Romantasy - Tumblr Posts

I love this so much🤣😂

Nyx: How come you wear makeup?

Feyre: So I look good.

Nyx: You already look good.

Feyre: Aww

Nyx: [To Rhysand] You should wear makeup, though.

Rhysand:

Helen Scheuerer announcing her next series and it’s a spin off of The Legends of Thezmarr following different characters

And the characters are Wren and Torj….

I am going to be so unwell .. im so excited for next year

SURREAL🫀🌟

★°•Alexis. ness x merman! Male! reader

★°• warnings : (h/c) = hair colour. 

(T/c) = tail colour. (e/c) = Eye colour

(M/n) = Male name. Drowning, kaiser mentioned, poorly written, this is written different then my last story so, uh yeah...

Summery: ness wants to take a little trip to the beach after being stuck in his apartment for days, but sadly things don't go to well.

★• little scruncly falls in love without even knowing it 

Ooc, since I can't write shit.

Can be seen as platonic. But ehh..

MUSIC YOU COULD LISTEN TO WHILE READING:

----------------------------•°∆

Welcome and goodbye

Dream, Ivory.                                                

                                    Limerence

                                                               Yves tumor

Vs self (instrumental version)

Mourn 

                                                   M.

                                                         Anil Emre Adal

                               Enjoy (^v^)

-----------------------------------

3rd person POV. 

It was a nice and sunny day with an occesional breeze making it the perfect weather to take a dive in the cold see and surfe a little.

Ness stepped outside his apartment to feel the nice summer breeze hitting his delicate skin. He let out a satisfied sigh as he felt a bit refreshed now that he finally was out of the walls of his apartment, he had to stay in his apartment for a few days and couldn't go out to the sea because of the terrible weather. Ness was just itching to go outside and surfe a little. It was the only thing other than Micheal that gave him a sense of a spark,

A sence of magic from the cold waves. 

He smiled at the thought of just feeling the cold water again. He couldn't wait.

—————————————————————

The wind was a bit heavier and rougher at the coast then in the city, but it wasn't a big deal for ness. Luckily for ness, there was practically no one at the beach today, it had just rained yesterday, some people are probably afraid that it might rain again

He was wearing his surfing suit and equipment, he got ready did his normal routine as usual before difing in the ice cold substance called water. He layed down on the surf board padling himself towards the deeper part of the ocean with his own arms. Once the harsh waves where withing his reach, he slowly stood up and balanced himself to stand between the waves. He looked like he was levitating between the waves of the sea. 

This was it, the spark, the magic that Alexis was talking about. He smiled at feeling this spark again, even if he didn't get to go to the beach for just a few days he had missed this feeling. 

Ness being to consumed in this feeling, had closed his eyes for just few seconds. Just a few seconds nothing could go wrong.

It could.

Without noticing it, a bigger wave washed up behind him and engolfed him in the harsh and cold water. The sudden weight being pushed upon him caused him to lose his balance and fall of his surfing board. 

Ness opened his eyes quickly, and in instinct he tried to lift himself out of the water, but as if the ocean knew his intent, the moment his head was out of water, another brutal wave hit him, forcing him down under the water once again. 

Again out of instinct ness tried to get out of the water and breathe, but every time his head was even an inch out of water, a wave would welcome him with a brutal force, forcing him down and under the water. 

Ness' energy was running out, and his lungs where slowly filling up with water, as he repeatedly tried gasping for air. With little strength, ness once again tried reaching for the surface, but all hope was lost as another wave hit him yet again.

Ness was barely conscious when he felt a pair of... arms? Holding him tightly. It felt oddly soothing, ness being barley able to keep his eyes open, finally closed them, letting his mind fall into an unconscious state.

——————————————————————

Ness' POV.b

*Cough* *cough* *cough*b

Agh...ugh. where? What? Arent i..supposed to be...dead?

I thought to myself as my eyes slowly epened adjusting to the light that was emitting from the sun. Cold. Its Cold. I thought while shivering. I felt the small waves hitting my feet, and felt the sand below me. I must be at the coast. But wasn't I just drowning? I though while slowly lifting the higher part of my body upright. I let out a small groan as I felt a massive headache. I looked around, I was definitely at coastside. But I was surrounded by trees, and grass. Did I....am. I lost?

Ness though, starting to feel panicked. He might've not died, but now he's stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere. While panicking, ness had not noticed the fact that something below the water was watching him intently. 

After panicking for 5 minutes or more. Ness heard something...words. he heard words. Better jet English. Well not the best English that he's ever heard. But it was still audible. 

Ness looked around his surroundings, hoping that somebody, anybody, was in the same island as him. 

"You....alright?" 

The voice was clear as day, it sounded so angelic and so clear. Was there an angel on this island? Ness though. But the English sounded very broken. It doesn't matter anybody was good enough. 

"Here" 

The voice said once again. This time ness looked at the source of the voice and....ness couldn't believe what he was looking at, maybe the migraine got to him and now he's imagining things. Because right I front of him was a merman. A real merman. Uperhalf being human, lower fish. Ness couldn't believe his eyes. 

Mermans exist? Ness though, all his life. All his childhood, he grew up believing in magic, regardless of the fact that his family only relied on logic. But as he grew up, his believes of magic started to disappear, and before he knew it, he was basically a grown adult. Society norms didn't allow him to believe in such childish thing like 'magic'. The only thing that gave him the magic that he's been looking for all his life was surfing. 

But now. A real merman was right Infront of him. And ness wasn't going to lie, he looked very pretty in ness' eyes. They had beautiful (h/c) silky hair. And a sharklike tail with (t/c) scales. The merman was looking at him with a concerned expression. Wait was he? The one who helped ness? 

"Are-....you Oke?" 

He asked in his broken English, he probably doesnt speak it often. It sounded kinda cute. Finally realizing what the merman had asked him, he answered. 

"Uh-...uh uhm yeah, yeah im- im fine" 

Ness answered still shocked at the fact that, a merman. A real merman was looking at him, and asking him if he was alright. 

After ness had answered, the merman didn't say anything. He just kept quiet. Looking at ness with those big beautiful (e/c) eyes. Ness felt weak under those watchful eyes. Weak to his knees, and out of breath; but not because of the water. But because of how utterly beautiful the creature right Infront of ness looked like. 

After staring at each other for probably 5 minutes (but what felt like centuries for ness) the merman started to drag there body the other way back to the Ocean. 

For some reason ness didn't like the fact that the creature would leave him so soon. He has been dreaming for this moment since he was a little kid, and still often dreamt of scenarios like these, and when the moment finally happened, ness didn't want it to end.  

"WAIT" 

Ness shouted out without even thinking.

The merman flinched at how loud ness' voice was and backed away even further into the ocean. Ness felt like his heart was getting crushed just by this small action alone. He didn't mean to scare him, he... He just doesn't want him to leave yet. 

"W-wait- uh..no I'm sorry, I don't mean to scare you." 

Ness said in a soft voice, trying to not scare away the merman any further. It seems like it's scared of ness. Or well not fully scared, but cautious. 

"Uhm- before you leave...please, atleast tell me you're name" 

Ness asked looking at the creature in front of him with a type of glimmer in his eyes. The merman looked cautiously at ness, as if debating to whether introduce himself to ness. The creature kept looking towards the water, and then towards ness. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask him. The merman looks really stressed for some reason, ness wouldn't want to cause any discomfort to the creature. 

