Stories by @penguininja

Grave Mercy

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

The Saltwater Curse

A woman escaping her past… Kristy Gallagher has slayed a monster before. When she could no longer live with her husband’s abuse, she plunged a knife into his neck. Then, she fled his family’s criminal empire—changing her name and traveling to the far reaches of the world, before finding her safe haven in Bali. She’s used to looking over her shoulder but nothing could prepare her for the monster that lurks beyond the shore. Sharp claws, grasping tentacles—Krakens are real, and their King has decided she’s to be his bride. A monster trying to end a curse… Ordus is King of the Dead Lands, the last Kraken of his bloodline, and the final hope to break a terrible curse that plagues his lands. He must find his destined bride, his soul mate, and marry her to save his kingdom. His fated mate shouldn’t be a human, but something about her calls to him like no other creature ever has. He drags her to his island, kicking and screaming, begging to be returned to the mainland. Ordus must convince her he’s not a monster to be feared, but her soul mate who will protect her from anything and anyone who means her harm. Including his own people.

Vampire Rising

The Van Helsing name reborn Fourteen-year-old Alex has no idea that he's descended from the world's most famous vampire hunter, but that changes fast when he arrives at Glenarvon Academy and confronts two vampires in his first three days. Turns out Glenarvon isn't the only school near Lake Geneva. Hidden deep underground lies an ancient university for vampires called the Scholomance. And the deadly vampire clan lord known as Icemaker? You might say he's a visiting professor. When two of Alex's friends are kidnapped by Icemaker, it's up to Alex to infiltrate the Scholomance and get them back—alive. Assisted by the Polidorium, a top-secret vampire-hunting organization with buried ties to the Van Helsings, Alex dodges zombies, bullets, and lots—and lots—of fangs on his way to thwarting Icemaker's plans and fulfilling his family destiny.

Fiery Little Thing

What’s that saying? What goes around, comes around? You torch my house, I demolish yours? Kohen Osman is a pyromaniac who keeps trying to steal my gig—which is… well, stealing. The difference is, he has sticky fingers because he’s a spoiled brat who thinks he’s better than the family of junkies that live down the block. I thought life at reform school would be better with neither Kohen or my family anywhere in sight. But my freedom from them was short and not sweet. There’s only so much a person can take before they turn into dust.

Mad as a Hatter

Clara spent her whole life fighting in courtrooms for the downtrodden, the strange ones, the abused. It’s only natural that when a man with rabbit ears on his head comes to see her, she doesn’t blink an eye… ...until he opens a portal and drags her to Wonderland. But this isn’t the world she’s read about at home. This world has been twisted, poisoned by none other than the Red Queen. There’s a prophecy, the only chance Wonderland has of survival. Clara is foretold to defeat the Knave and claim the Hatter’s heart. But there’s a problem. The Hatter is insane and Wonderland is full of unspeakable horrors. Death waits behind every tree. If the Beezles don’t get you, the Bandersnatch will. Can Clara embrace the madness and her destiny, or will the reign of the Red Queen continue? This isn’t the Wonderland you know…

A Flaw in the Design

Gil is living a quiet life as a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town, when he receives some shocking news: His sister and her husband have been killed in a car accident, and their only son is coming to live with him and his family. Gil and his wife are apprehensive about taking in seventeen-year-old Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents, but they haven't seen him in seven years--and the last time the families were together, Matthew lured their young daughter into a terrifying, life-threatening situation. Since that incident, Gil has been estranged from his sister and her flashy, wealthy banker husband. Now Matthew is their charge, living under their roof. The boy seems charming, smart, and urbane, if strangely unaffected by his parents' deaths. Gil hopes they can put the past behind them, though he's surprised when Matthew signs up for his creative writing class. Then Matthew begins turning in chilling stories about the imagined deaths of Gil's family and his own parents. Bewildered and panicked, Gil ultimately decides he must take matters into his own hands--before life imitates art.

