Pulchra_Aurum

Vespara le Fay and Sol de Cielo, two heirs from magically opposed realms of eternal day and eternal night are forced into a political marriage to save their world from crumbling.✓"If you move away, the barrier fails and we die," Sol forced out, teeth gritted from exertion, arm a warm brand against hers.Vespera didn't flinch, though her shadow recoiled violently. "Then try not to shine so brightly," she said. "Your light is giving me a headache."✓To save her people from turning to crystal, Vespera le Fay must marry her mortal enemy. To prevent his kin from fading into nothingness, Sol del Cielo must bind himself to a creature of darkness. Their union is the last hope to heal their torn empires.Trapped on a deadly pilgrimage to mend the Aether, they face the treacherous tear in the void, assassins from their own families, and the terrifying truth that an ancient god opposes their alliance. Their mutual hatred is a shield where the world needs a weapon.Their only choice is to cling to a thousand years of enmity, or risk a fragile trust that might save everyone.Or destroy them all.✓Updates: Wednesdays and Saturdays.…

Pulchra_Aurum

[Amazing cover by @shedrawscartoons]BOOK 1 OF THE HORKOS TETRALOGY Four teenage friends make a pact to commit suicide together when their family struggles have them stifled to no end. Ten years later, they reenact the pact following their school's jubilee cum reunion, only to awaken a malevolent entity known as The Horkos.🍀A decade ago, four teenagers; Ha-ra, the perfectionist drowning under her mother's cruel expectations; Kiel, the star athlete masking his father's violence; Yosef, the survivor grappling with guilt and suffering recurring nightmares; and Cyan, the unwilling heir, etched a suicide pact in Waltham High's old derelict gym. They survived the attempts they took, but the scars never faded. A decade later, back to the school's gleaming campus for its jubilee slash reunion, a drunken push leads them to reenact the pact, laughing through tears. But when the new oath settles, something changes.The Horkos awakens. Form shifting between shadow and a version of themselves, they are left to grapple with the weight of their oath. It feeds on everything they give; their regrets, guilt, the oath itself, twisting the vow they longed to abandon into a curse.Complete the pact, or watch everyone you loved die in your place.But as the entity tightens its grip, the friends uncover a darker truth. Their pact was never private. The Horkos has lurked in Waltham's soil for centuries, binding oath-breakers to its ledger. To survive, they must commit to their oath or let one bear the full cost.Death had never been a choice for them.Only a sentence.…

Pulchra_Aurum

||WRITTEN FOR TEGSA2025||❀ ❀ ❀Ash Kincaid lived by three truths:1. Family was a conditional, temporary arrangement.2. Trust demanded wilful blindness.3. Ash was what remained following an incineration of life.He'd perfected the art of tolerance. After a lifetime of abandonment, first by blood and then by those who promised to keep him, his survival depended on one thing. No attachment. No promises. No hope.However, when the college dorms close for Christmas, he's forced into the chaotic Rossi household where encroaching is the norm, solitude is next to impossible and there's Lala- the Rossi sister who just sketches in furious silence.The quiet is a sanctuary, their coexistence effortless. He doesn't ask about her paintings and she doesn't pry behind his walls.Until a silver SUV pulls into the driveway and the woman Ash once called "mother" steps out.Rundown:chapters 1 and 2 - majorchapters 3 and 4 - minorchapters 5 and 6 - minorchapters 7 and 8 - minorchapters 9 and 10 - major…

Pulchra_Aurum

Cover commissioned by the incredible @latoniamiller - "What route do you take when bloodline runs out?" - Nigel just wants to be noticed. Not by his crush, his friends or even his auxiliary parents. All he wants is the attention of his biological ones. Just that it is their very attention that seems bent on eluding him. He lives up to their expectations, does everything they want, flies at the top of his grade. Still nothing. His twin seems to have no problem earning their love and affection. That's just what he wants and he doesn't really see why he should be earning it. It's his right and parental love is just what he should have. Unreservedly. Or is it? Torn between wondering what exactly the problem is with him or what he could do to make things better, he tries to finish his school year in the midst of neglect, figure out his enigmatic girlfriend and find himself- plus all that comes with it. - (rated mature for abuse, suicide and self-harm in later chapters)…

Pulchra_Aurum

As the name implies, this story is a collection of random short stories which I've written over time. Enjoy!…

Pulchra_Aurum

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." -Victor Hugo (Les Misérables).-Movie queen, Donnie Ramos, is the next on the hit list. After a series of gruesome murders rock the entertainment industry, the only hint prior to the crime being the cryptic messages left behind by the perpetrator, Donnie finds herself the next unlucky target when one such message is left for her.Unwilling to face the same fate as her deceased co-starlets, she bands together with the only investigation team she trusts with such a matter just so she could put a stop to the madness once and for all.However, her dogged stalker is at most a dispensable chess piece in a big game and amidst renewing bonds, unraveling lies and deceptive secrets, she soon comes to learn that she wasn't the Mastermind's main target after all.And that the real target is far closer to home than she could have imagined.-This story is a musical prompt based contest written for the TEGSA awards hosted by @AprilJester…

Pulchra_Aurum

Cover credit goes to the ever incredible @latoniamiller"Stop. Breathe. Let go."-Mitchell Donovan was a mystery. The only thing set in stone and known by those around him was that he hated. And that he did it in sets.He hated love, family, bonds.He hated flaws, hated patterns, absolutely hated obnoxious repeats.Then he hated emotions- his and that of others, hated feeling and hates with a passion that he's difficult, moreso to his own self.The one entity that sits unshakeable at the top of his hate list is his mother, the devil herself. Nothing she did made sense and he'd stopped trying to find the meaning in her own actions early enough.However, when he gets a new set of dorm mates come junior year at Oakdale University and suddenly has everything on his hate list being poked at, he soon discovers his mother is far more than a devil and puts the phrase 'manipulative bitch' to shame.But the damage is already done. And Mitch doesn't think he could begin to find himself if he even tried.-WORK IN PROGRESS…