Novels by Avalyn Noir

Kayla’s POVSilence.That was all there was at first—an endless, weightless quiet. No pain, no sound, no heartbeat. Just the strange, floating stillness of a world between life and death.Then, slowly, the silence cracked. A soft hum filled the air, deep and steady, like the sound of the ocean beneath my skin. I opened my eyes.Light. Too bright. Too pure.The air smelled of ash and rain. I lay on a bed of soft grass, the sky above me an endless gray canvas. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was—or who I was. Then it hit me all at once. Ethan. The explosion. The core.I sat up sharply, gasping. The world spun, but it was real. I was alive. Somehow.“Kayla?”The sound of my name was like a thread pulling me back to reality. I turned, and my breath caught in my throat.Damien knelt a few feet away, his face streaked with dirt and blood, his eyes wide with relief. He was alive. When he saw me move, something in him broke; he exhaled a shaky laugh and closed the distance between u

Kayla’s POVThe night was unnaturally still. Even the fire that had consumed the facility burned quieter now, its glow painting the sky in shades of crimson and ash. Every step we took toward the blue light in the distance felt heavier, as if the ground itself was pulling against us.Damien walked ahead, flashlight cutting a narrow path through the smoke. Liam followed close behind me, his limp worse now, but he didn’t complain. None of us spoke. The silence between us wasn’t peace—it was the fragile kind of quiet that comes before something breaks.The pulse of the blue light grew stronger the closer we got. It wasn’t just a visual glow; it had rhythm—steady, hypnotic—like a heartbeat. But it wasn’t mine, or Damien’s, or even the earth’s. It was Ethan’s.Each pulse sent a faint vibration through my chest, syncing with the warmth that still burned beneath my skin. I could feel him—inside me—alive in the places where fear and power met.You don’t have to fight me, his voice whispered,

Kayla’s POVThe tunnel was endless, opening up before us like the throat of a wounded beast. The smoke and dust-filled air was tearing at my lungs with each breath. Damien had his arm around my shoulders, half-leading, half-carrying me down toward the dim light ahead. Liam followed close behind, his face pale, his movements unsteady.The sound of collapsing steel roared behind us, drowning out everything except the thunder of our footsteps. Every vibration felt like a heartbeat—Ethan’s heartbeat—echoing through the bones of the building he’d built to trap us.The tunnel was endless, opening up before us like the throat of a wounded beast. The smoke and dust-filled air was tearing at my lungs with each breath. Damien had his arm around my shoulders, half-leading, half-carrying me down toward the dim light aheadDamien knelt beside me, brushing my hair back, his voice hoarse. “It’s over, Kayla. It’s really over.”I wanted to believe him. I wanted to let the words sink in and become real

Kayla’s POVThe sound of glass breaking echoed like thunder. My mother’s warning still hung in the air, sharp and desperate, as smoke and light flooded the chamber.Damien pulled me back, his grip firm, but my eyes wouldn’t leave her. My mother. Alive. Her eyes—my eyes—glowed gold, and for a fleeting second I saw the same power that burned inside me flickering beneath her skin.She looked at me with so much sorrow it made my chest ache. “Kayla, listen to me,” she pleaded. “You don’t understand what he’s done—what he’s made you.”Before I could respond, the air split open. Ethan stepped out of the smoke like a shadow come to life. His white coat was torn, his skin streaked with blood, but his expression was calm—too calm.“Did you really think I’d die that easily?” he said softly. His voice was smooth, eerily gentle, like a lover whispering in the dark.Liam moved instantly, stepping in front of me, gun raised. “Stay away from her.”Ethan’s eyes flicked toward him, and with one small m

Kayla’s POVThe silence that followed was unbearable. It was the kind that pressed against your ears and made your heart beat too loudly, the kind that told you the danger wasn’t gone—it was just hiding.Damien’s arm was still around me, steadying me as I tried to catch my breath. The air was thick with smoke and the chemical stench of whatever had leaked from the shattered tubes. Liam sat slumped against the far wall, his breathing shallow but determined.I could feel Ethan’s absence like a hollow echo, but even that was too quiet to trust. He wasn’t gone. He had just slipped somewhere deeper, waiting. Watching.Damien turned to me, brushing his thumb lightly over the cut on my cheek. “We have to move before this whole place collapses.”His voice grounded me. I nodded, though my legs trembled beneath me. He guided me toward the door, but when my hand brushed the wall, a surge of energy pulsed through my fingertips. The lights flickered once, then died completely.I froze.Damien look

Kayla’s POVThe atmosphere was electric. Each hair on my frame stood on end as the whirring of the machinery increased in pitch, vibrating the walls. Lights flashed furiously, bursts of blue and white coloring the icy corridor in wild designs.Run!" cried Damien, yanking me toward the only door still ajar. Liam was behind me, limping badly, but dead set on it. Metal screeched against metal all around us as walls started to converge on us like the jaws of a trap.We had hardly stepped through the door before it thudded shut behind us with a deafening bang. I stumbled forward, gasping, my heart thumping so hard it hurt. The room that we stepped into was unlike any other—round, metal, spotlessly sterile. Walls were lined with tubes containing silently pulsing blue fluid.The air was charged. Every hair on my frame stood on end with the added thrum of machinery that made the walls shudder. Lights blazed frantically, streaks of blue and white lighting up the small passageway in wild patter

