The Zero Enigma

Emily is a teenage girl pulled from our world into a world of magic and mystery by a necromancer who intends to sacrifice her to the dark gods. Rescued in the nick of time by an enigmatic sorcerer, she discovers that she possesses magical powers and must go to Whitehall School to learn how to master them. There, she learns the locals believe that she is a "Child of Destiny," someone whose choices might save or damn their world... a title that earns her both friends and enemies. A stranger in a very strange land, she may never fit into her new world... and the necromancer is still hunting her. If Emily can't stop him, he might bring about the end of days.

Brimming with new ideas for magical research, Emily returns to Whitehall School for her Second Year, only to discover that things are going to be different. Her friends have become sports-mad fanatics, her new roommates are strangers to her, her new classes are far harder and one of the teachers seems to actively dislike her. As she returns to the comforting routine of the only place she considers home, she finds that Second Year will be far harder than the first.

But as the students settle in to continue their studies, it rapidly becomes clear that all is far from well at Whitehall. There's a murderer running loose in the school. A murderer who may be a newborn necromancer. And then there's the spy watching Emily from the shadows, waiting for her to make one tiny, but fatal mistake ...

As the darkness falls on Whitehall, Emily may be their salvation...or the person who damns them all.

A plot is being hatched at Mountaintop Academy, a plot that threatens the lives of Emily and her friends... and the integrity of the Allied Lands. In a desperate bid to uncover the secrets of Mountaintop, and recover her stolen notes, Emily goes undercover into Mountaintop, a mission that may cost her everything...

In the summer between Second and Third Year at Whitehall, Emily accompanies Lady Barb on her rounds of the Cairngorm Mountains bringing magical help to the locals and searching for new magicians. For Emily, tired and broken after the events of Study In Slaughter, it should be a chance to relax as well as a visit to a new part of the Nameless World, to put her responsibilities aside and just be herself.

But the locals aren't quite what she expects, with problems of their own, while Lady Barb is a different person away from Whitehall. As children start to go missing and evil things are abroad in the night, Emily discovers that a deadly plot is slowly bringing the mountain community to the brink of disaster ...and that her oldest enemies are about to make a very unwelcome return.

After completing her first year of learning magic at Whitehall School, Emily accepts an invitation from Princess Alassa to accompany her on her progress back to her home country of Zangaria, where the princess may meet her future husband. Alassa, who was a spoiled brat before she met Emily, wants to show off her friend – and impress potential suitors.

For Emily, it is a chance to relax and explore a world very different to Earth, meet new people and come to terms with her reputation in the Nameless World. After her defeat of Shadye, everyone wants to know her, to talk with her, to kill her ... or to marry her. For Emily, hardly a social butterfly, the experience is disconcerting. She was never seriously courted before, not on Earth.

And yet, as she sees more of the countries surrounding Whitehall, she feels more and more out of place. The locals come from a very different culture, one that is often strange and horrifying to her eyes. Even her friends seem different people in their homes.

But dark forces are at work, plotting to capture the princess, take power in Zangaria ... and undo all of Emily's work. As all hell breaks loose, Emily may be all that stands between Zangaria and a return to the dark ages of brute force that threatened to lay the kingdom low, once before. And if she fails, her friends will be just the first victims of a war that will rip the Allied Lands apart.

Two families, alike in dignity...and armed with powerful magic.

The Magical Families of Ashworth and Ashfall have been feuding for countless years, ever since something happened to split one family into two. Now, they have been invited to Cockatrice Faire... when no other magician would dare invite them both. And when it becomes clear that the Ashworth Heir and the Ashfall Heir have fallen in love with one another, Emily finds herself caught in the middle between two powerful families, each one capable of destroying her once and for all...

After her victory over Master Grey, Emily wants nothing more than to relax and give herself time to recover from the duel. Her magic, pushed to the limits, is no longer reliable, forcing her to learn to control it from scratch. Every time she delays using her magic, she risks headaches ... or worse. But she must return to Whitehall to complete her fourth-year exams and bid farewell to those of her friends who are not returning for fifth year. And then, she must return to Zangaria to play her role in Princess Alassa's wedding to Jade. It seems, if nothing else, a brief diversion before she goes off on a tour of the Allied Lands.

But all is not well in Zangaria and the kingdom is fast approaching a major crisis. Junior aristocrats are demanding their rights and titles from the king, while King Randor himself is dangerously unstable and hiding a secret that could spark off a civil war ... and the peasants are threatening to revolt. Emily herself is isolated, unsure how to balance her obligations to her closest friends with her belief in freedom, justice and democracy.

