Ariqua's Bookshelf
Sweet Silence
Sage is a villain. Not by choice. It just sort of turned out that way, but hey, he's not complaining. Being bad is pretty cool, actually. And while by most people's standards his superpower is pretty lame - muting sound, of all things - he's found it pretty useful when robbing the rich.
Most heroes ignore him. Except one. Lich, the necromancer. Sage didn't know how talking to the dead was considered heroic, but whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that Lich apparently has a homing beacon locked on Sage specifically, and he keeps getting in Sage's way, despite most heroes not bothering to deal with the small-time villain committing petty theft.
It was annoying, but fine. Sage wasn't all that active in the villainy community anymore anyway. He had just turned thirty, and quite frankly, he was done with this shit. But still, he wanted to go out with a bang, so he planned his final heist: robbing the most powerful man in the city, the governor.
Except, when Sage broke into the governor's house all he found was the governor - dead as a doornail. What's worse is that for the first time in Sage's life, he was no longer invisible. He was found standing over the body, murder weapon in hand.
Now, the entire city of Fairview wants Sage dead, and the only person on earth who can clear his name is his very own necromancer nemesis. For how much they fight, Lich is surprisingly on board with helping Sage...
And so, the two embark on a quest to discover the real killer and clear Sage's name, but the trail leads them to discover some of Fairview's most well-kept and dangerous secrets...
Unbuttoned
Twenty-eight-year-old Wren has been sheltered his whole life. He was homeschooled, and only allowed to socialize with similarly repressed omegas who at the very least, had watched porn by their age. Wren, not so much. Once he finished school and went on into adulthood, you’d think that Wren would have gone crazy trying to experience all the things he’d been denied as a teenager, right? Far from it. Though Wren had moved to a new city for his job and gained new friends who had certainly dabbled in hedonism, Wren had little inclination to join them.
Wren was content with celibacy. He was content with working nine to five, eating lunch with his coworkers, and then going home at the end of the day to binge watch tv shows and try out the new recipes he found online. His life was a boat on still waters, slowly drifting to an expected destination. Steady. Unchanging.
There’s a storm, though, hanging on the fringes of Wren’s life by the name of Vincent. He’s a complete nuisance, with his ridiculous V-neck shirts that show way too much skin, his captivatingly evil grin, and his scent like a minty forest breeze. Wren doesn’t like him at all, and he’s really annoyed that Vincent is apparently the only taxi driver available in the whole city after seven p.m.
And if the fact that the scent of Vincent’s oncoming rut triggered Wren’s heat meant anything significant, like their compatibility, Wren was going to happily ignore it. And if, right before Wren’s next heat, he stole Vincent’s scarf from the backseat of the taxi, then Wren was going to blame it all on the omega heat-brain instincts.
Except, unbeknownst to Wren, there was apparently a ‘stealing an alpha’s clothes to sex’ pipeline that he wasn’t aware of.
Before long, Wren is sucked up into the whirlpool known as Vincent, desperately trying to claw his way out before he drowns. But as it turns out, the whirlpool is just as desperate to drag him down as Wren is to escape.
The Lyrebird King
The Lyrebird King is a queer medieval fantasy romance (with a heavy dose of drama and suspense) featuring Aries and Caius, two people cast aside by society finding acceptance in one another while navigating the complexities of an underground movement.
Cover art by the amazing Cameron McCafferty (@camerongraphics).
Concubine 999
After the conquest of her home planet by the galactic empire, Lady Zarathenia agrees to become the 999th hostage concubine of the Endless Emperor. But, the palace planet Viverides is rife with backstabbing and intrigue. With 998 other concubines, not to mention tricky intergalactic politics, Zara must navigate the dangers to ensure the safety of her home planet. Will she rise through the ranks or succumb to the treachery?
Employee of the Multiverse and His Darling Cat
This journal was intended to recount how I, Noble Malik, a leader of the World Management realm, was transported to a strange world and forced to climb the corporate ladder in order to return home. Inadvertently, it seems to have become a diary about the odd worlds and dangerous mysteries I encounter on business trips with my partner, whose secrets and four-dimensional personality leave me at a loss---yet intrigued. And if the reader wants a literary perspective, I suppose it's about how a workaholic loner unexpectedly learns more about what moves people and himself while uncovering a universe-shattering conspiracy. But honestly, that's too philosophical and romantic. I just wanted to see my cat, Darla, again.
[[Updates Feb. 10, Mar. 2, Mar. 23, Apr. 13 - Saturday 9am EST || 6am PST || 2pm GMT/WET || 3pm WAT || 7:30pm IST || 10pm PHT]]
The Blessed Child. Volume 1: The Ravine
The Ravine. A wide gap which tore through the plains of Maur several thousand years ago and has acted as a boundary between the countries of Solar and Tyne. It has been a place of mystery, fear, and to many- a place of potential treasure. Many adventurers have braved its walls and climbed into the maw in hopes of finding glorious rewards, only to never be heard from again.
A young boy, the son of a nobody adventurer, decides that the stories aren't quite enough and wishes to see them for himself. Carrying nothing but a few supplies and his imagination, he descends into the black. But what will he find beneath the surface? Will there be beautiful flowing waters and lush greenery? Crystals worth thousands? Or will it all just be a hoax, a lie, and will he find nothing but stone and darkness.
- Currently releasing daily until backlog is clear.
- Usual release schedule is One Per Week on Sunday.