WHAT LIVES BENEATH THE VEIL
Book Fifteen: The New Beginning
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CONTENT WARNING: This series contains explicit sexual violence, human sacrifice, psychological torture, murder of innocent characters (including children and family members), ritualistic killing, and extreme horror. No character is safe. Read at your own risk.
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Prologue to Book Fifteen: The Awakening
Three Years Later – Year 320 – Three Hundred Nine Years After the Curse
Liora had been human for three years.
She had learned to live. To laugh. To love.
She had made friends.
She had found a home.
She was happy.
But something was stirring.
Not in the world—in her.
The emptiness was returning.
Not the hunger—that was gone. Something else. Something deeper.
She had given up her power. Her immortality. Her darkness.
But the darkness had not given up on her.
It was calling to her.
Whispering to her.
Begging her to return.
She tried to ignore it.
She tried to resist.
But the whispers grew louder.
The shadows grew darker.
The emptiness grew wider.
What is happening to me? she thought.
I thought I was free.
I thought I was human.
But the darkness is still there.
It is still inside me.
It will always be inside me.
I cannot escape it.
I cannot destroy it.
I can only control it.
Or embrace it.
She did not know what to do.
She was afraid.
But she was also curious.
And curiosity was something she had learned to embrace.
Perhaps, she thought.
Perhaps I can find a balance.
Perhaps I can be both human and dark.
Perhaps I can be whole.
She closed her eyes.
She listened to the whispers.
She accepted them.
The darkness surged.
But she did not lose herself.
She controlled it.
She was the queen.
She was the darkness.
She was the hunger.
But she was also human.
She was also kind.
She was also good.
I am both, she thought.
I am light and shadow.
I am love and hunger.
I am everything.
And I will never be empty again.
She opened her eyes.
They were black.
But they were also warm.
She smiled.
The darkness smiled with her.
But this time, it was not a smile of hunger.
It was a smile of peace.
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To Be Continued in Book Fifteen: The New Beginning