SHADOWS OF THE BLOODLINE
Seventeen-year-old Rune Weaver thought his biggest problem was surviving senior year at New Haven High. Then a shadow creature attacked him in the school parking lot, and a mysterious man saved his life by throwing fire from his bare hands. Now Rune knows the truth: he is descended from an ancient line of sorcerers called Etherwind, and the darkness that destroyed his ancestors five hundred years ago has returned.
He is not alone. Four other teenagers across the city have just discovered their own magical heritage, each from a different Etherwind bloodline. Together they are the last hope against Grimfall, an ancient force of living darkness that feeds on fear and despair. But learning magic is not like the movies. Their powers are wild and dangerous, and every spell they cast brings them closer to the madness that consumed their ancestors.
As the shadows spread across New Haven, turning ordinary people into mindless thralls, Rune and his unlikely allies must master their abilities before Grimfall completes its return. They have six weeks until the convergence, when the barrier between worlds falls completely. Six weeks to become the sorcerers their bloodlines demand. Six weeks to save everyone they love from being swallowed by eternal night.
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Chapter: CHAPTER 7The truth about GrimfallAERIS I looked at each of them in turn, five broken kids with no idea what they were capable of. "Five hundred years ago there were five families of sorcerers called Etherwind. They controlled the elements, light and shadow, earth, air, and fire. They protected humanity from supernatural threats for generations, the most dangerous threat was something called Grimfall, an ancient darkness that exists outside normal reality. It feeds on fear and despair and it wants to unmake existence itself.""That's impossible," Kaladin said, but his voice shook."You saw the footage of your parents kidnapping people," I replied. "You know something is wrong, you just don't want to admit how wrong."Kaladin's face went pale, and he didn't argue further."The Etherwind fought Grimfall for decades," I continued. "Hundreds died trying to stop it. Eventually they realized it couldn't be destroyed, only contained. Five sorcerers volunteered to become vessels. They trapped Grimfa
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 6 EILISH GRAVESAERISEilish Graves was the hardest one to find. She'd been through so many foster homes that the system had trouble keeping track of her. She was sixteen years old, a russian immigrant who had her father deported and her mom have been missing.I found her in a foster home on the east side. It was a small house with three other foster kids. I waited until after midnight and slipped inside through an unlocked window.Eilish was having a nightmare. I could hear her whimpering from down the hall. I made my way to her room and opened the door carefully.She was thrashing in her bed and was sweating like she was roasting on top fire. Her hands were clenched into fists, and smoke was rising from her palms. I took a step back, flabbergasted. The sheets beneath her hands were starting to smolder."Eilish," I said quietly. "Wake up."She didn't hear me. The smoke turned to flames, and they spread across the sheets, toward the pillows and toward her face. In seconds, the whole be
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 5 Four Others AERISI stood in the center of the old subway platform. I'd spent three weeks preparing this space; there was training equipment lined the walls, weapons racks, and first aid supplies. I had to stack up everything that would be needed for five untrained teenagers to learn how to fight an ancient evil in six weeks. I coughed into my hand and then my fingers were stained with my blood. My chest burned where the old wound lived, the one that never healed properly because I'd tried to become a vessel twenty years ago and failed. The ritual had rejected me and left me with this slow death instead. I had maybe two months left.But the convergence would happen in six weeks, so it didn't matter. I'd be dead either way. At least thisway I could die doing something that mattered. At least, I could try to save these kids from making the same mistakes I did.I thought about Tiago, my little brother. He'd been twenty three when Grimfall corrupted him during the last incursion. I rem
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 4 The Library GhostWILDERThe New Haven Library closed at nine, but I knew how to get in through the basement window. I'd been doing it for two years and nobody had caught me yet.The librarians probably knew someone was breaking in because I always left things slightly different from I found them, but they never said anything. I was high when I climbed through the window. I started taking drugs to take the edge off the constant noise in my head. My mom was said to have extrasensory perception, and I inherited it, having intense visions that came with crippling migraines. The weed helped with the visions and my dealer Rune, had good stuff.The back corner of the basement was where they kept really old books, the ones nobody checked out anymore because they were falling apart or written in languages most people didn't read.I called it the magical section, but not because the library labeled it that way. I called it that because every book I pulled from those shelves gave me visions.
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 3 Home Is HellRUNEThe apartment building looked worse in the dark. There was peeling paint and broken windows covered with cardboard, graffiti on the walls that made the crumbling stones look even more ugly. I pulled into the cracked parking lot and sat in my car for a moment while staring up at the third floor where a single dim light glowed through our window.Home.The word felt wrong in my mouth. I never saw this place as a home, to me, it was just your walls and a roof that barely kept the rain out. I flexed my fingers on the steering wheel, wondering if I should just sleep in the car and go up. My frost-burned wrist had turned from purple to a sickly gray color that looked infected.I needed to wrap it in something before my parents saw, not that they would notice, or would care.I grabbed my backpack from the passenger seat and shoved the card Aeris gave me into the front pocket, the address was burned into my brain already but I didn't want to lose it. Tomorrow night at eigh
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
Chapter: CHAPTER 2The Stranger's StoryMy instincts kicked in before my brain could process what just happened. I didn't want to listen to the rest of his jargons. I just wanted to be far from him and this madness as fast as possible. I slammed my foot on the gas pedal, and the Honda roared to life. I didn't care about the broken window or the frost burns spreading up my arm or the man standing in the middle of the parking lot watching me with an eerie smile on his face. The car lurched forward. I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white.As I was about to zoom outside of the park, red-hot fire erupted in front of my car.A wall of flames shot up from the asphalt and blocked the exit. The heat was intense even from inside the car. I slammed on the brakes and my tires screeched against the pavement. My chest hit the steering wheel hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs."What the hell," I gasped.The man walked around to my side of the car. The flames behind him died down but d
Last Updated: 2025-12-07
