Tales of the Citadel Series by Viola Grace
Tales of the Citadel #25
Scorched Heart
Viola Grace
A woman with a talent for destruction is partnered with a Guardsman with a flair for bringing things to life.
Winera showed her talent as a Scorcher in a spectacular first display of heat and destruction. The Citadel welcomed her with open arms.
Years after joining the Citadel, she is finally a full-fledged Scorcher and ready for her first official mission with a member of the Sector Guard. She had no idea that she was getting more than just a partner when a bundle of feathery fluff claims her as his own, much to her new partner’s amusement.
Hyl has been waiting for the matchmaker to find him a partner that he can do more than go into battle with. One look at Winera and he knows that this fiery woman could set his senses ablaze.
Smudge is a Yaluthu who has been patiently waiting for his person. When he sees the woman of fire, he knows she is the one that he is destined to be with, and he flings himself into her arms.
Let’s not talk about the ship. She has too much attitude.
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Tales of the Citadel #27
Thunder Struck
Viola Grace
Stirring a tempest is the easy part, controlling it is the issue and depending on a jerk of a healer is annoying.
Kedna has been consigned to fostering on the empty world of Iskan when her power and her health become dangerous. Being mentored by a planetary Avatar is difficult, but moving the weather for an entire world is second nature.
When she is older and her skills are needed off world, she is paired with her first member of the Sector Guard. He is a pain in the butt and harbours resentments toward her for hogging his ancestral planet. She simply concentrates on the job and earns his respect in the bargain.
Fast forward to her twenty-third birthday and they cross paths again. This time, she knows his measure and he knows hers. Respect turns to fascination and progresses into a flirtation that crosses the stars.
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Tales of the Citadel #28
Breaking Gods
Viola Grace
Born to mimic any talent she sees, Lieta is asked for help in taking down those of her own kind. A new career in Breaking Gods.
Abandoned at the doors of an abbey, Lieta began life with knowledge of how to use any talent she was in contact with. As she grew, so did her collection of accessible power.
When the Citadel came to the abbey to ask for her assistance, she was astonished to learn she was not only not the only one of her kind, but she was one of the only sane ones. Her species enjoys being worshipped and that is rarely a good result for their people.
Lieta has to stop them, nullify them and make sure that they won’t hurt others. Running into one of her previous arrests and finding out that she is expected to let him be her shadow is a shock.
Muraz once fancied himself a god, but after being shown that he was not alone, he has decided that working with the only being more powerful than himself might be educational.
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Tales of the Citadel #29
Water and Power
Viola Grace
Enslaved by her own people, she breaks free and joins the Citadel in her capacity as a water elemental. Her destiny is fluid.
Mora was identified to the Resicor government as a talent, and on the way to the interview that would lock her up, she was diverted and hidden in the mountains.
After a year on her own, she was captured and her time in service to the Resicor government began, deep underground where the public would never know.
Tranoth was assigned by the Citadel to break her free, but as a technician, he had to go where he was sent. By chance, he ended up with her on two occasions, and it was enough time to set things in place for the breakout.
By the time they are able to move, she has been alone for six years with only minimal contact by other beings. Her mind is fragile but she is determined. If they give her a place to run and hide, they will have to catch up to her because she is going.
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Tales of the Citadel #32
Tales of the Citadel # 32 - Core Charge
Viola Grace
A woman with electric skills is rescued from torture by a man who stops time.
Gwiette is hauled out of her home in the middle of the night and taken off world, turning her into a power supply for a lab or something else she could not see. Her power is painfully stripped from her until a man with shadows in his eyes comes in to rescue her.
Nyral has lived more than his share of time, but he knows that Gwiette is part of his timeline the moment he sees her. Her rescue is his job, but watching over her recovery is his pleasure. He will be in her life and she in his. His instincts are never wrong.
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Tales of the Citadel #33
Hyde and Seek
Viola Grace
A woman who can copy any form is rescued from her own people by a walking shadow.
Working in the Resistance, Amly Hyde has specialised in hiding other talents from notice. Now, she has been spotted, and she is hiding in plain sight until she just can’t hide anymore.
Rescued from a capture event, Amly is swept off her feet and through the floor, leaving Resicor in a way she had never really considered. Alive with her feet on the deck plates had never seemed like an option. She is destined for the Citadel and her companion is going to make sure she arrives safe and sound.
Walking Shadow has known his match was on Resicor, and the moment he saw her, he was sure that she was the one. The blue hair was a giveaway, but her strong-minded fixation on survival was a bit of a turn-on. He has time to convince her they are meant to be together but patience has never been one of his virtues.
