Did Echo Kill Kingpin Novels & Stories

I used to live my life believing that there was something corrupted within me. I had never felt comfortable walking in the searing, bright daylight. It felt as if I didn't belong there. Is that why I felt this sudden attraction to a man who seemed to be the embodiment of darkness? Ashtar Malachious resembled the sum of my sexual fantasies. The shades surrounding him were like a captivating essence. Others called him the predator, the fallen, or the death. I knew that, but my eyes saw him differently. He saved my life in more than a literal way. He seduced me, slowly enticing all my senses. He showed me what a touch could feel like. He let me taste the pleasure I had never thought existed. The one thing he wanted from me was my blood. I knew that if I gave it to him, it would be along with my body, heart, and soul. His irresistible aura blinded me to the dangers that surrounded me. Like a moth to the flame, I stepped closer until the hellfire licked my flesh. Then the wicked flames revealed the cruelest truth—this love kills. In the end, one of us will die.

In the final second before the elevator crashed down, my husband finally picked up my desperate call for help. I begged him, who was in charge of elevator maintenance, to save me. "That elevator was just serviced. What game are you playing?" he snapped. "Wasn't your silent treatment so strong? Keep going and stop bothering me. It's Marina's birthday today." I never reached out to him again. I died. Later, he'd have given anything just to see me one more time.

The day after I returned to my home country, my old classmates ambushed me with an invitation to a reunion. In the hotel, I ran into my ex, Shawn Quinn, whom I hadn't seen in five years. The room froze when he pulled out a ring and proposed. Gasps rippled through the crowd. They all expected me to jump at the chance, given how hard I had chased him back in the day. They forgot the gut-punch of our graduation day. Shawn had sided with another woman, letting her paint me as a plagiarist, a cheater, a bully. The school authorities revoked my diploma and kicked me out of the ceremony. Humiliated, I fled abroad, leaving behind a shattered heart. Now, his best friend told me, "Shawn pulled strings to get your diploma back despite your past mistakes. He never forgot about you. He has been waiting for you all these years. You're his only love."

The college entrance exam began, and I waited nervously for the papers to be handed out. Just as I was about to take the test paper from the invigilator, a floating line of text suddenly drifted across my vision. [Don't take it. The paper is coated with deadly poison. You'll die the moment you touch it.] Before my mind could even process what was happening, pure survival instinct made my hand jerk back. The paper slipped from my grasp and fell to the ground. I stiffly met with the invigilator's lifeless, mechanical eyes. He stared at me without blinking, then slowly bent down, picked up the test paper, flipped it over, and placed it back on my desk. "Good luck on your exam." His cold voice snapped me out of the fear brought on by that strange message. Just as I was starting to think that it was nothing more than nerves playing tricks on my eyes, the exam hall speakers started playing instructions. "The listening test will now begin. Please mark your answers on the corresponding answer sheet. The papers will be collected in 15 minutes. Anyone who fails to submit on time will be eliminated!" A wave of terror instantly overwhelmed me.

On our wedding day, my wife's first love, Hank Scott, threatened to slit his wrists. She ignored him and went through with the ceremony anyway, until news arrived that he was dead, his blood staining the ground. From that moment on, Shirley Lowell withdrew into a convent, becoming the cold, distant woman everyone knew. In the name of atonement, she forced me to copy the Bible a thousand times and kneel in endless prayer, grinding me down until I was crippled. Bound to a wheelchair, I asked her for a divorce. She refused, saying we owed Hank a debt and had to atone for it together. She used my family to threaten me, keeping me by her side and tormenting me for the rest of my life. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on our wedding day. This time, I chose to push her toward Hank. I would become the first love in her heart, the one who led her onto the path of devout faith.

The once-glorious empire is in ruins, its capital buried beneath ash, following a bloody uprising. A competent scavenger who has been hardened by grief, Zara endures in the broken world, plagued by memories of the empire's devastation, particularly the ruthless purge that claimed her family's lives. She discovers a secret amid the rubble: a wounded man named Kael who says he is the final heir to the crumbling empire. Zara reluctantly consents to assist him, viewing his survival as a way to make amends. But Kael isn't interested in bringing back the empire he was born into. Rather, he is dangerously knowledgeable about a weapon that could upset the delicate balance of power in the world. An unforeseen attachment forms between Zara and Kael, complicating their objective as they create an uneasy alliance to traverse the lethal world of bounty hunters, imperial loyalists, and rebels. Zara is compelled to face her own troubled past—including the potential that her long-lost brother is still alive and fighting for one of the factions—as they delve deeper into the empire's hidden secrets. After the rebels kidnap Kael and torture him to find the weapon, Zara must decide whether to risk everything to save him or let him perish. Zara and Kael are pushed to the limit by their increasing love and the burden of their common past as they work against the clock to destroy the weapon and keep it out of the wrong hands. Will the fires of their decisions consume them or will they find salvation in a world of ashes?

Detective Jane Michaels arrives in Ridgeview to start fresh after a catastrophic case nearly ended her career. On her first day, she’s assigned a gruesome case involving a serial killer who dresses his victims as brides and leaves a single rose. As Jane dives deeper, she uncovers unsettling details about the victims and their lives. Amidst the investigation, she crosses paths with Nathaniel Carter, a kind and mysterious local writer who slowly chips away at her walls. But Ridgeview is a town of secrets, and the truth is never as it seems. When a victim escapes the killer’s clutches and gives a description, the case takes an unexpected turn. The town is rocked as the killer is unmasked—someone who was hiding in plain sight. In the final confrontation, Jane must use her wit and emotional resilience to bring the killer to justice. But even as the case is solved, a sinister shadow lingers, and Jane faces her own demons, left with an unsettling gift that raises more questions than answers.

He broke down my door at 9:47 on a Tuesday to kill my husband. He wasn’t supposed to find me. I should have been afraid of the most wanted man in the state. Instead I asked him for something no woman had ever asked him for. Then I drove north. I thought I was free. Content Warning Domestic Violence, intimate partner abuse, violence, morally-grey anti hero, love interest, stalking, explicit sexual content

She has only ever experienced suffering, abuse, and hated by her family. Seraphine Valentina is the last descendant of Luna, but her father wanted her to become a slave for other Alpha. Her fated mate partner comes out late after Seraphine already mated to most dangerous Alpha Leader, Cassian Maximilian. Cassian wants Seraphine to raise their child to prevent the extinction of his pack. However, fate does not allow them to do so as Seraphine has a vision from the future that there will be an Alpha who comes to the past to kill them. An Alpha who is jealous of their relationship.

Alissa's life is pitiful. She's a slave, a 'thing' for the pack to take their aggression out on. With a new alpha about to take over, Alissa dreams her suffering will end. He biggest hope is that the new alpha will let her leave. He doesn't. For she's his mate. A mate he rejects in an instant and watches as her pack beat her to near death. One word changes her life, in a deep and powerful command, he saves her. But can the blossoming relationship survive a secret, a secret the pack had been hiding for centuries? A secret that could mean death for them all.