Hello beasties, thank you so much for all the love you have showered on this book so far. Truly grateful to all your comments and gems. They actually helped me get out of my imposter syndrome of not being good enough. I know you don't need to know all this, as an author its my duty to give my best and the best to my story and my characters and I always try to keep improving but some days are just too dark and scary to go by on my own and that's when you guys help me soooo much and I can't thank you enough. Really, love you guys and everyone who read my books. You are my strength and I hope to make you proud. Hope you like the chapter hehe. Love you <3
[Carys]“What’s wrong, miss Elffire?” Liam asked.“Umm. Uh. A rat ran right over my feet,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face. “Maybe. Maybe a… a cockroach.”“A cockroach!” Verity, Nox, and Ash yelped together, lifting their feet in the air while they frantically looked under the table.Pfft!Kian suppressed his laughter, clearing his throat while King broke into laughter.“A rat? In our office?” King looked at Liam. “When was the last rodent control?”Liam looked back at the King, narrowing his eyes. “We don’t have rodent control, King,” he replied.“B-b-but we have pest control, right?” Verity stammered.“Yes,” Liam said. “And quite an advanced one. So there’s no way for a rodent or… a cockroach to get in here.”“Must be a nasty little rat that sneaked in,” I said, glaring at Kian from the corner of my eyes.“Indeed,” he said. “Must be a really stubborn one.”“Scared of a rat! And cockroaches?” Christian said impassively, looking around. “Wow. My confidence in SW is skyrocketing.”
[Carys] (TW: Self-harm and blood) * ** *** I slammed Ruin against the ice wall as a radial crack crept through the wall. “What did you do? What the FUCK did you do?” I roared, glaring right into his red eyes. “What did I do?” His heavy eyelids partially opened his eyes as he gave a nonchalant shrug. “Oh! You mean trying to get a hundred percent control over your slave brand? Isn’t it obvious, belladonna, for that your 95 percent master needs to die? Is this ‘brand’ new information for you?” His head jerked back, crashing into the wall as I grasped his throat. “You’ll not get even a drop of my blood if anything happens to him and his friends,” I snarled, feeling my claws elongate, sinking deeper into his neck. He chuckled, choking on the blood that drained into his throat. “It’s not funny!” “Why?” His voice turned hoarse. “I thought… ugh… wolves had a better sense of humor…” Flashing his brows, he signaled me to look over my shoulder. I glanced over and found a ball of dark
[Carys] Last time I was here, I was in a hurry to free Ash and make it to the AAC meeting, so I didn’t have the time to explore this world beyond the museum, but… “What in the freaking world is going on here? What… is this place?” I gaped at the floating pyramid that hovered above a castle, casting a glow over the fully operational city that sprawled beneath. The pyramid rotated very slowly, dispersing the whitish blue light across the city. “Blank Space, which no longer looks blank to me.” Ruin raised his voice to be heard through the gushing squalls and our fluttering overcoats. We stood on the slanting top of the tallest turret of the museum, which was probably the highest building around. There was no sun, no moon, no sky. It was nothing like our world. It looked like a city hovering in darkness. As if a part of the earth crust had broken from the planet and was now drifting in far space independently. There were countless such fragmented lands hovering around us, but they
[Ruin]Belladonna scanned the crowd for an easy victim for her little visa heist.I could have stolen two visas, but I didn’t because the thought of witnessing her steal was far more exciting than some twisted fake chivalry. Although I highly doubted if she could steal at all.It was always exciting to see a morally upright person step into moral corruption, however small it might be.Hidden in the shadows, I watched her struggle with her morals before a flicker of determination lit her eyes. Her eyes changed the way they did when she marked me. My heart, if one could even call it that, pounded with the same temptation it had when I burnt the slave brand on her chest. With every choice one makes, they kill a part of themselves. A kind of suicide no one talks about, but is more common than breathing.By not killing her, I killed a part of myself who yearned to drive the dagger deeper into her chest and reach her heart. It was more like an impulse, a primal reflex that set my muscles a
[Ruin]The bones of her hands contorted and twisted, reshaping beneath her skin. Her fingers elongated into sharp claws, more lethal than my dagger.The air around her crackled with an aura that felt strangely familiar, like a forgotten dream. It felt as though I had known that energy for years. Still, I couldn’t recognize it, just like those vague emotions that took over me when I saw her for the first time.A second she was right before my eyes and the next she was gone with a deafening growl. A hush fell over the crowd before it burst into bone-chilling screeches of men as if they were being torn apart alive.I looked around as a sea of men and women ran upstairs in a catastrophic wave to escape the massacre.I got mere glimpses of Belladonna. She was all over the hall. Incessant gunshots and zapping beams of lights were followed by panicked cries of spells.People ducked and screamed out of fear as they hurled out of the hall, pushing each other like cramped cattle within electroc
[Ruin] A scorching pain hit me from behind, spreading from my neck to my knees within seconds. Reality blurred around me as I fell. My face hit the floor, and I remained paralyzed for a few seconds until the urgency of the situation hit back again. Damn it! Wincing at the feverish flood of excruciation that slowly spread through my veins like a numbing poison, I looked at Belladonna. Are you hurt? Are you shot? I tried to speak, but couldn’t utter a word. Breathing heavily, she stood in front of Morana, shielding her from the swords and bullets. She was bleeding all over. The blood-stained cuts on her clothes revealed her deep wounds. My mouth watered as blood trailed down her fingers as she clenched the blades of the swords with bare claws. Blood. I need her blood. Somehow, her blood helped me heal faster. She had suppressed the swords’ movements, but she clearly couldn’t hold on for too long. Not with those wounds. She had reached her limits. I crawled towards her. I ha
[Kian]“So this communication system works on the frequency of nothingness. You mean on the frequency of something that doesn’t exist?” I asked the human scientist, Rebecca.“Well, yeah. Not exactly that. We call that nothingness — medium of space. Some scientists call it dark matter. Like air is the medium on earth and water is the medium in the oceans, which makes life possible. Similarly, the medium of space is what fills the space,” she said.“Isn’t space just… dark?” Levi asked, frowning deeply.“Yes. Exactly. Dark is present non-uniformly in every inch of the space, but it’s all linked together like a limitless fabric of darkness. Darkness is not nothingness. And that’s what makes this kind of communication so robust,” she said.“So you mean to say that as long as a place has darkness, this system’s gonna work?” I asked.“No, if a place is within our universe, our communication will work. Because darkness is constant. Light is variable. We are still finding out what exactly that
[Kian]As I entered the hospital, the staff in my tracks hurried and stood aside, holding their head in a bow.The thick scent of medicine hung heavily in the air. Nausea hit my guts, but ignoring it, I headed towards the private ICU wing of the hospital.My footsteps echoed as I continued down the corridors, which gradually turned emptier and quieter until I reached the decontamination chamber. I put on the gloves and mask before entering it. I shut my eyes and a fine mist of disinfectants sprayed all around me. Once the process was complete, the doors to the other side opened automatically.The nurses in scrubs rushed across the corridor into the ICU ward.Aamna paced near the door of the ICU ward, fidgeting restlessly. Looking completely disheveled, Jackson talked to someone on the phone, peering outside the window. “Thanks, Zion. Yeah. Yes. I’ll send you the details about the meeting. Yeah… um-hm. Alright! Thanks again, man!” Jackson hung up.“Why can’t I enter?” Aamna walked u