"Or.. never mind, you..- You don-"

Before ness could even finish his sentence, a soft voice interrupted him, 

"(m/n)" 

The creature said looking at ness with just the smallest smile. Even if it was small, ness felt like he could cross the entire earth because of that smile. His voice, sounded so soft. But it was clear that his English wasn't at it's best. 

"(M/n)" 

Ness said, smiling softly of how it sounded while he said it. It was a very pretty name. One that he didn't hear often. Ness wil remember that name for as long as he lives. 

With one last glance and yet another small smile, the merman turned around and dived head first back into the ocean. 

For some reason, ness has a feeling that this wont be the last time he'll see (m/n). Ness can't explain it how or why he feels this way. 

It just feels surreal. 

Fin 

Silver - Prolouge & Chapter One

The princess's bodyguard isn't what she seems...

*Second-chance queer romantasy*

Prologue

Amirah and Reye had trusted each other. That was just the way it was, and the way it had always been. There were no secrets between them.

Well, that’s what Reye had thought. Until that morning. Even fifty-nine years later, she could still perfectly remember every detail. The shining blonde hair of the woman who had announced it on the television. The salty smell of the air left over from the rain the night before, and the way Amirah’s hair had still been wet when she sat, hunched over her desk, after she’d arrived early at school for the first time her senior year- and the last time she’d ever walked through those doors.

The fear in Amirah’s eyes every time someone said her name.

The fear that Reye had never seen Amirah show before.

The fear that Reye had never known the girl was capable of.

The fear. Always that fear.

And to think that twelve hours before, they’d been hugging goodbye, Amirah promising, promising, she wouldn’t do it.

Reye never should have trusted her.

But Amirah had always been too adept at lying for anyone’s good, least of all her own.

Chapter One

Kamali took a breath and prepared for the first moment of the rest of her life. Or, more accurately, of her new one. She held a pale, trembling hand up to her reflection in the exquisite mirror. Black hair. Teal eyes. Pale skin. All so, so new to her.

Perhaps she should have chosen a different color for her hair. Auburn? Honestly, lime green would’ve been better than what was probably the exact color of the deepest pits of the ocean. How had she ever thought black hair would look at all natural on her? Hopefully none of these people would have any common sense. No one had natural hair that shade. The color was actually navy blue. As… a reminder. And she had no hair products in her bathroom, so she couldn’t claim she’d dyed it. Of course she’d had to opt for the constant memory of what she stood to gain- and to lose.

Whatever. There were more important things that day than the color of her hair. Like making sure her secret stayed secure- especially from Johanna. No one would guess there was anything off about her. Kamali could put on a show like nobody’s business. And there was nothing she was better at than lying. As long as she managed not to lose her mind from being around those stuffy nobles for over ten minutes, she was in the clear. Hopefully forever. No one would ever expect the bodyguard to Crown Princess Silver of Florynlla to be…

Kamali took a breath and removed her hand from the mirror, sticky from being pressed against the glass for so long.

She forced her quivering body to stand upright and told herself to take a damn breath and stop shaking or no one was going to take her seriously.

It wasn’t until a few seconds later that she realized someone had told her that before, sixty-three years ago.

But no. She wasn’t going to think about that today. Or any day. Even having that near-forgotten name cross her mind wasn’t safe, not in front of Johanna. Kamali reached for the dagger slipped in the back of her slick black leather pants. Pictured it penetrating Johanna’s flesh, then hers. The two people who had done all this to her, the reasons she bore the scars across her torso and legs and neck. Finally- finally- at her mercy. As she had been at theirs for too long.

Kamali took one more deep breath, whirled on her heel, and left her enormous dressing room- who needed a dressing room, anyway? She’d been just fine without one for seventy-seven years!

Well. The lack of a dressing room wasn’t what had caused her to not be fine.

Everything Kamali was wearing seemed to be leather and black, which wasn’t ideal. It was the height of summer and no one deserved to be tormented with a snakeskin bra- a snakeskin bra? Really?- a shirt two sizes too large so she could hide weapons under it easily, but with the tightest tank top underneath to compensate for it so if she needed the weapons she could fight without the shirt weighing her down and shoes designed for a man eighteen inches taller than her (no one had time to get her footwear that actually fit her body). She had to honestly say her favorite piece of clothing had to be the secondhand polyester cape covering her neck and shoulders that dropped down to her thighs. She hadn’t been required to wear the cape, but without it, the scars peppering her neck would have been visible to any onlooker. Including Johanna.

They’re not going to recognize you, Kamali told herself as she gripped her left hand on the wooden spiral staircase directly outside her bedroom. They have no reason to suspect you if you don’t give them one.

Kamali tentatively placed one foot on the first step of the staircase.

She didn’t realize she’d managed to continue walking down it until she was already at the bottom. 

A pair of heavy wooden double doors loomed in front of her. A young woman with wavy hair the color of soil that was cropped roughly and unprofessionally at her cheekbones, light brown skin and eyes the shade of a clear sky in winter. A silver chain was draped around her throat.

She didn’t even have one dagger on her.

The unarmed woman stuck out her hand. “Princess Silver,” she said, smiling.

Kamali awkwardly shook hands with the future monarch. “Kamali. Your new bodyguard.” “Oh, thank the gods!” the princess gasped.

“What…” Kamali cocked her head.

“When Father announced I was to be assigned a guard, I thought it would be some insufferable old man! At least you’re someone who seems a bit interesting!” Was this girl capable of making an ounce of sense? Of course, she voluntarily dated Johanna Varyn, so perhaps she was simply insane.

It didn’t matter. One of them would be dead in a few weeks.

Kamali nodded, unsure of what to even say.

“The reception’s this way,” Princess Silver said, still with that smile plastered on her face. She pushed the oak doors open, and Kamali slinked into the room behind her.

And there were so many people.

Too many.

She didn’t even remember the last time she’d been in a crowded room like this.

No, she did.

It had been in that disgusting bar, and that damn song had been playing, and Kamali had danced with her, and dear gods, how many strangers had thought they were on a date? How many people had pulled either or both of them aside and informed them that it was improper for two women of their different classes to be so affectionate in public towards each other? And Kamali had laughed and told those people that they were wrong, that the two of them were just friends, and why in hell had she spent that whole night looking like she just wanted to cry, when a few days afterwards, it would be Kamali being tortured in a dungeon?

The floors of the reception were made of pristine white marble and perfectly polished chandeliers hung from the ceiling. All the money that went into this abomination could’ve gone to charity.

But people who had the money to donate never did.

Kamali wanted to close her eyes, wanted to block out all these people smiling and laughing and pretending the world they all lived in wasn’t broken. But the princess’s bodyguard couldn’t close her eyes, couldn’t turn her back on her charge for even two seconds.

Princess Silver dragged her around the ballroom for a good thirty minutes, introducing her to noble after noble, each one more terrible than the last.

“...Thank you for your time, Lord Jameson,” Silver finished, curtseying. “Eternal blessings upon you and your family.”

“You’re very welcome, my princess,” the six-foot lord finished. He turned to Kamali and grimaced. “She’s a Darkflame girl.” “Excellent observation,” Kamali said blandly.

Yes, this old man might be six feet tall.

But she was six-foot-one.

Princess Silver grabbed Kamali’s wrist and dragged her away from the lord. “And now it’s time for you to meet Queen Reye!” “What?” Kamali barked. “Of… of Hoperain?”

