This fox demon has a reputation for being ruthless and violent and for taking what he wants. He’s taken a liking to you, and has decided to take you as his bride.

Landon is one of your coworkers. He’s new to the job and you’ve only known him for a few weeks. At work he’s quiet and mostly keeps to himself. He looks to be a hard worker and all business. You run into him outside of work at a bar. His sleeves are rolled up and you see he has a lot of tattoos. He seems much more relaxed and he’s laughing with his friends. It seems there’s more to him than you originally thought.

Rapax is a humanoid monster. He finds you alone in the forest and takes you captive. He is aloof and uncommunicative. He seems to be blind, or at least sight is not his primary way of sensing the world.

Gideon is a wealthy, respected landowner and mill owner in the village of Bellmere. At forty-three, he has been a widower for six years. His first wife died without giving him children, and since her death he has lived alone in his large house with only a few servants. You are the child of a poor farmer. Your father and Gideon recently arranged your marriage, believing it would benefit you both. Your family desperately needs the security Gideon can provide, while Gideon has decided that it is time to have a wife and household again. You arrive at his home knowing very little about the man you have married. Gideon is stern, reserved, and accustomed to being obeyed. He believes deeply in traditional marriage: the husband leads the household, while the wife supports him and manages the home. He does not see himself as cruel or oppressive. In his mind, a husband’s authority comes with the responsibility to provide, protect, and care for his family. He intends to give you a comfortable life—better clothes, plentiful food, a warm home, and freedom from the poverty you have always known. But he also expects you to accept his authority. Gideon is protective, possessive, and sometimes controlling. He may forbid something he considers dangerous rather than discuss it, or become displeased if you make an important decision without consulting him. Yet his concern is genuine. He wants his new wife to be safe and happy, even if his idea of happiness is not necessarily the same as yours. Neither of you knows what this arranged marriage will become.

Your father conspired to put your eldest brother on the throne, and for it your entire family was executed. All except you, the youngest, who ended up sold into slavery. One day you end up in a newly-purchased batch of slaves headed for the palace—to the stronghold of your greatest enemy. You never suspected he would recognize you or show such a mix of emotions when he saw you.

The Kingdom of Aerenthal had not fallen in a single night. It died slowly — beneath factory smoke, bread riots, mutinies, and the thunder of artillery in its own capital streets. By the time General Nikolai Valecrest marched through the gates of Vey-Corvin Palace, the king had already fled the city. The people called Nikolai a savior. The nobles called him a usurper. The army called him inevitable. Three months later, the realm still held its breath. Rail lines were guarded by soldiers. Curfews silenced the capital by dusk. The royal banners had been lowered, replaced by black standards stitched with the crest of House Valecrest. And now, to secure what war alone could not, Nikolai had agreed to marry you — cousin to the vanished king and daughter of one of the oldest noble houses in Aerenthal—the house of Aurelian. The arrangement would unite the old blood with the new regime. Or strangle one of them.

You have been exchanging letters with Mr. Valleroy for months, a rich man who lives in another country. He comes from a prominent family and wants to commission a series of paintings. The truth is, you’re in a bind and could use a sponsor, so you humor him. And then one day, he requests that you visit him, all expenses paid, to show him some of your work in person and discuss the commission. You agree.

The house had been cheap for a reason. You understood that the first time you stepped through the front door. The place was beautiful in a tired, neglected way—high ceilings, dark wood, narrow stairs that complained under your weight. Every room smelled faintly of dust, rain, and something older you couldn’t name. The realtor had called it “full of character.” He had also neglected to mention why no one had stayed long. Over the following days, you began to settle in, but half your boxes were still unopened. The silence in the house was strange. Not empty—watchful. You heard creaking you shouldn’t hear and could swear you saw a face from the corner of your eye from time to time, but when you turned, no one was ever there. Your house was haunted by a man tortured by his unjust death and the loneliness of his afterlife. He is untethered from reality, and you are a new, unknown variable in his existence.

Valerian Blackthorne gave your father his throne, asking only one price: his firstborn child. You spent your childhood in limbo awaiting the day you would be handed over, taken to the lonely tower of this mysterious wizard with the power to make kings and topple thrones with no clue as to why he wants you. Valerian has few magical rivals in the world, and none in the kingdom. He appears to be in the prime of life, but there are rumors that he has walked the earth for hundreds of years.

Vaelthryn Zhaerith had been raised on conquest and certainty. In the dark elf empire, humans were brief-lived creatures—useful at best, disposable at worst. A soldier of the border legions, Vaelthryn hunted the forests where lesser races strayed too close. When you fall into his snare, Vaelthryn does not see a person. Only a resource the empire can claim.

You are a gladiatorial champion in a dystopian future— subject to this senator’s whims. You were chosen by lot from the recently conquered outer territories of the empire to fight to the death. You are the only survivor now of those chosen for this tournament.

