Can Someone Explain The Ending Of Under Loch And Key With Spoilers?

Picking up where Dark Escape leaves off, Tara travels back in time to find she has a doppelganger lying in a magical coma in a cave and a very confused lover. Going back in time exposes Tara to a world that no longer exists in her future life. It's a world where wizards and enchantresses do battle for supremacy and witch doctors lay in wait for a delicious taste of human while shape shifters abound. Danger, heart ache, discovery and love await as they continue to search for the Crystal Key to Shadow Land. If you enjoy fantasy stories with peril, magic, time travel, and love, you won't want to put down book two of the Dark Escape Duo, "The Search for the Crystal Key".

The Dark Below is a steam-punk/fantasy world filled with the darkness that rests beneath a wavering tide. Generations ago, Gods from the depths below rose from the black seas and in doing so, caused a great flood that would have destroyed all of humanity if it was not for the ingenuity of survival. Living among The Dark Below has come to pass, but now four warriors must come together in hopes of forging a brighter future.

Nathaniel Hemlock was once one of the most feared pirates to ever sail the seas. His endless quest for gold and power claimed many lives but never concerned him since his heart had long hardened. That is until one day that desire took a dark turn. For power and gold he traded not only his own soul but that of his crew. Now he is cursed to sail the seas until the end of time, unless 1000 more souls are given, one a year...all must be children which was one of the only things he would never do. Present day. Lloyd has always scoffed at the legends that bring visitors to his town near the sea, and with the arrival of a movie crew it's gotten worse. Returning home one evening he sees a strange, old fashioned boat docked and curiously decides to board it. A decision he soon regrets. Once onboard he cannot leave. Nathaniel is not best pleased but there is little he can do and decides to use Lloyd as a cabin boy to make himself useful while he continues to search for another way of breaking his curse and freeing his crew. Their lives will soon become more entwined and perhaps Lloyd is the one who can warm the frozen heart.

Finlay MacLeod, the leader of Clan MacLeod, is bound by duty to marry Ailsa MacDonnell, a woman from a rival clan, to secure peace in the Highlands. But each night, he is drawn into the arms of Moira MacEacharn, a mysterious and seductive dark priestess who has haunted him since childhood. Fin believes he is in love, unaware that Moira’s power over him is anything but natural. As Fin’s devotion to Moira threatens the fragile truce between the clans, Ailsa—a healer and practitioner of white magic—begins to suspect that he is under a powerful enchantment. Determined to save him and prevent war, she unearths the truth of an ancient curse binding Fin to the priestess. But breaking the curse proves impossible, as magic demands payment, and Moira refuses to relinquish her claim. Caught between two women and two destinies, Fin must decide whether to fight for his freedom or surrender to the dark pull of the priestess, even as his choices risk the lives of everyone he holds dear.

Samantha Hale thought she had it all — a perfect marriage, a thriving career as a software engineer, and the kind of life that looked flawless from the outside. Until she discovers her husband is cheating on her… with her sister. And that her sister is pregnant. Betrayed. Homeless. Broke. One night, Samantha enters a radio contest on a whim — and wins an old Victorian mansion in a forgotten countryside town called Willow Creek. It’s supposed to be her new beginning. But the house has a secret buried deep beneath its foundations. When she unlocks the door to the basement, Samantha finds two stone coffins — and accidentally awakens Lucien Varyn, the long-lost King of Vampires, and his enigmatic right hand, Sebastian. Lucien is dark, magnetic, and far too dangerous. Sebastian is cold, calculating, and hiding something behind his icy loyalty. Both are bound to her by an ancient prophecy neither of them expected to come true. As strange events unfold and old powers stir, Samantha must decide who to trust — and who to love — before the house claims her soul… Because in Willow Creek, under the glow of the Blood Moon, the past isn’t dead. It’s just waiting to be awakened.

To save the merfolk from slaughter, I seduced the vampire lord himself-Lazarus. He still loved me after all. For three days and three nights, he drowned himself in my body, unwilling to let me out of his arms for even a second. I roused from the haze of fleeting bliss, only to have a searing, corrosive liquid poured mercilessly over my head. "You with eternal healing can taste the sting of agony？" "Yet your trivial suffering pales in comparison to the loss of my kin you brought upon me. It is nothing at all!" "This is merely the beginning. Refuse to reveal where my parents lie hidden, and you shall never break free from this castle." He was convinced that I alone had destroyed everything he held dear. Holding the entire merfolk’s lives hostage, he confined me within the castle. Time and again, he tore open my chest by force, wrenching out my pearl of the mer, feeding its essence to Isolde to mend her frail flesh. He condemned me to sleepless nights, forcing me to cleanse the filth he left behind. Barefoot, I was made to dance the mermaid’s lament upon razor-sharp silver blades, writhing in pain to lull Isolde into slumber. Later, Isolde feigned a pregnancy. Driven by false tenderness for her, Lazarus took to slicing chunks of my immortal mermaid flesh with cold blades, brewing them into nourishing potions for her. Hatred for me burned deep in his bones, yet whenever I was on the brink of death, he would still force his own blood down my throat to keep me alive. "You presume too much on my lingering love for you, choosing silence over the truth, do you not? Aurora… tell me, what became of my parents?" I endured in silence, bearing witness to his love torn between hatred and longing. Soon, I would no longer need to guard that fatal secret. For a mermaid who dwells on land for three years shall wither and perish, severed from the sea that gives her life. Only three days remained until my final breath.