragile, fading song that tugged at him. He pointed toward it. And…



Slip!



The ground seemed to slide beneath him, stretching to someplace new, and then snapping into place again. Malcolm pitched backward, losing his balance in the massive sense of moving. They’d teleported a lot farther this time. A lot farther. The slip lasted like forever… or about five seconds really… which was forever in teleportation time. He’d always thought of it before as instant. Only it totally wasn’t.



Donovan gripped Malcolm tighter, jerking him back to his feet before he fell on his bum. The ground beneath him really did move under his feet this time, as Malcolm worked at getting his footing. It was soft, like sand. The smell of the sea filled his lungs as he caught his breath.



Taking a moment to orient himself, Malcolm glanced out and then up. Out a ways, maybe a kilometer or so, although he couldn’t be at all sure about that, a massive curtain of magic rose from the ground and arched overhead. “What is that?” The colors flexed and shimmered with a rainbow of hues. He’d seen the curtain of magic in the sky before. For a long time, he’d thought the sky was like a ceiling way, way overhead, but his parents told him ‘no,’ that it just seemed that way. But they couldn’t see like he could see. They couldn’t see magic like him at all. Malcolm had been right. There was a ceiling over them, just made of magic, and it curved into the ground right out there a ways, like they were inside a giant bowl turned upside down.



The squeeze on his shoulder woke Malcolm out of his pondering. “Right, right. Find the music first. I’m on it.” He sucked in a breath and then blew it out. They’d gone so far, he didn’t keep hold of the thread this time. Malcolm lifted his face toward the sky. Ignoring the bowl thingy, he watched for the current of magic. The thread he wanted drifted along with the others, close to the surface. Malcolm reached for it, and like it had come to anticipate his caress, it floated out of the mass and stroked over his outstretched hand. The music played for him. So familiar now, but no less beautiful for it. “Getting closer now. Just there.” He pointed.



Donovan’s hand disappeared from his shoulder, and Malcolm turned to see if he’d left him. But he could still see the man, even with the blindfold on. Now he saw the magic of him only. The way it moved and twisted inside him like watching a neon rendering of the circulatory system. The dust moved about him, defining the shape of him. And like always, the magic reached down into the earth below Donovan like a pipeline of power.



Looking at this magical version of Donovan, Malcolm pointed again. “Just… Right that way a piece. We’re not far now. Just a bit past the curtain-bowl thingy.”



He felt the headphones being lifted from his head and the blindfold removed. Malcolm blinked against the setting sunlight still sparkling off the water. “I don’t understand.” He frowned, accepting the headphones Donovan handed off to him that he needed to give back to Emma, the Glamour Club DJ. “What’s with the curtain? Why can’t we go past it?”



“I think you are seeing the Great Veil. It covers Ireland and keeps out the wizards.” He nodded out to sea where Malcolm had pointed. “I know what’s out there, and you’re not ready for it. You’ve done your part, Malcolm. This is as far as you go. I’ll take it from here.”









Get Uprising from Amazon to read the rest of the story!

Now Available!

 Champion of the Sidhe - A Sidhe Collection








For thousands of years, Lugh has been the Champion of the Sidhe, protecting all the races of fey and their realm. Until an assassin’s treachery bringing the realm crumbling in on itself. The survivors are scattered throughout modern day Ireland, hunted by vampires, werewolves, and wizards. Now the fey are Fading, and only Lugh holds the secret to restore their realm and their magic. A quest that will drive the Shining One into the darkest depths of magic, where the one thing that could save his life will destroy his soul.



You’re looking at over 58,000 words of intense Urban Fantasy action and adventure!



Note: Champion of the Sidhe is one of three companion series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe. These three storylines take place concurrently, and have cross-overs and interweaving storyline threads that closely bind the three mini-series. The Touched mini-series takes place from London’s point of view. The Rise of the Unseelie follows Donovan (aka Jhaer) and the earthborns.





