An Inside Look at Eyes of Fractured Crimson & the World of Alkadin

Welcome to another Book Club Conversation with The Page Ladies Book Club!

This time, we’re stepping into the gritty, emotional, multifaceted world of Alkadin with author Travis Stevens, whose debut novel Eyes of Fractured Crimson kicks off the Love Lost series.

Magic, mystery, found family, morally gray characters, yearning, spice, tabletop RPG-inspired worldbuilding, and enough unanswered questions to keep readers theorizing long after the final page?

Yes, please.

We talked with Travis about where the idea for Ekocia came from, Jett’s mysterious crimson eye, the importance of found family, writing morally gray characters, building a magic system from familiar phrases, tabletop RPGs, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, his favorite fictional characters, his TBR, the future of the Love Lost series, and the deeply personal journey that brought him back to writing.

So grab your favorite reading beverage and settle in because this one is a deep dive.

✨ Meet Travis Stevens

For readers discovering your work for the first time, how would you describe Eyes of Fractured Crimson in three words?

Emotional, gritty and multifaceted.

And honestly, we think those three words make a pretty intriguing introduction.

🌎 Building Alkadin

What first sparked the idea for Eyes of Fractured Crimson and the world of Ekocia?

All of it started with a simple question:

“What happens when magic causes a cataclysm so large that it reshapes the world itself?”

I sat on the question for several days, considering what different cultures and personalities might think about that cataclysm. Some cultures and governments would shy away from all magic, others might lean into it in order to harness that power for their own agendas.

This led to a spiral of questions and the generation of the different countries of Alkadin.

Ekocia, where Eyes of Fractured Crimson primarily takes place, took a heavy-handed control position on magic but still allows its use for government purposes.

Erobis, where our gang of misfits ends up, is much more relaxed and often is the place refugees end up.

Kinneqar, where everyone’s favorite bisexual problem Rinko is from, has a total ban on magic use with punishment being execution.

The countries of Usathon and Votala haven’t been explored by Jett and crew yet, so I won’t spoil their stances too much.

All of that to say, I took basic human reactions to a perceived threat and extrapolated them out to what felt realistic and interesting.

If you could spend one day exploring Ekocia, where would you go first and what would you absolutely want to see?

In the country of Ekocia, I’d love to visit during the festival that takes place at the beginning of Eyes of Fractured Crimson.

In the broader continent of Alkadin, I would love to visit Vighram.

I can’t say too much about the city of Vighram without spoiling it, but let’s just say that sometimes truth is far stranger than fiction.

Fantasy readers love discovering a new magic system. How did you approach creating the rules and limitations surrounding magic in Alkadin?

I took several common phrases that everyone would know and twisted them into something more tangible.

“Time heals all wounds” suddenly turned into the deity of time also being the one who controls the flow of healing magic in the world.

“Love is blind” became magic that could literally blind its victims.

Sooner or later, these simple phrases evolved into an entire system that I slowly incorporated into the characters’ lives.

👁️ Jett, Secrets & Consequences

Jett’s crimson-colored eye appears to be at the heart of the mystery. What can you tease readers about what makes it so important without giving anything away?

In this world, exceptionally strong magic is often accompanied by some kind of physical difference in the person who is gifted.

Jett has heterochromia with a very unusual coloration but somehow has never manifested any magical gifts.

I mean, he does hear voices from time to time, but that certainly doesn’t have anything to do with it…

👀

We’ll just leave that there.

Jett has been forced to hide something that could put both his life and his father’s life at risk. What interested you about writing a character who has to live with such a significant secret?

This is a tough one, not because it’s hard to explain, but because it’s too easy to find examples of.

Many people across the world have been marginalized because of something they couldn’t control about themselves. What color skin they had, what culture they were born into, who they are attracted to all of these things are outside of human control.

I wanted Jett to have something so benign in our real world, something we might even think was beautiful, to be the very bane of his existence.

How did you balance Jett’s personal journey with the larger mysteries and conflicts happening around him?

This is a wonderful question.

So often we watch movies, shows or read books where everything in the main plot/conflict just sort of “happen” to the characters.

Don’t get me wrong, those kinds of stories are great sometimes, but I wanted Jett, Adelia and Sirene to make decisions that truly changed the world around them.

By making those choices along the way, there’s no option but to learn and grow from them as a person and in their overarching relationship.

Just like in real life, everything that happens to them is an opportunity for growth along the way.

❤️ Found Family, Romance & Morally Gray Characters

Your book features found family, strong female characters, morally gray love interests, and why-choose romance. Which of those elements was the most exciting for you to explore?

I love a morally gray MMC just as much as the next reader, but to have one be an ass-kicking FMC instead? That was very intriguing to me.

Equally interesting was the FFM polyamorous dynamic that just gets started in Eyes of Fractured Crimson. It will be one of the key focuses in future books in the Love Lost series.

I wanted the relationship to be a true equal triad where all members of the relationship have equal footing and are respected as members of the relationship and as individuals.

I wanted to focus on real conversations between them while still considering the fantasy world as well.

Found family is one of the elements readers are drawn to in fantasy. What does found family mean to you as a storyteller, and what makes those relationships compelling to write?

My circle is small and full of chosen family, so it comes very naturally to me to write found family in my works.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on your perspective, my life experiences aren’t unique.

So many of us were born into families that have severe dysfunction in them and turn to close friends and lovers to become what we need in our lives.

I think people read what they can relate to, even remotely, and so many of us have struggled with finding our people in the crazy world we live in.

Of course no one can relate to having true magic, but many of us can relate to having a neglectful home life and finding surrogate families outside of our bloodline.

Morally gray characters can be some of the most fascinating characters in fiction. What makes a morally gray character interesting to you rather than simply good or evil?

True good and true evil are extremely rare in humanity.

I’ve personally stared into the eyes of both in my career as a paramedic.

We’re all some shade of gray, especially from other people’s perspective.

I find the ones in stories of all kinds most interesting because most of the time we can see things from their perspective and understand their actions.

We may not agree with them, we may not have made the same decisions ourselves, but we can see the path they took to get to where they are.

My favorite thing about morally gray characters is when they do something horrific and potentially unforgivable for the most righteous reasons.

Casteel from Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series is one of my favorite examples.

I won’t spoil anything too much in case someone hasn’t read them, but his actions regarding those who threaten Poppy early on is perfect.

He executes his comrades for threatening her, attempting to harm her and one of them for simply throwing an insult in the wrong direction.

Casteel knows that if he doesn’t get his people to fear Poppy through their fear of what he might do to them, then she won’t survive.

So, he makes an example and does so in publicly brutal fashion.

I’ll finish this long ramble with a question:

How much evil is acceptable if you know the outcome will be righteous?

Now THAT is a book club discussion question.

What do you think makes a romantic interest memorable, especially when you’re writing characters who may not always make the “right” choices?

Yearning and devotion.

We all want to hear about characters who are absolutely in love and completely devoted to their romantic partners.

The setup to that, and what really sets many characters apart, is the yearning for each other.

Everyone loves to read about a character who can’t stop thinking about the last time they kissed their partner, or the last time they smelled their perfume.

As humans, we just want to be the center of someone’s universe because we understand that we are small, insignificant and without a doubt, not the center of our universe at all.

🧩 Creating Characters Who Feel Real

You’ve said you believe every character deserves a complex history and personality. How do you make sure your characters feel like complete people rather than simply serving the plot?

Allow me to peel back the curtain inside the mind of a madman for a moment.

Every character that has a name in my work is given a backstory.

It may be somewhat simplified but they at least get the following:

• Goals

• Personality traits and quirks

• Physical appearance

• Likes and dislikes

• A few paragraphs about where they come from and where they’re going

It sounds complex, and it is sometimes, but for the most part this could be a single sheet of paper with all the notes on them listed out.

I always leave room for adding more to their story if they end up being more important or on page more than I expected.

Plot device characters are essential, but if you start with “someone has to do this thing” and develop them further, you’ll be surprised how much they evolve.

When you're creating a new character, what usually comes first for you: their personality, their history, their role in the story, or something else entirely?

Usually, some combination of their role in the story and their history.

I use those two as a launching point for developing their personality.

Were there any characters who surprised you while writing Eyes of Fractured Crimson by becoming more important, complicated, or different than you originally planned?

