When Two Feathers Fell From The Sky

Two shots ring. One dies with confusion, regret, and guilt. The other is left with hatred, pain, unresolved feelings, and shattered trust. When great power clashes with an equally great power, an overwhelming explosion is imminent, and many people are bound to get hurt. Especially those at the very center of the explosion, like Chen Kamman. When he was barely eighteen, he had to deal with the pain of losing two of the most important people in his life, taking over his father's dynasty, and fighting to maintain the Chen family's control in one of the deadliest mafia organizations in the world. Years later, he has made history, becoming the youngest cartel leader to ever dominate the system. After all he has been through, he has grown indifferent to everything: cold-hearted, savage, and impossible to hurt like before. But when Dian Aoki, someone he thought he had killed, appears in his life ten years later, everything he has built suddenly comes tumbling to the ground. All the memories and pain he had buried deep within him come floating to the surface, taking him back to the starting point again. The appearance of this person equally causes a major stir in the entire organization. Their very presence threatens to overturn the entire system and Chen Kamman's world.

When 16 years old TOKE inadvertently saves her favorite teacher from death with her powers, she is confronted by a group of spirit children and yanked from the world she knows into the witching world where she finds she is a white WITCHLORD and one of the five tasked to protect Nigeria from magical threats. Toke soon finds herself in the thick of the war between the Witches and the Cursed Ones (Vampires) who have suddenly appeared all over Africa, and she must choose between love, duty, and betrayal, even as she discovers her boyfriend is one of the enemy, and the battle is brought closer to her homestead and her loved ones in peril.

I have my headphones on as I direct flight routes. A pilot named Everett Wright suddenly switches into the voice channel I'm on. Then, he publicly mocks me for being inept in bed. "Hey, Jacob! Your wife said you're practically hopeless in bed and that you're done in just a second! Are you seriously a one-second shooter? Ahahaha!" When the rest of the crew hear Everett's words, they can't stop themselves from laughing too. Thinking that this isn't humiliating enough for me, Everett flicks on a private channel purposefully. I can hear my wife, Charlotte O'Brien, suppressing her moans and pants. "Hurry up, honey! Why did you switch to my husband's channel? Stop messing around and just turn it off already!" Charlotte's voice is tinged with a hint of affection. She doesn't care about whether or not I got humiliated—she just enjoys the thrill of being able to flirt with her lover in public.

My husband, Gabriel Buckner, and I had been married for three years. I'd gotten pregnant twice, but I'd lost both babies. It was all because of my in-laws' parrot that could talk. The first time I got pregnant and went to their house, the parrot stared at my belly and kept repeating, "Get rid of the baby! Get rid of the baby!" The second time, the same thing happened. It looked right at my stomach and said the same words. I thought it was just nonsense, but to my shock, my in-laws actually took the parrot seriously and forced me to end the pregnancy. I even showed them the prenatal checkup report from my doctor to prove that the baby was perfectly healthy and begged them not to do it. But they dragged me to the hospital anyway and made me have an abortion on the spot. When I got pregnant a third time, I wanted to be extra cautious. I went straight for an amniocentesis. The report confirmed the baby was healthy and even showed a 99.9% DNA match with Gabriel's. I thought everything would be fine this time. But as soon as the parrot saw me again, it repeated the same words—"Get rid of the baby." And just like before, the Buckners immediately tried to drag me to the hospital. I couldn't understand it. The baby was perfectly healthy, and the DNA report proved it was Gabriel's child. So why would they rather believe a parrot and insist that I get rid of the baby?

For the ninth time, my wife chose to have an abortion for the sake of her ailing first love. This time, I did not stop her. Even when my grandfather flew into a fit of rage, his heart faltering as he called me a disgrace to the family, I stayed silent. The truth was that I had already decided to divorce her. In three days, I'd be leaving for Westmarch to begin my research. Until then, I have decided to grant her every wish. If she wanted me to hand over a promotion so her first love could take the credit, I gave it up without hesitation. If she wanted to bring him home to rest, I vacated the master bedroom on the spot. She beamed with satisfaction, praising me for finally learning to be "sensible." She promised that once he recovered, she would give me a child of my own. However, what she did not know was that there would be no next time.

I have died twice. And both times, the same man killed me. My name is Amara. I am an Omega, which in this world means I am the last to eat, the first to be sold, and the easiest to forget. I was born into a cold house, into a family that looked through me like glass. And I carry inside my chest the memories of two other lives, two other versions of me who stood in the same place I'm standing now and did not make it out. I know his name. Corvus. Dark Alpha. The man who rejected me the first time like I was something he scraped off his boot, and the second time handled me like something he needed to erase quietly before anyone noticed. I know what he's capable of. I know what his eyes look like right before the end. And I know that whatever arrangement my useless excuse for a family has made with his people, I am not going to stand here and let it happen a third time. I have a plan. It has holes in it. It might get me killed again. And then two men kick my door open and the plan becomes irrelevant. "We're taking you with us," the serious one says. Just like that. Like it's already done. Like I don't have a single thing to say about it. And then there's the other one, leaning against my wall with that infuriating almost-smile, who adds: "You can say no. It won't change anything. But you can say it." I say no. It doesn't change anything. I go with them anyway, because Corvus is coming and these two impossible men are the better option. That's what I tell myself. That's the only reason.