P.S. - Don’t get confused! All 15 episodes from all three mini-series are also available in a 2 volume collection (Scattered Magic and Remnants of Magic). So why do we have the episodes released in different ways? Some folks only want to read one or two mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the stories YOUR WAY!

Season Finale of The Sidhe!

 Uprising - Rise of the Unseelie #5 is now available on Amazon!





 At last! The big finale of Season One of The Sidhe is here!




We are so excited to bring you Uprising, with all it’s action, twists and turns, and most importantly… ANSWERS!


Description for Uprising:

Awakening to his bloodhound abilities, Malcolm’s following dangerous instincts he doesn’t understand and can’t control. As Donovan discovers the truth about who murdered Danu, war is brewing on more than one front, threatening everything the Unseelie have fought for.



We're gearing up for Season Two of The Sidhe! There's loads more story to come!

Donovan vs. Lugh

 We're getting ready to release the final book in Season One of The Sidhe, and the big, anticipated run in between Lugh and Donovan is about to happen from the Unseelie point of view. Uprising is the title of the fifth book in the Rise of the Unseelie series, and it is jam packed with twists and action we hope answers some of the burning questions from Season One, and opens a new can of worms for Season Two.



Speaking of cans, this song from Sick Puppies is about the can of whoop-ass that Donovan intends to open on Lugh when they meet up for the first time since the Collapse of the Mounds. I hope you agree that it is awesome!



enjoy: Sick Puppies - You're Going Down

Sneak Peek - Keeper of Secrets

Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5






 Chapter One




With each of Lugh’s long strides, the footsteps that trailed him drew closer. In the pre-dawn shadows of the city, little stirred, as if the night held its breath. The darkness about Lugh aroused the darkness within—that taint of black enchantment that blended and corrupted the light of his innate magic. Like a drop of ink into a crystal clear pool, twisting and dividing, finding its own pattern and flow as it poisoned the whole in an inevitable spread. Yet only a drop. Only a hint. A flavor. A whispered suggestion that fixated with the same hypnotic coil as the ink in water.




Far from the eclipse of the sun. A manageable urge that throbbed within, with cravings of its own. The shadow of the beast it could become. The beast he could become.




Even in the dark denim jacket and jeans, the street lamps found Lugh in the night, casting shifting shadows that moved about him as he passed through shafts of light. Timing his backward glance, Lugh caught his pursuers in the light pool. Two of them. Large males. Not vampires. These men moved like wolf-kin. Werewolves, as they called themselves now. Heads down, following by scent as much as by sight, shoulders hunched forward with aggression.




Across the street and not far ahead of Lugh, a man rose from a bench, his slow crossing of the street timed for an interception.




And ahead, two more emerged from the alcove about a doorway.




Lugh slowed, the werewolves encircling him.




The shadow within him rose with the sense of danger, summoned forth with bloodlust as if by the beating of war drums. In his mind’s eye, the corruption within transformed into the sleek, muscled beauty of a black panther. Its venomous green eyes a brilliant, illuminated emerald that glowed from within. Craving violence and carnage, the beast merged seamlessly with Lugh, blending with his soul in a dark possession.




One of the wolves growled, “Nothing smells like Sidhe.”




“Nothing tastes like Sidhe, either.” The dark-haired man who’d been on the bench moved closer, unchallenged by the others. The alpha.




Lugh angled himself so he faced the alpha. Two wolves penned him from either side. “Think you to sample my blood? To feast upon my flesh?” The darkness within Lugh twisted the amused hint of a smile that graced his Sidhe-handsome face. “Rather, I foresee your broken bodies sprawled at my feet. Shall we test conclusions?”




Warrior-trained and centuries of battle-honed reflexes reacted with the onrush of attack, fueled by the wicked violence surging within his beast. The wolf to the farthest right reached Lugh first. He backed out of the path of the charge. Bringing up his right arm, Lugh hooked the man from under the jaw with his fingers, digging into the soft flesh beneath his tongue. Catching the jawbone, he jerked back and down with force enough to lift the man from his feet and spin him as he fell, snapping his neck. The falling body continued by momentum into the wolf-kin to Lugh’s left, knocking them back.




