The Death Match
Delaney Huang is about to embark on her greatest journey yet. Her mother has died and her uncle can no longer take care of her anymore, forcing her to leave and find her own path in life after seventeen years of depending on others. But her new life is more than she asked for…
Thrown into the kingdom of the Faeries, Delaney learns that her missing father was once a friend to the king of these magical lands. Keeping his promise to his friend, Lucian Xanthias, keeps Delaney in his lands and away from the Half Blood hunters. But his heart is not all too pure when accepting Delaney into his court.
Breaking Delaney’s lost father’s promise, Lucian places her in a match of death to prove to him and his court that she has what it takes to join the Crown. Will Delaney be able to conquer all the mind twists, betrayals, forbidden romances, walking nightmares, and trials set before her? Or will she crumble in the hands of a forgotten promise?
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Chapter: Chapter 3Almost too peaceful to believe, but I did anyways. The hazy surroundings and the closed off distances kept my mind ignorant, letting me see only what I understood.There was a warmth to this place. Wherever I was…My head turned to either side, in search of something other than the constant yellow-orange glow that took over the earth. I thought I sensed a breeze riffling over my skin, but when I sniffed the air through a long drag of breath, there was nothing. My heart barely beat—making my body sluggish and overbearing—and my hands twitched anxiously at my sides.I could feel something. It felt so real and familiar it was almost as if its presence consumed me. My eyes narrowed through the haze as my mouth opened to call out…but nothing escaped. Throat getting tight and eyes puckering, I reached up to wipe away my tears. But my hands weren’t tangible. Nothing was tangible and so my tears just fell.“Mom!” My head cried, echoing through the unseen lands. Then, all at once, colors began
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Chapter: Chapter 2“I’ll go search for her after we get you healed and dressed.” He told me as he faced me once again and led me into the shadows with his torch stretched wide into the darkness.“Is the forest always this…eerie?” I shivered and my hands went to close on either arm across my body.The Reaper set my pack down on the ground once he found a spot behind a tree. “Yes. That’s why I told you earlier to come with me.”“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.” I picked my way carefully through the fallen leaves, twigs, fungus, and small patches of moss. The Reaper sat down across from the tree where a large rock was. “But I guess I trust you now.” I added as I noticed the small fallen tree trunk that was hidden next to the covering tree. I sat down from across the Reaper and his eyes looked at me with a strong gaze.“I wouldn’t trust anyone, especially me.” He laid out an open faced hand on his knee and I slowly raised my foot to drop it into his hand.“Why not you?” I hissed as his finger accidentally gra
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Chapter: Chapter 1My feet dragged behind me as my fatigued body hunched forward. My eyes dropped slightly as I forced my head up. I was sure I looked like a troll still gowned in my torn night clothes, hair knotted, and a day’s worth of grease slicking several strands. Dirt spots covered portions of my exposed skin, and I had to hobble for fear of my wound getting infected.“Don’t worry about them.” He assured me but the fist in my gut told me otherwise. They were cunning and wicked at the same time. Not to mention their blood was purely liquid fire that they could use to malign anyone who got in their way. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t ever the one to get in their way.I nodded my head as my heavy tongue moved to roll across my teeth. I clicked my tongue before asking: “Do you think we could pause and have a drink?”The Reaper stood up from his bent stance. I hadn’t even noticed that he had moved to place his eyes level with mine until he did so. The man had honor and pride, but he also had kindness.