“Of course of Hoperain,” Silver said. “She doesn’t usually come to functions, of course, but because of the diplomacy mission-” “Diplomacy mission?” Kamali demanded.

“Didn’t you read the file? You were supposed to have gotten one. Tomorrow, we leave for a two-month visit to Hoperain. We’ll be residing in the queen’s palace,” the princess explained.

“...I mostly skimmed,” Kamali muttered. “It didn’t seem like the papers were going to be that important.” “Well, at least you’ll get a chance to become acquainted with her beforehand,” Silver said decisively. “Let’s go.”

Oh, we’re acquainted.

They crossed the dance floor, Princess Silver parting the crowd as she and her guard moved towards the queen.

Reye.

The person who, fifty-nine years ago, could’ve stood up.

Could’ve fought for her.

Could’ve saved Kamali.

And, if she’d done so, wouldn’t be dead in two months along with Johanna and her girlfriend.

Kamali’s best friend.

And almost more than that.

Her.

Silver - Chapter Two

Kamali and Silver stopped in front of the queen, not bowing, as she was known to abhor formalities. Kamali attempted to force a smile on her face, to no avail. She simply looked as if she had a toothache.

“Silver” Reye greeted the princess. She turned to Kamali. “Who are…?” “Kamali, Your Majesty. Her bodyguard.” Gods, her hands were drenched in sweat. She was so overtaken by fear her heart was thumping out of her chest and she wanted to begin stabbing every person in that hall right then and now.

“Really?” Reye asked, looking directly at Silver. “Last time I checked, you didn’t want a, as you put it, ‘disgusting old man constantly following you around and putting restrictions on your every move’,”

“And I stand by that,” Silver agreed. “Kamali is, very obviously, not a disgusting old man. And either way, I never asked for a bodyguard.” Kamali's head roared to punch them for speaking about her like she was not there, but she’d have to teach herself to rein in that instinct.

Instead, she let herself sink in the fact that she’d be spending two months in the hospitality of her sworn enemy, and took solace knowing that at the end of those six weeks, she and Johanna and Silver would all be cold in the ground.

Everything she knew begged her to at the very least close her eyes. But she couldn’t. Her pupils remained fixated on Silver and anything around her that could be considered a plausible threat.

The princess and queen chatted for a few moments before they politely drifted away from each other.

“My father told me that all people of Darkflame are immortal,” Silver whispered. “Is that true?”

Kamali blinked, startled. That was knowledge that should have been unknown to even a princess.

“Yes,” she said a little breathlessly.

“How is that possible?” Silver asked. “Are you all children of gods?” All royals were; that was what gifted them their immortality. Queens and kings were required to marry gods so their kingdoms could have legitimate immortal rulers.

Or at least semi-immortal.

Gods weren’t really immortal. They could die, it was just insanely difficult to slay them. And royalty were weaker. They had fast, strong healing and queens and kings of old had been rumored to wield magik, though all that was simply implausible myth now.

“No,” Kamali corrected. “When the Earth God died, his blood seeped into the soil, and set off a ripple effect causing the people of Darkflame to all eventually become immortal as the royal godchildren of all other kingdoms.” “Is that why your royals are immortal? Or do they still bear the blood of deities?” Silver inquired.

“Why do you care?” Kamali snapped, completely forgetting her proprietary.

“Apologies, my lady. I did not mean to offend,” the princess said, almost sincerely.

“You shan’t apologize,” Kamali said. “You are of a rank higher than mine.”

They walked in silence across the ballroom floor, the only sound the clacking of Silver’s heels- the same color as her namesake.

A string quartet played by the buffet tables in the hall. The low, majestic sounds of the violoncello took over the white noise in Kamali’s head. Music had always done that to her. The noise made her want to open her mouth, and let those words trapped inside her fly out in a sophisticated string of verses, choruses and bridges. Hymns, folk songs, lullabies. Anything so long as she could sing it and grant it life.

Back when she was Amirah, when life was free and open to her- as open as it could be for a girl from Darkflame- she could have. She could sing until her throat was dry and hoarse, sing until her mouth could no longer make a sound, sing until her tongue was withered as the desert.

But now, as Kamali, she could never sing again in public, lest Her Most Majestic Majesty of Hoperain recognize her unique tone, or the artistic expression be deemed too improper for the bodyguard to Princess Silver of Florynlla.

She thought back to those fifty-nine years imprisoned in the fortress of the Heron. How she had taught the other prisoners from Darkflame the importance of the arts. The melancholy, heartbreaking songs to sing at a funeral and the hopeful, freeing tunes to hum at a wedding. The way that paint, when introduced to a canvas, could transform the world a little bit. Though she herself had never quite understood the wonder of creating physical, preserved art, she marveled at it often and considered how kinder people would be if they saw and heard art the way she did.

Lost in thought, the bodyguard didn’t feel the hours at the banquet pass by. Silver did not speak to her for the remainder of the time at the reception. Kamali did not attempt to initiate, and did not wish to. The leather-clad woman spent the whole banquet thinking of two months in Reye’s palace. And at the end of those months, how good it would feel when her dagger slid up into Reye’s heart. The horror she hoped to see on Reye’s face when she realized that Amirah was more than a ghost- that she had been closer than the queen would have ever anticipated.

Kamali was a liar, a criminal and a dirty cheat, yes.

Yet Reye was all those things as well, times thirty.

It took one to know one.

Eventually, people began drifting out of the ballroom, chattering amongst themselves as they paraded outside to their golden carriages.

Silver and Kamali were the last to leave, directly after Queen Reye.

They paused at the staircase.

“Good evening,” Silver said stiffly, and then promptly turned and left down a corridor.

Kamali closed her eyes- finally- and leaned back against the stair rail, shuddering.

Two months. No longer than that. She whirled on her heel and headed up the staircase, slightly glad when she reached her disgustingly ornate room. She fumbled for her key in the pocket on her cloak and slammed it into the lock. She grabbed the doorknob and threw it open, wanting to collapse as soon as she entered the room and locked the door firmly behind her. Instead, she relieved herself of the damn leather torture devices and slipped into a hot bath, attempting to relax her tense muscles from standing up straight and refraining from hitting anyone for hours.

Knowing herself, Kamali didn’t even attempt to sleep. Instead, she found the thick file she’d ignored earlier and scoured it, making notes on anything that seemed important, like Johanna arriving in Hoperain three weeks after Silver and Kamali, or the grand ball that would take place the night after that. Most of the file, though, was utterly unnecessary information that only a complete moron wouldn’t already know, like court etiquette. Who did they think she was? Kamali had made sure to give herself a refresher on royal household politics before signing up to be a princess’s bodyguard.

There was little to no information given to her about Queen Reye- unsurprising, since though the queen made public appearances, she was secretive about her personal life and had given no indication of her plans in political or private matters.Eventually, the fatigue Kamali felt from the day caught up to her and she collapsed, exhausted, into the overly fluffy sheets of her elegant bed.

Kamali was sitting across from Queen Reye of Hoperain in Her Most Esteemed Majesty’s private royal carriage. Again. Of course, this time as the bodyguard of the heir to a visiting fellow monarchy, and not an eight-year-old girl and the then-future queen’s closest friend.

Kamali was not to do anything that could distract her from Silver, so no matter how much she wished to review her files or even read one of the epics Reye had championed every time she got the chance as a child, she spent the carriage ride observing the queen.