Dropping down to a knee, Lugh struck upward at the second wolf on his right, with his fingers straight and stiff as a blade, driving his hand hard into a muscled abdomen, directing all the force into a nerve bundle just above the navel. The scream of excruciating pain proved the strike hit true on his target— no doubt killing the wolf’s appetite once he ceased doubling over and retching up bile.




While he was down, the alpha flung himself onto Lugh’s back. His arms grappled around Lugh’s shoulders. The weight of the alpha meant to drive Lugh to the ground.




Leaning back into the man, Lugh grabbed his trouser legs near the ankle and jerked upward, unbalancing the wolf-kin. With the shifting of his body, Lugh shrugged the man forward, flipping him over his head and onto the ground before him.




As Lugh rose, the two remaining henchmen each hooked their arms around one of Lugh’s. They yanked him up to his feet. Surely, they meant to lift him from the ground, but Lugh’s height defeated that hope. Lugh snarled, bearing his teeth as if he possessed the panther fangs of his beast. Jerking against their hold only made them grip him that much tighter.




Exactly as Lugh intended.




When the alpha regained his footing, Lugh kicked hard from the ground. With fey grace and feline aggression, he flipped backward, using the arms that held him as the fulcrum around which he spun. In the flip, Lugh’s foot caught the alpha in the face, knocking him back once more, with an explosively broken nose.




Lugh’s acrobatics sent him up and over the men that had detained him. Even as he landed behind them Lugh punched out hard, hitting one of the men in the kidney. The impact to such a vulnerable organ might have killed a human. The wolf-kin weren’t so fragile. Even still, the wolf went down with an anguished scream, not to get back up again.




The final man punched at Lugh. A blow that he deflected as if it had been a sword, using his own forearm to redirect the force by impacting with the wolf-kin’s wrist. The were’s forward motion carried him past Lugh, who used the opportunity to latch his arm around the man’s neck. The crook of his elbow looped under the man’s chin and braced his head, then Lugh kicked him in the back of his knee. As his opponent dropped, Lugh jerked upward with his arm, breaking his neck. He released the body to crumple lifelessly to the concrete.




Backing away, Lugh glared down at the four men he’d left dead or wounded at his feet. But only four. The alpha not among them.




Thus far, the wolf-kin had underestimated him. Within the city, they were less likely to risk exposure by shifting into their partial ‘werewolf’ or full wolf forms. Plus the shift took time, longer for the less experienced wolves. But swiftly for the alpha.




The growl of the alpha broke the silence of the night just as he tackled Lugh from behind. Twisting even as they fell, Lugh jerked away from the snap of the canine jaws. The beast within him growled back at the werewolf with animal fury.




The werewolf, a half-man/half-wolf amalgamation of horrifying intent, raked his two-inch claws down the back of Lugh’s denim jacket, hooking into the fabric.




Kicking away from him, Lugh shrugged out of his jacket and the shoulder pack of supplies he carried. If not for the Fade, he’d have teleported away before now, but the expenditure of magic would certainly exceed his reserves. Even the use of Glamour was a luxury that he could ill-afford. But when the werewolf lunged for him again, his longer arm-span extended wide, those deadly claws spread menacingly, and his canine snout curled up in a bestial snarl that revealed teeth meant for rending flesh, Lugh drew upon his personal aspect of magic.




Tapping into the power of the sun, he flared a light so intense as to blind unshielded eyes. It flicked so fast, returning the night to the depths of the darkness, no one’s vision, other than his own, could quickly recover.




The wolf’s pained yip proved the effectiveness of the strike against his senses. The animal drove forward, nonetheless, barreling toward where Lugh had been.




Lugh twisted away, leaving the alpha to bash headlong into the brick wall with force enough to send a spiderweb of fractures through the bricks where his face impacted.




