Sabina Kane doesn't have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, the leader of the vampire race, just tried to kill her. When she arrives in New York to meet the mage side of her family, the reunion takes the fun out of dysfunctional. On top of that, the Hekate Council wants to use her as a pawn in the brewing war against the vampires. Her mission will take her into the bowels of New York's Black Light district, entangles her in mage politics, and challenges her beliefs about the race she was raised to distrust. And Sabina thought vampires were bloodthirsty.

Before the age of seventeen the young men and women of Jerar are given a choice -follow tradition, or pursue a trial year in one of the realm's three war schools to study as a soldier, knight or mage...*****For 15-year-old Ryiah the choice has always been easy. Become a warrior and leave the boring confines of her lowborn life behind. Set to enroll in the School of Knighthood on the eve of her next birthday, plans suddenly shift when her twin brother discovers powers. Hoping that hers will soon follow, she enrolls with Alex at the Academy instead -the realm's most notorious war school for those with magic. Yet when she arrives Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Every "first-year" is given a trial year to prove their worth -and no amount of hard work and drive will guarantee them a spot. It seems like everyone is rooting for her to fail -and first and foremost among them Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived. When an accidental encounter leads Ryiah and Darren to an unlikely friendship she is convinced nothing good will come of it. But the lines become blurred when she begins to improve -and soon she is a key competitor for the faction of Combat... Still, nothing is ever as it seems -and when the world comes crashing down around her, Ry is forced to place faith in the one thing she can believe in -herself. *Will it be enough? ***

Welcome to the Candidacy. Where dreams go to die.Twenty-year-old Ryiah is a black mage of Combat, but she is not the Black Mage. Yet. She’s had her eyes on the legendary robe for as long as she can remember, and in just one year she will have a chance at her country’s prestigious –and only- tourney for mages... Too bad she is going up against a certain non-heir. The one person she has yet to beat.Meanwhile Ry has a year to prove herself in her new role as a war mage and the prince’s betrothed. Neither is quite what she expected and complications arise on both fronts. War is on the horizon, and with so many enemies the kingdom of Jerar’s fate is more than ever at risk.The Candidacy finally arrives, but it’s only the beginning. Nothing can prepare her for what comes next.

This book is the first in the Valdemar series, though it was published after most of them. Here, we get to meet Urtho, the powerful Mage of Silence, and Skandranon, the great Black Gryphon. This book takes place in the last years of the Mage Wars between Urtho and the evil Adept BloodPath-Mage Ma'ar. Also in this book we meet AmberDrake, Skan's close Kestra'chern friend. Kestra'chern's are healers of mind & spirit as well as body. We also meet Zhaneel, a Gryfalcon, and the first of her kind created by Urtho; Kechara, a misborn gryphon that has such a strong Mind gift that Urtho hides and protects her in his Tower; Cinnibar, who is a skilled Healer; Cinnibar's lifebonded, Tamsin; and Gesten, a friendly hertasi that becomes friends with Skan and Drake. Find out in this book how Urtho defeats the evil Ma'ar and how the Cataclysm effects the world for many centuries thereafter

This book was given to Lys Den (12507054)

She survived a trial year at the Academy, but that was the easy part… 16-year-old Ryiah is an apprentice of Combat, the most notorious faction of magic. When a classmate is killed in a rebel attack, the apprentices find themselves in the midst of unrest between Jerar and its northern neighbor, Caltoth. For Ryiah the conflict is bad enough, but is her biggest problem at home?