Lorwa Copperfoot surprised me for sure.

I had a plan for her and the significance of the Copper Taphouse in the beginning, but she changed that for me about halfway through the first draft.

She’s going to be important throughout the series now and in a way that I definitely didn’t see coming, but I won’t spoil any more than that.

🌍 Worldbuilding & Controlled Chaos

Does the world come first for you, or do your characters tend to lead you into the world you eventually build around them?

I love to build worlds.

Generally, I spend time building a world and then creating interesting character(s) and then shoving them into the middle of a situation.

After that, I just write and see where they might end up.

I think that’s why my world feels so much more alive than other worlds do.

Are you a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere wonderfully chaotic in between? How much does your original plan change once your characters start getting involved?

I have a total of five things the trio of main characters must accomplish before the end of the series in order to fulfill the story.

How they get there, who they take with them and how long it takes to get there are all up to them.

Every day that we spend with Jett in Eyes of Fractured Crimson is another day that the bad guys are also working toward their goals.

I truly don’t know exactly what the ending of the series will look like because I don’t know when our heroes will finally face down the true villain.

Adelia is by far the most problematic character for my plans.

She’s unassuming, she’s allegedly just an apothecary’s daughter who happens to have some elven heritage.

Her destiny keeps throwing wrenches in everything I try to plan and I love it.

The chaos is where the magic truly happens.

🎲 When Fantasy Meets Tabletop RPGs

You have a background in tabletop RPGs. How has that experience influenced the way you approach fantasy storytelling and worldbuilding?

I absolutely believe being a DM of several campaigns over the years helped shape me as a storyteller.

As a DM, my job is to put myself in the shoes of many different characters.

This allows me to write in a way that gives each character, no matter how little they appear on page, a backstory and personality.

Every character with a name in my books has a completely fleshed out backstory, personality, and their own goals.

As someone with a tabletop RPG background, do you ever approach your characters or worldbuilding as though you're creating a campaign complete with backstories, rules, factions, and secrets?

Absolutely.

I don’t write LitRPGs, but the backbone of this story is built directly on the foundation of running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

The key to creating a world that feels alive is making sure that every person in it has their own lives before they show up on page.

It’s so in depth that I may, or may not, be working on a collection of interconnected but independent prequels…

👀

Tabletop RPGs often create unexpected moments because players make choices the storyteller didn't anticipate. Do your characters ever do something similar to you while you're writing?

One of the best parts about TTRPGs is the role the dice play.

A single bad, or good, roll can change everything about an encounter.

Rinko is the perfect example of how I use that chaos to create better stories.

There’s a moment where Rinko spots someone while playing lookout in the first half of the book.

I rolled dice next to my laptop to decide if he was going to be able to spot the incoming attacker.

He had to roll at disadvantage rolling twice and taking the lower result and he rolled two natural 20s on the d20.

That’s about a 1 in 400 chance of happening.

It was my job to figure out how in the world he was going to spot someone who’s an expert at using their magic to hide in plain sight.

So, suddenly, Rinko is someone who likes to smoke from a pipe from time to time.

Trust me, that will all make much more sense after you read the book.

If Eyes of Fractured Crimson were turned into a tabletop RPG campaign, what part of Alkadin would you most want players to explore?

I would love for players to walk through the halls of Vighram.

It’s one of the cities I’m most proud of creating and we don’t even get to see it in the first book.

When Jett gets there, be ready for me to ramble about the beauty and the culture that built it for a while.

⚔️ Writing Action, Romance & Spice

Your book combines fantasy, romance, mystery, danger, and spice. How do you balance those different elements without letting one overshadow the others?

It can be a bit of a trick to balance so many elements of the story.

I generally have a rough goal of how much of the book I want to have each element and then attribute each chapter to those goals.

I go back through the book as I’m drafting and award points for each chapter on how well it fills the category.

As a note, a chapter may receive points for more than one category.

If a chapter is strictly romance and spice, then it would get a point in each category while not adding anything to the others.

At the end of the first draft I double check the tally and make sure I don’t need to add or take away any scenes to better give the story a balance across the goals.

In fact, Eyes of Fractured Crimson was going to be much spicier, but after examining the overall work and comparing it to what I was trying to achieve I decided to cut some scenes.

Don’t worry though.

Those scenes still exist and will absolutely come back around.

When you aren't writing or reading, you can often be found training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Has that experience ever influenced the way you write action, physical movement, conflict, or character discipline?

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has a funny way of working its way into everything you do once you’ve committed yourself to training.

It definitely influenced every fight scene in the book but it also worked itself into the confident aura that Marv and Sirene both have.

If you get the chance to talk to someone who has spent their lives training to fight, they generally try very hard to avoid fighting.

Marv loves the thrill of the fight but knows that every second that a fight goes unfinished could result in disastrous outcomes.

Sirene has a similar mindset but has her magic to help the process along, where Marv has a hammer.

What part of writing this book came most naturally to you, and what part made you want to throw your laptop across the room?

The conversations between Adelia, Jett and Sirene were the easiest to write by far.

I never struggled with writer’s block or anything like that, but their scenes were always easy and flowed like water.

The ending was the hardest part and it’s not even a contest with any other part of the book.

I didn’t want it to end there at all.

I wanted it to end about where chapter 5 of book two ends instead.

However, that break wouldn’t be nearly as impactful as where it does now.

I decided to make the readers a promise at the end of book one and answer that promise at the beginning of book two instead.

🔍 Questions, Theories & Secrets

You’ve said you want to create worlds that keep readers talking and theorizing long after they finish reading. What makes a story especially fun to theorize about?

When an author can lay groundwork all the way in book one of their series that matters in book six, seven or eight.

That is my favorite part of many current best-selling fantasy and romantasy series.

Right now the most talked about would be the “Maasverse,” since we are all anxious to get our hands on the next several books.

People are still pulling single lines from ACOTAR and creating full theories that have consequences into the entire universe she’s created.

My personal favorite right now is Mor from ACOTAR being a witch.

Personally, I think that’s what Eris is keeping secret for her and why Rhysand talks about her being the failsafe.

All of this is important because it forces the reader to ask questions.

I want my readers to feel the need to ask those kinds of questions, and I want to give them just enough information to feel confident they should ask them.

I want my reader to be the dog on a treadmill chasing after a treat that’s tied just out of reach.

The treat is the answer to all of their burning questions and it’s their job to keep chasing it and keep coming up with different ways to get closer and closer to it.

You’ve said that the best books are talked about and theorized over as much as they are read. What is the one thing you hope readers will be talking about after finishing Eyes of Fractured Crimson?

Why does the god of time want an emperor dead and why can’t he do it himself?

And now we have a question for the group:

WHY?!

Without spoiling anything, is there a detail in Eyes of Fractured Crimson that you especially hope readers notice or pay attention to?

Everything in quotation marks and italics is telepathic through a bond.

Consider that your official observation assignment.

💕 Looking Ahead: The Love Lost Series

What is something you wish readers knew about the Love Lost series before starting the first book?

The entire story is built from one question that exploded into a million others.

If magic in this world is tied to emotion, what happens when Love is lost?

What can you tease about what readers can expect next from the Love Lost series?

As the series progresses readers will get plenty of mystery, suspense and epic worldbuilding.

Readers should be ready to face down the most vile and evil antagonist I could come up with.

I’ll take you to Vighram as promised but we’re also going to some other amazing places, each with their own cultures and peoples.

The betrayals will cut deep and the pain will feel very real.

The romance is going to be sweet and spicy with lots of yearning and devotion.

Above all, I want the readers to understand that this is Jett, Adelia and Sirene’s love story.

They are end game, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy road for them.

I’ll leave readers with a promise.

In my books, evil will never prevail but sometimes the cost is so great, it might make you question if it was worth it to defeat them.

📚 Travis Stevens as a Reader

What kind of reader were you growing up, and what books or authors helped shape your love of fantasy?

I was a ravenous reader as a child until about middle school.

My first dip into the fantasy pool was Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

I was so invested in the world and I remember being instantly captivated.

I stopped reading for twenty or more years though and only in the last few years have I found my love for it again.

A couple years ago, my wife started reading again and I followed shortly after.

That’s when I found romantasy and I knew I had found my new favorite genre.