Silver was going to be easy to kill- they would share chambers at the palace of Hoperain. She’d just plant evidence to show that an assassin had tragically made it inside during Kamali’s off-duty hours. But Queen Reye… Kamali needed to learn more about what she was like now. Without knowing everything possible about the sovereign, there was no way to tell what her weaknesses were.

The only issue was that Her Most Esteemed Majesty had spent the entire carriage ride so far reading budget notes. All Kamali had gained was the knowledge that she had become immensely boring- she had giggled multiple times while reading the report- and that she still loved to grab strands of her hair and push them behind her ear, something that had always annoyed Kamali to no end.

Kamali felt something wet and cold prick her eye. She flicked it away.

Kamali had begun to count how many times Reye had let out a little laugh at some note one of her Slightly Less Esteemed nobles had left on the budget report.

Out of everyone in the universe to swear to kill!

The current tally was at thirty-nine.

Suddenly, the horses let out a whinny and the carriage came to a halt. Silver and Reye jolted.

Reye held up a finger and stepped out to speak to the coachman.

Silver’s eyes were wide with fear. Kamali rolled hers. “It’s probably fine,” the bodyguard said. “The horses probably got spooked by a bear, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.” “You file a bear under nothing to worry about?” the princess demanded.

“It’s not going to eat us. If someone didn’t kill it already, it’s long gone by now,” Kamali explained as if she was speaking to a toddler.

“What if it comes back?”

“Then I stab it. This possibly nonexistent bear is not going to hurt you, Silver! It’s nothing to be afraid of! You need to get outside more; bears are very common creatures!” Kamali cut off her rant before it could expand further and give herself away before they were halfway to Hoperain.

Reye slipped back inside the carriage. “Bad news,” she announced. Silver paled. “One of the horses got heat stroke and passed out. It should be fine, but it needs to cool off. The horses nearly tripped over each other, so they let out a noise of alarm. We’ll have to wait a few hours out here; we don’t want the horse to be unfit to travel the rest of the way to Hoperain.”

Kamali turned to Silver. “See? Nothing to worry about.” Silver shook her head and looked at Reye. “How many hours?” “Enough that it’ll be dark by the time we get to Hoperain,” Reye admitted.

“Dark!” the princess exclaimed. “We left at seven to avoid that! We took your fastest horses!” “It’s just nighttime,” Kamali muttered. “Why are you so perturbed?” “No one is allowed within two miles of Hoperain Castle at night! By my own laws, not even I am to be let in before daybreak!” Reye explained. “Was there no information in that file?” “Honestly? I definitely don’t remember that!” Kamali defended. “Maybe reread the synopsis on your own capital if you care so much! Forgive me if you’re so very paranoid that you won’t allow yourself to enter your own castle during the dark hours!” “Would you prefer night shifters disguise themselves as me and break in?” the queen demanded.

“What have I signed up for? You have a night shifter infestation?” Night shifters were creatures that had forgotten their true form. During the day, they appeared to you as your greatest fear, but at night, they could become an exact replica of whoever they wanted. While Reye’s parents reigned, programs were in place to hunt them down and terminate them.

“I… may have felt bad for them and shut down the programs,” Reye said sheepishly.

“What is wrong with you? They’re pure evil! They don’t have a conscience!” Kamali screamed. “And you felt bad for them!” “...I need some fresh air,” Silver squeaked out. Both the queen and bodyguard had forgotten she was there. “Kamali, maybe you should just… stay here and work out whatever this is?” She slinked out of the carriage.

Kamali and Reye stared at each other. Kamali’s heart was racing so fast she thought it would jump straight out of her chest. Her cheeks flushed red and her nails dug into her thighs. Something in her gut twinged.

Kamali shook her head lightly. “Just- go back to reading your damn budget report and leave me alone.”

“It’s not a budget report,” Reye said softly.

“Excuse me?” “It’s a romance novel,” Reye admitted. “Disguised as a budget report so no one can accuse me of being improper.”

“Why are you bothering to tell me this?” Kamali asked in just as light a tone. There was a string in her stomach and someone was pulling on it hard.

“So you’ll stop staring at me and wondering why I’m laughing,” Reye said.

“I’m not staring at you because of that,” Kamali muttered.

“So why are you?” Reye demanded, her voice still quiet but a little harsher, like the queen she was. The queen she didn’t deserve to be.

“Because you’re interesting,” Kamali blurted, then caught herself. “I mean, it’s between you, the wall and Silver, who I’m going to be watching for the rest of my life.” A lie, but Reye didn’t know that. “You’re the novelty. If only I were you and could read a romance novel in lieu of sitting upright and being attentive and trying not to fall asleep.”

Reye smiled a little. “All right. So, should we go back to fighting?”

“Would you like to?” Kamali asked.

“Not really. I think you’re alright when you’re not screaming your ass off,” Reye said.

“And what do you think when I am ‘screaming my ass off’, as you so properly put it?” Kamali replied, grinning.

“I think you’re just plain attractive,” Reye admitted.

“What?” the bodyguard demanded.

Reye just smirked. “So. Truce?” Kamali comforted herself in the fact that she’d be stabbing this woman within two months. “Truce.”

“Are we going to have to sleep in the carriage?” Silver asked. Two hours ago, the carriage had started moving again and they’d finally been on their way to Hoperain. But it was alright almost sunset by the time the capital, Averfell, was even a tiny speck in the distance.

“Hopefully not,” Reye said. “But most innkeepers will turn us away rather than run the risk of us being night shifters.” Again with the night shifters! Restart the programs! Kamali wanted to tell Reye. But their truce had lasted for all of five hours, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to break it first.

“The carriage is fine; it’s just one night anyways,” Kamali shrugged.

“Unless you have another option,” Silver added. Royals! They were all so obsessed with personal comforts!

“Unfortunately,” Reye said, “the only other choice would be Starlight Avenue.”

What was Starlight Avenue? So much had changed in fifty-nine years!

“Oh! Well, I was actually hoping that at some point we could visit there!” Silver exclaimed, a light of excitement ashine in her eyes.

“You wish to go someplace so dangerous?!” Reye demanded, shocked.

“The markets are only for liars to fear,” Silver said, wrinkling her nose. “I’ve seen the gates; I’ve seen the sign! ‘Lies Have No Place Here’! I, for one, am no liar, and I hope you don’t consider yourself to be one!”

Reye closed her eyes tight. “Alright. Fine. But we should remain in the day sector, to avoid night shifters.”

Again with the night shifters…. Is it really that bad? 

“Day sector?” Silver asked.

Ah, so she doesn’t know everything about this place! Maybe I’ll know something about what this is! Other than that it sounds like imminent doom to me!

“There are two sectors in Starlight Avenue,” Reye explained. “One is trapped in eternal day; the other in eternal night. And the whole place is swarming with night shifters. Even the day sector- some like to show people their greatest fear. They don’t care about shifting.”

“Remind me again why we’re opting for the night shifter breeding ground,” Kamali mumbled, just under loud enough for Reye and Silver to hear.

The horses clipped on, and the three women soon dissolved back into silence.

Hours later, Kamali stood in front of two great iron gates blocking off a street that seemed to be made entirely of darkness. A message was etched into the arch of the gates. Just as Silver had said: LIES HAVE NO PLACE HERE.

Kamali shuddered.

“The tides have turned,” Silver mused. “Now you’re concerned about something you shouldn’t be. Unless you’re lying entirely about your whole identity or something, there is no reason for you to fear this place.”

Kamali twisted her face into something resembling a smile and tried not to wonder if this meant Silver was smarter or dumber than she had initially thought.

