What happens when an entire civilization realizes that the law is far more dangerous than the sword?For decades, the crusades across southern France relied on fire and steel to crush the Cathar movement. Yet by 1230, military victory had achieved only temporary silence. Underground networks of believers persisted throughout Languedoc, sheltered by local nobility and protected by the ancient legal customs of Occitan towns. The Church required a new instrume...

Can a conviction be so absolute that two hundred and eleven souls choose the roaring heat of a mass funeral pyre over the mere utterance of a forced confession?For ten agonizing months between 1243 and 1244, the mountain fortress of Montségur stood as an isolated jagged tooth in the Pyrenean wilderness—the final, defiant heart of Catharism. Below its sheer, icy cliffs lay the full force of royal France, commanded by the uncompromising Hugues de Arcis. Abov...

Can a nation die in silence, or must it bleed its way into eternity?For thirty agonizing years, the lands of Languedoc had been systematically crushed beneath the iron heel of the Northern French Capetian monarchy and the terrifying, nascent apparatus of the Papal Inquisition. Their independence stripped, their songs silenced, and their religious dissident brethren burned at the stake, the southern nobility seemed utterly defeated. But in the summer of 1240, a phan...

Some bargains are too dangerous…even for the devil.Chaos is erupting across the realms and political power is shifting. Amongst the humans. The fae. And the daemons.The deadly trials of the Ascension have officially begun.I need to survive the trials so that I can rise as the new leader of the daemons. All that I am will be tested. My knowledge. My magic. My will. I’ve been preparing my entire life for this moment. What I didn’t plan for was Asmodeu...

Can truth truly survive when an entire church is erased from the pages of history?For those who do not merely skim historical accounts but demand to step directly into the raw, turbulent reality of the High Middle Ages, this volume delivers a definitive look into 12th-century Languedoc. Long before the fires of the Albigensian Crusade consumed Southern France, a silent theological earthquake was fracturing Western Christendom. From the sun-drenched courts ...

Can a single summer forever alter the course of European civilization?In July of 1209, a massive army of Northern French barons, papal legates, and opportunistic mercenaries poured down the Rhône river valley into the heart of the Languedoc. Their target was not an invading foreign empire, but fellow Christians deemed heretics by Rome. The events that followed redefined the mechanics of holy war and set a precedent for holy terror that echoed across centur...

Can a single year of total war redefine the bounds of medieval horror?In 1210, the Languedoc was not merely a battleground of knights and fiefdoms; it became the crucible for a new kind of warfare—one where capitulation did not guarantee mercy, and ideological purity was enforced by the torch. The Cathar Pyres of Minerve plunges you directly into the mud, ash, and iron of the most harrowing twelve months of the Albigensian Crusade. This is not a d...

Could you look an inquisitor in the eye, surrounded by the smell of burning wood and iron, and tell him that Hell does not exist?To truly understand the High Middle Ages, you must step beyond the grand cathedrals and royal court chronicles. You must descend into the damp, torch-lit cellars of 13th-century Strasbourg, where secret gatherings of merchants, ascetics, and renegade scholars gathered to whisper a dangerous truth. They were the Ortlibarii—followe...

Dr. Nicole Coussart and Katie Finan seem to have no common thread, but the one they discover will change both of their lives. Nic has lived a privileged life as the only child of two physicians, but she’s not happy. Her career as an ER doctor isn’t just like on TV, and she’s convinced she’ll never find a woman who lives up to her high expectations. Katie has struggled since running away from home as a teenager. Now the father of her children has been shot and the killer is after her. As th...

Bouncing has always been a way of life for Alex Dalton. The former basketball star and new coach likes to keep life simple, bouncing from woman to woman, with no responsibilities and no complications. Then a summer fling opens her eyes to other possibilities, and now Alex wonders if a relationship might be what she really needs. There is an instant attraction to her new assistant coach, Britain Dodge, but for some reason, Brit wants nothing to do with Alex. Then a spontaneous kiss under th...

Dr. Ward Thrasher is hoping her ex-partner, Dr. Jess Benson, will reconsider their breakup, and so she takes a new job to be closer to her. But Jess makes it clear that she’s moved on and urges Ward to do the same. Helping to mend her heart is feisty new friend, senior citizen Frieda Henderfield, and the beautiful hospital CEO Abby Rosen.Then Ward discovers fellow physician Edward Hawk has made a hobby of killing his patients, and she sets out to stop him. Before she can, Jess turn...

Kelly's search for a missing friend draws her into a sinister underworld.Talented but unstable photographer Day Randall has been living rent-free in Kelly Durrell's Colorado condo for eight months. Day needs someone to keep an eye on her. Kelly needs someone to draw her out of her stable but not spectacular life. The arrangement works for both of them.Then Kelly comes home one day to find Day gone. There's no note, no phone call. Day's car is still parked o...