Novels by Viiolete

"Run?" Cassian’s voice was a jagged blade of disbelief, her grip on her cutlass so tight that her knuckles looked like polished bone. "Vesper, we didn't climb a mountain of corpses just to go for a jog. What is that thing?"The entity—once the Magistrate, now a hollowed-out husk draped in shadows—ignored her entirely. It sat with a terrifying, rhythmic stillness, the tentacles stitching through its chest pulsating in time with the expanding tear in the air behind the throne."I don't think it’s a 'what,' Cassian," Vesper said, his voice hitching as he felt the sheer, suffocating pressure of an ancient, cosmic indifference pressing against his mind. "I think it’s a doorway. A very, very rude doorway that doesn't care about our personal space.""It’s a parasite," Thorne spat, leveling his pike, though his hands were clearly shaking. "Look at the way it’s wearing the Magistrate like a cheap suit. That’s not a man anymore. That’s a tomb."The entity’s head snapped toward Vesper, the motio

The iron-wrought hull of the Siren’s Call groaned, a sound of tortured timber and grinding metal that vibrated through the very marrow of Vesper’s bones. Beside him, Cassian didn't hesitate; she leaped from the longboat, her boots slamming onto the slick, slime-covered deck of the flagship with the grace of a predator. She swung her cutlass in a wide, shimmering arc, cleaving through the thick, unnatural fog that swirled around the mast."Come on, you walking corpse! Keep up!" she shouted over her shoulder, her voice cutting through the cacophony of the spectral battle raging above them.Vesper scrambled over the railing, his breath hitching as he felt the sheer, crushing weight of the ritual. The air tasted of ozone and copper, and the deck beneath his feet felt like a living thing, pulsing with a rhythmic, sickening heartbeat. "I’m coming, I’m coming! But for the record, this ship has terrible feng shui!""Feng what now?" Cassian lunged forward, parrying a thrust from a shadowy, arm

"You’re telling me," the man rasped, spitting a glob of saltwater and grit onto the stone floor, "that you two are planning to hijack the Siren’s Call while the Magistrate is currently trying to marry the ocean?"Cassian kept her blade leveled at the stranger’s throat, her eyes narrowing. "That’s exactly what I’m saying. And since you’re currently breathing my air, you’d better start making yourself useful. What’s your name, and why should I let you walk away with your head attached?"The man chuckled, a sound like dry husks rubbing together. "Name’s Elias. I was the master shipwright for that cursed vessel before Sterling decided my life was a tax write-off. And you shouldn't let me walk away. You should let me help you. Because that ship isn't just a boat—it’s a meat grinder, and you’re walking in with a mortician who looks like he’s ready to tip over."Vesper leaned heavily against the damp wall, his lungs burning. "I’m not tipping over. I’m just... economizing my movement. There’s

The salt spray was no longer just a mist; it was a cold, biting curtain that turned the world into a monochromatic nightmare of jagged stone and swirling foam. Vesper gripped the frozen rope, his knuckles white, feeling the rope fibers scrape against skin that felt more like parchment than flesh."I have to say, for a romantic evening, this is severely lacking in wine and comfortable seating," Vesper panted, his voice hitching as he hauled himself over a slick ledge.Cassian didn't even look back, her boots finding purchase in crevices that seemed nonexistent. "Save your breath, mortician. If you want wine, we can raid the Magistrate’s private stash once we’ve finished turning his fortress into a pile of rubble. Just try not to plummet to your death before then.""You’re very demanding, you know that?" Vesper teased, though his heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. "Is this the part where you tell me you’ll catch me if I fall, or do you just watch to see how far I

"Vesper! What in the seven hells is this!"Cassian scrambled back, her boots skidding on the slick, brine-crusted stone as the shadow detached itself from Vesper’s cooling body. It stood, a two-dimensional silhouette of pure, ink-black static, its elongated fingers twitching toward her collarbone like spiders sensing a meal.Vesper didn't hear her. He was drifting in that gray, suffocating space between heartbeat and rigor mortis, the necrotic chill he had spent his life containing now overflowing from his very pores. The shadow lunged, its reach unnatural, but as it crossed the boundary of his fading aura, it recoiled, shrieking with the sound of tearing parchment."Don't—touch—her!" Vesper’s voice cracked from the ground, sounding like gravel being crushed in a mill.His eyes snapped open, glowing with a blinding, terrifying white light that chased the shadow back into his own skin. He gasped, his body arching off the cold rock as if hit by a lightning strike.Cassian was at his sid

The wind shrieked through the crags of the cove, sounding uncomfortably like a dying man’s last gasp. Vesper leaned heavily against a slick obsidian rock, his lungs burning. Beside him, Cassian was pacing, her boots crunching on the black sand as she stared out at the swirling mist where the quartermaster had vanished."A bridge," Cassian muttered, her voice tight enough to snap. "He’s not just an ambitious bureaucrat with a tax fetish. He’s trying to invite something… hungry into our backyard."Vesper wiped cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Hungry doesn't quite cover it. He used the word ‘King.’ That’s not a local deity, Cassian. That’s a nightmare you don't wake up from."Cassian stopped pacing and turned to him. She looked at the pallor of his skin, her expression shifting from tactical rage to something far more gentle. She reached out, her fingers brushing the damp hair away from his eyes. "You’re shaking, Vesper. You’ve given everything you had to those sp