Dust of a Moth's Wing by R. Ramey Guerrero

SPFBO8

The age of Fire begins in six days. For fifteen hundred years, Slate and the other rebels have trained students to return Fire’s energy to the city of Wen. All have failed. Only one is left, and Nokhum’s past is less than ideal. If he cannot convince the Council of Elders to allow Fire magic to return, chaos will claim the city. The rebels are determined to avoid that end- even if it means sacrificing his student to chaos’s demons to make the Council believe Fire’s energy is necessary. Magically talented people are disappearing. Nokhum is convinced that his life-mate is still alive- no matter what everyone else says. Human slavers who salivate for magical beings have taken her. Realizing the Council of Elders will not help him, he seeks forbidden magics to find her. His plans are derailed when Slate sends him out of the city for training. Will his time in the Whisperwood be his undoing?

Always Beside You by Damir Salkovic

Help her open the door. It wants to come through… First, the dream. Now this message from the mouth of a stranger. It was too much of a coincidence for Nate Carver, and has him dropping everything to help a woman he hasn't even thought about in eight years, not since the overdose that almost took Cathy Deveraux's life. The prison escape of Thomas Elbert stirs up memories for Detective Alec Palmer, and the man's death raises questions. Why would a catatonic convicted killer suddenly wake up and escape, only to commit suicide days later? Or was it murder? And what connection did he have to Nate Carver, a man on the run with a daughter he never knew he had? All roads lead to Boston, where, in their search for answers, they will be drawn into the dark world of the occult and mysticism. Of parallel worlds and alternate realities. Of doors that open onto other times and other worlds. Of dreams that won’t be denied. By the time they realize they are merely pawns in a much bigger game, a game where the fate of the world is at stake, will it be too late?