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Tales of the Citadel #35
Shattered Light
Viola Grace
A jump into a crevice leads to life as an Avatar and a loss that breaks Trala’s heart.
The moment that the administrators decide to use Trala and her sister Noma as holders to confine the mind of the planet, they have to act. Their plan has always been to surrender themselves to the world but when Trala is taken and Noma is sent elsewhere her heart breaks as her twin disappears.
Trala has her work cut out for her in remaking the social structure of her world and defending against layers of invasion she was not prepared for. Improvising becomes her watchword but when a man made of shadows watches her back she doesn’t feel so alone.
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Tales of the Citadel #36
Fractured Darkness
Viola Grace
A woman out of time lands on a world that has potential to become a weapon for the future.
Noma feels the pain of separation from her sister keenly, but the light that she stumbles across belongs to a man with beautiful eyes.
In a city of the rejected, she finds a purpose, and in the investigation of her destiny, she takes people with her out of the shadows and into the light.
The Citadel takes shape under her focus, and when it comes time for their first actions, her training on Resicor is used to help the talents that it had kept under control. It goes to show that education is never a waste.
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Tales of the Citadel #37
Hunting a Soul
Viola Grace
Chasing a dark soul has been her focus for years, and now, she is being offered the training to do it.
Leadra’s family was murdered in front of her and her brother did it, or did he? A dark soul possessed her brother, and it mocked her, after her brother took his own life, from the mouth of the next person it possessed. On Resicor, seeing souls was a punishable offense, and she was locked in the dome for three years until the uprising.
Now free, Leadra has been offered training to hunt the soul that killed her family. Just one problem, she doesn’t know how to fly a shuttle.
N’ran offered to act as her pilot. His skills include his own sense of humour and the ability to fly anything. He knew who she was before she arrived and was interested in seeing her progress. A woman of power starting from nothing was quite the sight to see.
Krix is the youngest member of Fixit’s family, and he is destined to be the companion of a woman who can pull souls from bodies. She needs his help and he needs adventure. A Yaluthu with an urge to see the universe needs a little help.
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Tales of the Citadel #38
Psyched Out
Viola Grace
Wim can bend others into tools for her purposes and only an Avatar and a Yaluthu can bring her back into a semblance of sanity.
Wimsah was in a coma before the rising of Resicor, and her mind was wide open when the planet’s consciousness burst out. Her already wild talent grew to absurd proportions and a coma was the only safe place for her.
Benliar, Avatar of Roden, was asked if he would take on responsibility for Wimsah and her open mind. With her power, only the mind of a world could contain it, and he volunteered.
Spot has known that Wimsah needed him since she first landed on his world. He has watched her mental landscape, and she is in definite need of fuzz therapy. He is just the fuzz to oblige.
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Tales of the Citadel #39
Burning Stone
Viola Grace
A talent for melting stone is given a pilot who happens to be a dragon. Let’s hope the shuttle survives.
Leyhara is a talent of Resicor and she took full advantage of her new freedom to hold off attackers by grounding their craft, by having the ground under them melt.
After the attack, she is given the choice to stay or leave and go somewhere she can use her power. It takes her minutes to make up her mind and she is on the next shuttle out.
Bohrvin has been waiting centuries for a woman who answers the call of his mind, and when he finds she has the ability to melt rock, he decides he had better tread carefully while courting a woman standing on burning stone.
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Tales of the Citadel #40
Lost and Sound
Viola Grace
Sonic senses and determination take her to the Citadel, but only a sense of purpose can keep her there.
Yllin has been raised in privilege and has never felt like it was the right life for her. She honed her skills for sonar as a waitress at a busy restaurant and jumped at the chance to apply for a position in Citadel Ohkhan.
Her acceptance is a delightful surprise that isn’t enjoyed by her family. With reluctance, they give her their blessing and she sets out to be the best Citadel Novice she could be.
Her first assignment as a Specialist lands her in an archaeological dig in an ancient buried city. She throws herself into the day-to-day routine and wishes for something more exciting. Unfortunately, she gets it.
Specialist Nearing was her flight instructor and is now her pilot. Despite his urge to fly free, he finds himself drawn to her over and over. His mother really needs to stop assigning them together.
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Tales of the Citadel #41
Broken Wings
Viola Grace
An Enjel who lost her wings and everything else learns that there is more to life than a past that can’t be changed.
