Cirrus@Austlit

'Viv is on day release from jail to attend the funeral of the drunken thug she thinks is her father, when a stranger appears at the grave and offers to reunite her with the mother Viv thought dead. Desperate to find the only person who’s ever loved her, Viv agrees, and is wrenched through a rift into the male angel fold of Ezam. The stranger is an angel and her father, and that makes Viv a half angel or daimon. Nor is this Viv’s only shock. She discovers Ezam is just one of the countless worlds or folds, that make up the uncountable worlds of the Rynth.

'Her father, the powerful Archae Kald, appoints his handsome protégé Thrisdane, a lower order angel, to train Viv for the long and difficult journey through the rifts to her mother. It is a journey that, once accomplished, will speed Thris and Archae Kald’s quests for transcendence. But life in Ezam can be perilous. There are angels there who believe daimon are abominations that must be destroyed, and even Thris’s closest friends, Ash and Ky, see Viv as a threat.

'Thris is kind and caring, and totally unlike the men Viv has been with before. He strives to keep her safe but Viv has lived on the streets and is both damaged and untrusting. She is also crippled by guilt over the accident that landed her in jail.

'Nor is Viv what she seems. Her name, Violet Iris Vacia, hints at a deeper mystery that, as her latent angel traits emerge and Thris’s desire for her grows, brings terrible risks to their journey through the Rynth. Disaster follows disaster until Viv ends up alone in a terrifying fold of creatures that are half beast and half man. And as they slowly close in, she fears that being part-divine, might not be enough.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Viv is lost and alone in the Rynth. Thris is gone, his exquisite body torn apart by a beastman, and borne away by Ash and Ky. Without Thris, Viv’s chances of finding her mother are zero. The best Viv can hope for is to find a fold where her angelic traits go unnoticed. She transits on but each new fold holds more perils than the last.

'Ash and Ky deliver Thris’s ravaged body to Crystal Fold but the Principae return a very different angel to Ezam. Ordered back into the Rynth by his furious mentor, Archae Kald, Thris retraces his route in search of Viv. As Shadow, Ky must go too, but terror consumes him and plunges them both into danger.

'Ash continues to draw on the Blue Helixai’s resonance and is rewarded with visions of his friends in the Rynth, but his new-found powers pull him into Kald and Dejon’s destructive rivalry. The appearance of white plumage in his wings increases the risk to him from those who seek his destruction.

'Thris finds Viv, but her joy in his return is short-lived. He is terribly altered and she decides to continue alone but then, in a moment of star-filled beauty, they make love as angels do. They go on together, but come under attack and Viv crashes through into another fold.

'There she finds a child, the sole survivor of a massacre and, desperate to atone for the accident that jailed her, sets off with the child deeper into the fold.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Viv’s life has just got a whole lot more dangerous. Her pledge to care for a child means she must put the child’s needs above her own and delay her search for her mother and the beautiful Thris. She nicknames the little girl Poss and heads for Esh-accom where the Scharii say Poss’s surviving family might be. But Poss falls ill and desperate to save the little girl’s life, Viv calls on her thieving skills and is captured.

'To make matters worse, her captor is from the camp she accidentally blew up, the man who pursued her on horseback, the man she only escaped thanks to the pig-bear attack. Yet mystery surrounds him. While he aids Poss, Viv is forced to make a bargain with him that will have terrible consequences.

'Viv has had little to do with children and Poss is very untrusting, but as they journey on, love grows between them. They fight their way over hazardous ridges but as they near Esh-accom’s safety, are overtaken by Waradi fighters. The fighters are on the run with Eshadi fighters hot on their heels, and while Viv manages to hide Poss, she is taken prisoner.

'The Waradi don’t get far before the Eshadi catch them and a massacre follows. The Eshadi leader believes Viv is in league with the Waradi and, only prevented from executing her on the spot by one of his men, condemns her to a slower, more painful death.

'In Ezam, Thris struggles to care for Ky, who is so traumatised by his travels in the folds, that he flees in terror and accidentally transits again. Thris pursues him and they find themselves marooned in an alien fold. After a long search, they discover a way out, but it bears all the signs of a death-trap.

'Ash is unaware of his friends’ plight. Desperate to find reasons for the plumage of ascension in his wings, he goes to the White Helixai, but its pristine pools of pure light rob him of memories of the outside world and of the angels there he loves. And as time stretches away, and he sinks deeper into a trance, the words of his blue angel predecessor, Senquar-archae, that light is the lure and light the trap, might well prove prophetic.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Viv thought things couldn't get any worse, but she is about to be proved wrong.

'Disfigured by the ordeal she has somehow managed to survive, she realizes her grotesque appearance prevents her continuing her search for her mother and ends any hope of a future with Thris.

'But Viv's angel blood is strong and, aided by its healing, she sets out to find the little girl. She is helped by a man whose kindness is something she has never experienced before, and love blossoms.

'He demands her trust, but haunted by images of witch-burnings, Viv daren't reveal what she really is.  Complications multiply until being with him, and the child she loves, seems all but impossible.

'Thris is bound by his pledge to guide Viv to her mother, and returns, but his search for Viv ends so catastrophically, that he yearns for death.

'All Viv's nightmares come true when she discovers his fate, but saving him, might cost the lives of countless others.

'In Thris's absence, Ky and Ash uncover warnings about a trinity of angels the three of them resemble but who disappeared eons before in mysterious circumstances.

'The warnings about their fate are fragmentary, as if they have been deliberately destroyed.

'Can Viv save the angel she loves? Or will she lose him and everything else she has come to care about?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It seems Lady Luck has smiled on Viv at last. Or has she?

'When Viv is offered the chance of a home with the little girl she loves, she grabs it but then the child is snatched. To rescue her, not only must Viv battle the little girl's enemies, but those who love the child as well.

'The perilous quest leaves Viv horribly injured, and she ends up in a world where she is offered the opportunity to finally heal herself. It means opening herself to terrible new risks but also the possibility of securing the little girl's safety, once and for all.

'She returns to the child's world but is pursued by those who believe she holds the key to their deepest desires and, as their threats escalate to violence, Thris reappears. Viv's happiness soon turns to dread, as he reveals a threat that could destroy the little girl's world, as well as his own.

'Thris joins with Ky and Ash in a desperate fight to avoid the impending catastrophe and as events build to a climax, Viv prepares to sacrifice everything for those she loves.

'Will Viv's search finally deliver her the loving home she craves? Or will she, and those she cares about, end their lives in the cataclysm that threatens?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.