In this steely and intense novel from New York Times bestselling author L.A. Banks, lust, envy, and revenge prove to be the most lethal weapons of all... Secret government operative Sasha Trudeau arrives at the scene of a murder, only to discover that a Fae creature has been killed—in a whole new kind of way. What is the meaning behind this mysterious ritualistic killing? What did the victim do to deserve it? Sasha fears that the Vampires and Unseelies have formed an unholy alliance...and they're ready to unleash their darkest arsenal of magick yet. Teaming up with her mate and fellow Shadow Wolf, Max Hunter, Sasha tries to penetrate the paranormal community for clues. Meanwhile, members of the Wolf Clan are turning against one another as they race to uncover the meaning behind an ancient Unseelie curse. Even Sasha is not immune to this powerful magick, and soon finds herself drawn to a sensual, dangerous dance—one that could cost her own life...

In tiny Blacklin County, Texas, a curse is nothing more than a four-letter word hollered in a barroom or muttered in the heat. So Sheriff Dan Rhodes is more curious than concerned when he dutifully responds to a complaint of witchcraft. When Dr. Samuel Martin, the local dentist — and unpopular landlord — claims he's been hexed by a tenant, Rhodes does his best to smooth things out between the distressed D.D.S. and the would-be witch. But in two shakes of a black cat's tail, the good doctor disappears... and his wife turns up bludgeoned to death. For Rhodes, it means there's a bad moon rising over Blacklin County. And now he's got to do the voodoo he does best — asking pointed questions and extracting the painful truth from some tight-lipped suspects who also bite...

A wizard compelled to kill. A slaughter he vowed to prevent. A murderer who pissed off the wrong guy… Bib the sorcerer hates how much he loves his job. Cursed by the God of Death to collect lives, he focuses their thirst on snuffing out only lowlife losers and contemptible ass-clowns. But when innocents under his protection are brutally murdered, Bib flips the switch on the ultimate revenge spree. Bent on obliterating the bum responsible, Bib is more than a little miffed when he discovers the shocking truth about his own degenerate nature. But knowing the type of killer he is inside, the reluctant hero won’t be stopped until he mows down every evil dude in his path. Can Bib fight his way to redemption before he loses his soul to bloodlust? Death’s Collector is the first book in the darkly humorous The Death-Cursed Wizard fantasy series. If you like snarky heroes, top-notch magic systems, and epic sword and sorcery, then you’ll love Bill McCurry’s addictive tale. Buy Death’s Collector to flirt with darkness today!

She's not their long lost fairy princess. She's their executioner. I'm cursed. Cursed to kill with a touch, and to feel every last emotion of my victims. I was sure my life couldn't get any worse until a man appears in my bed . . . and not in a good way. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in a world straight out of ancient myth, and these freaks expect me to be their executioner. A normal person would run screaming into the night, but there's something about tall, dark and alluring Alaric that's giving me pause, and it isn't the fact that he turns a little feline from time to time. Plus, I can't help thinking that if I finally learn about my parents, I might find a way to break my curse . . . assuming the curse doesn't break me first.

Al is a holy knight, a warrior charged with protecting the innocent from the hordes of ravenous monsters terrorizing the lands. He was, anyway… After being bitten by an undead creature, Al dies–but not for long. Al awakes as an undead, cursed to live an undying life as a mindless monster. However, unlike ordinary undead, for some mysterious reason he retains his mind and sanity. Three hundred years later, flesh rotting off to reveal a living skeleton, Al meets Astrantia. As a descendant of a witch, Astrantia offers to restore his body on one condition: he must agree to become her knight and help her put an end to the unholy curse once and for all. Alongside Astrantia, Al enters an academy for training saints—teams of holy knights and holy women who fight to rid the world of the undead. Al must hide his identity as an undead—the very thing everyone in the school seeks to eradicate—in order for Astrantia to succeed and keep her word. Keeping his secret under wraps proves to be as difficult as hiding his lack of flesh but, if there’s one thing he can’t hide, it’s the strength he’s been honing for the past three hundred years!

Even after being transformed into one of the Twelve Corpses, Al remained a holy knight, and to this day, he fights to protect humanity. After defeating the Pestilent Guardian Dragon, he and his master, the holy woman Astrantia, were granted the title of White. Not long after, they encounter the newest duo to join the Twelve Saints: Theophilus, a member of the Twelve Corpses like Al, and his holy woman, Nemophila. Despite Theophilus’s constant obedience, Nemophila requests Al to kill him. Amid a holy woman’s plot to kill her holy knight, Al and Astrantia take on a mission to kill yet another member of the Twelve Corpses—the One-Armed Giant. They must navigate this complex web of circumstances and do everything in their power to ensure humanity’s safety!

When Rebekkah returns to her small-town home for her beloved Grandmother’s funeral, she little suspects that she is about to inherit a darkly dangerous family duty on behalf of Claysville’s most demanding residents – the dead.

Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award! A debut novel for fans of The Fault in Our Stars that thoughtfully and humorously depicts teen Ricky Bloom's struggles with a recent chronic illness diagnosis. "Silverstein sheds a powerful light on disease and how managing it can bring out one’s inner warrior. A blistering coming-of-age tale that will propel readers into Ricky’s corner." -Booklist As if her parents' divorce and sister's departure for college weren't bad enough, fourteen-year-old Ricky Bloom has just been diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness. Her days consist of cursing everyone out, skipping school--which has become a nightmare--daydreaming about her crush, Julio, and trying to keep her parents from realizing just how bad things are. But she can't keep her ruse up forever. Ricky's afraid, angry, alone, and one suspension away from repeating ninth grade when she realizes: she can't be held back. She'll do whatever it takes to move forward--even if it means changing the person she's become. Lured out of her funk by a quirky classmate, Oliver, who's been there too, Ricky's porcupine exterior begins to shed some spines. Maybe asking for help isn't the worst thing in the world. Maybe accepting circumstances doesn't mean giving up.

This is a book about curses. It is not about curses as insults or offensive language but curses as petitions to the divine world to render judgment and execute harm on identified, hostile forces. In the ancient world, curses functioned in a way markedly different from our own, and it is into the world of the ancient Near East that we must go in order to appreciate the scope of their influence. For the ancient Near Easterners, curses had authentic meaning. Curses were part of their life and religion. They were not inherently magic or features of superstitions, nor were they mere curiosities or trifling antidotes. They were real and effective. They were employed proactively and reactively to manage life’s many vicissitudes and maintain social harmony. They were principally protective, but they were also the cause of misfortune, illness, depression, and anything else that undermined a comfortable, well-balanced life. Every member of society used them, from slave to king, from young to old, from men and women to the deities themselves. They crossed cultural lines and required little or no explanation, for curses were the source of great evil. In other words, curses were universal. Because curses were woven into the very fabric of every known ancient Near Eastern society, they emerge frequently and in a wide variety of venues. They appear on public and private display objects, on tomb stelae, tomb lintels, and sarcophagi, on ancient kudurrus and narûs. They are used in political, administrative, social, religious, and familial contexts. They are the subject of incantations. They are tools that exorcise demons and dispel disease; they ban, protect, and heal. This is the phenomenology of cursing in the ancient Near East, and this is what the present work explores.