Mick Oberon may look like just another 1930s private detective, but beneath the fedora and the overcoat, he's got pointy ears and he's packing a wand. A series of brutal murders is sweeping Chicago, baffling both the local police and the Seelie Court, who sense that an aura of corruption and death has touched Mick himself. When Mick's associates become targets, and a vampire appears in his office, Mick is drawn into his most dangerous hunt yet. A hunt that will lead him to seek answers about his mysterious past and what it could mean for those in his present.

They called him the Terror of the East. His past shrouded in mystery, his identity hidden behind a suit of enchanted black armour and a skull-like helm, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, aided by Davro, a savage ogre, and Seilloah, a witch with a taste for human flesh. No shield or weapon could stop his demon-forged axe. And no magic could match the spells of his demon slave, Khanda. Yet just when ultimate victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered. His plans of conquest, born from a desire to see Imphallion governed with firmness and honesty, shattered. Amid the chaos of a collapsing army, Rebaine vanished, taking only a single hostage - the young noblewoman Tyannon - to guarantee his escape. Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married, living in obscurity and raising their children, a daughter and a son. Rebaine has put his past behind him, given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of Audriss - an upstart warlord following Rebaine's old path of conquest - can stir the retired warrior to action. Until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss' goons. Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebain once more dons the armour of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda . . . well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement. But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: does he dare to reawaken the part of him that glories in cruelty, blood and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?

Corvis Rebaine is no hero. In his trademark suit of black armour and skull-like helm, armed with a demon-forged axe and with allies that include a bloodthirsty ogre, Rebaine has twice brought death and destruction to Imphallion in pursuit of a better, more equitable and just society. If he had to kill countless innocents in order to achieve that dream, so be it. At least that was the old Rebaine. Before he slew the mad warlord Audriss. Before he banished the demon Khanda. Before he lost his wife and children, who could neither forgive nor forget his violent crimes. Now, years later, Rebaine lives in a distant city, under a false name. He's a member of one of the Guilds he despises and trying to achieve change nonviolently, from within the power structure. But just because Corvis has changed doesn't mean everyone else has. When Imphallion is invaded the bickering Guilds once again prove unable to respond . . . but someone wearing Rebaine's trademark black armour, and bearing what appears to be his axe, does. Someone who is, if anything, even less careful of human life than Rebaine was. Worse, Rebaine's old nemesis Baron Jassion is hunting him once more, aided by a mysterious sorcerer named Kaleb, and a young woman who hates Corvis Rebaine more than anyone else: his own daughter, Mellorin. Suddenly Rebaine seems to have no choice. To clear his name, to protect his country, and to reconcile with his family, must he become the Terror of the East again?

Windows into the fantastic, from crypts to cobras, swords to submarines, rubies to railroads, heaven to hell and places stranger still. Heroes, horrors, and hijinks--both original to this collection and reprinted from a variety of sources--from the mind of Ari Marmell, author of The Conqueror's Shadow, The Goblin Corps, Darksiders: the Abomination Vault, the Widdershins Adventures series, and more. In Strange New Words, let Ari Marmell guide you through over a dozen windows into the fantastic. Heroes, horrors, and hijinks await you, including: "The Cemetery Wyrm" A childish fascination with the old, pitted monument was understandable, but not the ongoing obsession-or his certainty that the effigy was something more . . . "The Purloined Ledger" In the early days of the Great Depression, a PI who is far more than he appears must outwit a gangster whose efforts may have turned to sorcery. "The Shaman's Tale" Why do the proud and warlike orcs serve always as the minions, never the master? The answer lies in the mists of the oldest orcish legends . . . A brand new story set in the world of The Goblin Corps "Railroad Spikes" He thought the train was easy pickings, treasure ripe for the taking. He was very, very wrong. Saw meets The Great Train Robbery in a steampunk Wild West. "The Rubies of Olun-Zeth" In a brutal, vicious land ruled by brutal, vicious gods, Lathaan the Heretic knows that the promise of treasure is a promise rarely kept. But what if . . . ? "Big Apple, Small Serpent" Loosed from the confines of her tiny world, this little Egyptian cobra was never going back to her exhibit. She was free, and would remain so-no matter what it took. "Reaver" Was the evil in the ship that had grounded itself on Lincaster's docks, or had it always festered in Lincaster itself? A full-length novelette. "Twenty-One-Oh" In a dystopian future of all-power corporations, missing a deadline on even a simple delivery can cost you a lot more than just your job . . . "Tithe" It is a theme common to the tales told every girl and boy of the fairy courts: Never trust a bargain made with the tricky and treacherous human race. "Than to Serve in Heaven" It was an offer even Lucifer couldn't pass up. Still, through it all, he wondered, and the angels with him. Why would God put him in charge of Heaven? "The Ogre's Pride" Unlike his bloodthirsty brethren, Davro the ogre just wanted to be left in peace. Still, some insults cannot be ignored, and some things are always worth fighting for. "In Deepest Silence" The USS San Jacinto should have been prepared for anything in the ocean's depths-but you cannot prepare for what cannot exist "One Solitary Scale" Only the sculptor himself knew he had traded his soul for his talent. Now he had found a way to break that bargain, but had he merely traded one Hell for another?