"When I tell you that he hates me, you'll probably assume it's because he's a jerk...but you'd be wrong. He's not a jerk. I am." --- Several years ago tragedy struck Emma's home, leaving her broken... like a cup with cracks spiraling and slithering around the edges. Slowly, bitterness crept in like tar, hardening between each fracture to resemble a deceitful wholeness. She became a monster, and targeted her venom on the sweetest person she could find: Trinity Nixon. Too bad the boy Emma longed for was Trinity's brother. Now, as Emma fights to win the heart of the boy who despises her, she's forced to hide her demons. She paints her fragile cup in pinks, yellows, and oranges - all the colors of the sun. She paints on a smile, and an unusual sense of humor, so that the world will view her as bright and cheerful, when in reality she's breaking. But she's completely unprepared for the acidic truth that melts away the tar, demolishing her shell, and awakening the Emma White buried deep inside. --- Book 1 in The Dismantled Pride series *Story was previously titled "Faking It"

Heaven. Hell. The necromancers realm. Akaya is a seemingly normal boy - at least, by his standards. He has a crush on a famous musician. He works as a spotter for his clan. He wants to live in the big city... But when he gets the chance, he finds out nothing is what it seems. Hidden in the darkness, there are doors. Pentagrams and summoning circles. Things that go bump in the night. Criminals and corrupt governments. As if that wasn't enough, Akaya is paralyzed in his left arm. How is he supposed to survive in a city where his best friends turn out to be witches, a perverted gamer is the only hope to cure the corrupt government, and a boy with one working arm is supposed to fight the creatures of the night? Welcome to Metropolis.