Inker and Crown

Inker and Crown

Megan O'Russell · Completed · 119.1k Words

391
Hot
391
Views
117
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Ilbrea: A magnificent country that offers fame to those brave enough to seize their place among the Guilds—no one has worked harder to find their scrap of glory than Adrial Ayres. But being a prodigy and the Lord Scribe’s heir won’t be enough to find the secrets the Guilds would kill to hide. Adrial can’t face the dangers of hidden magic alone… A sailor with a taste for adventure.A soldier whose heart has been claimed.A beauty they will never suspect.A map maker with secrets of their own.An inker who will change Adrial’s life forever. The Guilds offer glory. The truth promises death. Adrial might be the only one who can save Ilbrea—if he can survive the shadows long enough to discover his true enemy. For film and TV rights inquiries: Megan@MeganORussell.com

Chapter 1

1

ENA

There is a moment when the first spark of a fire appears and it is still possible to ignore the coming blaze.

There is no smoke tainting the air. No damage has been done.

Just a little flash that seems harmless and beautiful.

You can’t see the raging power of the fire, but it is there, hiding its danger and waiting for its moment to ignite.

That one spark will consume the world.

It does not care if you are too blind to see the destruction racing toward you.

We will all burn in the coming blaze.

I perched in the rafters above the crowd, wondering if any of the people below could see the spark or sense how near our doom we stood.

“The paun will starve us.” Cade stood on a crate, looking out over his followers. His eyes gleamed as he took in the silent horde. “They will watch our children die and not raise a hand to save them. For too long, we have let the Guilds build their glory on the corpses of our fallen brothers. Their time is coming to an end. How many of you will be brave enough to stand with me when the battle begins?”

A rustle of murmurs fluttered through the crowd.

“Watch and see what decrees the King sends down for Winter’s End,” Cade said. “He won’t order the healers to stop letting those who can’t pay die. He won’t order the soldiers to put down their swords and help the common farmer in the field. The King cares only for glory and riches. We are worthless rodents to the Guilds.”

He stood still for a moment, basking in the crowd’s rapt attention. With his curly, blond hair, handsome face, and broad shoulders, he looked like the hero the common folk had been waiting for. The savior of the tilk standing on a crate as he made grand plans to change Ilbrea.

Cade looked up at me.

My heart stuttered, but I didn’t shrink back into the shadows. I held Cade’s gaze as he spoke.

“A new day is dawning. The blood of the Guilded paun will slick the streets. Fire will consume anyone who stands in our way. There is only death or freedom. There can be no other path. Who will answer when I give the call to fight?”

“I will!” a voice shouted from the back of the crowd. The same voice that had shouted first the last time Cade held court.

“I will fight with you!” A man stepped up to the front of the horde.

“I’ll fight!”

“I will!”

I stood up on the rafters and made my way back to the open window at the front of the stable. The shouts of the horde were still growing as I grabbed the thick rope hanging off the side of the building and swung myself down to the street.

The people passing by paid no attention to the roaring shouts in the stable. It was Winter’s End, after all. A day of celebration for everyone in Ilara.

Cheering, dancing, drinking, a raucous mess would swallow the streets by nightfall. Why should anyone care if some started their celebrating before midday?

I forced my shoulders to relax as I followed the crowds toward the cathedral square. But even as I pressed a careful smile onto my face, I couldn’t drive the horrible images of blood and fire from my mind.

Cade wanted a rebellion. He wanted blood to slick the streets of Ilara.

It would be easy to cause chaos and death in Ilbrea’s capital city.

It would be impossible to protect the innocents of Ilara if Cade got the battle he craved.

“Mama, mama, look!”

I nearly tripped over the little girl who had stopped in the middle of the street to point at me.

The child gazed up at me, her eyes wide with wonder. “Are you a fairy?”

“There is no such thing as fairies.” The girl’s mother frowned as she eyed me.

I bent down to be level with the girl and pulled my hair over my shoulder, letting her touch the technicolor strands. “But it is Winter’s End, so I suppose anything’s possible.”

The girl giggled as I winked and strode away.

I could feel others staring at me, but it didn’t bring me any fear or make me blush.

I wanted them all to stare.

A dozen colors streaked my hair. More decorated my skirt. I offered them all a grand display as I fluttered through the streets of Ilara.

Armor comes in many forms. Mine is forged of pigments and beauty. Better to know why I drew the gaze of those around me than to wonder if they’d discovered the secrets I’d hidden in the shadows.

The pace of the crowd slowed as we neared the cathedral square and the people packed more tightly together.

I weaved through the throng, offering smiles to the men who let me pass, winking at the women who glared disapprovingly.

“Keep moving forward.” A soldier stood on the steps of a shop, waving the horde onward. I caught his gaze, and he smiled down at me. “Happy Winter’s End, miss.”

He was young and handsome. He had a glimmer of hope in his eyes as he smiled at me, as though speaking to a pretty girl might bring evening enjoyment.

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. I tucked my chin and hid behind the curtain of my hair, hoping the soldier would think I was shy rather than disgusted at the thought of ever letting a filthy paun touch me.

The line of people stopped as we reached the cathedral square.

“We should have stayed home,” an older man grumbled.

A woman smacked him on the arm. “We should have left home when I wanted to.”

I ducked around them and dove deeper into the crowd, aiming for the statue of the seven-pointed star that rose up in the center of it all.

A hand grazed my waist as I climbed up onto the statue’s pedestal. I didn’t bother looking for whoever had been so brazen. The crowd nearest the cathedral had already begun cheering, and I hadn’t the time to spare.

The bottom two arms of the star were set into the white marble of the pedestal. The next pair up had already been claimed by men.

“Give a girl a hand?” I reached for the man sitting above me.

