Showing results by author "Auburn Tempest" in All Categories

I survived the first semester and, despite Dean Belmont's agenda and the Celestial Council's misogynistic belief that women are the weaker sex and incapable of harnessing power, I showed them how wrong they are. The Plus One taunting has ended, and instead of disdain, the looks being thrown at me heading into the second semester are wary and confused.
Doesn't matter. After the explosion I caused during the end of the semester skills test, I'll probably be expelled.

When a back-alley brawl leaves me marked with a bizarre Celtic crest on my back, I become a beacon for all things whacked and weird. My dad is obviously freaked when he sees the tat, but he won't discuss it. So, I do what any stubborn redheaded lass would - I ignore all advice and fly to the Emerald Isle to get answers. And yeah...you know that saying about hindsight being 20/20? True story.

They came for my twin and left me behind because women hold no power in the magi world. They're about to find out how wrong they are... Jesse Storme. Bartender. Rock-climber. And the girl left behind. One minute, Wyatt and I are scaling our favorite rock peak and enjoying a moment of escape from our crappy lives. The next, we're attacked and my brother is gone.

When Garnet brings Team Trouble in to investigate a string of discarded bodies, none of us likes where the evidence points. My Spidey-sense says something isn't right. In the human realm, the evidence doesn't lie. In the empowered realm . . . nothing is as it seems.

I have family I didn't know about, a magical heritage laying its claim, and a mystery I apparently need to solve. But when a back-alley brawl leaves me marked with a bizarre Celtic crest on my back, I become a beacon for all things whacked and weird.

The moment you let your guard down and think you've got a handle on life—you jinx it. I bust my butt on the daily, smoothing the rough edges after moving in with the boyfriend, making amends to angry empowered ones, and patching things up with hostile in-laws. Things are good on the home front with my job, family, and friends. I've got this, right? Wrong. Cue the centrifuge of life spinning me around while the gods point and laugh. Or, in this case, the goddess. Hecate, Goddess of Witchcraft and Magic, deity of night and ghosts, supreme tormentor of friends.

Life is a balance—at least that's what I'm told by people smarter than me. Try as I might to spend quality time with Sloan, family, friends, and companion animals, my magnet of mayhem often has other ideas. Adulting is hard. So when I move an adolescent dragon into my backyard, why don't I anticipate the craziness that will ensue? Maybe Sloan's right and I am ridiculous. I like to think I'm an optimist. Either way, it takes a group effort to figure out the mess we find ourselves in and what to do about it.

Growing up with five older brothers taught me how to take a hit. Lucky for me because the hits I take as a druid make me yearn for the good old days of sucker punches, rope burn, and steamroller.

The focus of my life as an urban druid is to stand as a guardian of nature. The focus of my life as Fiona Cumhaill to stand as a guardian of my family. Seriously. Don't screw with my family. It's a no-brainer, drop everything, and take up the fight topic for me—If you need me, I will come. So, when darkness conspires to overtake the light and people I love are sucked into the wake of evil, the Toronto crew grabs the go-bags and answers the call.

Since being marked as the heir apparent, I've been stabbed, kidnapped, black-listed, tortured, targeted, and accused of being the cause of pretty much every magical mishap that's hit the streets of Toronto. To some, I'm a nuisance, to others a curiosity, and others still - a problem to be eliminated. Whatevs, haters gotta hate.

We all make mistakes, but for most of us we die and they're forgotten—not so if you're immortal. For gods and immortals, grudges live forever. One moment of poor judgment, a lack of understanding, or simply being oblivious to what's going on around you can elevate you to the top of someone's to-do list. Be careful who you piss off. Amid murder, ex-lovers, jewel heists, and much, much wine, the Cumhaill fam jam stays the course of fighting the good fight and standing behind our friends. Ni neart go cur le cheile . . . There is strength in unity.

The Culling draws ever nearer—looms really—like a big, fat cloud of doom. With evil brewing, our enemies grow bolder, the warriors of light and dark scramble to be ready for the Winter Solstice, and the Cumhaill fam jam digs in to face the battle of our world's alignment. No biggie . . . Team Trouble is on it. For now, the human populations remain oblivious to the imminent battle to come. If we continue to do our jobs right, it'll stay that way. What you don't know won't hurt you, amirite?

On a good day, wearing the Fianna mark tosses me into topsy-turvy trials. It's a scramble but I manage to hold it together with the help of amazing family and friends: mythical, magical, and mortal. But despite best-laid plans, collateral damage occurs.

When the magical energy of New Orleans redlines, Team Trouble responds. Caught between three hostile factions of empowered citizens—witches, wolves, and vampires—we scramble to figure out who's leaving bodies littered around the French Quarter. Navigating the crypts, catacombs, and a cagey council doesn't go our way. Big Easy my ass. Secrets, vendettas, and undead armies make solving this one dangerous not only for us, but for the empowered sects that don't want our help. Whatevs. When the world gets mean, we tighten our ranks.

Meet Fionna mac Cumhaill, an urban druid coming into her powers and trying to master them. She has a family she didn't know about, a magical heritage laying its claim, and a mystery she apparently needs to solve.

With the magical veil between our world and the fae realm down, the life we live has gotten weirder by the day. Imagine cloud shape bawdiness, venomous invaders sneaking through tears in the fabric between worlds, and waking up to realize San Francisco isn't where it was the night before. Yeah, lost a city? Call 1-800-Team-Trouble. Handling the whacked and weird of the world is my wheelhouse.

In life, you start off and get what you get—that's fate. Then you grab the reins and steer your path—that's free will. Fate versus free will . . . it's mind bendy. But what if you want to change your stars? When a gathering of reapers descends on Toronto, and a mass-death is pending, Clan Cumhaill fights through kidnappings, betrayal, and death to discover what will cause the disaster. Is it a vampire war, the theft of a powerful artifact, or an empowered icon gone rogue? There's no way to know until the danger unfolds.

In the past two years, I leveled up as a kick-ass urban druid and became the leader of the Fianna Warriors my ancestor Fionn mac Cumhaill needed me to be. The thing is—four months ago everything changed. The veil between realms came down. With dormant genes waking, the dominant races jockeying for their place in the hierarchy, and the world around us pulsing out of control with power, my position as the Fae Liaison of Toronto has gotten off to a chaotic start.

The world is about to tilt on its axis. Good versus Evil. Light versus Dark. There's a balance to the world's alignment and every thousand years the Earth Realm, the Fae Realm, and the Spirit Realm collide, igniting a period of rebalancing. And while the empowered sects battle for a stronger foothold and fight to find ways to strengthen their forces, the humans go on living blissfully unaware. Which is good. Blissful ignorance is exactly where we want them to be . . . Well, some of us, anyway. As the volatility rises, the aggressive races protest.

My outlook on life isn't complicated - any day that passes when nobody tries to kill me or someone I love gets put into the "good day" column. Simple, right? Lately, good days have been hard to come by. Since I totally ignored Da's warning three months ago and flew to Ireland to embrace our super-secret heritage, I've seen the world in a different light - a mythical and magical light. I am a Druid.