Dawn of the Sorceress / A Gargoyle & Sorceress Tale Book 0

When an Avatar to the gods wakes to a new life, he finds the female half of his soul is missing. He soon learns she has been captured by their oldest enemy—the Lady of Battles. To save his Sorceress, he will risk everything.
Chaos and adventure ensues in this epic series unlike anything you’ve read before with noble gargoyles, an action-packed plot, rich world-building, and a little romance tossed in for good measure.

Join the battle today.


Gargoyle & Sorceress Tales Reading Order:

Dawn of the Sorceress (A prequel story)
Sorceress Awakening (Book One)
Sorceress Rising (Book Two)
Sorceress Hunting (Book Three)
Sorceress at War (Book Four)
Sorceress Enraged (Book Five)
Legacy of the Sorceress (Book Six)
Sorcery & Firedrakes (Book Seven)
Scion of the Sorceress (Book Eight)
Sorceress Eternal (Book Nine)

Chapter 1

He always hated this part. The drifting. The nothingness. A fading agony was the strongest sensation in his lightless world. This was familiar though. He had done this many times before, hadn’t he?

Murky recollections bubbled up from the depths of a vast power.

One surfaced and restored a lost memory.

The agony—it was from severing his soul in two.
Another memory bubbled to the surface.

He’d been reborn as a gargoyle. Though he hadn’t yet actually been born. He was unfinished still, sleeping, dreaming, and growing.

Many lifetimes had started like this. That acknowledgment unleashed a floodgate of memories. Slowly they filed themselves into order. Though he sensed there were many more still to return, lifetimes of memories.

That vast and ancient power? That was him, his magic and essence.

But that was only half of it. He was missing something vital still—his other half.

He now knew who he was, what he was.

The male half of the Avatar. The most ancient servant of the Divine Ones.

His divine parents had a sense of humor he supposed, for he was far from ancient at this moment, an unborn gargoyle growing within his dryad mother’s tree.

It would be two more years before he emerged fully mature and ready for battle.

Hmm, he mused. He could remember that much but not his name? He had one, surely? All creatures did. Even if they were secret names only known to the Divine Ones.
But recollection was an imperfect thing, even for him. He was sure his elusive name would come to him in time.

More memories surfaced from the core of his essence and with them the knowledge of how to wake his other senses. Ah, that was a handy memory. Better than a name.

Calling a thread of magic, his soul looked outside of himself, seeking his location and that of his other half. Like him, she’d been known by many names, but to each other, they were the Mother’s Sorceress and her Gargoyle Protector.

The female half of his soul should be near. He reached farther and still couldn’t find her. Impatience turned to concern.

The female half of their soul always followed him from the Spirit Realm, choosing to be born close to him. Never had he come to consciousness without her already there, touching his mother’s hamadryad tree.

While he always chose a gargoyle body for himself, his other half had much more varied tastes and picked a different species each time. But still, she chose a species with a much shorter gestation span so they could be closer together sooner.

His senses expanded further. This planet had made eight revolutions around its sun since his soul had journeyed here to this vessel. Time enough for his other half to find him.

Had something happened to her?

He scoured his memories, but they were still fuzzy and muddy.

Within his mother’s tree, he shifted and twisted restlessly, determined to escape his prison and find his missing half. But then another memory surfaced and returned reason to his spinning thoughts.

If something had happened to the Sorceress, she would merely be reborn.

The Divine Ones always protected their Avatars until they were mature enough to defend themselves. Still, he would not wait two years to learn her fate.

He drew on a greater flow of magic and reached out with it, seeking, searching, hunting… ah, there!

Relief washed through him. She was alive.

“My Sorceress?” his first inquiry bounced off her mental shields.

What was this?

They never blocked each other. With a renewed sense of concern, he tried again. This time, he felt her awareness turn toward him and a small crack opened in her shields.

“My Durnathyne, my Hunting Shadow.” Her love wrapped around his mind, warm and welcoming. “I have missed you. Welcome to this life.”

Durnathyne. Yes, that was his name. The one she’d given him in their last life. Daryna was hers, his gift to her.
“Daryna?” He reached for her again, his mind growing stronger from the contact with his other half. “What has happened? Why are you so far from me?”

“My love. There’s no time to explain fully now. But you need to know it’s dangerous for us to talk this way. Our greatest enemy has forced me to be born in her kingdom. I am her prisoner. Have been since birth.”

“I will come at once.” His heart raced, blood surged in his ears, and his muscles tensed. His words didn’t express the terror and rage he felt.

“No. It’s too dangerous. That’s what she wants,” Daryna cautioned, before continuing in a rush. “If she captures you, too, we might never escape her. But even though they know who and what I am, they still think of me as a child and underestimate me. I am waiting for my opportunity to escape. When I do, I shall return to you.”

“I dislike this.” A growl accompanied his thoughts. “I’m supposed to be the Protector; you the Sorceress.”

“Perhaps I must be our protector in this life.”

Durnathyne would have snorted out a denial if he’d had air to breathe.

But deep in the heart of his mother’s tree, his lungs only took in and exhaled the warm liquid that cocooned him.

“Peace, my guardian,” Daryna crooned to him. “There will be a time where you shall again be my protector while I create great workings of magic to destroy our enemies, this I promise.”

He still didn’t like it.

“My Hunting Shadow, soon we will be together again. I will escape my captors in the coming months. I’ve already hidden how powerful I’ve become.”

“How were you able to trick the Battle Goddess and her servants?”

“An oversight. They blocked my magic, but it didn’t occur to them that I can still touch your power. I’ve been stealing from you.”

He snorted. “We are one. You can’t steal what is already yours. Go on.”

“Our enemies are not aware I can do this. Soon I will use your magic to destroy the collar they’ve used to cage my magic.”

“Collar!” Within his mother’s tree, he kicked out, his talons slashing in his need to escape.

“Stop. You can’t come to me. It’s too dangerous to have us both here. If you were captured…”

As usual, her words were logical. It didn’t mean he had to like them. Even if he went to her now, his body was still developing. It would be two more years before he could handle the full power at his command without harming this new body.

“I must go now, my Durnathyne. I am glad you found me. It has been lonely without you. But for now, the best thing you can do is go back to sleep until I call you. It will be safer if the Lady of Battles doesn’t know you are awake and can hear me. She doesn’t know you are conscious before your birth. We must keep it that way. If she discovers the truth, she will use it against us.”

He didn’t want to cause her more stress. “I shall await your call.”

“Thank you, my soul. I’ll contact you once I’m free and safely away from our enemy.” Her power brushed along his senses in a goodbye.

“Goodbye, my heart,” he whispered back along their soul link, but she’d already closed her shields against him. His soul ached with her departure.

He’d said he’d wait for her to call before going to her rescue, but he hadn’t said he’d wait two more years in this tree. He’d awakened this day for a reason. Now he needed to be ready to act.

Within his mother’s hamadryad tree, he shifted and twisted and kicked. Not enough to harm the tree, but enough to alert both the tree and his dryad mother he would not wait two more years to be born.

He was almost fully grown.

And even an immature gargoyle was still lethal.