Novels by DVH

The valley was quiet, but inside the new house, the air felt heavy and thick. Kaelen hadn't let Lyra leave as easily as he’d planned. He had caught her, but still could not shake the feeling in him, is she dense or just slow to think? Now, he had her pinned against the wall of the main room. His hand wasn't on her throat, but it was pressed hard against the wood right next to her head. The black veins on his arm were pulsing, casting a faint light on her silver hair. Kaelen’s head recoiled slightly as he looked at her, his eyes searching her violet depths for a lie. He opened his mouth to speak, but for a moment, the words wouldn't come. He felt a lump forming in his throat, a mix of the years of misery he had endured and the sudden horror of what she was saying. "You followed me all the way here," Kaelen said. His voice sounded croaky and scratchy "Why? What is the exact reason your clan wants you to kill me?" Lyra didn't struggle. She looked up at him with those piercing eye

The gold Kaelen had brought back from the deep dungeons was a lot, and it opened doors that had been slammed in his face for years. He didn't go back to that rusted house. He found a high-end inn on the edge of the merchant district. The floors were covered in soft rugs, and the bed was filled with feathers. But as he sat on the edge of the mattress, Kaelen realized he couldn't sleep. The silence was too loud. For four years, his ears had been tuned to the sound of monsters breathing in the dark. "It’s a waste of coin," Erebos grumbled in his mind. "You’re sitting on a soft bed like a king, but you’re still holding your breath like a rat." "I'm not used to being safe," Kaelen whispered. "Safe?" Erebos laughed. "You’re never safe. Look at the window." Kaelen didn't move his head, but his eyes shifted. The curtains were closed, but a tiny sliver of moonlight was cutting through the gap. Suddenly the light changed direction, into his room. A cold presence filled the room. It

The lobby of the Mage Association was filled with light and the sound of chattering voices. High-ranking mages walked around in expensive robes, they looked crazily rich, their chests out, their heads held high. In the center of the hall, a crowd had gathered around a large, raised platform. On top of it sat a new Mana Ball, larger and clearer than the one in the town square. "Make way! Make way for Lord Caspian!" a voice shouted. Kaelen stood at the edge of the room, his tattered black cloak pulled tight. Through the gaps in the crowd, he saw Caspian and Mila. Caspian was wearing fresh armor, and he looked like a man who owned the world. Mila was at his side, her hand tucked into his arm, looking at the mages with a wide, fake smile. "He’s going for a re-evaluation," someone whispered nearby. "They say his Golden Lion has grown twice its size since the East Woods incident." Caspian stepped up to the platform. He looked at the administrator, a middle-aged man with thin gl

Kaelen didn't wait for the guards to recover. As the crowd began to scream and scramble away, he turned on his heel and walked. He didn't run. He didn't need to. “That's it, runaway little boy, you are good at it.” Caspian shouted, Kaelen kept shut, just walking away. "You should have killed him," Erebos hissed in his mind. The beast sounded hungry, his voice scraping against Kaelen’s thoughts. "The blond one. I could feel his heart fluttering like a trapped bird. One squeeze, Kaelen. That's all it would have taken." "Not yet," Kaelen whispered. "I have to find Elara." He left the music and everything behind, he can't lie to himself that he was not hurt—hid heart feels shattered but he will show all of them, they should sit back and watch. He walked toward the edge of town, where the houses grew smaller and the roads were dirty. The air here was always choked. He reached his house. It looked worse than he remembered. The roof was sagging, and the door was hanging by a sing

(4 years Later) Kaelen walked out of the dungeon, light was the first thing that hit him. It was too bright, and it hurt his eyes. Kaelen stood at the mouth of the cave, squinting at a world he hadn't seen in four years. The air smelled just like how he remembered. He pulled his heavy black cloak tighter around his shoulders. The cloak was tattered at the bottom, stained with the blood of things that didn't have names, but it was thick enough to hide the man he had become. Under the dark cloth, his body was filled with muscles, his skin marked by the ink-colored veins that never went away. He bad become a different man. "It’s too quiet out here," Kaelen whispered. His voice was gravelly, a sound he barely recognized. "That is because nothing is trying to kill you for once," Erebos said in his mind. The beast sounded bored. "Go on. Walk. I want to see if they still smell like fear." Kaelen began to walk. He felt like a stranger in his own skin. As he reached the main road le

Kaelen woke up on the hard ground. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but his body felt like it had been crushed under a mountain. Every time he moved, his skin felt like it was being pulled apart. The black veins on his arms were still there, pulsing with a dim, dark light. "Get up," a voice said. It wasn't a sound in the room. It was Erebos, speaking directly into the back of Kaelen's mind. The voice was cold and had no pity. "I can't," Kaelen wheezed. He tried to push himself up, but his arms shook and he fell back down. "Everything hurts. I think I'm dying." "You already died," Erebos said with a dry laugh. "I brought you back. Now, stand on your feet. There is a beast coming from the shadows. If you don't kill it, it will eat what is left of you, and I will have to find a new host." Kaelen forced his eyes open. The dungeon was different now. The walls were wet and covered in a thick moss. The air felt heavy. He could hear a scratching sound coming from the dark