Like many other millennials, it started with A Court of Thorns and Roses.

From there it branched into the rest of the “Maasverse” and I’ve never been the same.

Those books will always have a special place in my heart but Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series is where I found myself truly represented.

It’s my dream to get the chance to meet Mrs. Armentrout and thank her in person for putting this absolute gem into the world:

“Make sure she knows that I am the Chosen, the One who is Blessed…”

—Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Crown of Gilded Bones

What fictional character from another book would you love to drop into the world of Eyes of Fractured Crimson just to see what kind of chaos would unfold?

Carrion Swift from Callie Hart’s Fae and Alchemy series.

Definitely one of my all-time favorite side characters and I think him and Rinko would be a problem in the best way if they met.

If you could have one magical ability from your own world in real life, what would you choose?

This is a tough one.

If I could only choose one, then it would be Sirene’s shadow magic.

There’s so much more to it than what she could show in book one and I think many people will agree with me by the end of the series.

If your characters could sit down for dinner with you, who would be the most entertaining guest and who would you absolutely not trust around the silverware?

The same person for both questions:

Marv.

First, he might be tempted to use the silverware as a catapult to launch food at whoever happens to be annoying him at the time.

He would also have some of the best stories, but you’d have to get him drunk enough to tell them first.

What is your ideal reading atmosphere: complete silence, music, coffee-shop noise, curled up with a blanket, or something else?

If I’m reading a physical book I prefer complete silence.

Most of my reading is done via audiobook with my wife and I sharing a set of headphones.

We’re most likely to be listening while we are doing another project and it’s far easier for me to focus on auditory input than visual.

What is currently on your own TBR pile that you're excited to read?

I finished Shifter Awakened by ML White a few weeks ago and I’m waiting to get out of my drafting phase before picking up the next book in her series.

I don’t often gravitate towards shifter romances, especially those in a more YA style, but I thoroughly enjoyed Shifter Awakened and I can’t wait to dive back into the series.

⚡ The Page Ladies Rapid-Fire Round

Dragons or vampires?

Dragons.

Hero or morally gray antihero?

Morally gray antihero.

Found family or enemies-to-lovers?

This is like choosing between my two favorite things in the world…

Found family.

Magic academy or mysterious forest?

Magic academy.

Paperback or ebook?

Paperback.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee.

Annotate your books or keep them pristine?

Pristine.

One giant book or an entire series?

Series.

Character-driven or plot-driven?

Character-driven.

Would you rather live in your fictional world or visit it for one day?

Visit.

What fictional character would you trust with your life?

Adelia Neverin.

What fictional character would you absolutely not trust with your snacks?

Cassian from ACOTAR.

Honestly, we're going to need to protect the snacks.

✍️ Advice for Aspiring Authors

What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author who is dreaming of seeing their own book on the shelf someday?

Stop worrying about whether or not you’re picking the perfect words, just write and hire an editor to help you later.

Simple.

Direct.

And probably something a lot of aspiring writers need to hear.

❤️ The Story Behind the Story

What is one thing you’d love readers to know about you, your books, or your journey that we didn’t ask?

I started writing when I was a young child in middle school.

It was a lot of fun and a great way for me to escape the realities of my home life at the time.

When my mother found out I was writing instead of watching my younger siblings, she deleted my files and smashed the family computer in front of me.

Twenty years later, my wife and I were talking about that moment.

I was recalling it and laughing about how crazy it was, somehow finding the humor in the madness.

My wife was horrified.

She and I have been together since we were 18 years old, we just turned 35 and somehow she still hasn’t heard every story of how I was treated.

She asked me a simple question:

“Do you still want to write?”

And I shrugged.

After considering it for several minutes, I told her that I did want to write again someday but I didn’t know when.

The next question she asked was so profound that it spurred me into action:

“Why are you letting someone who isn’t in our lives anymore have so much power over something you loved to do?”

The next morning, I opened the first Microsoft Word document and started writing.

After 67 days of being absolutely obsessed with creating this world, I turned Eyes of Fractured Crimson into the editor.

For weeks I was just a tornado of thoughts, notes and a flurry of typing.

I want someone who feels the same way I felt but maybe doesn’t have a person in their life like my wife to take that advice.

We don’t have to let the people who hurt us continue to do us harm now.

Write that book. Paint that painting. Sing that song. Play that music. Do what you love and set yourself free because you are worth it.

And we think that might be the perfect place to end this conversation.

🍂 Upcoming Events & Releases

Festival of the Turning Leaves

📍 Thorntown, Indiana
📅 September 26, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM–5:00 PM

If you’re nearby, this is a chance to meet Travis and learn more about Eyes of Fractured Crimson in person.

🎧 Audiobook Release

The audiobook for Eyes of Fractured Crimson is coming October 2026, with the exact release date still to be announced.

It will be performed by Rebecca Cutler — @rebeccanarrates on Instagram.

📚 Book Clubs: There’s Something Special for You

Travis also offers discounts to book clubs that select Eyes of Fractured Crimson as their group read.

If your book club is interested in learning more, you can reach out directly:

📧 tstevens.author@gmail.com
📸 Instagram: @tstevens.author

Because honestly, this feels like a book that was made for discussion.

Magic systems? Check.

Mysteries? Check.

Found family? Check.

Romance and yearning? Check.

Morally gray characters? Absolutely.

Questions that will make everyone stare at each other across the table and say, “Okay, but what if…?”

Definitely.

🛒 Get Your Copy of Eyes of Fractured Crimson

Paperback & Ebook:
Purchase Eyes of Fractured Crimson on Amazon

Hardcover:
Purchase the hardcover through IngramSpark

The hardcover is also available through Amazon under a separate listing.

🔗 Connect With Travis Stevens

🌐 Travis Stevens' Website

📚 Travis Stevens on Goodreads

📸 Instagram: @tstevens.author

💬 Keep the Conversation Going

Now that you’ve gotten the full behind-the-scenes look at Eyes of Fractured Crimson, we want to know:

What are you most curious about exploring in Alkadin the magic system, the mysteries surrounding Jett, the found family, the romance, the morally gray characters, or the larger world itself?

And perhaps the most important question Travis left us with:

How much evil is acceptable if you know the outcome will be righteous?

That one might need its own Book Club Conversation.

What happens when magic reshapes an entire world and leaves behind secrets that readers are still trying to uncover?

For this month’s Book Club Conversation, we’re stepping into the world of Ekocia and talking with author Travis Stevens, author of Eyes of Fractured Crimson, the first book in the Love Lost series.

With gritty fantasy, found family, strong female characters, morally gray love interests, a developing why-choose romance, and a magic system built from familiar phrases turned into something much more tangible, Eyes of Fractured Crimson is the kind of story that invites readers to look closer and start asking questions.

We sat down with Travis to talk about the world of Alkadin, Jett’s mysterious crimson eye, tabletop RPGs, building a fantasy world designed for readers to theorize about, and the very personal journey that brought this book into existence.

And trust us… there’s plenty more where this came from.

✨ Three Words for Eyes of Fractured Crimson

If you’re discovering Travis Stevens and Eyes of Fractured Crimson for the first time, how would he describe the book?

Emotional. Gritty. Multifaceted.

Honestly, that feels like a pretty good introduction to what awaits readers in Alkadin.

🌎 Welcome to Alkadin

The entire world of Eyes of Fractured Crimson began with one deceptively simple question:

What happens when magic causes a cataclysm so enormous that it reshapes the world itself?

From there, Travis began exploring how different cultures, governments, and people might respond to something that fundamentally changed their world.

Some societies would fear magic and attempt to eliminate it. Others would embrace it and try to harness its power.

That thinking eventually grew into the different countries of Alkadin.

Ekocia, where much of Eyes of Fractured Crimson takes place, takes a heavily controlled approach to magic while still permitting the government to use it.

Erobis is considerably more relaxed and often becomes a refuge for those fleeing elsewhere.

And then there’s Kinneqar, where magic is completely forbidden and the punishment for using it is execution.

There are still other countries waiting to be explored, including Usathon and Votala, so Travis is keeping some of their secrets safely tucked away for now.

What started as a question about magic became an entire world shaped by very human reactions to fear, power, control, and the unknown.

👁️ The Mystery Behind Jett’s Crimson Eye

Jett’s unusual crimson-colored eye immediately raises questions.

