Chapter: Epilogue⇼ E L O R A ⇼ Days passed. Then weeks. Before I knew it, a whole month had passed, and when I woke up earlier with this realization, I just felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off my chest. Life goes on, I realize. No matter how bad the situations were, my life still went on. And so did the lives of the others. The past month proved that. I open my eyes and look at the ceiling of the guest room, which we have designated among ourselves due to the renovation and the reconstruction that we’re doing for the palace. Some of the people from other city-states are going in and out of the Capital to help, also to take part in the planning process of our biggest project ever: tearing down the walls from the palace and the Capital. From outside the window of the room I share with Alistair, I can already see the shrine of the heroes in the courtyard. It’s a ten feet tall marble obelisk with all the names of the fallen. I didn’t include
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Chapter: Chapter Seventy-Nine ▏The Farewell⇼ E L O R A ⇼A scream builds up in my throat and escapes my mouth, ringing inside the chapel and out into the forest.With my entire body shaking, I scramble out of the dark building, my skin still covered in goosebumps. I slip and slide against the marble floor and almost fall more than three times, but I don’t care. All I want is to put as much space between me and the monstrosity that is my uncle’s dead body, which was missing just hours ago.How did it get there? What is it doing there? Why did it look at me? Why am I here? How did I get here?These questions all swirl in my head like a deadly mix, making me whimper all the way back around the lakeside. Small stones are digging into my soles and I’m just slipping everywhere, but I keep going like a wild prey getting away from its predator. No matter how many times I blink, I can’t get rid of the picture in my head, the picture of Uncle Osman’s glassy eyes staring at me.My feet keep sinking in
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Chapter: Chapter Seventy-Eight ▏The Chapel⇼ E L O R A ⇼I want to scream, but no sound escapes me. It’s as though my voice completely vanished, and now I’m left here staring at my dead uncle as he grabs my arm and forces me to walk with him.And the weird thing is, I can actually feel his hand clasping my ruined wrist. It’s almost as though he’s more solid than anything in here, more solid than me. It’s like I’m a dream but he’s in a higher form of reality that conquers mine. This notion only gets stronger when I try to struggle but he just doesn’t budge. He’s solid. He’s stronger than me.“Why do you want to leave so bad?” he asks me, his voice as gentle and as good-natured as I remember. He points at the chapel with his other hand, and as if on cue, the lights from inside glow brighter. I can actually see silhouettes of people from the windows, and they’re not moving. They’re all just standing there, completely still.
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Chapter: Chapter Seventy-Seven ▏The Nightmare⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼“No,” I hear Elora whisper, and my heart just cracks for her. She sounds so broken and so lost that I forget just how confused and afraid I am. I go up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, and she wheels around to face me. “Are you sure this is the place?”“Yes,” I say, my voice low. I point at the smear of blood scattered along the massive elevated platform in the middle of the circular room. “Kalem said that they gathered the remains of the King’s brother and put him in the catacombs behind the chapel, in the room at the end of the tunnel.”Even though I remember what Kalem said perfectly, I still look around just to make sure we are indeed in the right place. There’s no other room in the catacombs, just these hallways with cubby holes on the walls, each containing either porcelain jars or wooden boxes with peeling gold paint. Apart from the blood on the slab of rock, there
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Chapter: Chapter Seventy-Six ▏The Body⇼ E L O R A ⇼Coldness creeps into my body, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Madam Mara’s eyes are filled with nothing but pure and cold fear, the kind that will petrify you on the spot. For a vague moment I wonder what she actually knew, what she has seen and heard that still makes her shake like this even though Uncle Osman is already dead.But when she said he’s not human . . . I felt that was true.It was in the way he fought Alistair and I. We’re both Supernaturals, and I know we’re not used to fighting, but we should have been able to overpower him in a second, no sweat. But no. He was prepared. He was resilient. He was fighting back. And at some point he was even winning. It really wasn’t normal, and I was definitely thinking about it, but I don’t think I truly considered the possibility of it until Madam Mara came to me.And now she’s staring at me intensely like she’s going to explode
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Chapter: Chapter Seventy-Five ▏The Infirmary⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The sheer shock that thundered inside my body is enough to make time seem to slow down. I watch numbly as the Queen’s hand, still clasping the fork, draws closer and closer to her swollen belly. . . .I sweep closer, landing on my knees in front of the prison cell. I slide my hand through the metal bars just in time to move my hand right between the fork and her pregnant belly. She ends up stabbing my hand with enough force to let the tines sink into my palm with an abrupt squelching sound.The pain makes me gasp, but I take this accident as an opportunity to grab the fork and take it away from her.With my hand dripping blood, I turn to Jossie and Kalem, who are both horrified at the scene. “Do you have the key? Let’s take her—”“NO!” Queen Zuri shrieks, ramming against the metal bars. “It’s evil! Evil, I tell you! Get me out of here, please . . . I am begging you. Just take
Last Updated: 2021-09-30
Drop-Dead in Love
Kat Donovan is at the lowest point of her life: she didn't get her promotion, she's never dated a decent man ever, and she's pretty sure she just spent a few thousand bucks drowning her sorrows in a Vegas strip club.The cherry on top? It's also the last day of her life.Death's at her door, figuratively and literally. One of Hell's Punishers is coming to take her away, to an afterlife full of torture and torment. But of course, with the help of some miracles and her ever-steady fighting spirit, she manages to escape its sneaky clutches.And that's how Kat discovers that the Punisher is not anywhere close to what she thought it is.First off, the Punisher is actually the most drop-dead gorgeous guy Kat's ever seen. Two, the 'miracles' that saved her life are not miracles, but clues to the mystery of her origin, to which the Punisher holds the answers. Three, due to some unfortunate events, their paths are now intertwined—for better and (mostly) for worse. And four, their adventures might just open the mystery of life, the wonders of existence, and the endless possibilities of new love....
