Monsters' Bride Market

I am a thing of horror. A failed experiment, stitched from mismatched parts. I carved out our place in the wastelands of Alia Terra, yet even my own kind, perfected by my work, avoids me. Hideous and utterly alone. Years ago, consumed by this loneliness, I sent my blood to a Marriage Temple, and...

I sold myself to a monster so I could kill him. He bought me to save what's left of his soul. They say never meet a Void Walker's gaze. I made him look. Now I'm trapped in his realm of shadows, where silence cuts deep and desire coils between us like fire. He touches like he's starving. Watches...

Most people go mad when they hear a Keres's death screech. Me? I was already mad. I came to the city of monsters to trade away the visions tormenting me. One deal, then I'd be free. One deal, and I'd leave the land of the dead behind. Then Phonos found me. This massive, winged warrior looks at...

My people say a woman's worth is in her womb. They spit on me, throw rocks, burn everything I hold dear. "Cursed," they call me. Then he saves me. Theron. A monstrous Cerberus from the Blighted Lands. Death follows in his footsteps, but he looks at me and doesn't see something broken. "Mate," he decides. This massive beast could crush a man's skull with his bare hands, but his claws touch me with infinite gentleness. His hellfire doesn't burn me. Under his protection, I'm not defective.

The bride market offers women a choice. I walked in ready to pick someone survivable—not someone terrifying. Not someone I wanted. In Alia Terra, monsters rule. The only way out for a broken, unmatched woman like me? Sell myself at auction—and hope I don't regret it. But when the bidding...

A bride who climbed out of her own grave. A king who speaks to the dead. A cold that finally feels like home. Olwen I've been faking a pulse for three months. Faking warmth. Faking breath. Counting petals to remind my heart how to beat, and how easily it could forget. At the Bride Market, a...