See A Dark Stranger Novels & Stories

As the words fell, he raised a hand to signal his bodyguards to seize me, and several muzzles edged a step closer, trained on my skull. Karina stood to the side, satisfaction written on her face. Eli stood at the door of the box across the way, an indescribable panic churning in his eyes. My hand tightened slightly around the gun, and just as I made to raise it and strike back, every light in the entire castle went out at once. Only a single cold-white spotlight above the auction stage rose slowly to life, falling on the main entrance to the hall. A tall, upright silhouette walked in at an unhurried pace.

The moment he said it, I could feel the truth in his words, a deep and cold knowing that gripped me like a vise. Jace’s growl grew louder, almost feral, as he stepped forward to protect me. His body was tense, his muscles coiled like a spring ready to snap. The stranger smirked, clearly amused by Jace’s anger. “You can’t protect her forever,” the stranger said, his voice laced with mockery. “She’s too far gone. You’ll see, Jace. She will embrace the darkness inside her. It’s only a matter of time.” The stranger’s words were like knives, each one twisting in my chest, each one confirming my worst fears. What if he was right? What if I couldn’t control what was happening to me?

"There is a problem. This was not intended to occur. Kael was about to reply when someone stepped out of the darkness. In the gloomy light, the stranger's flowing black robe glistened. Her face was hidden behind a cowl, revealing only her brilliant silver eyes that glowed dimly in the shadows. As the apparition talked in a voice that was a terrifying blend of familiarity and menace, the tension in the air increased. The stranger remarked, "You've come a long way." "However, the truth you are looking for is not what you believe."

I didn’t know if it was love anymore. Or habit or hope but it wrecked me, the way she stayed. Even when I didn’t deserve it. Even when I wasn’t sure what would wake up in my body the next time I closed my eyes. At some point, I slipped from the bed and stepped barefoot onto the cold stone. I didn’t need light—my eyes had changed. I could see in the dark now, but not the way wolves do. This was Stranger. The shadows spoke when I walked past them.

That was what they wanted or feared. The stranger appeared again. Closer this time and much closer. Only a few hundred feet away. His black eyes locked onto us. The moment they did, a memory slammed into my mind. Not one of the cycles, not one of Lena's lives but something older. Far older. A woman standing in darkness. A woman whose face looked exactly like Lena. Holding a newborn star in her hands. The black eyed stranger standing beside her. Smiling. Not as an enemy but as family.

“You won’t like what happens if you do.” Tears burn at the corners of my eyes, but I blink them back. I won’t cry. Not in front of him. Not now. The road narrows, the fields giving way to a stretch of forest. Branches arch overhead like skeletal hands, blotting out even the moonlight. The car’s beams are the only light, a fragile thread through the suffocating dark. The stranger finally breaks the silence again. “Do you want to know a secret?” I don’t answer. My throat is locked.

My gaze trailed upward, slow and hesitant, to a face I wasn’t ready to see. Veylor Caith. The stranger who had arrived in our quiet, almost dead town for reasons I couldn’t begin to understand—and now he was standing over me like he had been waiting.

Now the world felt like it had cracked open just slightly—enough to let something unfamiliar seep in. Crystal sat on the low stone wall near the marketplace, legs swinging back and forth as she watched the village buzz with activity. Drums echoed faintly from the square. Vendors shouted prices. Children ran past her in clouds of dust and laughter. And there he was again. The daddy stranger. He stood near the elders, tall and unmistakable, his presence commanding without him trying. His clothes were too clean for the village, his posture too straight. He listened more than he spoke, but when he did speak, people leaned in.