In Alkadin, exceptionally powerful magic is often accompanied by some kind of physical difference in the person who possesses it. Jett has heterochromia with an extremely unusual coloration, yet he has never manifested any magical abilities.

Well… unless you count the voices he occasionally hears.

But surely those aren't connected to anything important, right?

Right?

We’re not saying you should start theorizing.

We’re just saying the evidence is sitting there.

💫 Found Family, Romance & Morally Gray Characters

One of the elements Travis found particularly exciting to explore was turning a familiar fantasy-romance dynamic on its head.

While morally gray male main characters are certainly nothing new to romantasy readers, Travis was intrigued by the idea of a female main character who could be just as if not more dangerous.

The book also begins developing an FFM polyamorous relationship that will become an important focus throughout future books in the Love Lost series.

Rather than treating the relationship as simply a romantic plot device, Travis wanted to explore it as an equal triad, with every member having equal footing, respect, individuality, and a voice within the relationship.

And importantly, he wanted the characters to actually talk to one another.

Imagine that. Characters communicating. 😂

The goal was to balance those real conversations and relationships with the fantasy world surrounding them.

🎲 From Dungeon Master to Fantasy Author

Travis’s experience as a tabletop RPG Dungeon Master has also had a major influence on his storytelling.

As a DM, he has spent years stepping into the shoes of countless characters, each with different personalities, histories, motivations, and goals.

That experience carried directly into his writing.

According to Travis, every named character in his books has a fully developed backstory, personality, and their own goals, regardless of how much or how little they appear on the page.

Which means that random character who says three sentences and disappears?

There might be an entire life story happening behind those three sentences.

And now we’re wondering what else Travis knows about everyone walking around Alkadin. 👀

🔎 Stories That Make Readers Theorize

One of Travis’s favorite things about fantasy series is discovering that something mentioned casually in an early book eventually becomes important several books later.

He wants Eyes of Fractured Crimson and the Love Lost series to create that same experience for readers.

The goal is to give readers enough information to make them question things, theorize, connect details, and wonder whether something they noticed three hundred pages ago might actually matter.

In other words: Travis wants readers chasing answers.

And if you’ve ever finished a fantasy book and immediately started searching for theories, rereading suspicious sentences, and interrogating your friends about what you think something means…

You may have found your kind of fantasy.

🏰 If You Could Visit Ekocia…

If Travis could spend an entire day exploring his own world, he’d love to experience the Festival of the Turning Leaves, which takes place at the beginning of Eyes of Fractured Crimson.

But if he could travel anywhere throughout the broader continent of Alkadin?

Vighram.

He isn’t giving away much about the city because doing so would spoil some of what readers will discover.

His only hint?

Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.

And naturally, that only makes us want to know what’s hiding there even more.

✨ A Magic System Built From Familiar Words

Fantasy readers know that a memorable magic system can completely change how we experience a world.

For Alkadin, Travis took familiar phrases and transformed them into something tangible.

For example, “time heals all wounds” became a connection between the deity of time and the flow of healing magic.

“Love is blind” became magic capable of literally blinding its victims.

Those simple phrases eventually developed into an entire magical system that became woven into the lives of the characters.

It's a clever reminder that sometimes the most interesting fantasy ideas can begin with something we’ve heard a hundred times before.

💌 The Story Behind the Story

One of the most moving parts of our conversation with Travis wasn't about magic, worldbuilding, or romance at all.

It was about why he started writing again.

Travis began writing as a child in middle school. Writing gave him an escape from a difficult home life, but when his mother discovered he was writing instead of watching his younger siblings, she deleted his files and smashed the family computer.

Years later, Travis was telling his wife about the experience, remembering it almost as a strange story from the past.

His wife asked him a simple question:

Did he still want to write?

His answer was yes.

Then she asked something that changed everything:

Why was he allowing someone who was no longer in their lives to have so much power over something he loved?

The next morning, Travis opened a blank Microsoft Word document and started writing.

Just 67 days later, after becoming completely immersed in creating the world, he sent Eyes of Fractured Crimson to his editor.

And that is perhaps one of the most powerful things about this entire conversation.

Sometimes the thing we loved gets tangled up with the people or circumstances that hurt us.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that the door is closed.

And sometimes opening that door again starts with one person reminding us that what happened to us doesn't have to own what we do next.

Travis's message to readers is simple:

Write the book. Paint the painting. Sing the song. Play the music. Do what you love and set yourself free.

You are worth it.

🍂 Upcoming Events & Releases

Have Eyes of Fractured Crimson on your TBR? Here are a couple of dates to keep an eye on:

Festival of the Turning Leaves
📍 Thorntown, Indiana
📅 September 26, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM–5:00 PM

Audiobook Release
🎧 Coming October 2026
📅 Exact release date to be announced
🎙️ Performed by Rebecca Cutler, @rebeccanarrates on Instagram

📚 Book Clubs, This One’s for You

If your book club is considering Eyes of Fractured Crimson for a group read, Travis offers discounts to book clubs that select the book.

Interested in learning more?

📧 tstevens.author@gmail.com
📱 Reach out to @tstevens.author on Instagram

Because we love a book that comes with built-in opportunities for discussion, theories, relationship debates, magic-system analysis, and at least one person saying, “WAIT. GO BACK. I THINK I CAUGHT SOMETHING.”

🔥 Want the Full Conversation?

This is just the beginning.

The complete Book Club Conversation dives even deeper into Travis’s creative process, characters, worldbuilding, magic system, future plans for the Love Lost series, and the questions book lovers really want to ask an author.

✨ Come join The First Editions and unlock the full interview!

If you love discovering new authors, getting behind-the-scenes conversations, digging into fantasy worlds, and having the kind of book discussions that turn into “okay, but hear me out…” theories, this is exactly what we created The First Editions for.

📖 About Eyes of Fractured Crimson

Eyes of Fractured Crimson begins a fantasy journey through the world of Alkadin, where magic has reshaped nations, relationships, and the lives of those who possess it.

With found family, dangerous magic, morally gray romance, strong female characters, and secrets waiting to be uncovered, the Love Lost series invites readers to look beneath the surface and keep asking questions.

🛒 Where to Find Eyes of Fractured Crimson

Paperback & Ebook:
Available through Amazon.

Hardcover:
Available through IngramSpark, with the hardcover also available through a separate Amazon listing.

🔗 Connect With Travis Stevens

🌐 Website: tstevens.author-pages.com
📚 Goodreads: Travis Stevens
📸 Instagram: @tstevens.author

💭 Now We Want to Hear From You…

What grabs your attention first when you pick up a new fantasy the magic system, the worldbuilding, the characters, the romance, or the mystery?

And if you could spend one day exploring any fictional fantasy world, where would you go?

The next Book Fairies book of the month is The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow!

Get it on amazon, kindle, or audible here.

Get it from my favorite women-owned indie bookstore here.

If you are not yet a Book Fairies member, you can upgrade your membership in your Bindery account. We hope to see you inside!

Happy reading!

October Book Club Options

Hey folks,

It's time for us to vote on what we'll read as a community throughout October!

We read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller for our September read, and I found it to be a well-written, satirical look at war, bureaucracy, the military-industrial complex, and the American psyche.

If you haven't read Catch-22 and are a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, I think you'll really enjoy it.

We've got six titles up for vote in October. As always, I combed meticulously through my personal collection to find stories that felt curious and intentional and would spark broad discussion in the community Discord.

The ability to vote, and tkae part in the discussion channels unlock at the paid tiers, so if you're a "Follower", you'll need to upgrade to join in with the rest of the community to discuss the book throughout the month.

Along with the book club discussion, becoming a paid member gives you access to the full Discord experience where we share book recommendations, set up buddy reads with fellow members, talk about pets, sports, and everything else cool humans chat about!

All that said, here are the titles we'll be voting on for our October book club read.

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor's astonishing and haunting first novel, is a classic of twentieth-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his inborn, desperate fate. He falls under the spell of a "blind" street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter, Sabbath Lily. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Motes founds the Church Without Christ, but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God. He meets Enoch Emery, a young man with "wise blood," who leads him to a mummified holy child and whose crazy maneuvers are a manifestation of Motes's existential struggles.