Minerva loses her wings when her home is attacked. She takes control of a mech and walks the bot into battle. When she is removed from the wreckage, it is determined that the bot ceased to work two days earlier and her latent talent has risen.
She is taken to Morganti Base to heal from her injuries and train her new talent. From there, it is on to Ohkhan Citadel and a day-to-day existence until she meets a man who wants nothing, asks for nothing and offers a lot.
Astien is an Enjel crossbreed who is fascinated by the woman who has all the mannerisms of one of his kind but no wings. His fascination turns to affection, and from there, a friendship deepens until he needs to know everything about the woman who will not talk about herself.
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Tales of the Citadel #43
Ghosting the Hero
Viola Grace
Astral projection is great, but taking possession of a Guardian half a universe away is a job for a hero, not a ghost.
Simry enjoyed her escape from a world of shunning and rules that did not apply to her. Life in the Citadel could be difficult, but it had its rewards in the shape of education and friendships.
Being asked to seek out a Guardian and keep him sane from dozens of worlds away was one of the hardest assignments she had ever taken on, and it was also the most rewarding. She rescued the Guardian’s soul, kept his spirits up and made sure that he was able to survive until physical help could arrive.
N’kad was on the edge of giving up when the ghost entered his mind and took over his situation by lodging herself in his soul. The stranger in his mind was brash, annoying, and yet, she kept his attention every moment that she was with him. He would travel quite a way for a woman like that. She was his hero, after all.
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Tales of the Citadel #44
Blazing Serious
Viola Grace
Pulling fire and redirecting it was her main joy, but when it was taken, she had to find somewhere else to fight the blaze.
Jimra was raised to do her best, perform her duty and fight fire with her own body. When she becomes a citizen, she wants to join the fire office and finds that there is only one thing standing in her way…her own genes. Her mother got pregnant on a distant world by their Guardian, and Jimra has to face the fact that she isn’t welcome on her world, but she might be welcome on her father’s.
Learning that he had an adult daughter had to be difficult for him, but he welcomed her to the Citadel on Ypra and her new position as a specialist.
Huros was an ex-Negotiator with a talent for analysis when he lost emotional control in the healers’ offices and a specialist was called in to help calm him. With one touch, she changed their fates and linked them forever.
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Tales of the Citadel #45
Winning Souls
Viola Grace
Seeing to the heart of things, Enher is sent on a mission to find out who is stealing souls and get them back.
Her life as a recruiter has taken Enher-Dahl to places that she had not imagined, but when the Citadel lends her out to the Sector Guard for a spying mission, she is a little confused to be the only choice. She has no skills in espionage and even less tact.
Her contact is a mystery until she meets an Enjel on a tour who seems to know a bit about her. Ulises is a Guardian in search of the same things she is...perhaps.
Confronting a broken world, a kidnapped Enjel and hostages in soul form used as a power supply is way above her pay grade.
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Tales of the Citadel #46
Grace and Shadow
Viola Grace
Born to be powerless, Imgrace finds her true skills, not in her talent, but in her ability to bring it out in others.
On a world where everyone has a superpower and the powerless die before puberty, Imgrace is not in for a long and lustrous future. She learns at nine that she will never have a talent, and when her family pretends she never was, her life becomes a routine monitored by bots.
Being asked to help the Guardians in an experiment is one thing, finding out that she has something to offer her people is another. Imgrace is shocked.
Shadow was indifferent to the young woman who had lived her life powerless, until she kissed him. One moment turned his focus from his people to this young, frail woman who had been rejected by every means. He was about to pursue her when his commander shipped her to the Citadel, and then, he had to wait.
Training at the Citadel is surreal, and finding out that she isn’t what she thought shocks her to her core but fills her with purpose. She left a void, but she is returning a Guardian.
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Tales of the Citadel #48
Arguing the Basics
Viola Grace
Arguing for a living isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Koara embraces her calling to analyse societies and fight for change.
Koara has always loved being able to predict the effects of social change and what is needed to make it happen. On her own world, she set matters in motion when she was twelve years old, and it cost her her planet. While some folk enjoy an evolving society, others fight to remain the same, and their actions can take a violent turn.
Citadel Lowel becomes her home, and a Yaluthu adopts her as its own. Life is going along well until she is given an assignment that removes her from her comfort zone and she has to alter the way she sees the worlds around her or disaster will take over.
