KHURZOG I didn’t take a tram. Didn’t hail a cab either — not after the last one tried to make jokes about me walking into a human precinct like I owned the place. His laugh died when he saw where I was headed. I didn’t like that sound. So I walked. The city peeled itself…
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KHURZOG The stairwell was colder than the restroom, way much colder. It was colder inside me. I had one hand on the railing, fingers clenched so tight the bones ached. Like if I let go, I’d come apart with it. The taste of her was still in my mouth. Her breath. Her fear. Her fire….
MAEVE The reception has begun, and it feels like I’m floating through a dream—no, more like a nightmare. None of this was supposed to happen. The dress, the ceremony, the kiss. The kiss with Ronan still lingers on my lips, and my pulse hasn’t slowed since. Everything feels too surreal, like I’m walking through a…
LAYLA I pushed through the restroom door like it might save me. My heels struck tile with too much noise, each step sharp enough to echo. The door slammed behind me and I winced at the sound before fumbling for the flimsy latch. It clicked into place, small and sad and useless. My hands were…
The dim light of twilight settled over the ancient forests of Mirkwood, painting the gnarled trees in hues of dying red and shadowy gray. Once, this forest had been called Greenwood the Great, but that name had long since been forgotten. The twisted boughs above seemed to smother what little light remained, and the air…
Zhak’orr (Orcish: “the pull”) — A magical-biological resonance sensed as an instinctive draw or compatibility signal between individuals. Not fate or a destined bond, but a hint of potential alignment — emotional, sexual, and romantic. Among orcs, it’s viewed as a biological instinct tied to survival and partnership; can be ignored. Orcs don’t believe in…
KHURZOG The elevator complained the whole way up, an old cage of brass and bad temper chewing its way through the shaft. The glyphs in the corners hummed the way my bones sometimes did — low, off‑key, ready to crack. I leaned a shoulder against the panel and watched the floor numbers blink in tired…
The Delta Omicron Theta house looked like it had been built cheap and renovated worse. Stucco walls cracked under peeling paint, and a half-rotted porch leaned like it was tired of standing. Spanish-revival arches tried to class it up, but the beer cans in the bushes and cigarette burns on the railings told the real…
KHURZOG The Aurora Rail groaned under me like an old beast forced to keep running. Dwarvish-built — half steam, half sun-charge — its heart ran on bottled sunlight sealed in brass plates under the chassis. Every pulse of that arc-current crawled through the bones of the train, through my boots, through my skull. I could…