Novels by Aurielle Lin

The head that was rolling a while before it finally stopped, the blood splashing all over the stage, the royals delighted by the blood and the cruelty, and the entire city watching the scene like a performance; still everything flashing in her mind, Elysia swallows down the bile that is still rising in her throat, despite being back in the place where she should feel safe and at home.Behind her, the gargoyles are growling at their handler, refusing to go to their stable. Elysia stretches her wings and takes off into the air, heading straight to her chambers, instead of going inside the tower and taking the stairs. Everything that has happened causes her to remember twelve years back when she had to start drinking the potion.“Why don’t we just escape, mother? We can live in the forest.”“We can’t do that.”“Why not?”“You are only 7 years old, my child, too young to under

Although the execution stage and a few meters around are empty, the rest of the area is a stark contrast. Located next to the busiest quarter in the city, the city square is a vast space at the junction of four roads, surrounded by stone and brick buildings—most are shaped like towers and as tall as nine stories.An hour before noon, nearby roads and streets that should be bustling with the bazaar, trading houses, auctions, and wealthy residential houses have turned quiet and almost deserted while the city square is noisy and overcrowded.The people of Mayhem City are flooding into the junction from three sides. Demons stop their flights and continue the rest of the way on foot around a street or so next to the city square. Groups of humans and demons fill the three roads, rushing forward, talking about the execution of the criminal they are going to see.“We have been seeing hangings all along. This one must be different.”“Let&rs

When the morning of that day comes, unexpectedly the king’s messenger arrives in the Purple Garden, not only for Consort Sumerie who receives summonses regularly but also for Elysia, the youngest princess whom the king has overlooked for many years. Elysia does not remember the last time she was invited to the court. Even for the announcements such as about the newest consort, apparently, Issaharic has not considered her relevant. This surprise makes Elysia anxious: she can’t help worrying if the king has found out her secret because of her recent activities. What is more unusual is this is not a regular court meeting, as the summons hardly gives them any time to prepare before they set off to the king’s castle. Along the route to the palace, followed by their guards, both Elysia and Sumerie are silent, which is out of character for the latter and thus makes her even more anxious. Upon entering the cavernous throne room, their guards remaining outside, Sumeri

“What’s wrong with your memory?” His admission surprises Elysia.Standing face to face on the narrow cobbled path, he regards her silently, as if he is trying to see inside her head. Birds are chirping on the nearby hawthorn tree. “I guess there is no harm in telling you this. Since I own your life,” he warns, his thumb rubbing his lower lip slowly.“You don’t own my life!” she glares at him.Ignoring her outburst, he continues, “Everything is wrong. I don’t even know who I am as I only have a few-day worth of memory. That’s why I need something that can make me remember everything I must have forgotten.”Bewildered, her fury has disappeared. His gaze is on the horizon. The wind ruffles his hair and the morning sun makes something shine bright gold; only now she notices some golden strands mixing in the black.She doesn’t know how to respond to this confession. Funnily en

He wakes up with a headache after a restless sleep. He remembers he had a strange dream, but can’t recall what it was about. Getting down from the bed, he notices he is wearing nothing. There across the bed and the floor, his clothes were scattered around. He doesn’t remember removing his clothes, and wonders why he has done so in his sleep. He opened the window; the dawn had not arrived. Yesterday morning, even earlier than this, something caused him to jolt from his sleep in the tiny room near the kitchen. Despite the complete darkness and total silence at the moment, he immediately knew someone else was inside the room with him. The door had no lock; however carefully it had been opened, he must have heard it, and that must have woken him up. Something came to touch his chest, an

The coldness seeps into her wings; with a start, she comes to catch how she has been behaving. Why was she acting like a coward? She will not let him intimidate her this way.“What do you want?” she asks again, sternly this time, partly to cover her breathlessness which makes no sense to her. Imitating her mother’s authoritative voice talking to slaves, she continues, “Do you want freedom?”It might be her imagination, but Elysia thinks she just saw his eyes flashed with some emotion. Anger? When she blinks again, it has gone. She has expected him to follow her, in an attempt to dominate her. Instead, he turns around and takes leisure steps in the opposite direction. He stops to stare at one part of the wall. There is nothing special on that side, no decorations, even clear of wardrobes.“Doesn’t everyone desire freedom?” he questions back with a coldness in his voice. Without waiting for her, he answers h

When he led her down the stairs, she eyed Marie, who was biting her lips and giving her a conspiratory look. An hour later, she was in his mansion, having lost the crowd at last. Marc and Loyd arrived with Marie, Both whining they would have come sooner if they had known. In the garden, they sat down for dinner, five of them. Reign asked Mr. Hacke to join and the old man cried before he took a seat at the table. “You’re coming with me back to the kingdom, my darling,” he announced, in the middle of their noisy chats.“Am I? Why?” she set down her fork. “Are you…giving me orders? Already?”He tilted his head, candle lights half-shadowing his face. “If you’d love to stay behind, of course you can. I’m not giving you an order. Chaos could break out soon without me or you with the remnants of…” he halted as though searching for words, “my enemy. I simply thought you’d agree with me to come along.”She looked down at her plate.“I’m sorry I brought this up at our engagement dinner.” He k

