Tragic Love Fantasy Short Stories & Family Emotions Novels

I get injured thanks to my mount trampling over me during the hunting rite. When I get sent back to Aureveil Citadel by my follower, Caelum Dawnmere, the strongest general in Auremount as well as my fiance, is currently dancing with my younger sister, Elara Aureveil, on the altar. My parents, Aldric Aureveil and Vaelis Sorenwyn, as well as my older brother, Darren Aureveil, surround Elara happily as they celebrate the fact that she has become the Sacred Huntress of Aureveil. My follower asks to meet with the Aureveils multiple times, seeing as she wishes to inform them of my injury. But all of her requests are denied ruthlessly on the spot. In fact, Caelum even tells my follower to send me a message. "Stop being dramatic, Sylara. Today is Elara's first time holding the title of the Sacred Huntress of Auremount. You can tell me whatever it is that you want to tell me after the ceremony is over." I no longer ask my follower to tell my family or Caelum anything. Since then, I calmly allow the healers to continue healing me. This is their 99th time abandoning me for Elara's sake. That's why I'm abandoning them as well. I no longer fight with Elara over any titles of glory. In fact, I go along with every order they give me. Finally, I become the perfect princess who doesn't fight with anyone over anything. But what my family and Caelum don't know is that I will be leaving them permanently.

I spent five years beside Kaelan, heir to the Elf King, and bore him a son, yet he never once acknowledged me in public. He said that when he became Elf King, he would give us the highest standing there was. Instead, at the Elven Assembly, he announced that another woman was his fiancée, then personally handed her our son's life-saving elixir to use as a facial treatment. Later I took my child away to the border, and he was finally willing to acknowledge us. But the child who used to run after him calling him Dad no longer needed a father.

I am a mermaid from White Tide Bay, born with a tideheart scale hidden beneath my sternum. Mermaids from White Tide Bay can live among humans on two legs for as long as they choose. Only when fully submerged in seawater and willing to drop the glamour do their legs merge back into a tail. But once the tideheart scale is damaged, seawater becomes a necessity for survival. Freshwater, medicine, and ordinary IV drips can only buy time; they can never replace a return to the sea. The tideheart scale is not a mate bond. It cannot control anyone. It only awakens after a mermaid has truly fallen in love. Should the beloved betray that love, the scale turns on its bearer, pulling moisture from the blood and gnawing through flesh and bone after nightfall like countless tiny teeth. Unless the mermaid lets go of her feelings completely, the tidal decay will never stop. On the night of our wedding anniversary, I sat in the most sought-after oceanview restaurant in Greyport, brimming with anticipation, and waited for my husband, Adrian Hayes, for two full hours. He never came. But the tideheart scale on my chest suddenly began to burn. Through the glass water curtain that divided the restaurant, I saw Adrian having dinner with a woman. Cecilia Roland. His first love, the woman he'd dated for five years, the one he once claimed he had long since left behind. Adrian leaned forward and gently wiped a trace of sauce from her lip. He hadn't shown me that kind of patience in a very long time. I endured the growing burn in my chest and called him three times in a row. He declined every one. A moment later, a text came through: "Evelyn, an urgent meeting came up. Don't wait for me. I'll make it up to you next time." Everyone in Greyport knew Adrian Hayes never declined my calls. So he wasn't in a meeting. He simply didn't want me interrupting his dinner with Cecilia. The seawater felt as though it were being drained from my blood drop by drop. The scale on my chest cracked and curled at