Leah is a Radiant, a dying race that is able to crystallise Light. Plagued for centuries by a parasite able to turn them into mindless monsters known as Lightless, the Radiant's homeland has been long since lost. Leah's seen what the parasite has done to her people's morale, and she's determined to be the one who finds the cure. Only the League of Light still challenge the expansion of the Lightless, but new recruits are growing scarcer, their Radiant blood thinner as the League struggle to maintain numbers. When Leah arrives with her Radiant features and the full ability to manipulate Light, not all of them see her as a blessing. There's a divide between the pure Radiants and the humans who can claim their blood, and with shadows in the League, Leah's going to have to wade through it all if she wants to find her cure. Cover by @Prisim

************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST meets Brandon Sanderson's THE RITHMATIST. Rune Mage: Raising the dead is impossible magic. When Seiren killed her mother and sealed her sister in a stone, she swore to rectify the greatest mistake of her life, even at the cost of her own humanity. She signs up to be a state mage in order to resurrect Madeleine, but the magic-wielding country of Karma and demon-commanding country of Hanna are on the brink of war and state duty prevails over personal desires. Civil unrest and increasing pressure from the king catapults Seiren into a terrifying game of deception, politics, and betrayal. The battle may be against the demon summoners, but the war is against something far darker and more powerful. #27 in Fantasy 30/05/2018. Cover by Stefanie Saw (seventhstar). NaNoWriMo2016 winner. Camp NaNo Apr 2017 winner. Camp NaNo July 2017 winner. 2nd place in the 2017 FreedomAwards. 2nd place in the Quill Award. Winner of Blank Sheet contest. 1st Place in the Sanguine Awards. Also available on RadishFiction, Tapas, and RoyalRoadl.com. Chaos Mage: The rightful punishment for treason and attempted genocide is execution. When Kristen Harred escapes her fate, the magical council and the civilian council clashes. Who would pay for the suffering Karma went through mere months ago? Seiren and Madeleine toe the political line between war and justice in an effort to bring the traitor back, but something deadlier is pulling the strings in this game of cat and mouse -- and they are once again the chess pieces. Camp NaNo Apr 2018 winner.

THE DEMONATA meets TEEN TITANS. There is literally nothing better than a fist full of demon guts, as far as Tora is concerned. The gory task of killing demons to keep humans safe falls to Tora, a 16-year-old supernatural gifted with telekinesis. When a mysterious entity causes increasing demon attacks, forgotten memories and a frightening power stir within Tora, and soon she isn't sure who the real enemy is any more: the demons - or herself. This story is a complete revamp of "Seeker: The Challenge". 2nd Place in the Sanguine Awards. Winner of the Corona Awards. Also available on RoyalRoadL.

When dragons brawl after millennia of peace, Aeris loses her entire family in the ensuing war. After ten years of hiding underground from powerful families seeking her Draconian blood, Aeris's hopes for restoring balance depend on reviving her family's fallen dragon Khaus. As a vengeful voice invades her head, Aeris resolves to destroy the man who took away everything. Soon, her mind and body are not her own and she finds herself a pawn in a dragon's game since the dawn of time. Humans are not her only enemies... Content warning: This story contains some violence and death. [[Winner of the Wattys 2014]] [[Winner of the "Junior Award" as Second Place in The Write Awards 2014]] [[Featured fantasy book by Wattpad]]

- Book One of The BrightStone Saga - In a world ravaged by death and oppression, a merciless and unhinged monarch commands his kingdom through the use of his ruthless death squads. Far to the East, nestled in the outer reaches of the Kankor valley, there exists a small village where an unusual phenomenon begins to unfold. Aurora - a young woman who possesses a captivating beauty that captures the attention of many. However, despite her shy demeanour, Aurora finds herself thrust into a perilous world where Men, Majic, and Mortality collide. As she embarks on a treacherous journey to unravel the mysteries of an ancient malevolence that has resurfaced, Aurora must confront unimaginable challenges and heartbreaking losses. For the evil she faces threatens to terrorise and obliterate every corner of Antar and its inhabitants. Immerse yourself in the bleak and majical landscape of Antar, where warfare, life, and death loom at every turn. But amidst the chaos, there lies a glimmer of hope. The one thing that has been buried for 900 cycles may hold the key to salvation. Copyright © 2017 Lee Dawson | All rights reserved. Word count - 173,000 ⛬ This is the first instalment of my epic fantasy series 'The BrighStone Saga'. It is a work in progress and will be edited once I have uploaded it in full. I would also love to hear from you all, so feel free to comment good or bad and any votes would be very much appreciated.

ORIGINAL DRAFT. SEE UPDATED NOVEL FOR REWRITE VERSION RELEASED 9/2025. Wattpad Featured Author | 800K+ Reads | AMC TWD Partnered Story | Ranking #1 in Adventure | Wattpad Beta book for text-to-speech accessibility A Dystopian Society 4522. Both a name and a number that had labeled many. Within a society of the alive, yet not living, 4522 struggles to conform. She finds herself lost while surrounded by strict rules of direction. Deep inside, she knows there is another way to exist than following orders in a herd of humans who do not think for themselves. 4522 believes there is more to life than numbers and laws; she just has to find it. When her hall Officer is replaced, and she forms an unlikely friendship with the boy next to her, the opportunity for change arises. When the mysterious Officer selects her and her friend, 4313, for testing she knows something is wrong; 4522 can only think she was picked because they know about her secrets that she had been keeping. They know she is different and different only meant one thing. Death. Pronounced: Four-Five-Two-Two

|COMPLETE| Life after death, ironically enough, does not live up to expectations. When the entirety of the afterlife is upended by unexpected chaos after the gods took a leisurely vacation, Death himself enlists Evyionne's help to find out what went wrong. He leaves her with two things: memories of her past life, and his very domain. But with the trouble coming, it might not be enough.

WATTYS 2016 WINNER Untouchable. Stone. Jewel - these are some of the names used for people who are born with a gemstone at the centre of their forehead. This unfortunate phenomenon cannot be detected before birth, it cannot be prevented, if a family has a Jewelled child, there is only one outcome: Before they're sixteen, they will have to leave human society forever and serve "the Zephyr". Among the Jewels there are those who have it worse. Those who sport clear diamonds on their foreheads, the Undefined. The downtrodden, the unlucky - the doomed. Cello Riles and Syianne Locke are both Undefined. On their sixteenth birthday, they each leave their homes and travel across the country to the Zephyr, attempting to go into service. Though aside from the place, or thing, that will take them from human society forever - what IS the Zephyr? There are only questions promised, only shadowy riddles guaranteed. Yet faced with no other choice they must venture forth and plunge into the unknown - the Zephyr. [A big thanks to @stpolishook for being a wonderful friend and helping me figure out how to write a better synopsis] COVER BY Abyss-of-Crazy

A pack of thieves ransack a witch's home, stealing her deck of tarot cards. Unbeknownst to them, these tarot cards hold the most infamous criminals ever known. And little do they know what they've unleashed onto the world when these prisoners escape their binds to the cards and scatter across the stars. It'll take a powerful kind of magic and a special kind of witch to find them. Cage is NOT that witch. In fact, she's not exactly a witch at all. She's a Lavender and lives in a world where women are the only ones with magic. With flowers that grow in amongst her curly hair, Cage is dragged into the hunt for the prisoners and must travel across the cosmos with a band of unlikely heroes. A witch of the winds and another of the stars. A boy who has magic when he shouldn't and another with the sun in his blood. Cage learns that the lines between heroes and villains can blur on their journey to stopping something far more evil than any of them could have ever imagined.