PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS STORY IS ON HOLD AND MAY NOT BE UPDATED UNTIL AT LEAST JAN 2022 In times past, a warrior would eat the heart of his enemies to gain their strength... These are the times past. The Queen of Hearts sits on the throne of Catrimar. Her signature phrase? Off with their head and out with their heart. With every heart she consumes, the Queen grows stronger and more skilled and no one dares challenge her for the throne. But when a magic mirror and a prediction from a seer show her the girl who will be her downfall, the Queen is determined to nip the rose in the bud. She sends her slave, a werewolf with a black past, to take the girl's heart, but their encounter unearths secrets that neither wants uncovered. Secrets that may put both of them in serious danger... This is the story of a sympathetic assassin, a haunted Queen, and maid with lilac eyes, sure to smash the stereotypes you think you know. A fairy tale mash up with elements from Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast and based on Native American and Aztec superstition (the heart eating bit). (Now rated mature for potentially triggering content related to suicide and self harm. Chapters containing such content are marked as such.)

#WATTYS2017 Winner - HIGHEST RANKING # 5 - DOWNTON ABBEY meets Libba Bray's THE DIVINERS in this YA Historical Fantasy set in 1922 England. Unlike all the Debutantes she knows, eighteen-year-old Vita couldn't care less about her coming out ball. Trapped in her gloomy country estate, all she wants is to spend the summer dancing to jazzy numbers in East End clubs with her best friend Izzy. Freshly returned from a year abroad, Izzy is ready for the thrill of the London Season, with its endless whirl of balls, shopping sprees and horse races. Most importantly, she's counting on Vita to help her find the rich and handsome husband every high society girl deserves. But when Vita is kidnapped and found barely alive in an East London alleyway, the carefree summer the girls had planned turns into something much stranger than they could ever have imagined. With flappers turning up dead all over the city, and Vita terrified of hybrid monsters she swears she can see lurking in Mayfair's marbled houses, Izzy can't help noticing that darkness is seeping into their lives. As Vita starts to believe she's turning into a monster herself, Izzy suspects her friend's sanity is slipping away. Both girls have to find out what's happening before they lose their friendship and status, and their crowd of Bright Young Things becomes a thing of the past. *** A Wattpad Featured Story from 16/02/17 to 25/07/17 HIGHEST RANKING: # 5 on the Wattpad Historical Hot List *** THE BRIGHT AND THE LOST Pinterest Board: http://uk.pinterest.com/emcastellan/the-bright-and-the-lost/ *** Cover designer: Amalia Chitulescu *** Copyright © 2016. All works posted here are the property of EM Castellan. Please do not use without permission. Any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.

❖ QUEENKILLER, KINGMAKER Book 1 ❖ Feudal Southeast-Asia filled with magic, daemons, and a royal conspiracy. This is Isla's quest for the truth, and her slow spiral into becoming her very own worst nightmare. When the gods ascended thousands of years ago, they left behind the divine gift of theurgy. Its powers still echo amongst men, but run fiercer yet in the blood of kings and queens. And one of them will stop at nothing before Isla is dead. A betrayal lures her out of refuge and into her journey home, where she must unmask her enemies before they unmask her. The theurgy that she has had to keep hidden for many years can be her greatest ally or her most lethal foil. Only her wits can guide her through the dangerous politics of the Surikh court. But amidst the plots and schemes bubbling around her, she uncovers something far more sinister than the identity of her enemies. Something that can change her entire life; indeed, entire kingdoms. ↝ this work contains violence, profanity, and sexual references ↜ ↝ Winner of Wattys 2016 HQ Love Award ↝ Winner of FANTASCI's first season Chosen One awards ↝ Winner of The Cryptic Awards 2018 ↝ Featured in Fantasy as of 18-01-2017 ↝ Wattpad Editor's Pick January 2021

In a land laid waste by human greed, we looked above for salvation. We should have been looking below. Entry into @TheCryptic_ Herculean contest