Ginster by Siegfried Kracauer

Ginster is a war novel about not going to war; about how war, far from the front, comes to warp every aspect of outer and inner life and to infect the workings of language itself. The subject is World War I, but this novel by the brilliant twentieth-century sociologist, journalist, and film critic Siegfried Kracauer, first published in 1928, has as much to say about what it means to live under the sulking great powers and blood-imbrued satrapies of today as it does about the inflamed self-righteousness of late imperial Germany. In Ginster, as in Greek tragedy, massacre occurs offstage, arriving only as "news," but the everyday horror of a society engineered for the continual production of violence is not to be denied. Ginster, the Chaplinesque antihero, intent chiefly on saving his own skin, works hard to keep his distance from the war machine, and yet making a living, he discovers, is all about keeping it running. How different, in the end, is his dreamy self-absorption from the empty military language that has come to pervade every aspect of civilian life in the homeland?

May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry

A curator spends her days reconstructing the past—selecting and carefully arranging furniture, fabrics, and fragments of daily life to bring medieval rooms back to life. Whether it’s a feast with spilling platters or a table for two littered with small hints of intimacy, it must appear as if the people have just left the room.

After accepting a commission to work on the private quarters of a medieval palace, the curator becomes absorbed in the story of a king almost forgotten by history. As she studies the traces he left behind, the boundary between her own life and his begins to blur.

The King is an unlikely ruler: a man with little appetite for power, hurried to the throne after the sudden deaths of his brothers. At court, doubts about his judgment are whispered from chamber to chamber. Then an unthinkable possibility emerges among the gossip: maybe someone else will take the crown.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

In an extraordinary feat of narrative invention, Philip Roth imagines an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to heroic aviator and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh. Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

When she was only twenty-three, Carson McCullers's first novel created a literary sensation. She was very special, one of America's superlative writers who conjures up a vision of existence as terrible as it is real, who takes us on shattering voyages into the depths of the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition. This novel is the work of a supreme artist, Carson McCullers's enduring masterpiece. The heroine is the strange young girl, Mick Kelly. The setting is a small Southern town, the cosmos universal and eternal. The characters are the damned, the voiceless, the rejected. Some fight their loneliness with violence and depravity, some with sex or drink, and some—like Mick—with a quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Emma Southon

In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.

Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.

Part cultural history, part true-crime investigation, and part portrait of everyday life in the ancient world, this entertaining bestseller explores everyone from emperors and aristocrats to slaves, gladiators, spouses, parents, and children, uncovering how Romans understood murder and why some deaths mattered far more than others.

The German Lesson by Siegfried Lenz

In this quiet and devastating novel about the rise of fascism, Siggi Jepsen, incarcerated as a juvenile delinquent, is assigned to write a routine German lesson on the “The Joys of Duty.” Overfamiliar with these joys, Siggi sets down his life since 1943, a decade earlier, when as a boy he watched his father, a constable, doggedly carry out orders from Berlin to stop a well-known Expressionist artist from painting and to seize all his “degenerate” work. Soon Siggi is stealing the paintings to keep them safe from his father. “I was trying to find out,” Lenz says, “where the joys of duty could lead a people.”

How To Vote

Voting will be live through Sunday, October 28th. We'll be using ranked choice voting to determine what book we'll be reading, which you can vote on here.

Have I read all the books listed in my September most anticipated post? No! Am I still going to get overexcited about October publications? Yes! Buckle up, because it's another massive month of releases.

What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (10/6) - For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good. Petra prefers to play it safe and take jobs only in the Void's upper levels, where the dangers are better understood, while Jade wants to risk a descent to the deepest and most mysterious Sixth Layer. Because the deeper they go, the better the payout, and the sooner their dreams can become reality. Bonus - this is a Bindery book, published by @Naomi Darling!

A Wall Is Also A Road by Annalee Newitz (10/6) - Gardenpath is a graduate student in biology who desperately wants to pass their exams with the highest honor possible: a prize given to scholars who discover something truly novel in the universe. Gardenpath also happens to be an amoeba from an ancient civilization that dwells in a vast network of towers between the stars. Seeking their prize, Gardenpath heads to a remote, dangerous planet that other researchers have dismissed as dead and uninteresting. There, they are surprised to discover a complicated ecosystem unlike anything they've ever encountered.

Strange Lights by Mira González (10/6) - Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist Reggie has embraced her fate as parent to an adopted toddler, Eldi, a blood-sucking chupacabra with a fondness for goats. A rash of UFOs in the night sky and a couple of crop-circle-carving Roombas force Reggie into an investigation that attracts the attention of an old enemy, an anti-supernatural agency hunting for creatures like Eldi. To outwit them, Reggie must team up with Calvin: a podcaster-turned-werewolf whose charm is a real threat to Reggie’s rule against romantic attachments. Bonus - it's another Bindery fall release, from @Jaysen Headley!

The Girl Who Became King by Melissa King (10/6) - From award-winning chef, author, television personality, and activist Melissa King comes an intimate, captivating memoir about family, food, and finding her voice as a queer Chinese American chef.

The Four Wives And Five Deaths Of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (10/6) - On the brink of the Great Depression and at the height of Prohibition, Richard Milford was an infamous moonshiner and womanizer who, it seems, finally crossed the wrong person at the wrong time. He’s dead and buried with only his women to mourn him, but a question remains: Who killed him, and why? Top suspects are his four “wives,” Lally, Sophronia, Georgette, and Vivianne. But as their stories burst to light, the very idea of a true story comes apart before our eyes.

As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers (10/13) - Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough. Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career. It is that threat—the “mindbleed,” a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears.

Another Name For Red by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala (10/13) - Middle Sister is haunted by everyone in her community who has disappeared, as well as those who remain. With local authorities proving useless, Middle Sister decides to start an investigation of her own, beginning with the mysterious “Eric,” a white man from a neighboring town who Older Sister claimed to love, and who she swore loved her. Attempting to hunt down the correct white Eric in the haystack of Minnesota forces Middle Sister to seek help from the community from which she’s grown alienated.

Rottenheart by Kat Dunn (10/13) - Odette and her best friend, Cecilia, grow up between two grand homes, one in Hampstead and one in Suffolk, the ancient and imposing Herne House. Odette’s mother, Lydia, is almost parasitic in her neediness, but despite her, Odette and Cecilia come of age together—free to roam, to learn, and to love. When Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. Odette’s father retreats to his study, while her aunt—the cold and cruel Claudine—increasingly takes charge of the household.

Stellar Smoke by Tanaïs (10/20) - Qamar is a musician hustling in a near-future metropolitan city. Struggling to pay rent and heartbroken after a breakup, she decides to return to the island ashram of her childhood. It’s time to finally settle the rift she has with her estranged mother, Veda—a brilliant scientist, actress, and one of the leaders of a now-dissolved cult called the Endless Temple. But when Qamar arrives, the land is verdant yet neglected, and, most troubling, there are no signs of her mother or sister, Palo. Behind a retina scan–locked door, Qamar encounters her mother’s last opus, a machine consciousness called VEDA (Virtual Experiences, Dreams and Afterlife), designed to reveal the story of Veda’s life.

Welcome back to If You Like This, Read That: Part 3. In this series, I pair books with similar vibes/content.

If you like Let The Right One In, read The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-ran.

Why? Both translated novels center on vampires. They feature kids making bonds with these vampires.

If you like Maeve Fly by CJ Leede, read Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Why? Both feature unhinged women who aren't afraid to act out their darkest fantasies.

If you like Penpal by Dathan Auerbach, read Dear Laura by Gemma Amor

Why? Both center on stalking targeting children.

Hello, Sickos! The October polls for the History/Fiction Sickos Book Clubs are live! You can go vote on them in the appropriate Discord channels (scroll down and you'll see #fiction-vote and #history-vote). The polls run for 72 hours so you've got plenty of opportunity to bully and bribe.

If you're not seeing the channels, make sure you've linked your Bindery subscription to Discord via the Account Settings page. Those vote/discussion channels unlock at the Sicko plus paid tiers, so if you're a "Follower", you'll need to upgrade. Along with the book club forums you also get access to a ton of other channels for various genres, book recommendation requests, movies/TV, buddy reads and much more.

Back to the options... These are the 8 books across the 2 clubs that we're voting on.

