The air within the antique store did not smell merely of old paper and dust; it smelled of centuries, and tonight it pulsed with a promise that caused Elara's skin to shiver not from fear, but from a dull, thrumming excitement. She had come in from the rain, wanting to get away from the rattle of thunder and the sudden summer storm, but she had discovered something far more fascinating waiting behind the register: two men who were far more than they seemed.The first, Kaelen, was a twisted knot of black power, dark, obsidian eyes that drilled into her clothes, through her skin, to the thrumming beat of her heart. The second, Lorian, was his opposite, gold hair and a smile with soft, evil possibilities, his very presence a golden warmth in the chill, crowded air. They approached with unblinked coordinated motion, eyes that arrested and held, and they had been gazing at her since she'd crossed over with a unified, ravenous purpose."You can feel it, can't you?" Kaelen's voice was the lo
The forest always belonged to him.Even when the human witch dared to step past the ring of blackthorn trees, with her lantern swinging defiantly in the damp night, she knew she was trespassing. The air itself thickened in warning — moss-breathed, heavy with old enchantments that clung to her skin like another’s touch. The moon glowed with an unnatural brightness, casting silver onto her dark cloak, her wild hair, the glimmer of her smirk.She was not afraid. She never was.The Fae watched her from the shadows, leaning lazily against the bark of an ancient oak as though this was a game he had orchestrated. His eyes glowed faintly, caught between emerald and ice, and the sharp curve of his mouth hinted at secrets meant to ruin mortals. His name was Ciaran, whispered like a warning in villages, cursed in rituals. The sort of fae who should never be spoken to, much less touched.And yet she had come. Again.“Witch,” his voice unfurled like smoke, low and laced with amusement. “I wondered
The night reeked of danger, the air heavy with a storm that hadn’t yet broken. In the heart of the ruined cathedral, where stained glass hung in jagged shards like the teeth of a predator, two figures stood locked in the kind of silence that wasn’t quiet at all—it vibrated, thrummed, sparked like live wire ready to snap.Seraphine’s fingers curled around her wand but she didn’t raise it. She didn’t need to. Her power, wild and sharp as a blade, shimmered around her body, licking her pale skin in tendrils of violet light. Across from her, lounging like sin made flesh, Lucien leaned against a crumbling pillar, every inch of him reeking of arrogance. His smile was too sharp, too knowing, too infuriating.“I should kill you,” Seraphine hissed, every word dipped in venom.“Funny,” Lucien drawled, stepping forward, his boots crunching over broken glass, “because I was thinking the same thing. Only…” His eyes—those molten red eyes that seemed to see straight through her skin into the poundin
The canvas was a wasteland of his own making, a smear of failures that stretched back a decade.Julian’s knuckles were white around the neck of a cheap bottle of whiskey, the only thing in his drafty studio that held any warmth. He was thirty-eight, and the world had already forgotten his name. The critics who once lauded him as a ‘prodigy’ now used his early work as a cautionary tale about burnt-out potential. He was a ghost in his own life, haunting the periphery of an art scene that fed on fresh blood.He didn’t hear her arrive; there was no footstep, no creak of the floorboard. There was only a sudden shift in the air, a thickening of the shadows in the corner of the room that had nothing to do with the failing evening light. The scent of ozone and crushed violets bloomed, erasing the smells of turpentine and despair.“Such a tragic palette,” a voice murmured, a sound like old silk and honeyed smoke. “All that grey. It doesn’t suit the fire in you, Julian.”He turned, the bottle s
The scent of him hit her like a physical blow the moment she crossed the invisible, contested line into the pine barrens.It wasn't just the smell of wolf, that primal, earthy aroma of deep forest, wild musk, and raw power that set every vampire's teeth on edge. It was his scent. Kaelan. It was the specific spice of his skin, the dark, smoky promise of his breath, the intoxicating aroma of a dominant predator in his prime. It was a scent that bypassed every one of Elara’s ancient, refined instincts for self-preservation and went straight to the coiled, hungry thing low in her belly.She moved through the moon-drenched night, a sliver of living shadow against the gnarled trees. The cold air, sharp with the coming frost, did nothing to cool the heat spreading under her alabaster skin. She was the envoy of the Midnight Court, here to parley with the Alpha of the Ironwood Pack over a stretch of land both species claimed. It was a political farce. The real negotiation had already begun the
The air in the forgotten chapel tasted of dust and despair, thick enough to choke on. Moonlight, pale and unforgiving, sliced through the shattered stained glass, painting fractured saints across the cold stone floor. In the centre of that desecrated sanctity, he knelt. Cassian. Once Bishop of the Crimson Spire, now the Ashen Bishop. His fine clerical robes, centuries out of fashion, hung loose on a frame honed by predatory hunger and endless remorse. The scent of old incense clung to him, warring with the metallic tang of the blood he no longer drank. His head was bowed, not in prayer, but in the crushing weight of damnation. Then, the air shifted. Not a sound, but a presence, filling the hollow space like sunlight piercing deep water. Warmth bloomed where there had been only chill. Cassian didn't need to look up. He knew the scent of ozone and lilies, the soft radiance that preceded her. Seraphiel.Absolution walked in on silent feet, and Cassian's dead heart gave a treacherous, a