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The Gilded Rot

Daoist9PLbzz
“A life choked by regret is not a life lived; it is a transaction failed.” In his first life, he was the "Money Genius" a twenty-year-old billionaire who looked at the world through a ledger. To him, love was a long-term investment, loyalty was a managed asset, and emotions were merely inefficient variables. But even the most brilliant minds can be blindsided by a bad debt. Betrayed by his wife and executed on a lonely mountain highway, he died with one singular, cold regret: he failed to liquidate his enemies before they liquidated him. Now, he wakes up in a world that smells of scorched earth and ancient, cruel magic. There are no "System" notifications. There are no "Overpowered" starting gifts. He is reborn into the frail body of a child, trapped in a cage, marked by sigils he doesn't understand, and owned by men who view him as a disposable vessel. The world expects him to be a victim. The gods expect him to be a hero. They are both wrong. Armed only with a sociopathic intellect and a soul that refuses to be a "lost asset," he begins his new climb. In a land of monsters and mages, he will prove that the most dangerous power isn't a magic sword it’s a man who has nothing left to lose and the cold brilliance to take everything. The dream isn't over. It’s just turning gold.
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Sold to the Dark Wing

Humans are nothing more than servants in the glittering, cruel society of the winged Seraph. When a human offends them, the punishment is simple: be sold. Evangeline, never thought her own family would betray her. But when her sister committed the unforgivable, offending a seraph, their mother offered Eva in her place- without hesitation. Cast aside like unwanted trash, Eva is paraded before the Seraph nobility to be claimed. No one wants her. Until he appears. The Black Wing. The only Seraph whose feathers are not gold or silver or white, but midnight black. Feared. Cursed. Whispers say every human he has ever taken has perished. And yet, he chooses her. Dragged into his world of shadows, Eva becomes the obsession of a man everyone else fear and despises. He is possessive, merciless, and dangerously seductive. And while her family prays she will be destroyed... Eva begins to wonder if the true danger lies not in his black wings- but in the way her heart betrays her whenever he draws near. Can she ever survive this game of fate? **** The candlelight quivered against the cracked walls of the old inn, shadows twisting like restless spirits. Eva froze as he wasn't suppose to be here! Hades sat in the crimson chair, his presence consuming the air, thick and suffocating, as if the world itself had bowed before him. Swirling the red liquid in his glass, his bright purple eyes never left the shadows, yet he knew she was there before she moved. "Who is it this time?" His voice was a low rasp, curling into the room like smoke, tying her stomach in knots of fear and something darker. Eva forced her pulse to slow, telling herself not to back down. But when his hands rose from the arms of the chair, a shiver ran down her spine. "You aren't supposed to be here," she gasped, as he stood impossibly fast. His black wings unfurled, stretching wide, enveloping her, pressing her to his chest as though he claimed her before she could claim her own breath. "Why?" His lips curled into a wicked, sharp smile. "So I won't discover you running off with that useless boy?" "I didn't—" "Of course, because he's dead." His words cut like a blade, delivered with the certainty of a god reading an open book. Eva stumbled back, pressed to the wall. "You've lost your mind! You didn't kill him—" "Why shouldn't I?" His voice dropped to a growl. A single finger traced the fading red mark on her neck. His eyes snapped with fury; the air itself shivered. He leaned forward, lips brushing her skin, teeth grazing flesh in a possessive bite, erasing another's mark. "He dares," Hades hissed, deadly and low, "he dares touch what belongs to me. A fool. Bold enough to place his lips where mine already mark her." Eva's chest heaved, terror and desire entwined so tightly she could barely breathe. His wings tightened, dark and unyielding, and she realized escape was no longer an option, and perhaps, she didn't even want it. "Don't forget, dear," he murmured, lips grazing her ear, "I've bought you. You're mine now. And I don't like to share."
mata0eve · 221k Views