FICTION SICKOS

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Incarcerated people fight in televised gladiatorial matches for a chance at freedom.

James by Percival Everett

A reimagining of Huckleberry Finn that retells the journey down the Mississippi from the perspective of the enslaved Jim.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

A group of elite classics students at a New England college cross a line with deadly consequences in this dark academia novel.

She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove (a Bindery book from Ezeekat Press!)

After being murdered, a young woman possesses an antique doll and sets out for revenge against her killer.

HISTORY SICKOS

The Invention of Prehistory by Stefanos Geroulanos

How the modern idea of "prehistory" was created, and how theories about humanity's origins have been used to justify empire, racism, and violence.

Carthage Must by Destroyed by Richard Miles

The rise and destruction of Carthage, from its Phoenician origins and through the Punic Wars with Rome.

The Trojan War by Barry Strauss

A historian looks behind Homer's epics to ask what archaeology and ancient evidence can tell us about the real war that may have inspired the legend of Troy.

King of Kings by Scott Anderson

A narrative history of the 1978-1979 Iranian Revolution that brought down the Shah and transformed Iran.

That's it, go vote! (and make sure you've got your copy of A Complement of Scoundrels!)

Chapter 12

Icarus hissed when the frame on the basement window cracked, echoing along the empty Church graveyard. He paused to listen for a moment before returning to his work, “Pale God’s going to invent a circle of Hell for this one.”

“We’re already damned,” Maren muttered. “Can’t get double damned.”

He slid feet-first into the rectangular space that used to house one of the few wood-framed windows left in the old building until a few moments ago. He paused and looked up at her halfway in, brow quirked, “If the Church is a home to all, can you ever truly break into it?”

She considered him for a moment before pushing his shoulder with her boot, “A theological discussion for the ages.”

He dropped as silently as he could into the basement room. Dust rose in thick clouds, furious at whoever dared disturb its slumber. Maren hit the stone floor in near-perfect silence and went still while her eyes adjusted to the dark. Storage—boxes and boxes untouched for what could be months or decades at the rate dust gathered on them. Icarus pressed himself to the door and listened, nothing but the faint glow of gaslight dancing in the hallway along the gap in the floor.

“Do we even know where we’re going?” He considered.

She thought, then nodded. Her hand closed on the handle and she eased the heavy door open, avoiding the cry of the old iron hinges as best she could. Maren mapped the layout in her mind and set off deeper into the lower chambers. He followed and glanced back in case there had been some other sneaking priests following along ready to take them out.

The lower chambers were a maze even to one who frequented them, which Icarus surely had not. Maren spent a great deal of time in them as a former Sister, but even with her sharp mind it was still a tangle of halls and turns and rooms that all looked the same to the untrained eye. She led him with a shaky confidence he disliked in his friend, but he followed her anyway. Torchlight and gaslamps flickered in sporadically placed sconces and cradles along the walls, but provided enough light and shadow to make their way around. 

They passed through a hallway pocked with recessed stones embracing icons of saints and angels he could name at a glance. Lazriel—fiery sword of the Pale God, archangel of heaven—seemed to be a favorite. Galriel, archangel of the Holy Cavalry. Esriel, archangel of the Pale Fleet. Infinite facades of angel-generals streamed past them as they moved in swift silence. All beautiful, all suspiciously similar-looking to the face of whichever Pope was in power during their carving. The vanity of man never ceased to amaze him.

Maren threw out an arm to halt him, a finger on her lips. She cocked her head and held her breath. The soft brush of footsteps on stone, a swish from a long robe, then another. Six pairs in all about to pass the entrance or, Pale God forbid, turn down their hallway and collide with them. She motioned and Icarus pressed himself back as flat as he could into the wall. A slight lip between the join where one hall intersected the other served as their best and only cover. His heart fluttered against his ribs like a wild bird that found itself captured in a bony cage. There was no plan if they were caught—hadn’t been much of a plan when he stormed dramatically out of Reed’s office, if he were being honest with himself.

Truthfully, he should have asked Reed more pointed questions—Eilonwy, her wretched brother, the Inquisitor. Absently, he thumbed the empty space the tab collar had once occupied. The only way to get any answers had clearly been to break into the church and sneak into its watery bowels to… well he was not exactly sure. The what would come to him when he knew it. For now, hunting down the lowest chambers seemed to make the most sense—secrets did love a basement.

Shadows fell along the pattern of light, long and ominous—tall headdresses, long robes, quiet voices. The first pair came into view—two nuns in hushed conversation. Never in his life had Icarus been so grateful for their enormous veils. Horse blinders, really, that blocked out peripheral vision. If the Sisters wanted to see them, they would have to turn completely like stiff, holy owls. 

Four pairs of nuns in total passed and they waited another series of heartbeats before Maren waved them onward. The chamber under the nave was enormous, dozens of torch-lined columns arranged in ribs supporting the lungs of the church. Every wall boasted several doorways, a bronchus leading away to another lobe. They stood obscured by one of the larger columns and tried to orient. 

“Left. Second door,” Maren whispered. 

The priesthood ran the show aboveground, but down in the lower chambers was the empire of sisterhood. The Church of Saint Lazriel was not a small building. By all rights, it was a small town within the city of Dublin, the Vatican in miniature. An iceberg of religious architecture, the building was only the tip of what lay underneath it. The Sisters of various Orders ran its organs, flowing through every mysterious layer like blood pumped by the heart of the calderist faith. Icarus knew little of the nuns, much to his shame in this moment, but Maren had been among their initiates. She knew these chambers enough to get where they needed to go—at least where she believed they did anyway. 

It was dizzying to try and map it in his head when he followed her. Doors, empty rooms, halls, chambers larger than the refectory itself. They blurred together as she led him down and down and down. His ears popped at one point. It was late enough they encountered few Sisters and fewer Fathers, but behind some doors they slunk against, Icarus could hear the whispers of perpetual prayers. A shiver spidered along the back of his neck. Nothing more unsettling than whispered prayers in the deep, dark belly of a church underground. 

Finally, Maren motioned for him to help her open one of the many doors they passed. Its most defining feature, oddly enough, was how plain it was. Every other had a scorched sigil or carving of icons or some specially-cased hinge or knob. Not this door—plain wood, plain metal. Nothing about it was special and that’s what made it special. 

They eased it open and slipped inside, Maren closed it as quietly as she could. Icarus stared into what he had expected to be an empty room, which it was, arguably. Rectangular, dotted with only two torches despite its enormity. At the end, an arched doorway yawned the amber glow of distant fire beyond.

“This is as far as I ever got,” Maren whispered. “Whatever’s down there brings a lot of traffic with it. If there’s some hidden oracle of the divine, it’ll be that way.”

Icarus frowned at the lintel above the door, “I’ll say you’re correct.”

She followed his gaze and bit her tongue to stop from cursing—calderist sigils carved and inlaid with molten silver. Magic warded the doorway against those not permitted to pass the threshold. Maren’s calderism came as salt magic and exorcism, Icarus’s in angelic tongues and exorcism. Neither of them had the gift for breaking calderist sigilism. 

“Fuck,” he whispered.

“Fuck indeed.”

“We could break it,” he offered unhelpfully. 

She shot him a look, “Yes, stonemasonry is an often silent affair.”

He stared at the glimmering shapes, eyes narrowed, and slung open his satchel. Sigils were—in effect—just language. Language was tongues and calderist sigils likely were angelic language. He could navigate language. This was a matter of knowing exactly what script was written there and reversing its flow when he figured it out. He opened a copy of the Pale Doctrine and began to leaf through the pages. This was something he had wondered at for many years and never been given the chance to experiment with. Now that he was effectively cut off from the Church completely, who would stop him from trying?

Maren watched him, “I doubt a sermon will help, but do go on if you disagree.”

“Sigils are just words woven together, Mare,” he sighed. “I can do languages. I can unwind these. I just need to figure out what I’m speaking.”

She huffed and revealed she was a little impressed by the logic. Icarus rarely had an opportunity to use his calderist gift, it was often fairly useless and part of the reason he had chased exorcism to begin with. Ego was a hell of a drug and his could be measured in kilos, not grams.

He leafed through page after page, symbol after symbol, alphabet after alphabet. The Pale Doctrine was more than a holy text—it was also a manual for holy magic. The Church-sanctioned copies of the book itself were imbued with it, but it also gave instructions on how to wield it and the gifts of the Pale God. A giant magical tutorial booklet.

