Perilous Gods

The first time Ty died he was five, the second time he was seven. He's always believed his third death will be the final one, and now he may find out. More than twenty years after his near-death experiences and the visions of terrifying gods that came with them, Ty leads a quiet life working as a locksmith. When a client persuades him to play in an ancient game of throwing bones his peaceful existence is shattered and Ty quickly finds himself deeply in debt, his life hanging in the balance once more. Forced to descend to the eerie mid-world of Erebus to repay his debt, his fate is soon entwined with sleeping gods, the factions that seek to control them, and an enemy powerful enough to destroy them all.

Alex Orlov is a changed man. Not because his time in Pelican Bay Prison rehabilitated him - rehabilitation is for the guilty, after all - but because helping a stranger cost him three years of his life and his dream job as a forest ranger. All Alex wants now is to stay out of other people's business, finish his parole quietly, and to never, ever return to the harrowing experience of living behind bars. Goals that are shattered when an encounter with an elderly Russian man embroils him in a conflict between three Slavic gods. Conscripted into a game he doesn't understand, Alex mistakenly believes he can refuse to play. But when creatures out of dark Russian folklore follow the gods to his small Northern California town, and then to his home with his sister and her children, the rules of the game change. Alex has looked out for his sister since they were teens and he's not going to stop now, even if it means going head-to-head with gods. As the conflict drags him ever closer to parole violation and a return to prison, however, it becomes clear that protecting his family may carry the cost of coming face-to-face with his greatest fear.

Pahtal and his brother, Imul, have scraped a life together in pre-civil war Guatemala by finding and selling ancient relics from the Maya ruins. Their latest expedition uncovers a potentially life-changing find, a valuable tablet, etched with glyphs, hidden within the mouth of a sculpture of Nohochacyum, a god of creation – and destruction. But when they attempt to retrieve their prize, Imul is crushed beneath the stone carving. Overcome with grief and guilt, Pahtal blames his state of mind for the uncanny events he begins to experience. From an eccentric new lodger, to kitchen objects that move on their own, to encountering demons and creatures straight out of the ancient stories, Pahtal soon realizes that releasing the tablet has released the gods etched into its surface. Worse, two of the gods are determined to continue their ongoing war. A war prophesied to bring about an end of times. Whatever the cost, Pahtal must find a way to imprison the gods once more… before the world burns.