In a coastal town where foreign ships crowd the horizon and whispers of war drift through the rain, Aiko Maren has spent her entire life existing between worlds. Born to a Japanese innkeeper and a Caribbean sailor who vanished years ago, she is a woman the town refuses to fully accept-too foreign for some, too Japanese for others. The pale blossoms of vitiligo scattered across her skin only deepen the rumors that follow her qthrough the lantern-lit streets. Working as a translator at her family's seaside inn, Aiko survives by making herself useful, her voice carrying effortlessly between languages, merchants, and secrets. But when smuggling investigations bring Commander Ren Takeda to the harbor, her carefully balanced life begins to unravel. Cold, disciplined, and fiercely loyal to the shogunate, Ren initially sees her as another possible link to the growing unrest infecting the port. Yet the more their paths cross beneath storm-dark skies and flickering dockside lanterns, the more he finds himself drawn to the woman everyone else keeps at a distance. As anti-foreign tensions rise and dangerous conspiracies tighten around the harbor, Aiko becomes a target-not only for what she knows, but for what she represents. And Ren is forced to choose between the rigid duty he has sworn his life to... and the woman who has quietly become the heart he cannot betray.

Death chose Seraphine Valen long before she ever had the chance to choose herself. At eighteen, she stands ankle-deep in the aftermath of a life erased-everyone she has ever loved reduced to silence and ruin around her. From that blood-soaked silence, she rises carrying something no mortal was ever meant to inherit: dominion over death itself. One touch ends a life. One thought bends annihilation to her will. And deep inside her, something dark has finally awakened... and it is starving. Her power does not go unnoticed. The Banes come first-nightmare-born creatures drawn to her like vultures to a dying world, desperate to claim the weapon she has become. As civilization fractures and reality begins to rot at the edges, Seraphine is forced to flee into something far worse than the world she left behind. Death's Castle. An ancient, shifting labyrinth where the walls remember every soul that has ever screamed within them. There, in the cold shadow of eternity, she finds she is not alone. A diviner who reads fate as it unravels thread by thread. A war-vampire, addicted to bloodshed as much as battle. And a brute whose silence hides a loyalty strong enough to crack bone. Together, they form an uneasy alliance-bound not by trust, but by survival. But Seraphine's awakening is only the beginning. As buried truths about her bloodline rise to the surface, she discovers a legacy stitched from both darkness and light-something older than kingdoms, older than gods, older even than death itself. And in the void beyond all things... something has been waiting for her.

Confidence is a hell of a drug, and for Skylar Evans, the high is magnificent-but the comedown is a total fucking bitch. It starts with the catastrophic snap of a heel and ends with a face-plant into the expensive, custom-tailored chest of a man who looks like he owns the sunrise-and probably the bank you keep your meager savings in. Fresh out of the Ivy League, armed with elite coding skills and a caffeine addiction she refuses to apologize for, Skylar wants one thing only. Control. Over her career. Her future. Her heart. Then she meets Carlos D'Artagnan. He is the devil in a bespoke suit. A predator who breathes strategy and exhales liquid heat, wearing a smile that promises heaven while his silver gaze drags you straight to hell. He is elegance sharpened into a weapon, a towering monolith of power built on a foundation of secrets and scars. The moment his eyes lock onto hers, the air in the room doesn't just thin-it catches fire. In that one, soul-stripping look, Skylar realizes the encryption on her heart has been bypassed; her carefully guarded life is about to be dismantled, piece by agonizing piece. One reckless encounter drags her into his orbit of corporate warfare and whispered betrayals. Carlos thought he had buried the monster he used to be, but the past is a debt that always collects. Now, it's rising to reclaim him, and Skylar is the only collateral he's not willing to lose.