Shadows Bleed

Rescuing a demigod should come with some perks, but for Aeriae Llewyn, those perks have a price.

The last (not to mention worst) three years of Aeriae's life have been spent as a slave to the Westwinter Imperium. It's her own fault she was captured. Finding the appropriate time to sleep when you're a fugitive is somewhat essential to not getting caught.

Enslaved with her is her family, her only wish to be free with them. And so, when a demigod, Avaddhon, falls from the sky, Aeriae escapes, at great risk to herself, and hides him from the Imperium. The reward for such a selfless act should be catch-free. It's not. Avaddhon is willing to grant Aeriae and her family freedom from fate on one condition; she has to kill an influential lord in a distant land.

Seeing as he has better things to do than accompany her, he merges the fragments of a legendary, living blade, with her flesh to act as a guide. It should be simple; the shards will direct her what to do. The first thing they guide her to is a boat to take her where she needs to go.

But when the shards urge her to kill the crew of the vessel, the men and women who have accepted her as one of their own, she resists. As the shards wrack her body with pain, tormenting her, she must choose what price she is willing to pay for her family's freedom.

SHADOWS BLEED is a young-adult fantasy novel that dabbles in steampunk and even, believe it or not, a little bit of romance (aww, that's sweet).