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The Cost of Power: Return
Hardcover
FantasyScience FictionWesterns
Publisher: Joyce Reynolds-Ward
Published: Feb 20 2026
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.14
Height: 0.88 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
GABRIEL MARTINIERE HAS A BIG PROBLEM.
Despite being a high-level heir and potentially the next leader of the Martiniere Family and the Martiniere Group, Gabriel Martiniere testified against the Group's abusive use of mind control technology on military indentureds. But his testimony was compromised, and he risked being killed if he didn't go into hiding.
Then his idyllic exile on an isolated Northeastern Oregon ranch is endangered by a true crime show that will reveal his real identity and pose a threat to those he has grown to love. Plus the Family wants Gabe back. Not only has the Group's mind control tech been stolen by Gabe's cousin Joey and sold to their biggest competitor, but the Family is under threat from digital thought clones that cross universes, as well as supernatural elements tied to the Family's fabled descent from a European water spirit, Melusine.
He can't just walk away from his beloved Ruby and her grandfather. But if he doesn't leave-how much danger does he put them in?
Gabe's love Ruby Barkley is an agtech wiz determined to develop her vision of field nanobiobots that gather data and improve plant survival in heat and drought conditions. She knows her way around nanobots, not just agriculture-focused but in other uses. What will happen when she learns who Gabe really is-and will the aristocratic Family accept her? Or will they reject her as a hick hayseed rodeo queen?
Big decisions lie ahead of Ruby and Gabe. The fate of the multiverse rests on the choices they make. They will potentially gain a lot of power. But even the right decisions demand a price...eventually.
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