After a decade as a single dad, I thought I had life figured out. I put my broken heart on the shelf to raise my daughter Maddie, and watching her grow into a confident, successful woman has been reward enough. Still, life has a way of throwing curves at you—the kind of curves that will get any guy’s attention. When Maddie’s best friends Lexie and Olivia find themselves homeless after losing their apartment, there’s no question I’m going to offer them refuge. They were there for Maddie during our darkest hours, and it’s my turn to be there for them now.

Life sucks. Gabe Harris has been clued into this fact for a long time now. In his mid-twenties, life has been nothing but low paying jobs, petty power-tripping bosses, and the worst roommates mankind has to offer. Bills, debt, and misery have haunted him for his entire adult life and, to make matters worse, it feels like his dream of being a writer is dead on arrival. One fateful night, he decides to take control of his life and make his dream a reality.

It was supposed to be a medical marvel. Instead, it triggered the apocalypse. Half of humanity mutated into mindless zombies. Half the survivors mutated into the inhumans: various new species of people with new appearances and abilities. Some grew scales, some grew fur, some could fly, some could survive only underwater. Decades passed, and from the ashes of the old world, a new patchwork civilization rose. Humans and inhumans lived in tentative peace, and the zombies turned out to be not much of a threat once a few generations of survivors had come and gone.

Imagine my luck when I'm transported to a fantasy world where magic is real, beautiful women are bountiful, and the Blessing of a Goddess creates endless opportunities. Yeah, it is one hell of a way to arrive. Unfortunately, I've got some work to do because my heroic actions just triggered the End of an Age. With the help of some lovely new allies, we might just save the day or die trying.

Every year, the empire administers the rite of passage into adulthood. That rite serves to identify those blessed by Aether to become magi. The new magi are shipped to the academy to learn the arts of magic. The academy is a dangerous place; the tournaments held twice each year can cripple or kill the students, and the clans of the empire will go to great lengths to recruit the students they want. Gregory had one dream: to become a magi like the legends of old. Though he was ridiculed by the residents of the village and his unsupportive father, he never wavered from his dream.