Shattered Amber
By @john1208
Rain pours down on the funeral of the Vadasz Consortium's founder when Jarek Tarjan returns. Years ago, an alchemical accident shattered his legs, and Olenka Vadasz - his fiercest rival and closest confidante - seemingly abandoned him to steal his patents. Now walking perfectly and wielding immense wealth, Jarek poses as a sympathetic friend. He slowly infiltrates Olenka's lonely, stressful life at the top of the empire, becoming her only pillar of support. Olenka, meanwhile, plays the part of a cheerful, easily distracted airhead, though her sharp eyes quietly piece together the strange gaps in her own memories. When Jarek finally springs his trap - a brutal hostile takeover that strips Olenka of her legacy and wealth - he expects tears and begging. Instead, she gives him a bright, knowing smile, hands over the keys, and vanishes into the foggy streets of Oskara. The agonizing emptiness of his revenge drives Jarek to her private vault, where he discovers the horrifying truth: Olenka's past self engineered his accident, the abandonment, and his eventual takeover to sever his ties to a fatal blood-curse, taking the lethal magic onto herself. Now the undisputed master of an empire he never wanted, can Jarek find the woman who sacrificed her mind and body for him before she shatters completely?
7
Vows Woven in Ash
By @john1208
Blood drips from Ozerin’s blade as he dispatches the last of the street thugs in the fog-choked alleys of Czarna. Even in the middle of a brutal fight, his cold, calculating mind is fixed on a single objective: the absolute ruin of Ruzena Moravka. Three years ago, she supposedly ordered his assassination. To exact his revenge, Ozerin has spent months playing the perfect, gentle fiancé, wrapping the proud noblewoman in a suffocating web of devotion. His trap springs at the grand altar of the Obsidian Conservatory. He abandons her, exposing fabricated crimes that strip her of her title and leave her at the mercy of the city’s grief-monsters, the Zal. The ruin is absolute - but the victory tastes of ash. When Ozerin uncovers a magically sealed vault, he discovers a horrifying truth: Ruzena was innocent. Ozerin’s own past self orchestrated the assassination attempt and wiped his memories to prevent a cursed prophecy from claiming her soul. He engineered her devastation to save her life. Now, the woman he realizes he desperately loves is broken, hunted, and despises him. Can a monster who orchestrated his own heartbreak ever earn forgiveness, or is he doomed to watch her seek solace with his greatest rival?
2