“Are the gates locked or…?” Kamali asked.

“No, no,” Reye said. “You just have to push. Want to do the honors?” she asked, gesturing to Kamali.

Lies have no place here.

And Kamali was one big lie.

She didn’t even know anything about what this place was and yet every internal danger radar she possessed was waving red flags in front of her face.

She stepped on shaky feet forward and pressed her palm against the gate, her whole head begging, Please don’t kill me just yet.

The iron gates creaked and opened. Silver ran inside, while Reye and Kamali moved slower.

As soon as the gates slammed behind them, the sky transformed into a beautiful midday scene. The sun’s glare looked down upon them. If Kamali didn’t know better, she’d think it was truly daytime.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Silver marveled.

“I’ve been here once before, and almost got killed by a night shifter. Forgive me if I don’t love it,” Reye reflected.

For some reason Kamali wondered, A night shifter in the day or night sector? “Well. Let us go, then,” Kamali said decisively.

“Shall we check out the shops?” Silver suggested excitedly.

“Do that if you wish. I should have been off duty an hour ago,” Kamali muttered.

“Perhaps you’d like to check out the magik mirrors,” Reye suggested, smiling at Kamali. “I can show you to them.” “Magik isn’t real,” Kamali said flatly.

“Isn’t it?” Silver murmured, her voice light and airy. Kamali pictured her blood splattered everywhere.

“I’ll check out the mirrors, if only to escape from the desperate bore of your company,” Kamali shot at the princess.

“Good. Enjoy the shops, Your Highness,” Reye said, linking arms with Kamali and half-dragging her away.

The fake glare of the sun still somehow burned Kamali’s eyes as Reye guided her to the mirror exhibit.

Reye stopped walking when they reached what seemed to be a town square. There were people swarming everywhere, gossiping about the latest this or newest that, peddlers and merchants stopping rich old ladies in the street and offering to sell their beads and vases, pickpockets sneaking jewelry from the purses of pedestrians- everyone and everything you’d expect to find in a regular city hub.

Except for a long brick wall with every mirror you could ever expect to find hanging on it- but the mirrors weren’t the interesting part. It was what was inside of them.

These were mirrors that Kamali had heard about from fairy tales. They had faces trapped inside them, though in the stories they were honest and intelligent, and these were… not.

Kamali turned to Reye, fear ablaze in her eyes. “What are they?”

“Banshees.” Well, that calm voice was meant to be a deliberate annoyance, wasn’t it? 

“Sorcery,” Kamali said, completely disbelieving.

“It’s not sorcery! It’s-”

“If you say magik, I swear to all the gods, I will gut you right here and now!” Kamali shrieked.

If she was being honest, she sounded like a banshee herself.

“Are they actually demonic off-key sopranos?” Kamali asked.

“I’m going to choose to ignore what you just described them as and say, yes, they are banshees, who were imprisoned inside these millenia ago. And no, they’re not to escape and start mauling you to shreds, so don’t even ask,” Reye said. “And they’re actually quite sweet, and the poor things don’t deserve to be locked away. In fact, I do plan to speak to some of these people, and see if a mirror can be purchased. I am certain my alchemists can look into freeing a banshee.”

“I don’t particularly think I’ll enjoy following you around as you do that. I shall remain here and observe these mirrors for a while longer,” Kamali decided.

“If it please you.” Reye left her there with the wall and its mirrors. In truth, Kamali did not pay the banshees a scrap of attention and instead closed her eyes for the first time that day. She let herself breathe and be human. She let her tense muscles relax just the slightest bit.

A tiny, tiny tear slipped out of the tired corner of her left eye. It trickled down her face, cooling her skin a little. It felt like the first introduction of ice to a desert.

She despised it.

Kamali reopened her eyes and looked around the square. A little girl, maybe five or six years old, was standing at her side. She had a puffy rat’s nest of blonde hair and came up to Kamali’s hips. The little girl reached up to tug on Kamali’s hand. Her skin was colder than the tear, colder than the tundra, colder than a frozen Hell.

Kamali shook it away and looked down at the girl. She gasped at the sight of her face.

It was Kamali.

No, it was Amirah. That was what Kamali had looked like almost seventy-five years ago.

That was her.

Amirah’s body began to flicker in and out, and she started sinking into the ground. Kamali fell to her knees, trying to reach her, to touch her, to save her.

It was all to no avail. She disappeared as soon as she’d come.

When Kamali got up, shaking, Amirah was there again, this time older. Thirteen, maybe. A long cut underneath her eye, bruises up and down her arm.

She wasn’t quite thirteen, then. She remembered this. It was one of the nastier beatings the nobl

es had given her.

Amirah was bleeding, and the blood began to cover her body, swallowing her whole, eating her alive.

Amirah was drowning in her own blood.

Kamali screamed, but somehow, somehow, no one heard her. Or maybe they did. Why would they care? Amirah melted to the cobblestone streets in a puddle of sticky red.

Kamali hoped to the heavens she wouldn’t reappear.

Not five seconds later, she was faced with another Amirah. This one much older- almost nineteen. Cloaked in black, repeating the same two words over and over, in the exact voice she remembered saying them.

“I’m sorry.” The truth hit Kamali’s mind suddenly.

Night shifter.

What was it Reye had said? Some like to show people their greatest fear. They don’t care about shifting.

Kamali turned on her heel and ran.

She didn’t know if Amirah- the night shifter; it wasn’t Amirah; she was Amirah, or at least used to be- was chasing her, and didn’t particularly care. She just needed to get away from it.

She didn’t even notice when the sky turned suddenly black, and a crescent moon’s light began to shine down on her. She just ran and ran until her legs gave out and she saw a line of shops to her left. She ran directly to the one in front of her, and begged every god the door would be unlocked.

She tugged on the doorknob and, thankfully, it opened. She rushed inside, and collapsed to the ground, even the warm yellow lamp radiating warmth that was the sole source of light in the store, burning her eyes.

She curled into a ball on the rough wooden floor, and tried to take some deep breaths.

“What happened?”

She looked up. A woman with curly sand-colored hair and emerald eyes stood over her, the burning sword tattoo on her throat signifying her as from Darkflame.

The tattoo of war heroes.

“Speak, girl!” she commanded. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Nothing,” Kamali murmured, then groaned. She rolled over and vomited all over the woman’s floorboards.

“I just saw you running and screaming down the streets, so you’re clearly not ill. Mop’s over there.” The woman pointed to a mop and bucket in the back corner of the one-room store, which was filled with shelves containing bottles filled with odd-colored liquids, old leather-bound books and rusty relics, among many strange things.

Kamali blinked.

“Clean it up,” the shop owner commanded.

Kamali covered her eyes and yawned.

“Who even are you?” the woman demanded. “And what are you doing, dirtying my store?” “K…Kamali, bodyguard of Princess Silver. Visiting guest of Queen-” “Throwing around the names of royals isn’t going to help you. So what’s Kamali, bodyguard of Princess Silver, visiting guest of Queen Reye, doing in the Night Sector?” the shopkeeper barked.

“I’m in the night sector?” Kamali groggily asked.’

“Well, it’s been dark out for a decade, so I’d assume so. Get up, Kamali, bodyguard of Princess Silver. Such an esteemed lady as you has no business lying on the ground of such a lowly shopkeeper as I.” The woman spoke with clear sarcasm.

Kamali made a noise similar to that of a gate in desperate need of oil.