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Chapter: Prologue - Last PartI wondered why I hadn’t come along a single home during my run…I knew the answer to that right away. I’d been running blindly, led by fear. But why come here?I stopped and stretched my neck to fully look up at the sky. The sun filtered in like glowing stars that were shooting downwards to bless me with their light warmth. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. At last I was calm…A twig snapped behind me and I jumped, shaking in my spot and I whirled around to face the incoming person.My eyes widened and then blinked in surprise. “What are you doing here?” I asked the Reaper that had been from my house. He stood there between the trees, tall and daring with his chin upturned slightly as he peered down at me from the slight incline.“I followed you.” His voice was so strong, I had to take a step back to get out its blast.“H—how?” I stuttered and he tilted his head to the side.Pointing down at my feet he said, “Your blood.”I looked down at my feet and then had to smile. “You mus
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Chapter: Prologue - Part 2Aziel held his hands up in defense and I almost pitied the older man. “They’ll pay me and I’ll be able to get a job and build a new house for you to live in and then you can come—”“I’m never coming back here. Especially not to see you.” I said through the tumbling tears that scorched my cool cheeks. How could this have happened? How could my mother’s own brother sell her dead body to the bottom feeders of our world? The Reapers are cruel and will dehumanize my mother if they lay a hand on her…“I’m not letting you give her to them,” I said suddenly.Aziel had the audacity to crack a smile at me. “I’m the owner of this house now Delaney, it doesn’t fall to you and I can do what I want to with what’s in this house now.”And if I ever thought I couldn’t open my mouth any further, I did. “How dare you!” I hissed.The gleam in his eyes was new to me. It scared me and when he took a step forward, I stumbled backwards. Tripping over my own feet, I cried out as my heel caught on a loose nail
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Chapter: PrologueRain splattered in the mud as the Seelie Courts army marched forward towards the Faery Peak. Hadleigh Anwyll, King to the Fae-folk, marched in the front lines with his men. His armor was no different from theirs and his stride never faltered. He was marching into a war that would be the turning point for all beings of magic. His court, the asylum for all creatures of magic, was being challenged by a new reign of power: The Crown.A group of Faeries that fractioned themselves from the Seelie Court, called themselves the Crown. They considered themselves a new way of governing the creatures of magic and their land by ripping peace and prosperity into ideals of war and discrimination. A once whole and beautiful land was now being plagued by the Crown—and it was happening faster than Hadleigh Anwyll had anticipated.Hadleigh Anwyll felt his heart heave as he knew what was about to come of this war. His court would be taken over, and he had to some how be okay with that for now. Him and hi
Last Updated: 2022-08-31
Who Killed Romeo
❝ Things are only as beautiful as you make them, Eleanor. Including murder. ❞
It’s the opening night of Cosima Memphis’s production of Romeo and Juliet and all is going smoothly – that is until the climactic death scene. Romeo takes a big gulp of the poison to be with his lover, except it really is poison and Archer, who plays Romeo, is now dead.
Eleanor Monet, in charge of props, is the first suspect but soon the suspicion around her turns to worry as it seems she’s the next target.
Heath Albion, an aspiring writer, is dying for a mystery to solve at his new school. When he sees Eleanor sneaking around at night he thinks he’s finally found something worth writing about.
After discovering Eleanor’s ability to see visions of the past, Heath decides that they’re the perfect pair to solve the mystery.
With threatening notes, a quiet library and poison disguised as props; somebody in the school is blurring the lines between theatre and reality and the fast friends are about to discover that there’s more to boarding school than just silly rumours.
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Chapter: Chapter 6Act 1, Scene 4Hazel Lowell died in hospital earlier this evening. With her parents halfway across the world and betrayal in her memories, she passed from blood loss, completing the star-crossed lovers’ fate.Now, even as I cowered within the comfort of my dorm room, I couldn’t pluck the picture of her out of my mind. It was etched permanently in the forefront along with the sound of Archer’s retching. Flushed cheeks and piercing blue eyes that were already slipping away by the time we’d found her. Beautiful Hazel Lowell.Beautiful and dead, Hazel Lowell.With only the faint yellow light of her bedside lamp, my best friend, Sadie Addison, read the school newspaper’s article about the murders to me aloud. Her voice carried in a faint whisper and I only barely heard her above the sounds of wildlife outside.She had already pulled her bonnet over her braids and was tucked neatly into bed with her back against the headboard. I wished it were that easy for me to find sleep. Instead, I star
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 5Act 1, Scene 3The room swallowed me in silence. I wasn’t sure whether Hazel was alive or not, but all I saw was blood and lots of it. Buzzed from the vodka and swaying with guilt, I crept closer to her body. She seemed perfectly placed, like a prop on the stage, and that swirling of culpability deep in my gut made me feel sick. If I’d been quicker, if I’d told Heath sooner about the creep watching us, if I’d taken the dagger myself then none of this would have happened. Over the high pitch ring in my ear, I briefly heard Heath call for help behind me. Footsteps reverberated against the floor and it was as though the whole room swayed for a moment. I ignored everything else and instead my eyes zeroed in onto a piece of paper beside Hazel’s hand. Clean from the scarlet blood that pooled around her body, I picked it up in between my fingers just as the door slammed open once more. Mr. Puma, my Latin teacher, practically slid along the floor and dropped to his knees beside Hazel. Wit