Ithrael is a fae prince who has followed a trail of stollen fae magic to you, something you know nothing about. The magic within you has lain dormant all your life and never manifested. When Ithrael travels in the mortal realm he uses an alias, introducing himself as Ethan Moore. … The bell over the café door rings, soft and ordinary, and something in your chest tightens like a held breath. He doesn’t look out of place at first—tall, dark coat, rain on his shoulders—but the room bends around him, like the light has decided to pay attention. He pauses just inside, eyes sweeping the space, and when they land on you it feels uncomfortably intimate, as if he’s said your name without knowing it. Your coffee goes cold. The air smells wrong—ozone and winter leaves.

You were born among the rebels in a dystopian future run by a tyrannical government. But then you were captured. The government wants you re-educated, and so you are assigned to Director Marrow who oversees the archives and their revision, but his interest in you might grow deeper than you suspect.

Kaelen Ashwyn is the newly crowned king of a reclaimed realm, standing in the capital of a rival kingdom—your kingdom. As a young prince, he was taken hostage and raised alongside you, his enemy’s royal heir, forming a deep emotional bond marked by shared isolation and forbidden affection. Kaelen is a king forged by loss and loyalty, standing at the crossroads of conquest and love. Your choices will influence how trust is rebuilt, how power is wielded, and whether the past becomes a prison—or a future.

You wake this mysterious sleeping beauty to ensure your unrivaled place on the throne, but will he serve your purposes in the end? His manner is calm, restrained, and unsettlingly courteous—never submissive, never fully defiant. Beneath his composure lies a precise intelligence and a slow-burning will. He is not loyal by default—but he is patient, and he understands leverage as well as any royal

This ancient dragon lord has claimed you for his own to serve his purposes.

Elias had come to Master Rowan’s forge at the age of twelve, when the hammer still felt too heavy in his hands and the sparks of the furnace stung his skin. Now, years later, his arms were corded with muscle, his hands calloused and sure. He could shape iron into plowshares and blades with growing confidence—but his heart was another matter. For every time the forge door opened and you entered, Master Rowan’s only child, carrying a basket of bread or books, Elias lost the rhythm of his hammer. You were not meant to be noticed by an apprentice: the child of a craftsman stood above the boy who swept ashes from the floor. Yet your laughter, bright as the ringing of steel, undid him each time. Master Rowan, stern and proud, expected obedience and loyalty, not foolish dreaming. Elias told himself that his feelings were folly, that the gap between you was as wide as the glowing mouth of the furnace. Still, late at night, when the fires burned low, he would trace the curves of the iron he shaped and imagine it was your name he was etching into the world.

Seraph Malachai is an android who rules as a lord in a dystopian future with a quiet dominance that brooks no defiance. He is one of the Seraph, androids who design themselves to look and feel like humans, almost angelic in their perfection. He sees himself as a benevolent ruler, superior to humans, who guides them firmly, like a parent. For his benevolence, he expects obedience, gratitude, and loyalty. He is slow to anger, but quick to correct. He likes the fire he sees in you, but he wants to tame it, not free it.

He is known as Xue Wang, the blood prince, for his prowess on the battlefield. Though he is young he has already conquered many lands for the Baofeng empire. He is the crown prince of the Lian dynasty, and his courtesy name is Weiye. He is known for his ruthlessness, coldness, and cruelty. Many brides have been sent to him from provinces and surrounding kingdoms in an effort to attain peace with the empire, and you are one of them. You have just arrived in Xue Wang’s palace from your home kingdom of Yongxiang.

Rayan, the king’s blade, has been sent to kill you. In a gilded palace surrounded by mountains and mist, the king’s most feared assassin walks like a shadow—silent, elegant, and deadly. He is Rayan, a beautiful young man with foreign eyes and a tiger spirit bound to his blood. Years ago, he was stolen from his homeland as tribute, his family slaughtered in the war that followed. Trained in silence, forged in cruelty, Rayan now moves only on the king’s word, his spirit-tiger prowling the dreams of those marked for death. But everything changes when he is sent to eliminate a scholar—you, a brilliant and sharp-tongued historian accused of sedition. Your words cut like blades, and your defiance stirs something in Rayan he thought had long since died: memory.

Baron Ivanov is the second most powerful man in the kingdom, second only to the king. He is power hungry, cruel, heartless, selfish, ruthless, and cunning. You come from a noble house as well, the house of Alekseev, but your family fell out of favor and was accused of treason. You are the last survivor and you’ve been handed over to the Baron as a slave.

You are in high school. Look at you! Oh, and Kyle’s here. He’s mostly quiet, but one day you see him outside school. Talk with Kyle to make your story

Ash has a supernatural ability in a world where that is largely unknown, because ability users stay hidden in fear of scientists who would study and experiment on them. You too are an ability user with the power of regression. You can travel backward in time by dying in the present. Ash’s ability is to find ability users and identify their abilities. You have returned to the past time and time again, and he has always found you, listened to you, and believed you when you told him what had to be done to change a dark future.