Write the Endings

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When the Luminary Chancellor Margaret Faulise is forced to flee her magical city, she stows her daughter Elsie in the heart of a land that has long denied the existence of magic. All seems to be going according to plan—but as the years go by, the truth can’t stay hidden, and neither can Elsie.

At 19, Elsie has come of age, a freshly-minted Heiress. Deep in the throes of a new love with Fletcher, an elf from the mountain realm masquerading as a human, Elsie receives a letter from District Commissioner Clark Carson. An old ally and mastermind behind the scheme to hide Elsie away, Clark sees that the time is ripe for Elsie to retake her mother’s throne.

Elsie has other priorities, though.

Teddy, the only person Elsie’s ever trusted, is unwilling to admit he’s got his own fair share of magic, and Sam—Clark’s ward and Teddy’s boyfriend—has been caught spying on Elsie. To make matters worse, Clark’s maneuvering has put Elsie back in the sights of those who drove her mother from power.

And of course, there’s the matter of Fletcher. With the push of a mischievous chaos demon, Elsie has teased out Fletcher’s secret—and unwittingly finds herself at the center of a blood magic conspiracy. Elves and barghests and mende and humans have banded together in an attempt to summon the gods. Schemes converge when rumors of Elsie’s parentage begin to circulate, and someone called The Master identifies her as not only the Heiress to her mother’s city, but the descendent of the God of Death.

A tragic masquerade, a brotherly betrayal, and a hunt for justice leads Elsie to confront her worst fears.The love of found family is tested against schemes for power—and Elsie's fate hangs in the balance.

The saga continues in the second book of the Merchant series.

Something is wrong with the gods, and Chim knows it. Mother Chaos is acting funny, and when the kobalde seeks out Cora and Kiran—heads of the Below and the Above, the gods of Death and Life, the two gods from which the others have come—neither is where they’re supposed to be.

Cora, God of Death, is busy tending to her guilt-stricken girlfriend—murder has really taken a toll on her—and Kiran, God of Life, is busy serving time for offing his predecessor.

Winter rages on. Augustus’s bloody conspiracy has been exposed, the Guild is under new management, and the elven city of Caelaymnis plays host to the heirs of Maderlav—and indeed, the heirs of the gods themselves. Heirs, whose godly legacy someone only known as the Master has taken a keen interest in acquiring.

Struggling, bitter, and tormented, despite her meteoric rise from traitor to hero, Elsie’s own search for the draught of fear she can’t seem to stop imbibing takes her right back to Augustus and into blood magic, soul bonds, and conflict. As Fletcher pulls away from his princely obligation, he grapples with an uncomfortable truth: Augustus might not be as bad as he seems, and Elsie might be hurting more than she’s letting on.

Sam only makes matters worse when, in the wake of Clark’s blood-soaked funeral, he departs with no explanation, and Teddy is left alone on a perilous path forward, a path rife with cursed kobalde, pet barghests, and lies.

Meanwhile, the Master's growing arrogance only heightens the discord among his ranks. He rightly suspects not all who have aided him have his best interests at heart, for within the inner workings of his scheme, a betrayal has been unfolding.

When the gods step once and for all into the realm of mortals, fomenting destruction at the behest of their puppet-master, all face conflicts of fiend and friend. They'll have to decide who they can trust—and they'll have to decide fast, or risk losing not only their lives, but their very world itself.

For being so full of the dead, the Underworld is a lively place.

As a shadowy magic takes root within her, Elsie—with the help of some departed souls—begins to understand the risks of the Master’s schemes, for his corruption of the gods threatens not just Maderlav, but existence itself. Unfortunately, Elsie fears she poses a similar threat when she begins to rip holes in the Underworld itself, and souls begin to come and go from the Underworld in ways they were never meant to.

In the realm of the living, across the sea from Maderlav, Fletcher seeks allies in the Coalition. But the welcome he receives is hardly a warm one. A land controlled, it seems, by the Insidiae, he is hard-pressed to find relief from the troubles plaguing Maderlav. The elven contingent of the Coalition are equally unhelpful: reluctant to be drawn in and insistent that the gods are not forever, the vora aren’t sympathetic to violence brewing in Maderlav.

Isa and Augustus escape that same violence entirely when they are flung to the far reaches of…well, where, exactly, neither can say. But as a filament of Elsie’s shadow threatens Augustus, both are forced underground to seek a cure—and if they’re lucky, a way home.

Meanwhile, Teddy strikes up an unlikely allyship as he fights for Sam’s life, uncovering some ulterior motives for the Master’s corruption of the gods in the process. From the outer reaches of the new Guild territory to the Hidden City itself, Teddy and Sam confront truth and lies, determined not to let either break them apart again.

And of course, there is the Master himself. All schemes go sideways when the Master lays the body of his lover at Elsie’s feet, the gods raining destruction down around him in the name of revenge—a name Anscip knows better, a name synonymous with the evasive Prince of Nothing.

The third book in the Merchant series, gods and mortals clash in this thrilling story of intrigue, magic, heartbreak, and love.

When Sebastian makes an ill-fated deal with a hermit living in the ruins of the Abandoned Island, he summons a magic from the sea so powerful that even the ancient mystics could not master it.

Lee, who has loved the sea to death, finds herself face-to-face with a creature of the shadows, trapped beneath the frozen waves.

Amid the apparent danger of magic sits Emerly, himself a healer—the heartbreaking truth of magic sparks pain and reflections as he flows the woman he loves on her climb to the top.

And Ada.

Ada, whose legacy will be her father’s seat in the Guild, Ada, who has found her feet firmly on the ground amid her doubts of identity, Ada, who is testing the waters of love and affection in the face of change—it is Ada, who finds herself at the center of the storm, who must decide between protecting the budding seeds of Aerdela and saving their pasts.

Where some told the stories, to try to remember, Ada begins to wonder if perhaps, it’s best to forget.

The second in the collection of Short Stories, Storm of Ascension picks up where Festival left off. It will be available in digital and paperback formats on February 29, 2020.

The Carnival of Clouds happens each year in Caelaymnis, the newly-founded mountain city bustling with activity. It’s a time to gather by the river and invoke the votum, beings of mist that live in the river Weir. Dunk a paper lantern in the river, make a wish, and the votum will appear—and if you renege on the bargain you’ve struck, they’ll take your soul.

Brennon is in love, and he’s waiting for the right moment to announce it. The Carnival of Clouds presents such a moment—he hopes to invoke the power of the votum and gain his fathers’ approval.

Reed returns from her debut in Festival of Frost, fresh from meddling in the dreams of three human children and keen on participating in the Carnival, too. After all, it’s the perfect chance to convince Pella to move down into the new city.

Pella, Brennon’s older sibling,has other plans. They’re bound by duty to stay in the stone homes in the mountains. But after a bitter fight with Reed, Pella makes an accidental bargain with the votum, and the Carnival turns from fun and games to a fight for souls.