The Sound I Saw

Death is like a rain you cannot stop. Are you bound to be saved? Or bound to die? I saw you die.

I have a secret. When I touch someone, I see the face of the person they love most. Since Natalie moved in next door when we were seven, I always saw myself in her heart. At eighteen, when she held my hand—it was me. At twenty-two, when she proposed—it was me. On our wedding night, when she kissed me—it was still me. On the morning of our third anniversary, I fixed the hem of her dress. My fingers grazed her ankle. Out of habit, I closed my eyes. This time, I saw two faces. Mine. And some guy I'd never seen before. That night, Natalie's phone lit up. [Thanks for spending today with me, Natalie.] Twenty-one years. A hundred thousand touches. And for the first time, I was wrong.

I go deaf in an attempt to save James Duncan. He falls to his knees before my parents and begs them to let me marry him. He says he'll care for me for life. He finally passes his five-year test, but he sleeps with his lover before our wedding. He does it before my very eyes. He clamps a hand over her mouth and says, "Be quiet. Don't wake Layla up." His lover giggles and nibbles on his palm. "What's there to be afraid of? She's deaf; she can't hear us." James doesn't know that I've already regained my hearing. He and his lover are also unaware that their behavior is being livestreamed.

Buried in silence for centuries, Theron was meant to be forgotten—locked away as penance, left to starve until even memory surrendered. But when Nyssa tears open his tomb, she does more than wake an ancient hunger. She binds herself to the very ruin she thought she could resist. His blood vow is simple: protect her, claim her, keep her. But Theron’s protection is as dangerous as it is consuming, and every moment in his shadow tangles Nyssa deeper in a bond that demands surrender. She feels his hunger in her veins, his voice in her thoughts, his vow echoing sharper than any chain. And behind every promise is a reminder: Theron is not tamed. He is a killer, as merciless as the centuries that shaped him—and loving him means loving the ruin he brings. Torn between terror and desire, between the fragile life she knows and the eternity Theron offers, Nyssa must decide if she is strong enough to embrace the darkness she freed—or if his devotion will destroy them both. Because forever with a monster is not a promise of peace. It is a promise of hunger, obsession, and the kind of love that cuts as deep as it heals. A dark paranormal romance about hunger, obsession, and the thin line between protection and possession, The Sound of Ruin is for readers who like their monsters unrepentant, their heroines defiant, and their tension sharp enough to bleed. Expect enemies that burn into lovers, blood-soaked vows that refuse to break, and a gothic fantasy world where survival demands surrender and love is the most dangerous risk of all.

3:00 a.m. Insomnia gnawed at my nerves like a rusted saw, grinding back and forth mercilessly. On a whim that I couldn't explain, I opened a radio app called "Echoes from Below." The interface was simple and bare. Black background, blue text. No ads, no host introduction. Just a single audio waveform, slowly buffering on the screen. The shape of the waveform felt wrong. It didn't look like soundwaves at all. More like rows of sharp, interlocking teeth. A pop-up window appeared in the center of the screen. [Listening Guidelines] The letters glowed blue, carrying an unsettling eeriness. [This station's signal may extend into dreams. If you hear the broadcast while dreaming, firmly believe that you are awake.]

Somewhere between staying silent and screaming for help… she existed. Seventeen-year-old Maren has mastered the art of disappearing in plain sight. Haunted by past trauma, locked in a toxic relationship she can't escape, and drowning under the pressure of school and a world that never cared to understand her, she begins to wonder if life is even worth staying for. No one sees her pain—until he does. The new boy, Kade, has his own shadows. He’s blunt, observant, and completely unafraid to call her out—making him an instant enemy. But when he overhears a moment no one was meant to witness, he realizes the truth: the girl everyone overlooks is barely holding on. As Kade steps deeper into her shattered world, their connection becomes a lifeline. But secrets run deeper than he imagined, and when Maren goes missing, no one believes she’s worth finding—except him. Fighting time, silence, and the lies that built her cage, Kade refuses to give up. Because sometimes, saving someone means proving they were never invisible at all. A heartbreaking, haunting, and ultimately hopeful story about survival, truth, and what it really means to be seen.