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October 1 - October 15, 2025
“You may not be Chosen, but you were born into this realm, shrouded in the veil of the Primals. A Maiden as the Fates promised. And you shall leave this realm touched by life and death,” my old nursemaid Odetta had once said.
And when he’d granted King Roderick’s request, this was the price the Primal of Death had requested: the firstborn daughter of the Mierel bloodline as his Consort.
There was no way he could know that in the two hundred years it had taken for me to be born, the knowledge of how to kill a Primal had been obtained. Love. They had one fatal weakness that made them vulnerable enough to be killed, and that was love. Make him fall in love, become his weakness, and end him. That was my destiny.
Even though I stood in the shadows, Lord Claus’s slow perusal was like a sweaty caress, lingering on the bare skin of my arms and the cut of my bodice before reaching my eyes. His lips puckered, blowing me a kiss. I arched a brow. His smirk slipped.
lmbo
It hit the marble with an oddly wet-sounding smack before rolling across the tile. Something round spilled out of the bag, leaving a spattering trail of…red behind. Brown hair. Ghastly pale complexion. Jagged strips of skin. Severed bone.
not a head lmbo
The head of Lord Sarros, Advisor to the Queen and King of Lasania, bounced off a Royal Guard’s booted foot.
oOpP
“You should’ve just given her to the Lord,” Tavius commented. “At least then, she might actually do us some good.”
i hate him already
Sometimes, it felt like I…I was nothing more than a faint trace of a specter—not fully formed.
A chill erupted over my skin, despite him not acknowledging my ill-advised behavior. He spoke as if he had the power and authority to carry that out. As if he wanted to see to it personally.
“Only I get to determine what does and doesn’t involve me. What I do and do not do is of no concern to anyone. Not even a god.”
“If you’re trying to intimidate or scare me into obeying you, you can stop. It’s not working. I don’t scare.” “You should be afraid of many things.” “I’m afraid of nothing, and that includes you.”
“Will you try to stab me?” “I…hope not.” “You hope?” “If you try to tell me what to do or grab me again, I am likely to lose that hope,” I told him. A quiet laugh rumbled from him—through me. “At least, you’re honest.”
lol
“Child, the Fates know you were touched by life and death, creating something that should not be. How could she be anything but afraid?”
“You are not bait. You are a trap.” And maybe I had become nothing more than a flesh-and-blood weapon.
“Death wants nothing to do with life. None of you can be surprised.”
But my mother needed a new gown that could feed dozens of families or the entire orphanage for months—if not longer.
I told myself not to respond. There was no point. But I rarely heeded that voice of reason. “I’m only capable of what is expected of me.” “And yet, you stand here beside me, having failed what was expected of you,” she replied quietly. “While our people continue to starve and die.”
“Instead, I am called the Beggar Queen by kingdoms that once prayed for an alliance with Lasania.” My mother cast her gaze to mine. “So, please, do go and find another area of this vast property to haunt.” “Then I suppose I will go roam the woods and join those spirits there,” I muttered. Queen Calliphe’s mouth tightened until her lips were bloodless. “If that is what you’d prefer.”
please end her "mother"
“It has different meanings to different people.” The eather pulsed in his eyes, swirling once more through the silver. “But all of them mean something beautiful and powerful.”
“Because we both know why we remained right where we are. I interest you. You interest me. So, here we remain.”
“And you? You interest me because there seems to be little time between what occurs in your head and what comes out of your mouth. And there seems to be little regard for the consequences.”
“I want to kiss you, even though there is no reason for me to other than I want it.” The heated intensity of his stare held mine. “I would even go as far as to say I need to.”
Ash laughed then, the sound a thick and heavy smoke in my veins. “And you shouldn’t be debauched on the floor of a forest.”