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 4Act 1, Scene 2My eyes fluttered open slowly. From the smell of fresh books and the soft sound of pages turning, I judged that I’d fallen asleep in the library, again. My limbs were so heavy that I could barely move them and my head span so wildly that I refused to open my eyes. It wasn’t an odd occurrence for me to succumb to slumber wherever I was but it never left me any less confused and sore.I once fell asleep on the piano while playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to my Nana on her birthday. I’m not sure if she noticed the difference, though, my mum did have quite the shock when my face suddenly hit the keys with a loud and unsatisfying racket.When I finally felt as though I could breathe normally again, I opened my eyes to the dim lighting of the school library. Looming bookcases that hid peering eyes canopied me in the corner and the window beside me beamed light from the grey sky outside. I noticed my neck had an uncomfortable crick when I lifted it to follow the table in f
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 3A week ago, the school confiscated my kettle. It was a shame, really, since the only thing that helped me sleep was tea. Still, it didn’t stop me from finding one in the school kitchen, hidden under other equipment that they didn’t bother using or giving away.I really needed the hot beverage as I’d slept through the whole day and now it was well past midnight. Mum had tried to explain to Hawthorne that I was responsible, that I needed the kettle, that I had issues with sleep but she didn’t buy it. The school had a policy and apparently, kettles were very much against it.I got up carefully and realised I was still in my uniform. Instead of changing, I pulled a sweatshirt over my head, grabbed my stuff to make tea and headed out into the corridors. This wasn’t the first time that I’d snuck out but it was definitely the only time I’d snuck out for something so simple.I squinted against the darkness and placed my hands along the wall to find my way easier. It was probably three am by n
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 2Act 1, Scene 1I clutched the telephone to my ear and listened to my father’s gravelly voice as it travelled across the line. As he had personally requested my presence, I was whisked away by the headmistress, Mrs. Philomena to her office. Being in this room left me uneasy. My father’s phone call paired with the fact that I had only been here once before, sent my stomach in knots. The last time I’d seen the place was before I was even an official Cosima Memphis student. I was eight years old and here to collect my trophy as the winner of the Junior Arts Competition when my mum convinced me to play a piece on the violin. Though I hated every moment on stage and hated every moment of receiving the award and hated every moment of coming to collect it in this stuffy and claustrophobic office; it was worth it to see the look on my big brother’s face. “If I’m entirely honest, Eleanor, I’m not sure if we can even trust that godforsaken school any longer,” Dad ranted. I was sure a deep frow
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 1Cosima Memphis Boarding School Theatre, Opening Night, 1982 It was the morning before the opening night of Cosima Memphis’s production of Romeo and Juliet and somebody had written a threat on the mirror in bright red lipstick – how horribly cliché, and a waste of lipstick.‘Nessus’ Revenge is Imminent. Good Luck, Heracles -Deianira.’It was a clever Greek mythology styled threat. My favourite kind, of course.The words were skewed slightly with the ends of curly letters trailed to the left. We had a lipstick stealing, drama enthusiast who was left-handed. An empty pack of cigarettes lay face up in the bin. The only people I knew in the drama club who smoked were Francis and Jude, both of whom were not allowed in this dressing room.The rug was folded over in the corner next to the bin causing me to believe that whoever had been in here made a quick getaway. Judging from the burn mark left on the wooden desk, and a flung cigarette just beside the bin, this person was not expecting vi
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 8Serenity | AfterThe days begin to become more bearable. A routine is established and I follow it like everyone else. Wake up, get ready for school, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, finish school, do homework, do some kind of activity, go to bed, do it all again.So it’s a shock when Saturday comes and the alarm stays silent. Natalia is awake too, on her phone in bed. Her dark hair is fanned out across the pillow, black against the white and pink of the pillowcase.“Cool,” I answer. “Um, I kind of wanted to ask you something.”“Shoot.” She shuts up and runs a hand through her hair like a comb.“Remember that girl you told me about? Your old roommate? Was her name Charlotte?” The words tumble out quickly.“Yeah,” she says. “Her name was Charlotte. Why?”“Just wondering. She’s very popular online.”Natalia doesn’t reply for a minute. “Serenity, I kind of don’t want to talk about this anymore. Can you ask someone else if you want to know more?”“Of course,” I say quickly. “Anyone
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 7Zaire | BeforeThey look like us. Mr Oriel, Mr Cezanne, Mr Forrest and Mr Salvatore all sit together and they look like us. I don’t know where the women are, Natalia took them off about an hour ago and they are a no-show for lunch. My father is still in Paris, arriving in two days. It’s the earliest he could arrange the trip for. I try not to resent the fact that the parents of all my friends got here within twenty-four hours of her death and mine couldn’t. His absence is abundantly obvious to me, a gap between Nick Cezanne and Matteo Salvatore.“This is creepy,” Leo says, also staring at the table of fathers. “Is he still carving that headstone?”Matteo Salvatore arrived while carving Charlotte’s details into a slab of stone with a marble angle on the top. Raffiel gets the talent with woodwork from him. Mr and Mrs Cezanne insisted he didn’t have to, but he insisted that he did.“If I could do this when I was eighteen, I can do this now,” he said stubbornly. “The workshop still here?