Lament

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand―one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass―a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky―and equally dangerous―dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

The Proposal

When I flew overseas for my brother’s wedding, the last thing I expected was to come back with a wife of my own. Arabella Rossi is the eldest daughter of one of Italy’s most powerful crime lords. When I turned to him for help in getting my nephew back—after his mother ran off with him—I knew it would come with a price, but I never imagined it would be her. She hated me from the moment we met, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t too fond of her either. There was a cold superiority about her; she looked at me as nothing more than an inconvenience … like I was beneath her somehow. But one thing I’ve never shied away from is a challenge, so I knew that breaking her spirit was going to be one hell of a ride. Dante Mancini is everything I’ve come to despise. Beneath the good looks, charm, and effortless charisma, he’s what I’d best describe as a smiling assassin … dangerous, calculating, and always two steps ahead. He’s entrenched in a world I’ve been trying to escape since I was old enough to understand its darkness. So being forced to marry him and move to a foreign country felt like a fate worse than death. But the more time I spend with him, I begin to realise there’s a side to this man he keeps hidden from everyone but me. And as much as I hate to admit it, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been wrong about him—about everything.

Below the Pulse

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to race toward your death? Well, take it from a dead girl, it’s exactly what you had imagined, only a thousand times worse. My life had become a carousel of guilt. A deathly road of despair, stolen one fateful night by careening headlights. I was sinking. Drowning. And if it wasn’t for me, they would still be alive. I am the reason they’re dead. So, why didn’t the frigid water welcome me at the grim gates, too? Harlen Graves made breathing underwater easier, though I knew time would be our cruelest enemy. He was a famous rockstar, the bass player of Chasing The Storm. I was Blaine Everson, Cherry. A nobody. I fell victim to phantom hope, the kind I knew would leave me breathless. We were only a fleeting moment, not a place to find a home. And as my broken, soulless body trembled against the crimson-stained concrete, I thought of him. Did he keep his unspoken promise? The one I watched twinkle in the depths of his glacial orbs. The very one keeping me alive. I had no choice except to sink my nails into the ghostly echoes of his voice when I lost everything else. Surviving death once had me staring into the face of fate. But surviving death twice might be the very force that kills me.

Whispers of the Deep

One of the many engineers that keeps Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it’s her dream to help it flourish. But then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend. An undine. A dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten. Arges has fought his entire life for his people. With deadly creatures under his control, he plans to eradicate Beta once and for all to protect his kind and their peaceful way of life. But when a human woman saves him, she unknowingly creates a bond between them, one he can’t ignore. Even though her flaming red hair haunts his dreams, he needs her for information on the undine’s enemies. So he steals her. Keeps her. Feeds her. Only to realize their bond is far deeper than captor and captive. He cannot let her go—but he cannot keep her under the sea. In a battle to determine if love can survive a war beneath the waves, it will be their decision that changes the tides.

The Other Brother

All I ever wanted was a love like my parents had—something deep, irrevocable, and all-consuming. The kind of love that’s written about in stories. And I thought I found it with Lucas, my fiancé. We had it the house, the cat, and the promise of a future full of possibilities. Until everything fell apart. I discovered his secret. Heartbroken and betrayed, I convinced myself that I’d never find anything like what Lucas and I shared. He was my everything. Then one night, I ran into his younger brother, James. He’s a musician—complicated, intense, and nothing like Lucas. And yet, I can’t deny the pull I feel toward him. I’m drawn to him in ways I cannot explain. Opening my heart to someone so close to the man who shattered it feels ridiculous. But it’s undeniable, and I can’t resist. Trying to stay away only makes it worse. I want him. I’m falling for the one person I shouldn’t. I’m falling for the other brother.