[ COMPLETED AND ON THE WATTYS 2017 SHORTLIST - Excerpt Only] In an era where the drums of war echo over the Northern plains, when the arrival of the next Copper Moon brings about whispers of a shadowy threat, Nell Yngram is only concerned with struggling to make ends meet. Earning a living as a Lampgirl, and having serviced the Moreighs for the last couple of years, she yet dreams of being assigned to the family's ancestral home at Ashenlight. Despite talk of dark secrets plaguing the Samarna Palace, Nell only seeks to earn a good enough sum with which to send back to her family and allow her to return to them. At present, however, such a wish seems impossible. Yet when the former Baron passes away under unforseen circumstances, and his exiled son returns with a foreign bride-to-be, it seems that things certainly are about to change... A story about intertwining lives and internal struggles, dark magic in a rapidly-changing society, and the acceptance of Fate. Cover by: @elphadora

Azima Rousseau, a demon hunter destined to save her world from the denizens of the Underworld, has to venture through the Seven Levels of Hell in order to face its Prince and close the rift between their worlds once and for all. ***** Ever since her eighteenth birthday, Azima Rousseau knew she would die battling the forces of Hell just as her mother had, and every other Rousseau before her. So when her destiny delivers her to Death's door, it is not the Devil who answers, but the Demon Prince Malecoda. Instead of ending her fated existence as his sworn enemy, he decides to bind her into a pact that challenges not only the intensity of her will to survive but also the integrity of her soul to persevere. Together they soon discover who the monsters truly are- Azima's own people. [[ 2021 WATTYS SHORTLIST ]] ---------- Cover designed by Stefanie Saw

• Long Listed for the 2018 Wattys • A Wattpad Featured Story • Top 30 in the first ever Historical Awards [ A "GREAT EXPECTATIONS" RETELLING ] GENRE: historical fiction London, 1884 "Sometimes, even messiahs can't bring back the dead." Instead of earning the reputation of a modest doctor, Matthew Knightley seems to be earning one of a raven chasing rebel amongst his peers. Taking a side turn from the family business and fighting a cold war with your father doesn't help either. Still, he does not let such inconvenices steer his ship into the wrong direction. Though, the raven Matthew keeps seeing leads him again and again to a woman with more half-truths than lies. She may not say so herself, but Mathilda Penrose may be one of those secrets that Matthew never bargained for. Hints and glimpses of a carefully structured past follow him. They all point to a past that the newer generation of the Knightleys and Penroses barely know of. Instead of abolishing that cold war with his father, Matthew finds the very base of his own Eden shattering into a thousand rays of scorching light. || Cover by @elzarion || | #33 in Historical Fiction on 26-8-18 | || UPDATED WEEKLY ||

The year is 1879. When thirteen-year-old Ruth Merritt Holbrook emerges from her family's burning estate, bloody and charred, but entirely numb--She makes headlines. Reporters believe she is deranged. They accuse her of having set the fire. All the headlines read: "UNSUSPECTING FAMILY SLAIN BY DERANGED DAUGHTER." Everyone believes it. How else could a highbred girl exit a burning building, injured yet senseless? Why did she not scream or cry? The police tell her she is a killer. The doctors tell her she is mad. The nuns at St. Agatha's tell her she is possessed. Perhaps, Ruth Merritt Holbrook is all of those things-or perhaps she is much more. Mysterious and Paranormal. Romance. More than meets the eye. ******* Sgt. Barton Rucklesbee September 13, 1882 The following is an account sent to our office on the first of this month. The whereabouts of those listed in this document are currently unknown. Case Notes: Personally, I don't believe a word of this. It seems like a child's story to me. Best not to be taken too seriously. Read at your own folly as it is quite the elaborate tale and you may find yourself wasting the entirety of a day on it. Sgt. Barton Rucklesbee ******* Senseless: The Unnatural Case Of Miss Merritt Holbrook ******* Author's note: This is a novel I wrote for my undergraduate thesis. I studied the Victorian era/ genre and wrote a novel in the styles of "Dracula" and Leanna Renee Hieber's "Darker Still." There are a lot of sections but they are all fairly short. Also, it may not be perfectly edited. To the wonderful grammar wizards out there, don't worry about it. Just sit back and enjoy the story and characters, I'll deal with the grammar later. Thanks for reading! Enjoy. :) First Posted: August 31, 2018 {On the Wattpad featured list 9/20/18}