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Tales of the Citadel #51
Hard to Fight
Viola Grace
Brenn knows that her survival is up in the air because she is under threat from her own parent. Blood is hard to fight. Brenn has spent her life being quiet and avoiding the attention of her father, the psychopathic emperor. He keeps her close and anyone who befriends her is in immediate danger. When she is offered a chance to leave on a design mission and she is given one year of freedom, she is not going to waste a minute. She is preparing to return to defend herself with everything in her. Designing a Citadel is right up her alley, and watching it being built is a dream come true. The Drai acting as host shows her that her father’s people can have more than a homicidal personality—they can be kind and bring a sparkle to her soul.
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Tales of the Citadel #52
Sands of Sorrow
Viola Grace
Rescued from her home, she faces change, life and losing everything she thought she was, to rise from sorrow.
Salika has grown up on her own with her sand dog, Saluk, at her side. Foraging in the sands and stealing in the city, she finally gets caught and pays the penalty. Death.
Thrown into the sand pit, she faces a certain demise until her sand dog comes to her rescue.
She finds the only stranger on her world who can take her away and demonstrates her ability to move sand. As a talent, she is just what the recruiter is looking for.
Salika is as surprised as everyone around her when her talent turns out to be electrical in nature and entirely under her control.
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Tales of the Citadel #54
Geared Up
Viola Grace
Born to master mechanics, she fights her way into the Guardians and finds a path to glory when she gears up.
Niad has controlled herself since returning from the Citadel. She has kept out of the public eye and kept off the Guardians’ radar. Her talent is not encouraged by her people, and she is not legally allowed to participate in a rescue, a natural disaster or any law-enforcement actions.
She keeps her head down and continues her work as a vehicle repair specialist until the day that her careful actions mix with a disaster. She finds a fire where a repair job is supposed to be and takes steps to do the best she can for those trapped inside.
That one act is observed by one of the Guardians and evolves into an arrest, a charge, freedom and a change in position. She is ready to gear up.
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Tales of the Citadel #56
Breaking the Minder
Viola Grace
Being single-minded has never been a talent... until now.
Zeeat has spent her life in contemplation, education and empathy. Given a chance to join the Citadel to learn what she is completely capable of, she takes the opportunity to move to her next level of experience.
In Citadel Morganti, she learns to use the peculiar structure of her mind for the benefit of those around her until the day she is selected for an espionage mission.
Minders have been going missing, and Zeeat is going undercover to find out where.
Her life, sanity and sense of self are all hanging in the balance as she takes on the mastermind of Ikappi.
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Tales of the Citadel #58
Exit Strategy
Viola Grace
An acquaintance born in a nightmare turns into an engagement that is far from convenient.
Yna has lost her friends, family, and world. She wears the marks of torture on her skin and blames the man who couldn’t save her in time.
When the Guardsman who couldn’t save her comes to beg for a favour, she is hesitant, outraged, and refuses. When he tells her that woman’s life is at stake, she agrees.
Marked to blend in with his people, Yna is going to pretend to love a man she resents in order to save his sister from public execution if her secret is discovered. It is a good thing that she used to be in show business.
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Tales of the Citadel #59
Maid in Stone
Viola Grace
Born to be an assassin, raised to be a hero, Kiala seeks middle ground as an auditor. A fallen hero has other plans.
Life started awkwardly and became a game of survival for Kiala. Hunted by the Assassins Guild for her parents’ illicit union, their little family ran from planet to planet until Ki put her foot down. She performed the entry exam for the Assassins Guild and sold her services to them for five years.
When her years as a bodyguard were up, she tried to work as an auditor, an investigator, and attempted to find her place in world without danger around every corner. The Citadel made her an offer, and she agreed to time as a sidekick to a recruiter.
When the contract is up, she is given another choice, another chance and another fresh start. Seeing a familiar face is the first shock of many as she works as a Citadel liaison in Nyal space.
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Tales of the Citadel #60
Cracked Control
Viola Grace
Abduction, genetic modification, and a nap that crossed decades is just the start for one of the first Volunteers to enter the Citadel, thirty years late.
Addy was a lost Terran. Her ship was captured on the way to the Alliance training centre, and she and the other occupants were held for experimentation.
Months of agony with her fellow humans dying under the test-to-destruction methods of the researchers ended the day that Addy was taken to the edge of her limits. A rescue operation came to save her and the other survivors, and she was sedated for the trip back to the Alliance.
Addy lay in stasis while the world she had set on its path to destruction shattered and the rescue shuttle fought for its own survival.
Thirty years later, Addy is woken to find that the world has changed, she is alone at a base, and she has the power in her cells to break the world under her feet. No pressure. Ha.
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