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There is a shadow that seeks to batter the world into nothingness. It is our task as Martinieres to keep it at bay.

The Private Journals of Etienne Martiniere

When rodeo queen Ruby Barkley fell in love with broke saddle bronc rider Gabe Ramirez, she thought he was on the run from indentured servitude due to massive debt. Then she learned that her love was really Gabriel Martiniere, wealthy descendant of aristocratic brawlers, in hiding due to his testimony against mind control programming abuses of indentured workers performed by his family’s company, the Martiniere Group.

Not that brawling has been a part of the Martiniere heritage since the mid-nineteenth century. These days the Martiniere Family’s income relies on agricultural technology, security services, and pharmaceuticals. Not fighting. Not mercenary companies. Their battles are waged in corporate boardrooms and financial manipulations. But the hidden history of the Martiniere Family surfaces in Gabe—and his father Philip.

Gabe and Ruby face foes from other universes as well as their own, including a malign digital version of Philip—Philippe—intent on eliminating all other Philips and Gabes from the multiverse. Add in the multiversal feud between Fae water spirits who patronize not just the Martinieres but their greatest enemies, the Braun family.

Even worse, the centuries-old vendetta between the Brauns and the Martinieres has been revived with greater fervor since Gabe’s great-grandfather Charles unscrupulously excluded the Brauns from Cold War-era military mind control research. Charles also instituted a eugenics program involving genetic manipulation of his descendants, intended to recreate a Napoleonic-era Martiniere, Etienne, culminating in Gabe.

Why is Etienne so important? What is digital Philippe’s ultimate goal? Why did Charles seek a modern version of Etienne? How can Gabe and Ruby prevail over the threat posed by the Brauns and their supernatural and digital allies? What is the cost of the power they gain in order to win?

For gaining power always demands a cost. Ruby and Gabe walk a knife’s-edge balance between victory and defeat—not just for them, but for the multiverse. If they lose themselves in the quest for power, they might just lose who they really are—and the multiverse will fall.

THIS EDITION CONTAINS THE BOOKS RETURN, CRUCIBLE, AND REDEMPTION AS WELL AS SEVERAL SHORT STORIES.

The Cost of Power: Omnibus Edition

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