Enchanted Box Set

Genre: Fantasy Box Set
Length: 14 Short Stories (56,131 words)

ISBN
9781634862011

These 14 tales of fantasy and magic are sure to delight readers of all ages! From goddesses and queens, amid fairies and warriors, the strong women in these stories by best-selling author J.T. Marie explore the realms where dreams and reality meet.

Contains the following stories:

• A Hero Is Never Too Old ~ Lady Jessa thinks her husband needs more adventure in his life, but perhaps not quite as much as she believed.
  
  
• Bones of the Sea ~ A photographer discovers that in the wake of their father's death, her sister believes modern-day dinosaurs call to her from the ocean.
  
  
• Eyes Like Twins ~ Kimbra was born with golden eyes, a trait believed to belong to a legendary race of winged humans called the aerya. She never really believed the legends, until she stumbles upon the boy with wings.
  
  
• Fell ~ Two wood nymphs play a deadly game that goes farther than they anticipated.
  
  
• Gypsy Wine ~ A traveler falls victim to the legendary wine of the gypsies.
  
  
• Illusions of Betrayal ~ When her parents are killed by the court wizard, Sheila trains to regain what's rightfully hers. But the wizard she finds in the castle's parapet isn't who she expects.
  
  
• More Than Mortal ~ A local hero weds the most beautiful woman in all of Egypt, but Dendera senses there is more to the beauty than meets the eye. She's sure the woman has been trapped into the marriage, and she'll defy the ancient gods to set the captive free.
• Runes of the Quest ~ A princess needs to be rescued, of course. And if there aren't any able-bodied princes up to the task, why can't another princess be the savior for once?
• Running ~ In a distant, post-apocalyptic future, Dini realizes that some things can't be outrun.
  
  
• The Glitter Prince ~ Aren goes in search of her brother, who left to pledge himself to the Glitter Prince.
  
  
• The Key ~ When a man in the Metro station tells Adi that she has the key he needs to get home, she thinks he means the one she found that morning as she got on the tram. But the key he's looking for is one much more personal than that.
  
  
• The Shadow Fey ~ Where there is light, there are shadows. And where there are shadows, the Shadow Fey play.
  
  
• The Warrior Within ~ The Order of the Soul has been disbanded, but Jhyssa takes on an apprentice who wishes to learn the Warrior's Way. When the battlecry sounds, though, will the novice heed her teachings, or seek out her own way?
  
  

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Excerpt from "More Than Mortal"

Lying there, stretched along the wall, the limestone cool beneath her body, the cat warm beneath her cheek, Dendera felt extremely sleepy. I’ll just rest my eyes for a moment, she thought, drowsy. Just until Jabari returns.

Behind her closed eyelids Dendera saw black shadows rimmed red by the sunlight slanting through the leaves. As the cat breathed, the light shifted, the shadows moved, and she saw Thelios on a field of battle. The red light became blood seeping into sand, the shadows bodies lying dead, discarded. Thelios stood over the scene, triumphant, a foolish grin spread across his Grecian face. The men under his command were scattered around the field, cheering in the summer sun, proclaiming their victory to the gods.

A tall hedge of papyrus stood nearby and Thelios turned toward it, wiping the blood from his heavy battle ax onto the grass. Movement in the hedge made him pause and he straightened slowly, his ax ready for attack. Parting the hedges, he saw the back and tail of a large feline. Without a thought, he raised the ax higher -- the Egyptians held cats in high regard but the blood fever of war still sung in Thelios’s veins and he was no Egyptian, despite his claims to the contrary. It was just a cat -- no one need know.

Dendera’s brow creased in consternation. She knew Thelios’s thoughts as if they were her own. Although she wanted to cry out, to warn the cat and spook it into flight, she couldn’t. But as if it heard her unspoken warning, the cat looked back over its shoulder. Its face was that of a woman’s, with beautiful eyes as large as lotus petals and dark hair cascading down her shoulders and back to blend into sable fur. In those eyes, Dendera could see the immortal waters of Chaos shining like the Nile. A coy smile toyed at the edges of the feline’s lips as she studied Thelios. Shocked, he lowered his ax and reached for her -- she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

But she turned around and, with a flick of her tail, was gone.

Dendera smiled. Beneath her, the cat’s purr grew louder, erasing the scene of battle. Now stars littered the sky, illuminating the same hedge in the dark of night. Vaguely she could see the shadow of a man, sitting still, waiting. Soon a large feline sidled into view, sniffing the reeds. The cat did not see the man until it was too late -- as it neared his hiding place, the man leaped out of the reeds and lunged for it. With a burst of speed, the cat was off, but he held one of its front paws tight in his fist -- the cat dropped to the ground and twisted, claws raking the man’s face as he clamped something onto the cat’s forepaw. Then he fell back and waited.

Free of the man’s grip, the cat tried to run but could not. Something dark and slippery twisted itself around the cat’s paw, circling its arm. As Dendera watched in horror, the cat seemed to fold into itself, paws and face buried against its chest. Its sable fur drew up towards the head, leaving soft pale flesh in its place. The body lengthened -- Dendera heard quiet sobs of pain as bones crunched, stretched, and molded into new shapes. When the man approached, the cat reached out to claw at him but instead of a paw there was a delicate hand, its short nails useless against Thelios. He lifted the body and Dendera gasped. What was once a cat was now a lovely Egyptian woman, the fur now long hair, the eyes mortal and human.

A gold band wrapped itself snugly around the woman’s upper arm. In the form of a snake, its tail in its mouth, the band twisted itself around her skin. Though she pried at it fiercely, tearing her nails until they bled, the band would not come off. Thelios carried her away.

Abruptly, the rhythmic purring ceased. Startled, Dendera opened her eyes to find she had been asleep -- the light slanted sharply through the leaves and she heard soft footsteps nearby. Jabari, she thought. As she lifted her head, the cat bolted from under her, and before she could catch herself, she fell from the wall into the garden. Twisting quickly, she landed on her feet. Pain shot up her legs and into her thighs from the impact of her landing, and she knew it wasn’t Jabari she had heard.