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 6Serenity | After“What do you think of… Leo?” Natalia asks as we move through the dining hall in House.“Which one’s he?” I ask.“The dark one with the Edgar Allen Poe.” She jerks her head to a boy reading while systematically putting forkfuls of pasta into his mouth.“He’s cute,” I giggle. “Let me guess, he’s claimed by some crazy boarding school girl.”“Naw, we don’t do that,” she laughs. “But he is sorta off limits. Anyway, you get to meet Zaire tonight. He’s the one with Fall Out Boy.”Sitting at the table I’ve eaten breakfast and lunch at today is a boy with dark hair and headphones. He’s one of the guys who was sitting on the stage with the rest of the important people in assembly this morning. If my memory serves right, he’s the youngest prefect in history.“How come he wasn’t at breakfast or lunch?”“Because he has all these prefect duties which means he gets to have lunch with the Fantastic Four.” She sits down. “He also got to miss form, the lucky bastard.”“Who are the Fant
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 5Zaire | AfterWe sit in Room Seven, an empty classroom. It’s not a room I particularly like to be in. It was our Year Seven and Eight Maths classroom, so immediately associated with bad memories. Usually, I strangely love Maths. But the teacher I had those two years made me want to drive a knife through the subject. I have similar feelings towards Shakespeare. Only, I want to resurrect him with Charlotte’s coven of witchcraft practicing highlighters just to kill him all over again.“How did you become friends?” he asks. “If you remember.”“Dad thought I was lonely. Her mum thought she was lonely. They brought us together for a play date and we were stuck with each other, I guess.”“Just best friends?” Davidson raises an eyebrow.“Boys and girls can be friends, you know,” I snap. “It’s the twenty-first century.”“Did she have a boyfriend?”“As far as I know, she didn’t.”“Did she want to have one?” he questions. “Anyone she was interested in?”“Leo Forrest. He’s in our class.” I pause.
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 4Serenity | BeforeI sit in the middle of my bedroom, in the centre of a circle of thirteen scented candles in pretty glass jars. They’re all vanilla, Mom’s favourite scent. Technically, they are hers. Dad bought them as their twentieth wedding anniversary gift. But I need them tonight.“How long will it take?” Naomi asks nervously, fiddling with her hair.She sits opposite me, her auburn hair sitting in her shoulder, pulled away from the flames. Her hair reaches to her waist in long, natural waves most girls have to achieve with curlers. In the recent weeks, her slender frame has become dangerously skinny and her dark eyes are shadowed with exhaust.I shrug. “Depends on what you give me.”On her lap sits a blue football jersey with the number sixty-eight printed on the back. His parents gave in his second jersey for the school to put on display, giving his first one to Naomi. It’s soft and still smells like grass and soap.“So are you, like, a witch?”I shrug once again. “I’m not real
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 3Zaire | AfterExactly six weeks and one day ago, Charlotte Brooklyn Cezanne died. Exactly six weeks and one day ago, my life fell to pieces. Exactly six weeks and one day ago, Zaire Denzel Sullivan officially went mad.But thank God (and science) for letting me keep my good looks. For not having me look like the spiralling madman I am. Or— as Raffiel would say— mad teenager because I’m not eighteen yet. For now, I still look like Zaire. Perfect hair, not too perfect uniform, perfectly blank expression. I stand in front of the mirror in our bathroom, examining myself.Outside, rosy streaks have coloured the skies and a pale, watery sun shines through the glass of the window in a traditional English fashion. It’s way too early for hardly anyone else to be up. At Claire Hall, you learn to cherish every minute of sleep you get. We’re not like most boarding schools which keep you so busy you can’t get a free minute to be homesick. At Claire, you cherish every moment of sleep because it’s a
Last Updated: 2022-09-10