Promise of Darkness

In a realm ruled by magic, the ruthless Queen of Thorns is determined to destroy her nemesis, the cursed Prince of Evernight. With war brewing between the bitter enemies, the prince forces Queen Adaia to uphold an ancient treaty: she will send one of her daughters to his court as a political hostage for three months. The queen insists it’s the perfect opportunity for Princess Iskvien to end the war before it begins. But one look into Thiago’s smoldering eyes and Vi knows she’s no assassin. The more secrets she uncovers about the prince and his court, the more she begins to question her mother’s motives. Who is the true enemy? The dark prince who threatens her heart? Or the ruthless queen who will stop at nothing to destroy him? And when the curse threatens to shatter both courts, is her heart strong enough to break it?

Amethysts and Alchemy

The family doctor diagnosed me with pica, dooming me to years of intensive therapy and extensive dentistry work. It wouldn’t be until much later that I would understand the all-consuming, insatiable craving that spurred me to eat a variety of rocks and minerals wasn’t a mental disorder, but an innate gift that allows me to extract the magic contained inside them: tourmaline for speed, celestite for strength, augite for a powerful laxative effect (that I had to discover the hard way). Twenty years later, I’ve hidden my abilities beneath a white lab coat, working as a small-town pharmacist who creates proprietary “naturopathic” tonics that treat everything from memory loss to erectile dysfunction. Those tonics, in turn, fund my expensive lifestyle of solo flying around the world to search for more rocks. What more could an airplane-loving, mineral-munching, magical alchemist want? Unfortunately, my arch nemesis, Heath Spencer, has recently taken it upon himself to single-handedly ruin my life. No longer content with annoying me from afar with his overpriced, tacky rock shop, Heath has decided to further antagonize me by dangling the opportunity of a lifetime right in front of my face: traveling to an ancient copper mine in China, which is home to some of the rarest and most stunning minerals on Earth. It’s not until after I’m trapped halfway across the world with my least favorite person on the planet that I’m forced to come face-to-face with three terrible realizations.

The Girl Who Talks to Ashes

Fifteen-year-old Willow is terrified of her new baby, Lilah, who has a peculiar form of epilepsy. Every time Lilah's eyes glaze over, terrible things happen: flowers shrivel, food goes to rot - even Willow's long, auburn hair turns stark white. But it's the death of the family cat that becomes the last straw; in the middle of the night, Willow and her mother dump the infant at the fire station two towns over – and are never heard from again. The next morning, Chief Stanley Quinn takes Lilah home and cares for the toddler as best as he can. With medication, her epilepsy remains under control... For the most part. But as a teenager, Lilah isn't always keen on taking her pills, and when she sneaks away to a rock concert with the cutest boy in school, something terrible happens, landing both of them in the hospital. After Stanley breaks down and confesses everything to his adopted daughter, she decides to track down the young girl who gave her up sixteen years ago; the young girl who never made it home that night… The young girl who is now presumed to be dead. Soon, Lilah's quest to find her birth mother becomes a quest to solve a sixteen-year-old missing persons case. She has everything she needs to find her – she just needs to learn how to control her peculiar ‘gift’ before she kills someone. Again.

The Cursed and the Broken

Years ago, the dark queen was executed by witches, her cultists hunted down like rats and forced into hiding. Their black magic buried and put to rest, all was well in the world … or so we thought. Kitarni Barany, witch and shepherd of her flock, has always been different. There’s a darkness in her blood and a destiny beyond the border of her small village. Corruption is spreading, and the whispers of cultists stir through the woods once again. Betrothed to the heir of the Wolfblood Clan, she risks not only her life but her heart. United, they must stand against the cultists, or watch the Kingdom of Hungary fall. Cursed by Death and controlled by Fate, Kitarni is forced to meet her demons … or die by them.

