Midnight Lily Novels & Stories

Midnight, “Who remembered me so late at night?” I wondered. I opened the message. The number was unknown to me. The message was saying: ‘What are you doing?’ “Are they kidding me? What could I do for such an hour?” I thought. “Anyway, I will answer, and I will see.” I answered: “I am out grazing the sheep.” I waited for a little while, and the answer came: “That is funny. Are you going to milk it too? I mean, if you are okay.”

One broken. Inside was a single card. Midnight — Tower Spire 32. That was all. She stared at the note. Then reached for her lighter. The paper caught flame immediately—but the wax seal refused to melt. It hissed instead, searing into her palm before falling to the floor, unburned. She watched it. Then, low and dangerous, she whispered: “Then come and take me.” ⟅━━━━━⟆ ⚜ ⟅━━━━━⟆ Next: Will she climb the tower… or be pulled in?

But every light inside dimmed sharply for a split second before returning to normal. Several guests glanced upward uneasily. Then the elevator stopped moving. The gaming streamer frowned. “Uh… are we stuck?” Before anyone could answer, the overhead speaker crackled softly. [Midnight check-in begins in ten minutes.] The voice sounded distorted, wrong somehow. A second later, every phone inside the elevator buzzed simultaneously. Winona pulled hers out slowly. A new notification covered the screen. WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT HOTEL. FIRST RULE: DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR AFTER 12 A.M. NO MATTER WHO IS KNOCKING. Below the message was one final line. SURVIVE UNTIL MORNING.

"I don't know what you're talking about." "Don't you?" Lily tilted her head, studying Callie. "That's funny. Because I heard some interesting things this morning. About a girl who was out at the park last night. Around midnight." She paused, letting that sink in. "Dangerous time to be wandering around alone, don't you think?" The pieces clicked together in Callie's mind, cold and sharp. The letter. The note telling her to come to the river at midnight. Lily had sent it.

My legs felt like jelly, but I pushed myself forward toward the small, glowing pond at the far end of the garden. And there they were. The Lunar Lilies. They were delicate, translucent flowers that seemed to be made of trapped starlight. They bloomed in the shallow water, their petals opening slowly to drink in the Blood Moon's fading light. I reached out, my fingers trembling as I grasped the stem of the largest flower. This was it. This was Toby’s life. As I pulled the flower from the water, a snap of a twig sounded behind me. I spun around, the lily clutched to my chest, my eyes wide with terror.

LILA Evening spread across the Packhouse in wide strokes of silver and blue. The air cooled, I stayed in the garden with Mara, the ground beneath us soft from the day’s work. The moon climbed slow over the ridge, pale and full, washing the rows in light that turned every leaf into glass. The crescent beds glimmered as if carved from frost. I knelt beside the central circle with the last pouch of seeds and loosened the drawstring. “These open only under moonlight,” I said, holding out the small white kernels. “Moonwort and night jasmine. They bloom when others sleep.”

Damien POV: The moon cast a soft luminescence through the windows of my chamber as night enveloped the estate in its mysterious embrace. I found myself alone with Lily, the air thick with anticipation. She moved with deliberate sensuality, each step a tantalizing dance as she slowly shed her clothes, revealing her body to me with a sultry gaze. Her eyes sparkled with mischief, and her lips curved in a seductive smile. Lily approached me, her hips swaying gently, her fingers trailing down her supple stomach. With a boldness that ignited a spark within me, she reached between her legs, teasing and inviting. Her breath quickened, and her chest rose and fell with the rhythm of her desire.

I saw a woman who looked like she belonged at the right hand of a king. When I stepped back into the ballroom ten minutes later, the atmosphere had changed entirely. The whispers didn't stop, but the tone had shifted from derision to a sharp, biting envy. "Is that... no, it can't be," a woman in a gold sequins hissed as I passed. "It is," her companion whispered back, her eyes wide. "That’s the 'Midnight Lily' piece from the auction last week. Lorenzo Vitale outbid everyone for it—he paid nearly half a million. Everyone thought it was for Vivienne."

His pale unconscious body was buried beneath a thick blanket. Almira sat by his bedside, staring at his white face. "He is somewhat handsome," she admitted to herself, then combed his hair with her fingers. Her eyes dropped to his body and she rolled down the blanket. Slowly, she unbuttoned his pyjamas. "If I take it out now, no one will ever know," she muttered. Throwing a glance around the room, she spotted an armor set. She walked to it and picked up the sword. Almira returned to his bedside, ready to strike him when a knock interrupted.

Even if he managed to eliminate her pack obligations as he’d promised, if her brother found out she was literally sleeping with the enemy, she would never hear the end of it. Lily pushed through the back entrance. When she stepped outside, she headed straight for the truck. The Midnight Coyote was nestled in a small western town in the middle of who-knew-where that reminded Lily of a modernized set of an Old West shoot-out film. They’d parked only a short walk away from the bar. Still lost in her own thoughts, she stepped in and out of the dim orange glow of the streetlights. As she did so, the hairs on the back of her neck slowly rose on end. She could