상처녀 Novels & Stories

She looked up at Kael, tears shimmering in her eyes, disbelief giving way to a twisted delight and barely restrained excitement. She glanced at Kael’s resolute expression, then at me. The fear deep in her bones was slowly replaced by warped triumph. She took a deep breath, loosened herself slightly from Kael’s hold, and slowly raised her hand toward me. Countless vampire gazes fell upon my back. Just before her fingertips could reach my cheek. I seized her wrist and held it in midair. Her palm hovered inches from my face, unable to move any closer. The cold from my fingers seeped into her skin.

The second lunged, growling—fangs, half-shifted—but Jasmine spun low, slicing tendon, dropping him with a grunt and a gurgle. The third... tried to run. She threw the blade. It landed square between his shoulders. Silence swallowed the fire. The cage didn’t open on command. She had to break the lock with a rock. Over and over. Hands bloodied. Fingers numb. Until finally—finally—the door groaned open. But it wasn’t Sarah inside. It was another girl. Young. Barely seventeen. Covered in welts. She looked up, dazed and broken. “Please,” the girl whispered. “Don’t hurt me.”

That’s all. She looked us over. Then nodded once, slowly. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood.” Kiran leaned in and muttered, “Please don’t make another sarcastic comment right now.” I didn’t. Instead, I lowered my hand and said, “Thank you.” “My name is Kalilah, and this is my brother Kiran.” The girl huffed. “Jasmine. The one with the pink dyed hair is Mari, the guy with the eyepatch is Aidan, and the one with the curly black hair that is way too beautiful for his good is Nathan.”

The night Cassian Arden met Seraphina Laurent. The night Elena Vale became the villainess. Her fingers curled tightly around the edge of the table. Because she remembered. Every chapter. Every humiliation. Every death flag. She wasn’t in her world anymore. She was inside a novel. A bestselling romance story she once read during chemotherapy nights before everything went dark. And she had become the character everyone hated. Elena Vale. The obsessive fiancée. The “villainess who burns at the end.” Her legs weakened. She almost laughed.

Again and again and again and again and— She presses her fingers to her sternum. Breathes. The candle gutters as a draft moves through the room. The flame holds. She is seventeen years old. She lives inside the most hidden territory on the continent, protected by the most ancient bloodline in the known world, surrounded by women who have devoted their lives to preserving hers. She has never been to war. She has never been in danger. She has, by every material measure available to her, been perfectly safe since the moment she was born.

It’s an act that is punishable in Hati as an act of treason. A hand appeared in Yuri’s view just then, and she turned only to see Selina offering her hand to her, which she took. “Sorry for earlier,” said Selina with an apologetic smile. “I jumped to conclusions too soon. As you might have guessed, I’m Sunny’s younger sister. I’m Selina Chin. Phantom XI. Nice to meet you.” Yuri nodded. “Yuri Kirisawa,” said Yuri, introducing herself in return. “Phantom XIII. Nice to meet you.”

As it's just the two of them, she would be able to gorge the truth out of him. When she got to the pub, she walked inside and searched for him with her eyes over the dancing bodies. Her eyes settled on his perfect slicked back hair and she smiled but just as she meant to walk up to him, she caught a blonde haired woman whispering something in his ear and Kane smiling so sweetly like a man in love. She froze on her sport, not knowing if she should keep on walking or if she should turn back.

Why is the knife in my hand now? She lifted her head to look at it and her expression changed for the worse. This time, she was really traumatized. Fiona was lying in a pool of blood, not budging at all. Not far away in front of Sharon, the woman’s blood was flowing to her and staining her shirt. Her hands and shirt were drenched with blood...