Inked

When Zayn, your smoking hot boss, tells you never to touch the cache of deluxe tattoo ink locked away in his office, you listen to him… until the day you run out of your own ink, your squirming client is on the verge of peeing his pants, and your boss is nowhere to be found. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? I fully expected Zayn to yell at me when he returned to the shop. What I didn't expect was the fresh cobra tattoo on my client’s butt magically springing to life. Or the interdimensional filing cabinet hiding in the back of Zayn's office. And, oh, did I mention that my gorgeous, magic-ink-hoarding boss is actually an incubus? Now – through (mostly) no fault of my own – we have to venture into a strange and distant land where a never-ending list of lethal flora, fauna, and fae await us. When you add in my Jewish mother’s string of poorly-timed, hysterical phone calls, there is one thing I’m grateful for: there’s no cell service in the fae realm.

The Awakening

Three years ago, I woke up in an abandoned cabin in the middle of the forest. I couldn’t even remember my own name. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to stay off the grid. But this week? Well, that’s proving to be a problem. It all began when I was riding my motorcycle down a quiet, one-lane road. From out of nowhere, a semi-truck started careening straight towards me. Just as it was about to kill me, a freak tornado appeared out of thin air and knocked all 50,000 tons of it to the ground, narrowly saving my life. Days later, my wood fireplace shot a massive plume of fire into the living room, nearly setting the couch – and me – on fire. As if all of that wasn’t strange enough, when I sat in the back of an enormous lecture hall for the first time, the assistant professor looked straight at me as though he knew me – and worse, wanted to kill me. The creepiest part? I’m being followed – and I have no idea why.

These Shadows Become Her

Can forbidden love bloom where grief has taken root? In the bustling city of Alderdeen, artistic prodigy Mia has long hoped to apprentice with a world-renowned artist. But when he crushes her dreams, despair drags her into a murky abyss of whiskey and men, with only her sister, Kali, as a light in the darkness. But when Mia stumbles across her sister’s mutilated corpse, she is once again lost and untethered. All she knew crumbles around her with the gruesome sight, awakening a shadowy secret—one that could see her burn. Her first suspect is the man found standing over Kali’s body: Idris Blackwood, a brooding vampyre haunted by his own dark past, complicated by their one night of sizzling passion. That is, until he saves her from the creature’s sharp claws. Bound by a common enemy, Mia and Idris entangle themselves not just in the mystery of the grisly murder, but in a love affair that the gods themselves never weaved. Time is running out, and the creature's hunger grows. With each passing night, more lives are taken. Can Mia and Idris work together to save Alderdeen, before their undeniable desire for each other reveals that fate has bigger plans for this witch?

Skin of a Sinner

No one tells you what to do when the boy who shattered your heart comes back to steal it. Roman Riviera was my everything once upon a time. I found my knight in shining armor in the form of a fellow foster kid. He protected me and promised to stand by my side forever. But Roman Riviera is a liar. He left me with monsters. Three years later, I found him in the middle of the night, soaked in my family’s blood and carving his initials into my foster brother’s skin. He tied me up and dragged me away from the life I had made without him. I tried to run, but he chased me. I wanted to scream, but the sound never came out. He says that I’m never getting away from him. He says he’s back for good. I don’t believe him.

Sea of Roses

Captain Alister Paine has always had his good eye set on treasure, murder, and sinking ships. His fame as a ruthless, blood-thirsty pirate has spread across the Seven Seas. The Howling Death, his precious warship, is the deadliest ship on the ocean waters, striking fear into the hearts of all those who see it. So when a deceitful yet sensual woman steals his bloody ship from him, he wants nothing but revenge! AND REVENGE CAN COME IN MANY FORMS... His anger holds no bounds. He wants to punish her, but there is something about Rosetta Silver that has Alister drowning beneath the waves of his carnal desires. Despite her tricky nature, he foolishly ends up wanting her. SHE’S LIKE THE SEA, AND LIKE THE UNTAMABLE SEA, HE WANTS TO DOMINATE HER. However, Rosetta isn’t what she seems, and Alister must decide if his desire for this captivating woman is strong enough to fight against her dark secrets.