Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith - Chapter 14: Anvil of the gods

[MATURE CONTENT]Abigail Snow accidentally caught her fiancé being intimate with her sister. She learned that her fiancé had only used her to advance his business and had never truly loved her.Heartbroken, Abigail called off the engagement and left everything behind to start a new life with nothing. At her lowest point, she met Sawyer, a hidden tycoon who helped her rebuild her life and seek justice against those who made her suffer.As Abigail begins to fall in love with Sawyer, his childhood sweetheart reappears, causing doubt and confusion for her.***Excerpt:Whoever this man was, he was her savior. If he hadn’t held her hand and pulled her, she might have become dead meat and gone straight to the afterlife.“Thank you so much, good sir,” Abigail said softly as she finally looked up to see him.Abigail was stunned.“But I'm not planning to commit suicide. I tripped over my own feet,” she continued, avoiding eye contact. She stared at his chest—her line of sight only reaching his sturdy chest.“It sounds better to hear that, Miss. Because I don’t want to go to the police station to become a witness, or they might wrongly accuse me as a suspect,” he said with a sarcastic tone that caused Abigail to stifle a laugh.“Sir, I’m so grateful you helped me. You are my savior. I owe you my life—” Abigail paused, taken aback by her own words.How could she make such a deep vow to this man!? This man might take advantage of her if he was a bad person. Right?“Alright, young lady, you’re supposed to release your tight embrace on me. You’re safe now.”Abigail was utterly shocked to hear his words. She only realized she was still in his arms, her hands tightly wrapped around his waist, and her entire body pressed against him. They were so close—close enough to hear his loud heartbeat. She quickly took a few steps back.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

Sui Yan was a villain, at least that’s what everyone thought.

Her childhood friend and brother said: “Sui Yan, you’ve changed and become more and more disgusting.”

Her best friend said: “Sui Yan, stay away from me. I don’t want to see you again.”

Her stepsister said: “Sui Yan, I hate you.”

Her two biological brothers said: “Sui Yan, we don’t have a sister like you.”

The one she loved the most said: “Sui Yan, I could never like someone like you.”

Sui Yan died. Even though it should have made everyone happy, it made them so heartbroken they could barely breathe.

In the blink of an eye, everyone mysteriously returned to the year Sui Yan was four years old. From then on…

Excerpt:“Are you satisfied?” he asked, walking to the fire where she already sat. “Can you yet call yourself the greatest knight?”“Not until I can beat you,” Irene argued.Despite how serious he looked only moments before, he cracked a smile.“But you saved my life,” he insisted.Synopsis:With a second chance given to her after a pathetic ending to a life she didn’t want, Irene Litharion decides that she will follow in her father’s footsteps and become a knight.Waking up in the body of her eleven year old self, she’s reinvigorated to follow her heart. She has the rare blood of ancient warriors in her veins and promises to not turn her back to it anymore.Prepared for the sacrifices she will have to make to live the life she wants, a new challenge is presented when the only way she can become an apprentice knight is to turn her back on femininity altogether. The years she spent being forced to attend etiquette lessons go out the window and instead, daily sword practice takes place.Her father does all he can to get her into the knighthood, but it’s up to her to show her strength and skill to stay in it.However, it’s different than she expects when the Monster War ravages her homeland, she learns the sting of loss, and secrets of her own blood present themselves the more she leans into the thrill of battle.