Hearts Of The Boiling Isles Novels & Stories

All Hearts! "

“Ignore it. Just run.” We vaulted over a fallen log slick with moss. My foot caught on the other side and I went down hard, palms scraping against dirt and stone. Pain flared, real and grounding. The howl sounded again. So close I could feel it in my teeth. Ember spun, placing herself between me and the trees, her body tense, shoulders rolling as if she were half a breath from shifting. “Get up, Rose. Now.” “I—I can’t,” I said, panic clawing at my throat—not because of the rogue, but because the heat inside me was no longer contained. It pressed outward, like something stretching after a long sleep.

Meghan, gripped by fear, moved frantically to unbuckle the prosthetic and pull it away. Taylor's amputated leg became severely burned and infected, making the entire hospital room smell unbearably foul. He was in such agony that he threw himself out of a window, and this time, he was left in a coma. Meghan finally got what was coming to her. She immediately snapped and lost her grip on reality. She launched a live stream to blast Danielle for her heartlessness and launched a smear campaign against Olivia Technology's products. She, surprisingly, raked in some cash in the first few hours of her live stream by exploiting her own misery for sympathy.

A loneliness so familiar it felt like my own. “I’m back,” he said quietly, as if confessing a sin. And something in me seventeen year old me, twenty six year old me, all the versions in between, ached with the same impossible thought: I’m glad. But I didn’t say it. Not yet. Because slow burn love is not a match struck in daylight. It is a candle protected from wind, lit again and again, until it finally becomes a hearth.

The water level rose even faster than before. The others aboard the boats grew increasingly anxious as Corey continued his tirade. "Are you out of your damn mind? Who the hell dares swim in a flood like this? There's an elderly woman there too!" "They're about to be swept away, and you're saying they shouldn't ask for help? Is it only not a waste of resources once they're dead?" "Forget this idiot—just save them already!" Both rescue boats surged toward me at once. But it was already too late.

What a pathetic fool I was. When she fed me the medicine, I failed to push her away in time. Once the liquid hit my stomach, it started to burn, and my consciousness began to fade. … Before everything went to black, I saw that woman spraying disinfecting alcohol on herself, her face covered in disgust. "Get him to Southeast Aldoria and tell them to just keep him barely breathing. They can break him." Once again, I was thrown into a nightmare like a piece of discarded meat. I woke up finding myself tied to a ship's mast. Below the platform, a group of burly men were throwing cash around, bidding over my fate as if I were nothing more than entertainment.

My feet felt nailed to the floor. In the end, I ran. I hated myself for it. I was too much of a coward even to confront them. I wandered the streets alone. Everywhere around me, people walked in pairs or groups. Couples held hands. Families laughed together. Friends huddled beneath umbrellas. Everyone seemed to belong somewhere. I did not. The sky darkened overhead. Then the rain came without warning. Heavy drops pounded against my skin, sharp enough to hurt. I curled up on a street corner, letting the rain soak me through while my tears blurred the world into streaks of light and shadow.

"As proof of the curse, I gave you a mark which you have already seen. In order for the curse to break, you need to find true love. When that person says I love you, then the curse will be broken." How hard could it be to make a woman fall in love with me. “That is simple to accomplish.” I said with pure smugness. She shook her head. "No, it is not that simple. The moment that person loves you then you love them back, you will feel a burning sensation on your mark and it will glow signifying that as true love then the curse will be broken. If it does not, then you will remain immortal until you will find your true love."