Maren’s hand was on his arm and her grip broke the focus he had carefully cultivated. She jerked him towards the corner closest to the door. He opened his mouth to scold her, then he heard it. 

Footsteps. Coming from the other end of the enchanted hall. 

Fuck, he mouthed at her. A finger flew to her lips and she slunk back deeper in the shadowy corner. He turned, letting his dark wool coat bear the burden of disguise. It was not perfect, but the room was poorly lit and it was all they had. In his head, Icarus offered a prayer for the hairbrained.

Voices carried, an indistinct murmur until they closed in—a woman and a man. An ancient Sister and an elderly priest. When they came into view, they were each carrying a torch. Icarus slinked closer to Maren to hide them from view and watched over his shoulder. The ring of gold firelight threatened the edge of their cloak of shadows, but never broke it. He swore internally he would light a votive and offer up several Hail Martines for the blessing of old eyes adjusting badly to sudden darkness. 

The pair lowered their tone as they approached the door, but he caught snippets.

“-never lasted in an earthly vessel this long.”

“I’ve concerns about what that means.”

“Perhaps Brother Athelde is stronger than we knew?”

“Or perhaps Mariusz is.”

The conversation cut off when the door shut behind them before he could catch anything of value. After a moment of listening for any stragglers, he exhaled and stepped back from their protective corner. Maren watched the door, the ghost of recognition haunted the edge of her expression. 

“What is it?” Icarus whispered, closer than he needed to be in case more came.

She shook her head, “I know the name but I can’t place it.”

“Athelde?”

“Mariusz.”

“Hm,” he concentrated on the slight tickle of familiarity, but had no time to pull it apart. He went back to his book and scanned the remaining appendices. The jolt of triumph in him almost came out in a shout. He tapped the page in victory and turned his attention to the woven silver symbols above the door. 

Eyes closing, he took in a slow breath, then let it out. His hand hovered over the Pale Doctrine and its pages glowed ivory as he stretched his awareness into them, drawing up the gift he had been given by the Pale God. A breeze from nowhere ruffled his hair, the pages, his clothes. Maren watched unmoving, but kept the shotgun cradled in her arm ready if she needed it. 

Icarus whispered to himself. 

“Benedicta sint dona Patris Pallidi. Pare mihi, magistro verborum et omnium rerum dictarum,” he opened his eyes and tore the page from the book. It stiffened in his hand and he held it against his fingertip against a wall of empty space. 

The sigil writhed in his mind’s eye, a shadow of light overlaid onto the pressed silver. Each letter began to pull itself apart, unthreaded and unspooled. He saw several tongues woven together in its making. Most of them he knew, could pull from the Pale Doctrine and unmake them slowly. So he began. Each letter was like gunpowder beside an open flame, one wrong twist and the whole thing would blow them apart. He twisted the air with his breathy words, reversing the complex tonal speech they represented. Every layer a different alphabet, each a language layered upon itself, growing older as he peeled them back. 

He stumbled over the turn of an L into a T and the metal glowed a warning—not tripped, but aware. Alive, sensing his presence without being able to reach him. He was too far from the threshold for the sigils to feel his intrusion properly. He held the word on his tongue until the red-orange glow receded. 

At the third layer, sweat beaded on his forehead. He was sweltering. Damnable wool was lovely in the cold outside, but the slow warming and ever-increasing burn of magic flowing through his fingers turned its blessing into a curse. He tried to concentrate and ignore the salt that dripped into his eye. Almost done, one more layer of impossible rolls and breaths and tangled consonants. 

The third layer fell away and the fourth replaced it. 

The fourth in a language he had never seen. 

Not listed in the Pale Doctrine. 

His heart sank. Shit.

He didn’t have time for wallowing, much as he might want to. Everything in him screamed to complain to Maren and drop the work he had already poured literal sweat into, but he had come too far for this, dealt with too much, absorbed too many secrets and lies. One of the answers to his questions lay beyond this idiot, stupid, cunting door and he was damned if he would let a little scribble stop him from getting it.

He planted his feet and spread his fingers wide along the rigid paper in front of his outstretched hand. It flared with light for just a moment—a moment where he tilted his head and caught the ghostly image on the back of the page. 

Inverted. And mirrored. And the last of the alphabets in the Pale Doctrine. 

He grinned like a wolf in a henhouse. With a turn of his hand, the page turned upside down. He could make that work. He spoke in the rhythmic, soothing rumble of Old Maerlin—spoken language of the Pale Son Himself, lost in the centuries between His crucifixion and the founding of the Holy Church. Morphed and evolved and blended into the English used today in this very room, between that very nun and her priest. 

Icarus had been bored and lost a bet at cards in grade school that ended up with him studying the droll language for a month. He’d had to recite Psalm 16:4 in front of the class—the one about the generous size of ancient King Soloddin’s… well it’s not important. He got in loads of trouble, detention for weeks. But his calderist gift for language meant he never lost his ability to speak it. 

Mirrored and inverted, he righted the words slowly in his mouth before releasing them into the world. One by one, he peeled out the final layer of woven language in the sigils. They glowed again, angry and frustrated, but the glow diminished with each word he pulled free. 

He choked out the last and released his hold on the well of holy magic. The paper fluttered to the floor, Icarus dropped to his knees, and the silver toppled out of the carved sigils in a clatter. 

Maren froze. 

Neither of them moved. Despite his aching lungs, Icarus dared not to breathe. Every second they stood listening passed in agony. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. 

When Maren released her breath, so did he. His, unfortunately, doubled back on him in a cough he fought into submission. She touched his back and motioned towards the doorway. He nodded, trying to ignore the spasm in his chest, and she patted him as hard as she dared until he settled. 

Hand on his elbow, she hauled him back to his feet, “Impressive.”

“All magic has a doing and an undoing,” he shrugged, but the pride on his face was unmistakable. 

She stepped carefully over the fallen silver pieces and past the threshold of the hallway. Nothing struck her down, no alarm sounded, the torches along the wall beyond barely flickered at her presence. Icarus followed, trying to quell the tremor in his hand. This was a point of no return now—getting caught slinking through the lower chambers might have earned them a reprimand and a period of banishment, but knowingly removing what was likely a very important sigil set over a door to something very significant and dangerous was another thing entirely. This was excommunicable. 

And Icarus did not give a single shit. 

He followed Maren, lightfooted and lightheaded. The hallway wound in a lazy corkscrew, hiccuped by the occasional short hall or closed door. So many doors and hallways, a veritable honeycomb. He wondered at its ability not to cave in on itself. 

His wondering nearly caused him to collide with Maren’s back. She stood straight as a rail, immovable as a mountain, staring around the corner of the spiral hallway’s end. Beyond the exit, another long, cut-stone chamber far better illuminated than the one overhead. He could see the glint of light off inlaid lines of brass in the tawny stone. Peering around her, he saw even more. 

The chamber was enormous, possibly larger than the Church itself. Three rows of three sisters knelt in supplication before a statue of Martine Magdala, Virgin Mother of the Pale Son. Candles flickered weakly before the statue set into mountains of wax, the bodies of their forbears molten and dripping to the floor in solidified puddles of pale yellow. Each Sister bore the emerald sash of the Order of Eternal Vigil around her waist, the nuns who kept constant prayers and vigils against the rise of the Stygian Lord and his agents of shadow. Wax magicians, all. 

“Why are they here?” He whispered. 

She shook her head. Eternal Vigil Sisters were kept near hellgates, suspected openings to the demon realm where their constant prayer battered back any demons that might spill forth. They were also found in places where demons could only be contained, not sent back. No matter how he considered it, they always seemed to be where demons were. 

“I have a terrible feeling,” Maren murmured, “that we will not like what we find here.”

They risked a shared step farther down, changing the angle they could see. Icarus swallowed a gasp. To the left of the praying Sisters, a set of double doors had been set into the wall. Ornate, shimmering with more sigilwork. This was more than just words written and coiled together—these were keys, glyphs, and runes. He recognized them from apocryphal texts stored in the library reserved for Church exorcists to study. Old, intricate shapes in six-pointed stars, etched with spiraling script around the edges. 

Containment. Command. Banishment. Warding. 

