Death And Taxes

Death is inevitable. So are taxes.Kael Morr was once a Reaper, feared across the mortal realms and trusted to carry the dead beyond the final road.Then he spared a child.Stripped of his scythe, cast from Death's service and made mortal, Kael is given a punishment considered worse than execution: employment as a royal tax collector.Now he travels the Seven Kingdoms with a company as troublesome as the debts they pursue-Mellina Fleet, a fearless swindler; Cahil, an eight-foot Fomorian with immense strength and a fondness for humming little songs; Juniper Grear, an accident-prone woodland nymph whose magic can persuade even the most stubborn debtor; and Rica Argor, a masked warrior carrying a long axe and the weight of a broken oath.Their collections are rarely paid in coin.A dying dragon owes a golden scale. A kingdom has forgotten the bargain that keeps its fields fertile. A wounded forest must surrender a living branch. A kraken demands its harbour fees. An entire city refuses to allow anyone to die.But someone is deliberately corrupting the oldest agreements in the world.As ancient covenants fail and the roads of Death begin to collapse, Kael uncovers a conspiracy stretching from mortal thrones to the realm beyond life. To stop it, he must confront the truth of his exile-and decide whether law exists to enforce obedience or to protect those forced to live beneath it.Death and Taxes is a darkly adventurous fantasy collection filled with ancient monsters, perilous bargains, sword fights, strange companions and twelve interconnected tales of duty, mercy and the dangerous cost of every promise.