Fairy Bond - Book Two of The Key to Embralia Trilogy

Marcos Witherings seems to have had at least a partial change of heart after his capture, but could it all be an act? Is it really wise for Kelly to begin a cross-continental journey to find her father based only on information from Witherings himself? Kelly knows that Witherings could still be doing his own fairy father’s bidding, and that any course of action he suggests could be a trap. Even so, it’s a gamble she’s willing to take.

Pale Ants

When fifteen-year-old Alessandro Dunaro enters the military academy in the hopes of earning his father’s respect, he has no idea that the man he so desperately wishes to please, the great General Dunaro, is an impostor. Alessandro’s real father is long dead, and that secret is just one of many that the general would kill to protect.

Alessandro has always felt like a freak thanks to his ultra-pale complexion, his hypersensitivity to light, and his uncanny sense of hearing. He has never had a reason to suspect that his condition is anything other than a genetic accident. That is, not until the first week of military training, when he overhears a military officer ask why Alessandro’s father took a “weakly pale ant child and raised it as his own.” 

Alessandro is used to names – “snowy,” “cloud boy,” “snowflake”  – but “pale ant” is different. Uttered with such a hushed shiver of contempt, he instantly knows it is more than a run-of-the-mill slur. Pale ants are something secret. Something dangerous.

When confronted, the general is less than forthcoming about pale ants, dismissing them as a bogeyman-style legend. He tells Alessandro that the overworked miners in deep underground caves have been known to mistake shadows for men. Something about the general’s explanation doesn’t sit right with Alessandro, and a gnawing doubt overtakes him.

Determined to find answers, Alessandro makes a perilous journey to the caves. What he finds is an alien, yet familiar world, populated by people who look just like him but who view him as an outsider – or worse, as an enemy. Caught between two groups headed for mutual destruction, will Alessandro be a catalyst for peace or for annihilation?