Bias Blade – Keri Arthur (1)

“I have a vague feeling there’s something Mathi and I are missing right now.” “I find it best not to ask when women are being deliberately vague,” Mathi commented. “It generally only gets you in trouble.” “It does depend on the reason for the vagueness. There is one other thing.”

I rose and retrieved the scrolls and the little black book from my purse. “We found these in a house the thief was targeting, and we’re wondering if they make any sort of sense to you.” “In other words,” Lugh said, “can you please transcribe them.” “Yes,” Mathi said. “Though I would suggest it be done here rather than at the museum, given we are unclear as to where Eljin’s loyalties lie.”

Lugh rose, washed his hands, then carefully unrolled the first scroll, keeping his fingers to the edges to lessen the risk of contaminating the old vellum with skin oil. He studied it for several minutes, gaze narrowed and expression thoughtful. “It appears to be based on hieroglyphs, with a few other random ancient languages thrown in.”

He let the scroll roll back up and opened up the black book. “And this contains the means of deciphering them. Handy.” “How long will it take you?” I asked. “A couple of days, most likely. Glyphs can be tricky even at the best of times.” He glanced up. “And if I’m honest, tracking down the truth about both the article Eljin and ours is more of a priority right now.”

On that we both agreed. I glanced at the clock and saw it was close to ten. “I should go. I promised Ingrid I’d help her close again tonight.” Darby cleared her throat and gave me a pointed stare. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” “Oh, yeah.” I waved a hand. “I had another dream. Apparently we’re on the clock and this godly game will be over in nine months.”

“Well, it’s always good to have a timeframe to work with,” Lugh said. “But I’m thinking the result is not currently guaranteed to go our way.” “No, but we now have Beira and my father on our side, so that’s got to swing things a little in our favor.” “When it comes to gods, nothing is ever guaranteed.” Mathi’s phone pinged.

Copyright © 2026 by Keri Arthur Released 20th Jan 2026 Published by KA Publishing PTY LTD, PO Box 415, Shop11/47-49 Sydney St Kilmore Vic Australia 3764 [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, including but not limited to, the training of or use by artificial intelligence (AI, generative AI), or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Cover Art by Julie from Cover Craft All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental. Ebook ISBN: 978-1-923169-29-6 Formatted with Vellum 1kitap1.com/en Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Epilogue Also by Keri Arthur About the Author 1kitap1.com/en With thanks to: The Lulus Indigo Chick Designs The lovely ladies at Hot Tree Editing Jason Nuhrung Editing Services The ladies from Central Vic Writers Julie from Cover Craft for gorgeous cover 1kitap1.com/en T Chapter One he man who stood in front of me was tall and thickset, with long silver hair, eyes that swirled with clouds of gray, and an aura that resonated with the power of storms.

His face was lean, and his skin almost translucent. He was certainly a handsome man—not elven perfect, perhaps, but damn close to it. Except he wasn’t a man. He was a god of thunder and lightning. One who had been bound to Earth in the form of a curmudgeon—the male version of a hag. Unlike their female counterparts, however, curmudgeons were able to shift into a more pleasing countenance, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the form he’d used when he’d seduced my mother and begat me.

For several minutes, neither of us moved. He simply studied me, his gaze scanning my length, as if searching for something. When his eyes finally rose to mine again, a flicker of… not so much disappointment, though that was definitely there, but rather annoyance, ran through them. “You know,” I said, never one to keep quiet even when that was probably the best option, “if you’re disappointed in how I turned out, you’ve only yourself to blame.” Amusement lurked briefly in his expression then fell away.

“And how do you come to that conclusion?” His voice was filled with gravitas and warmth and resonated through every inch of my being, oddly connecting with something deep within. What that something was, I couldn’t say, but I wasn’t sure I liked the sensation. “Well,” I said evenly, despite the belated stirring of trepidation, “aside from the initial few minutes of involvement at my conception, you’ve basically had nothing to do with me in my sixty-odd years of existence.”

A dark silver eyebrow rose at that, and once again the amusement flared.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 05bdacb99e0b9203
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,182,869 bytes (3.035 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781923169296
• Pages: 249
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 450.87 minutes
• Total Words: 90,174
• Total Characters: 497,888
• Average Words per Page: 362.14
• Average Characters per Page: 1999.55

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