The flaring of the light and dodging the attack had been Lugh. But the beast within him wasn’t satisfied. Possessed of it, Lugh grabbed the unconscious werewolf and shoved him forward again, battering his head into the wall, and this time leaving blood on the impact site. With the third blow, the beast crushed in the werewolf’s skull.




Backing away, he let the alpha fall. His werewolf’s shape slipped back to human without his conscious effort to make it otherwise.




The beast loomed over its victims, snarling a grin. The arousal of aggression still flooding through him, making Lugh’s body ache for more.




“Enough.” Lugh’s own voice sounded foreign to his ears. Deeper. Throatier.




The beast, its violent desires served, skulked back into the shadows of his mind. Appeased for now, but not vanquished. It grinned with wicked amusement at Lugh, knowing its advantages. They wrestled now, but the beast won ground each time they battled. And eventually, Lugh would forget himself in its animal haze.




It had happened to Lugh before. The eclipse, as the fey called it.




And if he lost himself into the dark lusts, then all he’d fought for since the Collapse was lost.




That… and that alone… strengthened Lugh to forestall the black passions of his beast.




Lugh snatched up his torn jacket and the shoulder pack and continued on his way, leaving the wounded to recover enough to make off with their dead or be discovered by the waking city in a few hours, as fortune would have it.






Read the rest of the adventure in...

Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5

New Release!

 Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5






The shadow within him rose with the sense of danger, summoned forth with bloodlust as if by the beating of war drums. In his mind’s eye, the corruption within transformed into the sleek, muscled beauty of a black panther. Its venomous green eyes a brilliant, illuminated emerald that glowed from within. Craving violence and carnage, the beast merged seamlessly with Lugh, blending with his soul in a dark possession.







Poisoned with dark magic and suffering the Fade, Lugh’s fighting a battle within himself. One that endangers everyone around him. And if he can’t complete his quest for the new fey realm before the dark corruption possesses him, all hope for the fey may be lost.







Captivated started the cascade of events in the season finale of The Sidhe. Now Keeper of Secrets takes that momentum and explodes with dark intensity that will jeopardize everything. With high octane action, and some OMG! moments, Keeper of Secrets brings the Champion of the Sidhe series to a powerful close and sets the stage for the massive conclusion to Season One, coming in Uprising - Rise of the Unseelie #5.





Now Available on Amazon!

New Release!

 Touched




 The first mini-series collection from Season One of The Sidhe is now available on Amazon! 






London’s got a handle on life, even with vampire for friends and werewolves for clients. A couple of weeks ago, she even branched out and did a job for a wizard. So when a drop-dead gorgeous Sidhe, one of the more dangerous races of fey, wants to hire her, London Eyer hasn’t a clue just how out of control her life will become. Just one Touch, and she’s cursed for life. The addictive magic of the Sidhe shreds her like nothing she could have imagined. Leaving her with only the question… Will she serve the Sidhe? Or hunt them?




~54,000 words of intense Urban Fantasy action and adventure!~




Note: Touched is one of three companion series that comprises Season One of The Sidhe. These three storylines take place concurrently, and have cross-overs and interweaving storyline threads that closely bind the three mini-series. The Champion of the Sidhe mini-series follows Lugh’s story. The Rise of the Unseelie follows Donovan, Malcolm, Kieran and the other earthborns.






P.S. - Don’t get confused! All 15 episodes from all three mini-series are also available in a 2 volume collection (Scattered Magic and Remnants of Magic). So why do we have the episodes released in different ways? Some folks only want to read one or two mini-series, while some want to have all the episodes in the recommended reading order. We want you to be able to have the stories YOUR WAY!

Slipping Into Darkness

 The lovely @LizasArt has suggested an awesome song for Lugh as we prepare to release his next book with Keeper of Secrets - Champion of the Sidhe #5. As we saw in his last episode, Protector of the Light, and in London's latest story, Captivated, Lugh's dark magic corruption is beginning to spread. We get to see the struggle with the beast within in Keeper of Secrets. Hope you are looking forward to it.



enjoy: Muse - Madness