book cover of Darkness Awakes
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Darkness Awakes

(2016)
(The fifth book in the Blackwell Magic series)
A novel by

 
 
An old evil is rising. When Ryan Blackwell defeated the apparition at Northshield, he learned that it was only one of many beings trapped on the other side of a magical barrier. Winning the battle was not the same thing as winning the war.

Now those creatures are stirring, and this time they have help from the mortal world. Humans who have been wooed into serving the monsters with promises of power. Their goal - nothing less than smashing down the barrier, and releasing a horde of hungry demons into our universe.

Ryan stood his ground against one apparition, but his powers would be like a candle in a hurricane against the massed might of his enemy. The barrier must be defended, no matter the cost. But will the price be one Ryan is willing to pay, when the Darkness Awakes?

Excerpt from the book:
I spread my focus as thin as I could over the existing spells and then raised power into the wind and waves just south of their boat. The water surged toward them, rising into a ten foot wave. It crashed along their starboard side, spinning the boat a quarter of the way around and knocking men flat when it broke over their side. At the very least, they were cold and wet now. They swung the nose back around to follow me, but I'd put some extra distance between us.
Then I brought my full concentration back to what I was doing - and realized to my horror that I was too late! I'd taken too long with the wave spell. The wind had grown a little bit too strong, and my boat was inches away from tipping over. Panicked, I dropped the wind away entirely. That was the second worst thing I could have done. Instead of lowering back to the water slowly, the rising side of the boat - the one I was hiking out over the water on - crashed back down into the oncoming waves. The sail swung around. All of the tension in the line I was holding vanished in a moment, and I fell into the ocean.
The water around me was cold enough to be shocking after the warm summer air. I was surrounded by bubbles everywhere, and for a moment I couldn't tell which way was up. I relaxed and tried to let myself rise back to the surface, but I hadn't had time to take a full breath. My lungs were already burning. I blinked, caught a glimmer of sunlight, and kicked toward it.
I bobbed up above the water, gasping for air. A wave crashed over my head a moment later, filling my mouth with brine and driving me back under the water. I kicked upward again. My boat was only about fifteen feet away, the sail flapping limply in the wind. I swam a couple of strokes toward it, but it was moving away from me faster than I was closing with it. A glance back over my shoulder showed me that the speedboat was back under their control and coming straight at me.
Fighting to stay atop each wave - they seemed to be growing larger by the moment - I drew on more power. It looked like they were going to get the showdown they wanted, after all...


Genre: Urban Fantasy

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