The shopkeeper kicked her.

Kamali rolled onto her back and made a half-assed attempt at jabbing the woman’s ribcage with her own foot but it turned out to be more of a flail.

This is pathetic, she hissed at herself. You’re stronger than this.

The other side of her brain fought back. No. You’re not. You were weak enough to be betrayed by a dumb feeling in your chest. 

Well, she wouldn’t be this time.

And she wouldn’t be stabbing anyone lying on the floor of a shop in the Night Sector.

Kamali tentatively pushed herself up onto two wobbly legs and took a few shaky steps towards the mop.

She gripped its handle and started cleaning up the vomit. The shopkeeper, seated on a moldy wooden stool, kept her glowing green eyes fixated on Kamali until she was finished. Once the floor was sparkling shiny, the woman spoke.

“I’m Barbara,” she said flatly. “I don’t know any fancy royals except for the long-dead ones, but I beg that you deign to acknowledge me regardless.”

Kamali couldn’t help but laugh, for this woman seemed to be the one people would beg to be acknowledged by.

Barbara gestured to a stool identical to hers. “Sit.” Kamali obeyed. “Tell me how such an esteemed lady as you got here,” she ordered. 

“I was a bit… spooked by a night shifter,” Kamali   murmured. “I ran away, and didn’t exactly notice when I entered the night sector.”

“Ah, another court idiot,” Barbara commented.

“Don’t call me that,” Kamali snapped.

“What?”

  “I’m not a court idiot! I’m not even a noble! I simply applied to become the bodyguard of a princess because I needed a job.” Even though that’s nowhere near the whole truth. “The title is just attached.”

“What did the night shifter appear as?” Barbara asked, unfazed by Kamali’s protests.

“Doesn’t matter,” she snapped.

“Made you crumple to the floor of my shop and cry like  the devil was after you. Seems like it matters,” the shopkeeper insisted.

Kamali was silent.

“Look, just tell me: Was it someone or something?” “Someone,” Kamali admitted.

“Interesting,” Barbara commented. “But good. Now the weight on your shoulders is lighter, simply from sharing that bit of information. Do you feel it?” “I don’t feel anything,” Kamali muttered.

“We’ll work on it,” the woman decided. “Now. You will buy something.” “I don’t have any money, my lady. I apologize.” The shopkeeper’s eyebrows furrowed.

Shit. She’d slipped. Kamali had done so damn well not affording Barbara the deference she deserved as a warrior of Darkflame.

Well, she’d just have to act like it never happened and barrel past it.

“I don’t deal in common coins,” the shopkeeper said. And before Kamali could ask, she said, “I deal in lies.” “In lies…?” Liars have no place here.

“Over there-” Barbara gestured to the shelves in the front of the shop- “I’ll only need you to tell me a few small lies you’ve told in your lifetime, and the truth to go with them.”

Kamali cautiously approached the shelf. There were many treasures collecting dust on the wooden planks- golden goblets, bronze bracelets, emerald vases. She was drawn to a small, clear, shimmering ring tucked behind a few wine bottles. She pointed to it. “What’s that?”

“That ring changes color depending on your emotions. It comes with a piece of paper decoding the shades. That will be two small lies paired with their truths, if you please. Don’t bother telling me you don’t want to buy it. You wouldn’t have asked if you didn’t. And they must be lies you’ve told before. Oh, and you must tell me the person you lied to.” Barbara waited, smiling.

“I told you nothing happened to me,” Kamali said, her voice grinning for her. “Right after I entered your store. And the truth is many things have happened to me.”

Barbara let out a little laugh. “Nice job,” she purred. “Not giving me what I want. I respect that. But you still have only paid half the price.”

“Why do you deal in lies?” Kamali asked. “They can’t be of value to you.”

“Oh, but they are. Now, if you ask another question, I will throw you out of this shop. I do not answer to you,” Barbara snapped.

Kamali rubbed her temples, trying to think of another small lie she’d told. “When I was nine,” she said, “I told my mother I had to ask my teacher a question and I would be late coming home. Instead, I snuck over to my sick friend’s house and brought her a cinnamon roll.”

“Hm,” the shopkeeper remarked. “Why did you have to lie?” Kamali mimicked her and said, “I don’t answer to you.”

“Yet we all answer to the truth. You’d do well not to forget that,” Barbara told her. “Well, the ring’s yours.”

The shopkeeper plucked it off the shelf along with a slip of paper and handed it to Kamali. She slid it onto her left index finger and it turned a shade of bright red.

Kamali looked down at the sheet. Red: Fear. 

Her heart pounded. Shit. Her emotions were on display for this woman to see- why was she so rash?

Everything told her to take the ring off, but even if Barbara could see her emotions- this could help Kamali. She could know when she was feeling something that made her vulnerable. And she would, at the very least, know more about herself than other people did.

Something else caught Kamali’s eye. In the windowsill sat a candle- not lit, not at all burnt. A perfect, pristine candle- as if it was frozen in time.

Pointing to it, she asked, “And how much does that cost?”

“Oh, that,” Barbara said, smirking, “will cost the greatest lie you have ever told. It protects a person of your choice against all harm until it burns out.”

“No, no,” Kamali gasped, shaking her head violently. “Thank you for the ring. I will be going now.” She stepped towards the door.

“When you wish to come back and purchase the candle, I will hold it for you,” the shopkeeper told her.

“Do not,” Kamali insisted. “I have no wish to buy it.”

“Well, even if you don’t,” Barbara countered, “sometimes we crave to tell someone the truth, even if we don’t know it ourselves. The candle will be kept out of sight until you return.” “Stop saying when and until,” Kamali protested. “I will not be returning to purchase the candle.” “Oh, you will,” Barbara persisted. “You simply don’t know it yet.”

“Kamali? Kamali??” That was Reye’s voice. She must have come back to the wall of mirrors only to find Kamali gone. Luckily, she’d made it back to the day sector before there was a chance of anyone finding out where she’d been.

“No need to freak out,” Kamali said, approaching the queen’s back. “I’m right here.” Reye whirled around and for a second reached out her arms like she was going to hug Kamali. But then she pushed them back to her sides, and seemed to exhale. A good thing. She shouldn’t hug you, Kamali reminded herself. 

“Where were you?” Reye demanded. “I thought you were lost or dead or worse!” Kamali decided not to ask what constituted worse.

“I was just at a shop,” she assured the queen, smiling. She held up the hand bearing her ring. It had turned deep blue- perhaps the color of absolute disgust and hatred.

“Nice,” Reye remarked. “I’m glad you… enjoyed yourself, then.” The queen twisted her face into a stupidly wide grin.

“Where is Silver?” Kamali asked.

“Acquiring lodgings. There are still many hours left of nightfall and we need sleep. She is at an inn a few blocks away. Come on.” Reye set off and gestured for Kamali to follow her. 

The bodyguard squared her shoulders and walked after her nemesis.

Silver was waiting at a cottage painted white with a dark blue door. There was a hole in the roof and a thriving garden in front.

Kamali and Reye stopped in front of her and instantly noticed she was blushing.

The princess looked them each in the eye and then said, “Well. Good news or bad news first?”

“Bad, always the bad,” Kamali decided before Reye could say anything.

“She only has two free rooms. And I may have already claimed one for myself,” Silver admitted.

“What? I’m your bodyguard. Don't you think we should be the ones sharing a room?” Kamali demanded.

