C.L. Stegall

The Valensi Chronicles - Novella

Blood and Amber

Published September 12, 2025

The night is large and full of monsters.

Detective Sean Byrne thought he'd seen every kind of murder the city could offer. Then Jessica Naomi turned up dead — brutally tortured, with a message scrawled in blood: "Eat Your Heart Out."

The investigation leads to Damon Gables, a wealthy writer with perfect alibis and a past that doesn't exist before the year 2000. But when forensics reveals handwriting samples identical to murders spanning four decades, Byrne realizes he's hunting something that defies every rule of criminal investigation.

Armed with police instincts and procedures, Byrne and his partner Jake Anders must confront the impossible: their suspect may not be entirely human. Because some killers don't follow human patterns. Some have been perfecting the art of murder since before the American Revolution.

Someone has to stand guard against the dark.

Blood and Amber is a stand-alone novella in the Valensi Chronicles series. The events take place in Dallas, TX just prior to Books 1 & 2.

The Valensi Chronicles

WAIF

PUBLISHED January 2026

A century of survival. One choice that broke every law she lived by. And the assassin coming for her is the only man she has ever truly loved.

She's been running since she was seven years old. She's very good at not looking back.

A century later, Paris is one of the Valensi — ancient, dangerous, and very good at doing what she's told. Until the night she made a choice that broke the most sacred law of her kind. Now a fugitive, the ancient ruler of the Valensi, her mentor, has sent his best to bring her back.

His very best.

WAIF is the first novel in the Valensi Chronicles trilogy.

The Valensi Chronicles

WITCH

Coming June 2026

A grief written in blood and snow. Eighty years of building a precarious cage around it. And, now, the predator inside is finally ready to step back into the light.

Rahne has kept the peace in San Diego's supernatural underworld for eighty years. Neutral ground. No sides. No exceptions.

Then the Hierarchy turns its eyes toward her city. Then the people she has quietly protected start to fall. Then the community she built Eclipse to protect looks to her — not as a hostess, not as a neutral party, but as the one thing the Hierarchy didn't plan for.

The witch of Eclipse is done waiting.

WITCH is the third novel in the Valensi Chronicles trilogy.

The New Scions  ·  Book One

The Broken Night

Published November 2025

She never asked to be the daughter of a goddess. She just wanted to survive the night.

Eighteen-year-old Alexis Rain has always been different. Her photographic memory and uncanny abilities set her apart in the small town of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, but she's learned to live with being an outsider.

Everything changes when her mother dies in a car accident that feels anything but accidental.

Suddenly, a mysterious stranger is watching her every move. Family secrets eighteen years in the making begin to surface. And Alexis starts experiencing impossible things — manifestations of power that shouldn't exist yet feel disturbingly natural.

Destiny is calling... and it will not be denied.

Book 1 in the New Scions trilogy.

The New Scions  ·  Book Two

The Chaos Arena

PUBLISHED March 2026

The gods built the Arena to settle disputes. They didn't build it for someone like her.

Three weeks after defeating the god of envy, Alexis Rain can't sleep. A dangerous deal she made to save someone she loves has put an innocent woman in a killer's crosshairs, and the guilt is eating her alive.

But personal demons take a backseat when divine artifacts begin disappearing worldwide and Scion powers start failing.

Someone is systematically severing the connection between gods and mortals, and the trail leads to an enemy who believes destroying that connection is an act of mercy.

In a battle where philosophy meets fury, the daughter of Night will discover that the hardest fight isn't against an enemy. It's against your own doubt.

Book 2 in the New Scions trilogy.

Stand-Alone  ·  A Dark Fairy Tale

The Black Stair

Published August 2025

Sage has spent thirteen years locked away in a hidden tower, protected by ancient magic and guarded by something far more dangerous than any lock or key.

Isolated from the world since childhood for a tragedy she barely remembers, Sage has accepted her fate as both prisoner and threat.

But when a mysterious stranger discovers her sanctuary and begins to court her with promises of love and freedom, Sage must confront the truth about her isolation. Is she truly a victim in need of rescue, or is the world in need of protection from her?

As desire awakens feelings Sage has never experienced, the boundaries between victim and predator, protection and imprisonment, love and manipulation begin to blur. In this dark reimagining of a classic fairy tale, the greatest dangers may not be the monsters outside the tower.

Some prisons are meant to keep the world safe.

Some fairy tales end in blood.

And some choices, once made, can never be undone.

A haunting tale of isolation, manipulation, and the terrifying power of desire unleashed, based upon the original Rapunzel fairy tale.