The sea was still. The kind of still that made it hard to breathe. Smoke hung low over the harbor, rolling slowly over blackened ruins and fractured stone. The city was silent, almost reverent, as if the world itself had paused to witness the aftermath of what had been unleashed—and what had been lost.Julian sat at the edge of the pier, his hands stained with ash and salt. Aurora’s body lay beside him, her skin pale but serene, her hair fanned across the wet ground like gold threads caught in twilight. He had lost track of time. Maybe hours had passed. Maybe days. The sun refused to rise.Her hand was still warm when he held it, but the pulse he searched for was gone. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles and whispered, “You did it. You really did it.”The words broke in his throat. He had always believed he was the one who saved people—through control, through power, through force. But Aurora had done it by giving everything.“You were never afraid of dying,” he murmured, his voice

The air split open with a sound like thunder buried under water. Aurora clutched Julian tighter as the ground beneath them trembled, the red light from the cracked Blood Coin bleeding through the darkness. Every pulse from it sent a wave of heat through her chest, stealing her breath. It wasn’t just energy anymore—it was something alive, something ancient, something that had been waiting for this moment.Julian groaned in her arms, his head rolling against her shoulder. His skin was hot, his pulse erratic. “Aurora,” he rasped. “Get away from it.”She shook her head, her voice trembling. “I can’t leave you.”His eyes fluttered open, a faint gold shimmer still lingering in them. “If it wakes fully, it won’t stop. Not for me. Not for anyone.”Before she could answer, the ground cracked again, and a fissure spread outward, glowing red-hot. The air filled with a low hum—a heartbeat, deep and resonant, shaking the world. The Blood Coin lifted from the ground, turning slowly, fragments of it

The air shimmered with the quiet after the storm. Aurora stood perfectly still, her pulse thudding in her throat. Julian—if that was truly him—stood only a few feet away, his figure haloed by the dim gold light of the Blood Coin. Everything about him looked the same. His shoulders, the way he tilted his head, the familiar warmth that should have melted her. But it didn’t. It chilled her instead.He smiled, slow and deliberate, his voice low. “You pulled me back, Aurora. You never could resist saving people who didn’t want saving.”Her lips parted. “Julian, it’s really you?”He took a step closer. The ground beneath his boots rippled faintly like disturbed water. “Who else would it be?”She should have run to him. She should have thrown herself into his arms and let the ache that had been tearing her apart dissolve. But something deep inside her screamed not to move. The air around him wasn’t right. It hummed wrong—too still, too perfect, like the silence before an explosion.Aurora sw

Aurora’s breath hitched as the water rippled, sending gold spirals through the black surface. The Blood Coin moved slowly but deliberately, like it had a mind of its own, gliding toward the shore. For a heartbeat, she couldn’t move. Her pulse quickened, the cold air biting at her damp skin. “No,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.”But it was.The coin shone brighter, pulsing with the same rhythm as the golden thread against her chest. Her body reacted before her mind could catch up—she stumbled backward, her heart hammering as memories flashed like lightning. The gate. The screams. Julian’s sacrifice.She took another step back, shaking her head. “You’re gone. You were destroyed. You can’t come back.”A gust of wind swept across the pier, cold and sharp, carrying with it a voice—low, distorted, and familiar. “Nothing stays buried, Aurora.”Her breath caught. “Who’s there?”From the shadows near the end of the dock, a figure emerged. Tall. Wrapped in a dark coat, his face half-h

Aurora didn’t move for a long time. The city was awake around her—horns blaring, neon signs flickering, footsteps splashing through puddles—but she was still caught between two worlds. The rain tasted like the sea from Country C, and every drop felt like a reminder that she shouldn’t be here. Not without him.She stood slowly, her knees trembling. The world spun for a moment before it steadied. The thread on her chest pulsed once, faintly, like a heartbeat that wasn’t her own. She touched it with shaking fingers. “Julian?” she whispered. Nothing. Only the whisper of wind across wet streets.She pulled her coat tighter around her and started walking, her mind blank but her body moving on instinct. The city lights blurred past, smeared gold and silver through the mist. Somewhere behind her, she swore she heard footsteps following, but when she turned, the street was empty.Hours later, she found herself at the edge of the harbor. The skyline shimmered across the water, steady and cold.

Aurora stood frozen as the glow around her deepened, golden light seeping from beneath her skin. The air thickened, humming with the same rhythm that had haunted her dreams since the night she left Country C. Julian’s fingers were still around her wrist, his grip steady, grounding. But the light between them was anything but gentle.He felt it first—a sudden heat, alive and violent, surging up her arm and into his veins. He hissed through his teeth and pulled back slightly, but didn’t let go. Aurora gasped, clutching his hand. “It’s happening again,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “It knows you’re here.”Julian’s jaw tightened. “Then let it know I’m not leaving.”The glow rippled, casting their faces in shifting gold. For a moment, she saw both of them reflected in the window—him standing tall and defiant, her trembling but unbroken. It was like watching two flames battle to stay lit in the same wind.“Julian, listen to me.” Aurora’s voice shook, desperation breaking through the