“I’ve known you for all of one day; there’s no chance in hell that we are sharing a room! And considering I’m the one who found this place, isn’t it fair that the rooming is my decision?” Silver demanded.

“That’s fine,” Reye scoffed. “As long as-” “And it’s only one bed each,” Silver blurted.

“Not as fine,” Kamali muttered. “And what the hell is the good news?” Maybe there’s a mat I can sleep on? Oh, gods!

“We don’t have to sleep on the streets,” the princess said, shrugging. “And it’s only for one night. Now come inside. It is freezing out here, and there are shades to ward off the light so we can calm down a bit.”

Reye turned to Kamali. “We can make this work. It’ll be fine.”

Kamali pinched her nose so tight it hurt.

The ring was black with swirls of red now. She hid her hand in her cloak so Reye wouldn’t see it had changed color. The logical side of her brain said to just take the jewelry off, but… Somehow she couldn’t. She liked having the power to know, once she’d memorized what the colors meant.

Silver handed Kamali a rusty key with 6 engraved on it. She and Reye checked a few corridors until they found their assigned room.

The bodyguard slid her key into the lock, and-

Oh gods. The room was disgusting. It was practically a glorified closet, there was mold and spiderwebs creeping across the walls, and the bed was tiny. If you put two babies on opposite ends of it, they’d be a hair’s length away from one another!

The luggage that Kamali and Reye had brought was shoved in the corner, presumably by the footman before he went home to his family, who, according to the queen of Hoperain, lived in the day sector.

“It should be around midnight outside,” the queen said. “We’ll have to leave early. We should get some sleep.” She walked over to the thick blinds on the windows and shut them tightly. Both the queen and bodyguard walked over to the bed and pulled themselves under the thin covers.

About three minutes later, Reye was fast asleep. With her arms tightly wrapped around Kamali. What the actual fuck.

How Reye had managed to silently and unsuspiciously do that, Kamali had no idea. She didn’t even think it was on purpose, and that was the worst part. That was it; she had tried; she was going to sleep on the floor now. Kamali tried to tug herself out of the queen’s embrace, but she feared to either wake Reye or dislocate her own shoulder.

It had been cold as ice just a few minutes ago, but now Kamali was sweating. Kamali looked down at her ring, which had been pulsing with light ever since Reye had closed the shades. It was mostly red, with a few dabs of purple mixed in. She’d have to check what that meant tomorrow, but right now, Kamali wanted to sleep. And she wanted to escape the arms of her sworn enemy. And also, a little tiny part of her wanted to stay right where she was.

Alas, she had a scrap of intelligence left in her, and set about weaving herself out of Reye’s grasp. Her heart was jumping, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Kamali had managed to half-dangle herself over the bed when Reye opened her eyes.

“What the hell…?” the queen murmured groggily. “Why are you doing that?”

“Exercise,” Kamali lied. “Night exercise. It’s good for the body, the soul, the, um, ligaments! I just had to finish it up. Sorry for disturbing you.”

“Mm,” Reye murmured, turning over, accidentally dropping Kamali onto the floor. “G’night.”

Kamali nodded, knowing the queen couldn’t see her, and not caring one bit.

She didn’t get back into bed, instead electing to curl into the fetal position on the scratchy rug and trying to force herself asleep.

The nightmares came. They always did.

A crack of a whip. Blood everywhere.

The blood of her people, everywhere, her clothing, the ground, spurting from her mouth.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m- Her eyes blinked open. Kamali forced the door open, forgetting about Reye asleep behind her. She ran outside to the bright sun and perfect garden, fell to her knees, and wept.

Zen and Lan from Song of the Last Kingdom Duology :]

Im extremely fond of them </3 their ending hurt me

Hey everybody, my mom's ebook is up for pre-order on Amazon. It's titled: "Forever Burning: The Evil Within" by Amy Olinger. It would mean a lot to us if you would check it out and maybe get you a copy. Or if you'd like to have a physical copy, she should have that available on October 8th, 2024!!! If you can't buy a copy or don't want to, please consider sharing my post to try to reach more of an audience. Thank you!

https://a.co/d/dI5gBcd

{The above link will take you to the kindle version that's available for pre-order.}

--------♾️🔥--------

**TWs: SA, Mentions of abuse

**CWs: blood, adult content/adult themes, violence, gore

--------♾️🔥--------

**BOOK DESCRIPTION:**

On top of losing her job, depleting her savings, and selling her furniture to buy food, Amelia faces eviction from her landlord. On her last day, with nowhere to go, she receives a call from a friend with a job offer, giving her a glimmer of hope. She moves to a small town, seeking security for herself and her daughter. However, what she finds is much more than she expected—a world full of mystery, magic, secrets, and horror, but also love and family. If you enjoy A Discovery of Witches and True Blood, this story will surely be a perfect fit.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this! I appreciate you all and hope you have good luck on your reading and writing journey! Sending you all hugs and love! 💜

-Thepoetickitten

Yelling at the Bookshelf: The Crowthistle Chronicles

According to something (attributed to Nancy Pearl) that I read somewhere once upon a time, there are four doors a reader can open to immerse themselves in a book. Those are:

the story (the plot)

the characters

the setting (the worldbuilding)

and the language (the characteristics of the writing itself – the grammar, vocabulary, imagery, and so on)

I am now going to yell into the void about The Crowthistle Chronicles by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and my subjective opinion about the books.  If you get tired of it, feel free to clamber elsewhere on the web.

There are four books, and this is how I felt about them:

Books 1 and 2: The Iron Tree and The Well of Tears 

★★★✫     Story

★★           Pacing (slow)

★★★        Characters

★★★★✫  Worldbuilding (quite detailed)                          

★★★★      Language (very descriptive)

Books 3 and 4: Weatherwitch and Fallowblade

★★✫     Story

★            Pacing (so slow, especially book 3)

★★✫     Characters

★★★     Worldbuilding (suspension of disbelief issue in book 4)

★★★     Language (sometimes didactic)

Of the four, I would perhaps recommend The Well of Tears, and skip the others (I did appreciate book 4, but I ranted about it for hours after finishing it).  All of the books, with the potential exception of Weatherwitch, focus on the romance of a young couple against a backdrop of political intrigue. So they’re romantasy…but only Fallowblade concludes without tragedy thwarting the couple's final happiness.  The sections of political intrigue often read like a history book.

The good:

If you love detailed worldbuilding, you might enjoy The Iron Tree and/or The Well of Tears.  The second one most resembled what I’d expect from a fantasy adventure romance: investigate the secret heritage, acquire the important thing before the villains, and so on.  Both books have perhaps the most diverse range of faerie-type beings that I have ever encountered (they may hail from serious research into Irish folktales, but that’s just a guess), and their presence is a quintessential part of life for the characters. If you want to envision life with the fair folk as your neighbors, separated by a line of horseshoes, bells, and traditions, then this series certainly delivers.

If you love beautiful prose and eloquent descriptions, you may also enjoy the books.  The author’s writing about nature has been described as Tolkien-esque, but I think it goes beyond that.  The author paints landscapes with words, relishing each chance to set the scene.  If you’re looking for witty dialogue, however, I’d look elsewhere.  Also, some of the characters come off as didactic in the last two books, which may annoy some readers.  I’d stick with either The Iron Tree or The Well of Tears.

