The Crystal Talon

Since the last bloody war on planet Verdis, humans, volucrem, and arboles, have maintained a fragile peace by avoiding each other. That is, until Allison Harker discovers a crystal dagger in her grandfather’s belongings after his death. The dagger is clearly not manmade, and her family has lived inside the sealed biodomes of Novae since before her grandfather was born. Its very existence pokes holes in her beliefs about her family and her world.
Even more disturbing, the dagger somehow summons an intense dark-winged stranger called Galen who claims the dagger belongs to him and he wants it back. He professes to be a volucrem, an entire species of people that Allison didn’t know existed.

Driven to discover the truth about the dagger, Allison seeks information at the university where she works as an Anthropologist. Instead of answers, she uncovers more questions when she stumbles onto the government coverup of the arbole genocide and the destruction of their ancient rubrum forest. But she finds no history of Galen’s people anywhere. Meanwhile, her relentless search for answers puts her in grave danger. A point brought home, when her key informant winds up dead, right before Allison leaves for a field study of the elusive remaining arboles.

Half a world away, volucrem seer and healer, Lord Galen Condor lives on the outskirts of a fabulous hidden city called the Aviary. He spent the last century unable to see visions and tormented by regret over the annihilation of their arbole neighbors and the disappearance of his friend, Tormud. He is stunned by his connection with Allison. She possesses the Crystal Talon, the very same dagger he loaned Tormud right before he disappeared.

Allison’s field study brings her to the foot of the Morat Mountains where Galen lives. But their steamy meeting is only the beginning. Together they must foil the revenge plans of Galen’s half-brother in order to avoid another war and rescue Tormud from a secret human laboratory before his time runs out. Even if they succeed, Allison will still return to Novae as a murder suspect, unless she decides to abandon her old life and follow her heart to the Aviary.