“Cut!” the director’s voice boomed. Nova slumped her shoulders and dared a peek at his direction. This was the 51st take of one single scene and the sunlight was burning her in her voluptuous Snow White costume. This was how a vampire would feel under the sun, she thought sarcastically. “Snow White’s supposed to be sad thinking about her late mother.” he shook his head. “You looked freaked the hell out. This is her birthday. She is ‘lonely’. Again!” Her jaws felt so stiff, almost paralyzed with trying to get into that sad smile the director wanted for hours straight. Before she was ready, the director shouted, “Action!” She looked at the giant birthday cake and sighed. “Happy 16th Birthday, Princess,” said the co-actress. She smiled wryly, or tried to. Thankfully, it worked! “Cut.” Director Clark rose from the chair. “Good job, everyone.” She exhaled in relief, before slumping down into a nearby chair. For today’s scenes which started at six am in the morning, she had to wake

“Wait, Your Highness! Your outfit! How silly of me.”The woman gestured to her assistants, who gingerly carried what she was going to wear for this evening over to her. She stared at her dress in a daze; it was easily the most beautiful gown she had ever seen. The sleeveless, low-cut dress was neither black nor silver, or both perhaps. It shone whenever it moved in their hands. Delicate forest green laces were sprinkled with…diamonds.She swallowed the urge to refuse it, biting down on her lips not to slip that it was too expensive and she couldn’t accept it. Unlike the other dresses she had received from him, this felt so different. This gorgeous dress was full of his adoration for her; she looked away, blushing at her thought.After she put that on with their help, she stood before the mirror they had removed from her wall. Her lips were a few shades darker than her red hair; her cheeks appeared naturally flushed; and her eyes looked glittering, just like all the jewels over her bod

“What is it?” she questioned, pretending to be angry. “You have nothing to be jealous of, do you?”“I wouldn’t dare, Your Royal Highness,” Marc joked. “It’s just, you guys were not even kissing, but the tension was so high. We were afraid you guys might burn down the building.”“Yep. Yep,” Marie agreed vehemently.“You guys trust him now?” interrupted Sage. “Stop, Sage,” protested Marc, but the other one continued, “And you, you don’t care about her. Why are you even here?”Danica was worried Reign would do something to him and prepared to stand between them.But, he merely responded, “I am starting to regret that I healed you. I probably should’ve let you crippled for your entire life.”She spun around and faced him. “You healed him?!”“Yes, my darling,” he smiled, lighting up the entire apartment, or the entire building perhaps.“The vampire prince—sorry—king could smile?” Loyd remarked, sounding dumbstruck.“I’ve seen him smile,” retorted Marc.“I’ve seen it on the net too. But, i

Patrons went back to their noisy selves although several were still staring at her. “Who cares if you’re someone’s fiancee or not?” he grinned. “By the way, did he tell you? That I saved his life.”“Yeah, Marc is a hero,” said Loyd, looking at him fondly. “He saved the vampire king’s life.”She took the glass Marie was handing her. “Now that I think about it, yeah, he almost told me about you. I think he was saying, “Your friend...” when I started screaming about going back.”“You shouted at him. Now you’re a hero,” Loyd pitched in. She noticed some tables went silent around her. She ignored them and swallowed. The scene in the throne-room from five months ago replayed in her mind.“Thank you, Marc,” she said seriously. “What did you do?”“It’s nothing,” he sighed. “Compared to what he had suffered. I’ve never met someone like… your boyfriend. He’s your boyfriend, right? Excluding Loyd obviously; he is the most amazing. Anyway, I was at the palace gate when the evil vampire king was

After a long, frustrating flight and drive, Danica was finally back in Brickland, Umbre. Along the way, she had yet to meet a single person who did not recognize her as an alleged-criminal-turned-princess. Some stared at her, whispering between one another, and others–especially teenage girls–would surround her and try to take photographs with her, and of her.“I don’t want you to take my pictures. Please. Please!”Nobody gave a damn. They would press their faces next to hers and would take selfies while her face ended up grimacing or contorting. A few would caption their photos and upload them to their social media accounts, right under her eyes.Their hashtags, #withcc, #ccandme #atairport, #milestonemoment, etc., etc. CC meant Cinderella Convict, apparently to someone who practically shouted that to her face. One group of teenage boys even asked her, “Are you hungry now? Do you want to bite me?”“No. I don’t have bloodlusts.”“Really?”They looked disappointed while some girls gav