Marie Judson

Berkeley Arcane (Book 5, Braided Dimensions Series)For years, Kay has mastered an impossible double life. By day, she's a respected professor of ancient languages at Berkeley, teaching Old Norse and Welsh to graduate students. By night and across dimensions she's learned to wield powers that shouldn't exist: crossing between the modern world and a medieval realm steeped in Celtic magic, speaking the arcane tongues of Wanderers and shamans, protecting the Elf Stone Esch from those who would use its power to reshape worlds.
She's kept the dimensions separate. Kept her children safe. Kept her colleagues from asking questions she couldn't answer. The cost has been high, years of sacrifice, fractured relationships, a partnership with Baird that exists only in stolen moments across the veil. But the balance held. Until now. Ancient magic is manifesting in Berkeley, impossible forces bleeding through into faculty meetings, campus libraries, the life she's carefully maintained for decades.
Her expertise in medieval languages suddenly reveals hidden meanings in modern contexts. Students sense something wrong. Colleagues notice her absences, her evasions, the way she sometimes speaks as though she's lived centuries. And the people who covet Esch's power have finally found a way to reach her here. Kay must confront what years of crossing dimensions have cost her and what protecting both worlds will demand.
The arcane knowledge she's accumulated, the relationships she's forged, the powers she's honed across a lifetime of secret study, all of it may not be enough. Because some doors, once opened, reshape everything. And some choices have consequences that echo across all the years you have left. Berkeley Arcane is the fifth book in the Braided Dimensions series, an adult portal fantasy blending Celtic mythology, meticulous medieval scholarship, and the complexities of wielding power in midlife.
For readers who want fantasy that explores consequence over adventure, sacrifice over destiny, and the transformation that comes not from discovering who you are, but from choosing what you'll protect.