They did not bode well individually, together was worse. Flanking the haunting doors were four men—priests, draped in black, a rosary of jade and quartz around their necks. Loose black pants tucked into tall black boots, black shirts overlaid with a black and indigo tabard. Emblazoned in gold thread on their chests was the roaring lionhead, the symbol of the Warrior Priests. 

Each of them held an iron-tipped spear, an iron blade at their hip, and probably an iron dagger somewhere on their belt. A rare posting, hard to be accepted to, arcane even in this house of arcane and mysterious things. There was little chatter about them, nor of their order or how they came to be. Nobody knew how many of them there were—could be these four, could be four thousand. The Pope himself selected them and gave their posting. 

And his Holiness deemed four of them necessary here in this deep underground chamber while Sisters prayed in perpetuity against whatever was behind those doors. Four of them and a host of Sisters meant to guard whatever was behind that door. Icarus intended to find out what, precisely, they guarded.

Hello comrades! As I write this, October is on the horizon. We are currently halfway to our goal of 100 Rebel subscribers by the end of September. On the bright side, there is no hard cap on reaching that milestone. This isn’t Kickstarter! We will reach it when we reach it. When we do, I can make my case to Bindery that the Rebel Ever After community deserves to launch our very own publishing imprint. 

To entice folks who haven’t taken the leap to subscribe yet, I have a devious proposal. Introducing the RUIN ELLA'S TBR SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE. For every marker we hit on the way to 100 Rebels, I will read and react to a… punishing book. A book I know I will not enjoy. A book I will have THOUGHTS on. 

When we reach 60 paid subscribers, I will read Purple State by Dana Perino, the Fox News host and former White House press secretary for George W. Bush.

Words cannot express how little I want to read this “across party lines” novel about a liberal PR professional from NYC who moves to Wisconsin and falls for “a big-hearted, truck-driving guy who follows hockey, not headlines.” Is it fascist propaganda? Indubitably. Will I read it for the good of publishing progressive romance novels that do not urge women to give up their values and marry men who vote against their rights? Yes, I will. 

When we reach 75 subscribers, I will read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Yes, that The Notebook.

I vaguely remember reading this book as a teenager at the public library and enjoying it a lot less without Ryan Gosling to stare at. I genuinely don’t know how this book holds up (if it ever held up??), but I trust Sparks to give me plenty of material to find frustrating. Especially because he's revealed a nasty bigoted streak.

When we reach 100 subscribers, I will read The Most Dangerous Games by MrBeast and James Patterson.

This cash grab slop is not a romance novel. That being said, it will drive me to the edge of my sanity, much to the delight of the Rebel Ever After discord community. The reviews are so bad, y'all. Just so, so bad.

Ruin my TBR pile for a good cause! You have your marching orders — subscribe if you haven’t already, recommend the podcast and the Bindery community to a friend who loves romance (or MrBeast??), and cross your fingers for my mental wellbeing. Let’s publish some books that make the world better.

(Also, just in case it needs to be said: Don't buy these books! These authors are bad people! If you want to read them with me, get them from your public library like I plan to.)

Did you know that Ezeekat Press subscribers get an EARLY copy of all of our titles? The deadline to sign up as a paid subscriber and get a copy of The Misfit Witches of Marigold Island by V.K. Ruiz is TODAY!

At the $5/month tier you will get an exclusive advance digital copy of the book, MONTHS before its publication date in December

At the $12 and $25 tier you will get an exclusive advance PHYSICAL copy and your name in the book for making it all happen, MONTHS before its publication date in December

The early reader reviews for this one are so special already. Don't miss out on being to be able to be one of the first to visit Marigold Island.

What's the book about? Here is a reminder of your new cozy fantasy obsession:

Warm and witchy, The Misfit Witches of Marigold Island is a cozy fantasy and slow-burn sapphic romance for fans of The Spellshop and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

A spell gone wrong leaves a witch powerless—but opens the door to a new kind of magic.

Paloma has spent a decade as a witch's apprentice, dedicating herself completely to the craft of spell casting. But even with her whole future planned, all it takes is one sneeze to send a spell awry, extinguishing her magic completely. Paloma's distraught: Without her powers, can she even call herself a witch?

At the gentle urging of her mentor, Paloma returns home to verdant, magical Marigold Island. There, she launches By the Broom, a successful courier service, and finds community in a house of other Queer misfit witches and their familiars—including a straw hat–wearing raccoon named Nori. Still, the ache of losing her powers—and her sense of self—lingers. Even a flirtation with Liss, the charming café owner whose chocolate chip cookies are literally enchanted to feel like a hug, can't quiet her grief. As she zooms around making deliveries, she can't ignore the blight creeping across the island—or the feeling that Marigold's magic is fading too.

Paloma's used to solving problems on her own. Can she learn to accept her limitations and trust her new housemates to help her save the island they all love before it's lost to them forever?

Thank you for all of your support on my imprint and for our authors, it means the world!

Jaysen

Our contributors have been busy reading some great titles!

Nox is reading Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (our September book of the month, make sure to join our Discord to join our discussion)!

Renee is reading Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils by Sandra Jackson-Opoku.

Jordy is reading Morfran, Dark Lord Reformed by S.B. West (and it's hilarious).

Rah is reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

Mhairie is reading The House of Gardenias by Isabel Canas.

Casey is reading The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo.

What book(s) have you picked up to read this week?! If you've read any of these titles, share your thoughts in the comments so we can discuss!

https://youtu.be/Zwq7vgjs-Ac

Link to new video!

Attention passengers, you may face some spooky turbulence when listening to Marcus Kliwer's newest work, Please Remain Seated.

I listened to this via Libro.fm ALC program. Thank you so much for my advanced listener copy.

AFFILIATE LINK: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25361&awinaffid=3093079&ued=https%3A%2F%2Flibro.fm%2Faudiobooks%2F9781668143520

ALSO if you make the switch to Libro.fm for your audiobooks, not only will you be supporting Indie bookstores, but you can also get two free audiobooks when signing up! https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25361&awinaffid=3093079&ued=https%3A%2F%2Flibro.fm%2Fmembership

Plot

This audiobook follows three different short stories. One in the air. One on the land. And one in the sea.

AIR-- PLEASE REMAIN SEATED--This one follows a woman who misses her flight home. She's desperate to get one the same night and rebooks with an airline shes never heard of before... and she's the only passenger.

LAND--BACKROADS--A man driving late at night hits...something with his car. When he tries to see if he injured an animal, he finds that something dangerous lurks in wait.

SEA--ANOMALY--A deep sea dive with a first time diver goes horribly wrong...

My personal favorite was Please Remain Seated. The setting itself made me a bit claustraphobic, and the plot was off the chain--which made it so much fun. And not to mention spooky.

THEMES/TROPES

--Short stories

--Immersive audio

--Atmospheric horror

--Claustraphobic settings

WHAT I LIKED

All of these stories were fantastic. I loved how immersed I felt with the audiobook. There were sound effects and each story had a new narrator. It truly felt like I was watching a movie in my head. Kliwer always does a fantastic job at making unique and memorable characters.

OVERALL RATING

4.5/5 stars

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

We Used To Live Here

The Caretaker

It's that time of month again! Thank you for the great ideas for our September video. The comment section there is full of so many good recs :')

Am I going to become a manga girl after this?

Anyway, >HERE< is where you can submit your video ideas of October! Feel free to also spit ball/brainstorm in the comments or the dedicated channel on our Discord :)

Hi Friends,

I’m fresh home from NYC and Shelves and the City!

I can’t believe we are only two weeks away from the launch of our first book!

What Feeds Below has done incredible in pre-orders (so thanks to you!!) we are at 1260 and HOPING! To get to 1500 by launch date. If you’ve been waiting to preorder Bookshop has been sending out early. If you haven’t convinced a friend to preorder yet, now is the time!

Crossing all the fingers and toes that the first book from our imprint hits a bestseller list!

🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄

PS I got my physical final copy and loved seeing all your names on the Thank You page!

To see your name on the Thank You Page for Cracks, become a $12 subscriber today! 🌊🌊🌊

Hey y’all! Quick update! Molly and I have to move our Zoom call to next week. Launch day shenanigans took way more time than expected.

I’ll send you updated info over the next few days!

Thanks for your patience!