And, as Emily finds herself used as a political pawn by the different sides in the growing dispute and no longer sure who she can trust, she may find herself confronting a choice between doing the right thing, regardless of the cost...

...And losing everything she's built over the past four years.

An all-new story arc begins here! The new Grandmaster of Whitehall doesn't want Emily in his school. She's dangerous, he thinks. The only way he'll allow her to return to Whitehall is if she chooses to be a probationary student, a student who can be expelled at the slightest excuse, a student who has to work for one of the professors. Reluctantly, unwilling to leave her first true home, Emily accepts. But she rapidly discovers that she's about to be pushed right to the limit. She's expected to do her studies, continue her private research... and mentor a group of young students who are new to the school. She has to supervise them, all the while trying to balance her schoolwork with her growing relationship with Caleb. It isn't an easy task. And when Professor Locke starts opening the tunnels under the school, hunting for the lost secrets of Old Whitehall, he triggers a series of disasters that threaten to tear the school apart. As the staff and students struggle to survive, with the very walls collapsing in around them, Emily is forced to solve a disturbing mystery... ...And figure out what it has to do with her private research, before the entire school comes to a final catastrophic end.

Their past is not what they think it is...

Thrown back in time after the spells binding Whitehall School together nearly collapsed, Emily finds herself in the days of Lord Whitehall. But everything she knows about the past is a lie. The Whitehall Commune is in hiding from a great and terrible foe, while some of the legendary founders bicker like children and others call on deadly and untrustworthy entities with agendas of their own.

Desperately seeking a way back to her own time, her mere presence a boon and a curse to established history, Emily is drawn into a conflict against both rogue wizards and a mysterious force intent on exterminating all magicians before the future school can take shape. But as deadly powers converge on the castle, her time is running out...

...And, deep beneath Old Whitehall, something dark and dangerous is about to be born.

Note: Discounted for a limited time as consideration for those readers who have been patiently awaiting publication of this book.

The Nameless World Goes to War!

The necromancers have finally resumed their assault on the Allied Lands, sending a mighty army across the Desert of Death and into the Kingdom of Tarsier. Countless farms, villages and towns have already been destroyed as the host makes its way northwards, striking deep into the kingdom’s most vulnerable lands. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, thousands more will be killed when they are sacrificed for power. If the necromancers win the coming battle, it may be the beginning of the end...

When Sergeant Miles invites her to join the coalition force, Emily reluctantly accepts. The necromancers have to be stopped, even if it means taking time off from school to serve as the sergeant’s apprentice. But with arguing aristocrats, reluctant soldiers, fearful civilians, shadows from her past, a dangerously-sane necromancer and treachery in the ranks, stopping the invasion may cost Emily her life...

The war is over. But the scars remain.

Emily’s New Learning has been good for Beneficence. In the years since she arrived on the Nameless World, the city has been at the forefront of technological advancement and social development. Thousands of newcomers are moving to the city, railways span the gorge and drive into Zangaria, the first steamboats are plowing the ocean wave and a whole new banking system is reshaping national and international trade. A true golden age appears to be on hand.

But all is not well. The city’s largest businessman may be on the verge of collapse, the city guilds are weakening, religious fanatics stalk the streets, and there are rumors that one of the Great Gods has returned to judge everyone. The streets are on edge. No one knows which way to turn.

Emily returns to Beneficence for Casper’s funeral before she goes back to school. But, as she is drawn into a political, social and religious meltdown, she finds herself dealing with the darker consequences of her innovations, people who blame her for the problems facing the city, religious fanatics, her boyfriend’s family...

...And a deadly plot from the dark past that may lead the Nameless World to utter ruin.

Frieda is one of Emily’s closest friends, a young girl she saved from Mountaintop and brought back to Whitehall. But Frieda found herself the victim of a deadly soul-destroying plot - and the true target may well be Emily herself. Now, after Emily saved Frieda from a magician who was slowly driving her mad, Frieda stands accused of attempted murder - and worse. She must now stand trial for her crimes.

Worse, Fulvia - Matriarch of House Ashworth - has returned. Humiliated by Emily, years ago, Fulvia burns for revenge - and the chance to regain her lost power. Calling in favors from all over the world and rigging the trial against Frieda - and Emily - it looks as if her time is finally at hand. With no clear proof of Frieda’s innocence - and a jury that can be manipulated at will - Fulvia has all the leverage she needs to bring Emily to heel.

Gathering her friends around her, and calling in favors of her own, Emily must find a way to outwit a kangaroo court and save her friend from a fate worse than death, little realizing that Fulvia’s true target is Emily herself ...

... And that Fulvia’s desperate quest for revenge will bring the entire world crashing down.