Queen's Gambit Novels & Stories

She was waiting. And in her hand, she held a small, glass vial—exactly like the one Jinyan had thrown into the Adriatic. "The Father sends his regards," the girl's voice echoed through the hall. "He says the King’s Gambit was a good move. But he’s already playing the Queen’s Endgame."

My lungs were screaming. “Listen, if you’re going to be my mate, you’re going to have to talk to me. Unless you’re mute. A mute queen would pose an interesting challenge.” I’m not mute, I’m dying! “Honestly, this is ridiculous. How about your name? I’ll start. I’m Trick, Vampire King. And you are? Listen, I need to know what to call my queen.” Queen? It was the last word I heard before I lost consciousness.

’ He replied, making me think about Aurora again. ‘I chose Jade, and you need to get over it, especially when we mark each other after becoming King and Queen.’ I ended the link before he could even reply. I was just walking around the garden ruins thinking about Aurora and how much I suppose I do miss her, was the rejection a mistake? Could I take it back or has it been too long? Jade is the right call to become queen. Why, was I now only thinking about this after all this time? I suddenly looked up at the woman who could make me King, she had said something to me, but I was in such a deep thought that I didn’t even hear what she said.

he whispered, his breath hot against her ear, as though her name alone could unravel him. "Shh," she murmured, pressing her lips to his, tasting him like a forbidden fruit, savoring every second of this madness that had been their cycle for years. There was no love here. No true affection. But there was power. And that was something they both craved. A power that buzzed between them like static, building until it was nearly unbearable. It had been their game—this slow, seductive dance. Neither had ever stayed too long. Neither had ever truly cared. But tonight, everything felt different.

Because in the east tower at midnight, beneath the quiet glow of the candles, the three of us had stepped into a game we didn’t fully understand—a game of hearts, power, and secrets. And for once, the stakes weren’t just political. They were personal. Life or death personal. And the Queen Mother? She would be smiling somewhere, watching. Waiting. But here in the shadows, I knew one thing for certain: Someone was about to make a move. And it wouldn’t be me.

"Too easy. You bleed pieces like you bleed ambition, girl." "Do I?" I moved my Bishop. A quiet, diagonal slide. Click. Cassius reached for his Queen to deliver the killing blow. Then he stopped. His hand hovered over the board. His smile faltered. He looked at my Bishop. Then at his King. Then at the trap I had spent fifteen moves building—a web of interconnected threats that he had been too busy attacking to notice. If he moved his Queen, my Knight took his King. If he defended his King, my Bishop took his Queen.

Against all odds. But holding is not the same as winning. And eventually, they could not hold anymore. I turned the page. And found a portrait. Just a sketch, really. Pen and ink. Faded with age. A woman. She was not young in the portrait, but she was not old either. She was somewhere in between, in that particular place where a person stops looking like what they were and starts looking like what they are. Her hair was loose. Her expression was not afraid. Mira. Last Queen of the Witch Covens. Keeper of the High Flame. Killed in the forty-third year of the Crimson War by Aldric the Elder, great-great-grandfather of the current Alpha King.

she said moving her pawn two spaces for a queen’s gambit “I’m afraid I don’t know much,” he said, moving his bishop now, clearly castling his king and declining her gambit, for now. “All I know is that she created the book, and thus, the spell that tore my soul in two, and then she showed up on our doorstep with Balric and claimed that the deabru was making a return. Balric would be the one to ask. Out of all of us, he seems to know her the most.”

"Deal." "No!" Gwen cried out, giving me a look of horror. "Sage, what are you doing? Don't you know you're challenging a conniving vixen? You will surely lose!" "Gosh, thanks for that compliment, bitch," Primrose retorted, flipping her hair. "But it's a deal between me and Miss Crochet here. You got nothing to do with it."

I had to push through. ​He walked to the window, his back to me, the movement a clear attempt to deny the intimacy of the moment and shield his reaction. "It is a reminder," he bit out, his voice sharp and cold, laced with a familiar bitterness. "A reminder of what happens when the King's most powerful piece decides to betray the Alpha." ​"Not just any piece," I pressed, standing and walking toward the desk. I didn't stop at the surface. "The Queen. The Luna. The one piece that is meant to guard the King, that commands the whole board."