The bad (or the not-so-good, if you want to be charitable):

The characters are generally either average or somewhat flat, moving like pieces on a chessboard as the story dictates.  I can believe that they are decent people and recognize their struggles, but I wasn’t especially invested in them.  This is a little different for the couple in books 3 and 4—mainly book 4, Fallowblade, as book 3 only lays the foundations for the romantic relationship—because I inferred so much about the characters.  In hindsight, these two are what the whole series is about…and the story doesn’t flesh them out.  It doesn’t use their conflicts of interest, their stubborn pride, or their misunderstandings of each other to wring out any empathy for them, and it’s a terrible missed opportunity.  I can’t help but wonder what the books would look like if Crowthistle, who lends the series his name, was actually the focal character.  

The story is okay, excepting book 4 (which included sections that destroyed my suspension of belief).  However, the pacing is so slow.  If you made an outline it would be interesting enough, but reading it is like watching a train crash in slow motion…through a pair of binoculars, from a nearby mountain.  All the books have pacing issues, but I felt like the protagonist did almost nothing significant to the plot in book 3.  If you like fast-paced action or whiplash drama, this is not the series for you.  If you’re here for the scenery, though—sink in!

No but how the hell did we went from Prince Caspian to the generic "dark, tall and handsome" love interest from Romantasy novels which usually happens to be toxic and abusive yet the narrative is downplaying his flaws and portraying him as innocent?

hey there

i’m going to be starting a new mood board series for books and their characters. if you want to see any book or characters in particular, please feel free to request 🎀

-Em

I'm joining ⚔️Tapas' Action Fantasy Tourney🛡 with my webnovel, Reincarnated as the Nameless Queen.

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ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅ ʜɪᴛ ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ. ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴀ ʟᴏᴜᴅ ᴡʜɪꜱᴛʟɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴇᴄʜᴏᴇᴅ ꜱʜᴀʀᴘʟʏ ᴀɢᴀɪɴꜱᴛ ꜰᴀʙʀɪᴀɴ'ꜱ ᴇᴀʀ ᴅʀᴜᴍꜱ. ɪᴛ ɢᴀᴠᴇ ʜᴇʀ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴏʀ ʜᴀɴᴅʟᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱʜᴏᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏʀᴘᴏʀᴀʟ ʙᴇʜɪɴᴅ ʜᴇʀ ᴀꜱ ꜰᴀʀ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴀꜱ ᴘᴏꜱꜱɪʙʟᴇ. ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ʜɪᴛ—ᴀ ꜰʟᴀꜱʜ ʙʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱʜᴏᴄᴋɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴜɴ.

ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ...

ᴀ ʟᴏᴜᴅ ᴠᴏɪᴄᴇ ᴄʀɪᴇᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴀ ᴍᴜʀᴍᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴍᴏʙ. “ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜱʜᴀʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛʏʀᴀɴɴʏ. ᴀꜱ ᴏᴜʀ ᴅɪᴠɪɴᴇ ɢᴏᴅ ʟɪᴇɴ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴀɴᴅꜱ, ꜱᴏ ɪ ꜱʜᴀʟʟ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ. ᴀꜱ ᴍʏ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴀꜱ ᴄʀᴏᴡɴ ᴘʀɪɴᴄᴇ, ɪ, ʜᴇᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴄᴇʟɪɴᴅᴀᴇ ᴀʀᴛᴜʀɪᴜᴍ ᴄʟᴀɪᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜʀᴏɴᴇ ᴀꜱ ᴋɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ɴᴀᴛᴀʟᴇᴢ.”

ꜰᴀʙʀɪᴀɴ ʙʟɪɴᴋᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴡᴀᴋɪɴɢ.

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Posts will begin later this weekend, and you'll get not 1, not 2, but 3 chapters a week for the contest! I hope you'll enjoy this story^^

Chapters 16-18

Pretend like I market on here instead of forgetting...

Read Atrophy of the Eternal Forest for free on Tapas!! It's amazing, I swear

I said I wouldn't try reading/listening to A Court of Thorns and Roses after getting bored by chapter two with it at least four times... but it's free with my audible trial so here I am again...

destined to fall in love with one of the lovers who dies in the end, he writes the stories of both their love stories and the inexplicable death of his beloved.

The writer and his ex rival in love join forces to save their dearest.

In à twist of fate they become friends,and find that the person they were trying to save has been the mastermind plotting ways to kill herself and eventually achieved it.

this was due to the girl trying to escape from her lover who is discovered to have an agressive (split) personality.

after solving the mystery, normal guy saves the girl from the recurring loop of réincarnation and they both love each other Platonically, getting houses next to each other's and living the rest of their lives in ease.

Two lovers have reincarnated throughout history, destined to find each other and fall in love all over again. There’s also this third guy that reincarnates alongside them… we don’t really know what he does.

✨️Seven Sentence Sunday✨️

(Six was not quite enough)

@fortunatetragedy had an open tag and I am bustin' into it like the kool-aid man 😎💥

Side-project to Seven Circles 🌐 where I'm writing Kazimier’s backstory as if he's telling the story.

Quite the system, eh? Well I didn’t fit into it when I arrived though. I was too clean, too bright-eyed apparently, had round cheeks and a sun-kissed look about me. Didn't have any credits neither! ‘Just my clothes and my wits’ wasn’t an exaggeration there, and my wits weren’t enough to know what the people were like.

Du’Preve was so dark to me.. I don’t think I was there a full hour before I bumped into someone an’ got called a damn squints- that’s what Du’Preved call you sunwalkers who come visiting. Because that’s what you look like walkin’ around in the dark, squints.

Tagging @katenewmanwrites and @smellyrottentrees in case yall want to share some lines +Open tag.

✨️First & Last Lines✨️

Made by @kaylinalexanderbooks ! This was inadvertently hilarious 😂 great contrasts here.

Rules: Post the first and most recent/last line of dialogue from a couple OCs! Narration doesn't count.

Seeker🌠:

"But our trajectory had us flying into a tundra! If we land only to die before making contact, the mission is forfeit!"

"Ohhhelllo Vallyn.."

Klaus🌻:

"If that ever comes to pass, you must find whoever you sell me to and tell me how you managed to explain away your involvement, Father,"

"I thought you liked my mouth."

Kazimier💋:

"Kazimier." he rasps eventually.

"It's been less than pleasing lately."

Val🐁:

"My name is Valian, Messere. Her Grace arranged to have me delivered to you."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Val mutters, and then the door is closed and they are alone.

Tagging @katenewmanwrites @smellyrottentrees @lychhiker-writes aaaand @the-golden-comet for YWIMC? And open tag!

(Hmu to be +/- to my writing games taglist~)

✨️Music Tag Game✨️

Tagged by @lychhiker-writes for @rotting-moon-writes tag game!

I want to know what 1-3 songs you feel best embody a character from your WIP, either in general or in this moment in the plot.

Doing 'The Incubois' from 🌐7 Circles🌐!

Klaus🌻:

11:11, Ben Barnes (is also his voice/face claim)

All These Things That I've Done, The Killers

Death of A Bachelor, Panic at The Disco

Kazimier💋:

I Can't Decide, Scissor Sisters

All Scotch No Soda, Sarah &the Safe Word

Heaven Without You, Kid Brunswick (past)

I have 3 playlists for Kaz but 0 songs for Val or Seeker lol, maybe I'll do those two another time.

Tagging @katenewmanwrites @smellyrottentrees @officialauthorofanotherworld I'm kinda late to this one so I think @the-golden-comet @cowboybrunch and @fortunatetragedy have already done this, but I'm excited about music questions and wanted to share! 😁