Kalei hates touching. Especially if it is a hug. After all, her mother was killed by one. Kalei was born and raised in Celan, the first city to have an Estranged problem. It was seventeen years ago when they appeared, and the citizens learned the hard truth: that it only takes a bit of skin-on-skin contact to turn their loved ones into corpses, or Estranged. No one really knows why some people turn and some people die, they just know that anyone touched is gone. And Kalei wants them to stay gone. But, being a police officer in the city, she witnesses every day the damage done by Estranged. Black nails mark these harbingers of death. Seeking the high they get from every piece of skin they touch, the Estranged crush the lives of Celan's citizens with alarming ease. They killed her mother for a high, and now Kalei wants to wipe them out of existence before they can seek another. But she can't. Only the Wardens are equipped to do so, and she will do anything to be inducted into their ranks. But will they accept her now that she has turned Estranged? ___ Side notes: While the characters and the story are under a normal copyright, feel free to use the world of Estranged in your own stories. If I come across anything I deem cannon, I will list them here and/or on my website: www.alexfedyr.com (You can also email me if you want to see the world map or learn more about the world behind Estranged.) If you want your own copy of Estranged, you can find it on Amazon and other major retailers. Book two is in the works, but it may not be published. Check out my Patreon for full details and sneak-peek access to the story: patreon.com/alexfedyr

Siena can heal wounds with a touch of her hands. A captive since birth, she is used as a tool of war by a Plainsmen tribe. A chance escape into the forest proves successful... and deadly. Rescued by the Forestfolk--a group of people she always thought were nothing more than bedtime stories--Siena remains on edge. Trust does not come easily when persecution is all she's ever known. Keeping her abilities a secret seems like the right thing to do, until a tragic accident renders two Forestfolk spiraling toward death. If she chooses to reveal her abilities, she risks being subjugated again. Treated as no longer human. Maybe even sent back to the Plainsmen. But keeping her talent to herself means ignoring the injured around her, even allowing them to die. The choice seems obvious to Siena, but living with the repercussions of that choice is another matter altogether. A journey of self-discovery, a bit of adventure, and a splash of romance. On the Wattys 2017 Shortlist!