N. M. Lombardi

It's been nearly two years since Kody and Iris Brooks took over their mother's old bed and breakfast in Keys, Pennsylvania, gradually relearning what it means to be both innkeepers and witches. Things are finally becoming as routine as they can when balanced between making beds and making magic, and the Weird Sisters have made themselves at home as both neighbors and as part of the coven.But nothing stays routine for long: In the waning weeks of summer J.D. Stattler comes to them with a problem beyond his expertise: his crops are dying, and the earth is riddled with old bones. Unraveling the mystery of their origin draws the Brooks twins deeper into the mountain wilderness they explored as children, and places in their laps the fate of predators both human and supernatural.

The BlacksmithA man is born who cannot speak the truth, and decides to seek his fortune as a blacksmith. But what will he do when the only words he can speak to the woman he loves will end up breaking her heart? Many LivesA childless farmer and his wife seek the assistance of a witch to grant them their greatest wish, and in the bargain she transforms a tiny barn kitten into a human child. But, as with all deals with the arcane, this one comes at a cost: the girl must receive a kiss from a true love by her 16th birthday or return to her original form forever. It seems simple enough, until the girl's true love refuses her his kiss. The Painted BrideMina was born with skin like patchwork, a two-toned girl with painted flesh that made her an outcast. Betrothed to Henrik, a boy with legs too weak to walk, the two children planned to stage a future for themselves built on love and tolerance.With the passage of time, however, Henrik finds that he no longer needs crutches to walk. Now Mina must ally herself with a man of artistic talents and questionable morals to convince him he still needs her. The True HeartA kingdom stands at war with its own people, kept at heel under the reign of a cruel king with a seemingly unstoppable weapon: a heartless, murderous knight. Within the king's castle, however, a quiet resistance is gathering strength.A simple scullery maid finally gets the opportunity to kill the knight once and for all, but discovers by accident that his heart isn't missing. It's been replaced.Now she must find the literal key to unlock his heart, battling time and a power-hungry castellan for the fate of a man who no longer believes he's worth saving.

Curiosity shop owner Owen Derleth is just as much an oddity as the items he sells.After losing both his eyesight and his wife in the same tragic accident, Owen plunged into a literal and emotional darkness. Almost ten years later, longtime friend Elizabeth Everly enlists his help -- and his clairvoyance -- in examining the disappearance of her colleague's daughter.Now Owen is forced to revisit the mutual but long-buried feelings between them, and the haunting premonition he's kept secret about her future.

It isn't easy losing a mother, even when she's a real witch.Twin brother and sister, Kody and Iris Brooks, are home again after ten long years away, faced with the daunting task of putting their late mother's last practical and mystical affairs to rest. Kody in particular finds the return to his family's old B&B fraught by both resentment and nostalgia, uncertain just how much he actually mourns the woman who always made him feel unwelcome in both her home and her faith.The siblings aren't alone for long, however, soon visited by an increasingly odd series of unexpected guests, drawn for reasons and by forces that even Iris's magic can't determine.When the house itself reveals mysteries of its own, they have no choice but to rely more heavily on each other, and the witchcraft that was at the heart of so much of their childhood misery.

Like any good bartender, Linney Conroy has learned the art of keeping secrets. And like any struggling blue-collar town, Leighton has more than its fair share.Linney even has one of her own: that her father, a former heavyweight boxing champ, has spent the past several years on a slow decline towards dementia. Now his dream of running a bar is hers, whether she wants it or not, along with the burden of keeping both it and their lives from falling apart. When quiet, scarred newcomer Miles Coulter makes a regular of himself at Conroy's, Linney can't help but be compelled by someone with no town history -- and seemingly with no history at all. But Miles carries baggage of his own: Eleven years in a coma, a family and a life that forgot him, and a world that moved on while he slept.Miles hopes to put himself back together in a town where no one forgets anything, but when the ghosts of his past start haunting Linney, she realizes there are other, bigger secrets he's running from.

GlitchResponsible for reconditioning used androids for resale, Marguerite unexpectedly finds herself shepherd over Gabriel, a synthetic who's suffered a lifetime of experimental abuse at the hands of a sadistic owner. Now she must address his psychological damage as well, a task made no easier by the looming threat that his abuser may want him back. The Golden HourClaire Blandy isn't settling into her golden years easily or peacefully. When her daughter buys her a used android, ostensibly to help around the house, Claire makes the unfortunate discovery that he too is in the final chapter of his life.Unwilling to let him waste his last days doing laundry and washing dishes, she instead takes him on a cross-country journey to find the families who once owned and loved him, rediscovering his past and getting a second chance to finally pursue her own forgotten passions. EveMichael Presby has a question that needs an answer: can artificial intelligence beget artificial intelligence? Can an android, released from the restraints that keep it docile and unimaginative, create something beyond the scope of human invention?Eve may be the answer.The Presby's android housekeeper is calm, kind, and devoted to the family in her charge. There's no one more trustworthy to test the forbidden waters of artificial intelligence.But when Eve encounters one of her own kind, broken and abandoned by the humans she trusts, a new question arises: what will she do with the knowledge, and her new found freedom?