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Chapter: Eighty † End Game† TWENTY YEARS LATER †To open or not to open. That was the big question.Calix stared at the cardboard box on his bed. He'd shut himself in his room in the Circle of the Councilmen, right after going to the mortal world to retrieve the box Kat had left at her father's glass case with his ashes. For twenty years he'd been going back there to continue what was supposed to be tradition, and for exactly that long he'd ignored the box.And even though for some reason he'd taken it home, he still didn't know what to do.He sprawled onto the cotton sheets, closing his eyes momentarily. He couldn't quite believe that he'd done that. Since Kat's death, he'd been avoiding everything that remotely related to her, and still that hadn't been enough to bury the pain.And how could that be possible? She was the first thing he'd see when he opened his eyes in the morning, the last thing he'd think of when he'd crawl to bed at night. Th
Last Updated: 2020-11-02
Chapter: Seventy-Nine † To Die For"Kat!" Calix's face sharpened in Kat's blurring vision. "Kat, stay with me.""I'm not going anywhere," she assured him, surprised that her vocal cords even worked. Her throat was parched; she couldn't even swallow. "Not going. Not leaving."The battle had long been settled. It seemed that the moment Aldonra vanished, her hold on the corpses had gotten lifted too. All of them were laying on the battlefield again, more damaged than before. They took many of the allies with them, though, and that made Kat wish she had done this sooner."Amicus!" Calix was yelling. "Amicus, help!"Footsteps rumbled around Kat. Around her, people started to gather. She could see Thisbe's horrified and concerned face, an expression that mirrored Byron's. Lady Gethen and Lord Odion stood next to their son, both of them looking devastated. Amicus loomed into view, taking out his assortment of medicine with trembling hands. The confidence he had on his face when he'd attende
Last Updated: 2020-11-01
Chapter: Seventy-Eight † The Ultimate SacrificeAldonra's constant struggle as they over the mouth of Sygnus brought fresh bolts of pain in Kat's back, but she didn't let go. She kept her arms locked around the queen's waist, letting momentum and gravity take over and swallow them whole.Amidst the deep, rumbling hum coming from the void, she heard was Calix's muffled protest, the scratch of the sandy ground as he struggled to get to his feet."Kat!" he called out, and she only had time to see his fearful, bloody face before she and Aldonra disappeared over the brink.Darkness. There was only darkness. It was thick and opaque and encompassing, coating Kat's skin like a breeze, or like thin satin. It was almost unnerving how it had an actual texture, coupled with the gravitational pull of the endless vertical tunnel that grabbed onto her ankle like a vice.She looked up as her hair whipped around her face. The mouth of the void was ascending far away from her in an unbelievable speed, yet she kept falli
Last Updated: 2020-10-31
Chapter: Seventy-Seven † Drop Dead"NO!" Kat's voice echoed in the vast field, raw and brimming with rage. "NO!"She lost Gregor all over again, only this time, it happened right before her eyes. It was another death, a different level that spared nothing. No remains. No memory. Nothing. And he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve anything that he'd suffered through. He'd only been caught in between the choices of the woman he'd chosen to be his wife and the tainted child they had who shouldn't have existed in the first place.Kat staggered forward, tears flooding her eyes and flowing down her dust-speckled cheeks. The emotional blow itself was enough to make her want to sink into her knees, but she ended up lunging towards Aldonra.She knew she was going to get destroyed in the process, but she didn't care. Her anger was the only thing that mattered. Broken. Everything inside her was broken and burned and now she had to release the embers. She tried to shoot a line of flames at Aldonra, but her shaking hand and her m
Last Updated: 2020-10-31
Chapter: Seventy-Six † Hell Hath No FuryFear made Calix's journey out of the throne room feel like an out of body experience.He had only a vague memory of leaving, of sparing the enemies who were alive and stirring in their spots on the floor. He extended his wings and set off, far away from the scene, towards Kat.His worry, confusion, and the shock of the revelation were solidifying in his chest, growing heavier and heavier as he swerved around the grand hallways. The medallion dangled from his neck, but he couldn't see it, couldn't really feel it. But its presence, the knowledge that it was there, dissolved him into nothing but a mess of disbelief and denial.The only time he regained some semblance of a connection to reality was when he arrived at the damaged courtyard.The allies were rallying around the fountain, binding the surviving enemies with handcuffs and taking the fallen in the more stable areas in the garden. His parents were at the stairs, sporting wounds but not in immed
Last Updated: 2020-10-30
Chapter: Seventy-Five † The Last Bow to the Queen"Demons," Amicus muttered, reining in Nyx as she continued to howl and fidget in her leash.Apart from the wolf and Amicus, everyone else was frozen, even the Demons. They looked at the four with their unblinking human-like eyes, standing in their path like they were meant to stay there all along.And perhaps they were. It was most probable that they had been assigned to guard the paths leading to Sygnus. They were just obstacles to be dealt with, but that didn't make their presence any less bothersome, especially for Kat, who had never seen these creatures before.But that wasn't entirely true, wasn't it? She had seen Demons before. Or at least a part of them. She'd seen their hands taking the souls at the gates for evil mortals. She'd heard them make noises, felt their presence at the other side every time she and Calix went to such missions.However, nothing could have prepared her for the sheer physical and emotional torture that they brought upon her.Kat knew perfectly that the f
Last Updated: 2020-10-29
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