“I haven’t forgotten what you did when we were children,” Ezra said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “When that ugly cat of yours—” “His name was Butters,” I cut in. “And he wasn’t ugly.”
lmbo
Her brows lifted. “He looked like he crawled out of the depths of the Shadowlands.” “There is no need to disparage Butters’ memory like that. He was just…” The tabby cat formed in my mind, complete with a half missing ear and patchy fur. “He was just different.”
hehe
“You will speak to me with respect.” I coughed out a harsh laugh. “No. I will not. What I will do, is give you a chance to leave this room with your flesh and ego intact.”
“I’m going to kill you.” I barely recognized the voice as mine. “I will slice the hands from your body and then carve your heart from your chest before setting it on fire. I will watch you burn.”
The Primal’s head snapped forward. There was a brief flash of fangs, and my stomach hollowed. He tore into Pike’s throat, ending the man’s short, abrupt scream of terror. Wrenching his head back, the Primal forced the man’s jaw open as he spat a mouthful of Pike’s own blood into his mouth.
deserving
“So afraid you pissed yourself. Do you regret your actions?” Tavius said nothing. I didn’t think he could. All he could do was nod jerkily. “You should’ve thought about that before you picked up that whip,” the Primal growled. “And touched what is mine.” What is mine?
would ask what kind of mortal you are, but it is evident that you’re a pathetic pile of shit shaped into that of a man.”
he isssss
“Beg and pray all you want. It matters not to me.”
The Primal’s voice turned guttural as the shadow wings swept high, stirring the air once more. “He has proven what little significance and value he has to this realm.”
say it again
“Thank you,” my mother whispered. “Thank you for your—” “Shut the fuck up,” Nyktos snarled as he stepped over Tavius’s trembling body.
lmboooo
“No, it’s not.” I picked up the whip and snapped forward, grasping Tavius’s blood-and-sweat-soaked hair. I jerked his head back. Wide, panicked eyes met mine as I shoved the handle of the whip into his mouth, pushing it down as hard as I could.
“Because if I see the woman who may be your mother again, I am likely to kill her for pleading for that shit’s life.”
He would kill her, and a dark, savage part of me wanted to see
“But you spoke with no fear. You acted fearlessly. Each time I saw you,” he continued. “You interested me, and I hadn’t expected that. I didn’t want that. But at that lake, you were just Seraphena,” he said, and my breath snagged at the sound of my name spilling from his lips. It was the first time he’d said it. “And I was just Ash. There was no deal. No perceived obligations. You stayed simply because you wanted to. I stayed only because I wanted to. You let me touch you because that was what you wanted, not because you felt as if you had to. Maybe I should’ve told you, but I was…enjoying
...more
“That life for any being is as fragile as the flame of a candle—easily extinguished and stamped out.”
These were full of heart-shaped leaves. Leaves the color of blood.
“Because now here we are. You’re in the Shadowlands. And soon, you will be known as the Consort,” Ash said. “My enemies will become yours.”
“Especially since they are driven mad by unending hunger and thirst. They tend to get a bit bitey.”
“I don’t like being locked in. Kept somewhere, hidden and—” Forgotten. Hidden and forgotten. “I just don’t like it.”
Mortals tended to destroy things they’d never seen before or were afraid of.
“My interest in you is the furthest thing from just talk.”
“My interest in you is a very real, very potent need.”
“So, keep that in mind the next time you doubt the realness of my interest,” he warned. “Because I won’t have you up against a wall. I will have you on your back, under me, and neither of us will remember our fucking names.” He pressed a kiss to my pounding pulse. “Are we clear, liessa?”
oOpP
“What you call agreements are rules, and I don’t like rules.” “I never would’ve guessed that,” he remarked.
“Love is an unnecessary and dangerous risk.”
Love is a beautiful weapon, often wielded as a means to control another. It shouldn’t be a weakness, but that is what it becomes. And those most innocent always pay for it. I’ve never seen anything good come from love.”
“I really hope you don’t make this difficult,” he added. “I’ve had a rather long day as it is.” I felt a small, incredibly childish urge to run off and make his day much, much longer than it already was. But I had no desire to be on the grounds where gods were entombed. So, I stomped forward like the adult I was. The god arched a brow, grinning. “Thank you.”