“I don’t mind the company.” He grinned, wrapping his callused hand around mine as he helped me up.

As soon as I got a toe onto his arm of the star, I let go and climbed onto the level above him.

“I thought we were going to be friends,” the man called up to me.

“I only asked for a hand.” I gripped the center arm of the star and looked toward the towering, white cathedral.

A line of soldiers in black uniforms stood in front of the cathedral steps.

Fear flickered through me. Only a chivving fool would be brazen enough to climb above the crowd in front of so many paun soldiers. But it was Winter’s End. I would no more be whipped for climbing the statue than a fiddler would be for taking coins for their songs.

And, even if the soldiers wanted to get to me, they would have to slog through hundreds of others to reach me.

I forced myself to breathe.

The crowd at the front gave a fresh round of cheers as the Lord Soldier climbed the cathedral steps. Two lines of men in black uniforms marched behind him.

The golden doors of the cathedral opened before the soldiers reached them and closed as soon as they’d passed through, keeping the common folk from peering into the Guilds’ precious sanctuary for too long.

The sailors in their blue came next. They didn’t march in neat columns as they entered the cathedral. A young man with black hair moved at the center of their unruly pack, and even the Lord Sailor laughed at whatever joke the young man had made.

I tried to find a bit of sympathy in my chest for the sailors. They looked almost like common men, like they’d rather drink ale with you than see you dead.

But the healers started up the steps, and any flicker of pity I might have felt vanished.

The Lady Healer turned and waved to the crowd as though she actually thought herself to be a savior of the common folk.

I gripped the star, biting back my urge to scream that the healers were no better than murderers. How could anyone be grateful for a healer who left the poor to die?

The Lady led her red-clad killers through the golden doors.

The map makers in their green entered next. At least the Lord Map Maker didn’t stop to wave at the people. He led his flock straight to the doors. A girl with red hair wore the same map maker’s uniform as the men. She walked taller than the rest, though she was the shortest among them. She kept her shoulders thrown back and her chin held high.

At least there was one paun I could feel true pity for. Poor thing had lost herself to the world of men and didn’t even have the sense to revel in the power it gave her.

The doors shut again. I squinted through the sunlight glinting off the metal but couldn’t see the fancy carvings in the gold from my place on the star.

I’d only been near enough to see the carvings once, when I’d come by late at night and offered a smile to the soldiers guarding the cathedral in exchange for a chance at a closer look.

A soldier had tried to tell me about the scenes and saints the images honored, but all I’d been able to think of was the number of children that could have been fed off the gold the paun had molded into a door.

I’d run away from the soldier and been sick in an alley.

The crowd cheered again as a flock of white-robed scribes climbed slowly up the steps. At the front of the group, two men clasped each other’s arms. The older had a shining bald patch. The younger, dark blond hair so neatly groomed I wished the wind would give a great gust just to muss it up. I thought the younger man had been helping the older up the stairs until they reached the top and the hint of a limp marred the younger man’s stride.

I had heard of that scribe before. Born on the bastards’ island of Ian Ayres and now the heir to the Scribes Guild. Too young for the position, too talented to be unseated―even the common folk liked to chatter about the Ian Ayres-born scribe. The whispers in the shadows called him the Guilded Cripple. I wondered how many in the crowd were disappointed to see a young man with a limp rather than a mangled beast.

Before the door had closed behind the scribes, a golden carriage stopped in front of the steps.

High up on the cathedral walls, horns blared, welcoming the King.

He stepped out of his gilded carriage and smiled for the crowd, waving at his people like the benevolent ruler he pretended to be. His clothing glinted gold in the light, and sour rolled up into my throat.

The Queen stepped out of the carriage next, her gown sparkling like her husband’s coat, though she did not smile as the King had. Her face was pale, and the King gripped her hand as though keeping her on her feet.

The King helped the Queen up the steps, leaving the young Princess to face the crowd on her own. The girl was beautiful, and her silver gown made her look like something out of a fairy story. But her smile flickered away as she watched her brother abandon her to the crowd. She nodded to the horde and followed her brother up the steps.

Last to arrive were the purple-robed sorcerers.

The Lady Sorcerer led her pack. She didn’t look to the common crowd or to the soldiers as she climbed the steps and sauntered to the door, completely secure in her position. Completely certain that no danger could touch her.

The purple lady was above us all, her power made untouchable by the strength of her magic. She held the throat of the Guilds in her hand as the paun crushed the common folk beneath their fancy boots.

The golden doors closed behind the sorcerers, and the soldiers tightened their ranks around the cathedral.

All the most powerful people in Ibrea packed into one place. They’d spend hours locked inside, plotting new ways to grow Ilbrea’s might.

If a fire could start, flare to life right in the middle of the cathedral, then the paun would burn and Ilbrea would be free.

But only the gods could set a fire like that, and none of them have ever seen fit to be so kind to the common folk.

A fiddle started playing on the far end of the square. A pipe and a drum joined in.

Men rolled out barrels of ale and frie, and the whole square turned to chaos as the celebration of Winter’s End truly began. The common folk would dance, and drink, and sing, and laugh while the Guilds decided what new torments to unleash upon the people of Ilbrea.

I could see the spark of the fire that would devour Ilara hiding beneath the celebration. It was in the leering of the soldiers and the red faces of the men who drank to forget their troubles.

The inferno would not come quickly, but it was beyond my power to stop.

I was not strong enough to save the people dancing below from the coming flames.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Aphrodite and the Cursed Mate Bond

Aphrodite and the Cursed Mate Bond

2.8k Views · Ongoing · June Calva
In a werewolf pack that despised weakness, Aphrodite learned to survive by staying quiet, keeping her head down, and enduring cruelty in silence. The Alpha heirs hated her. The future Beta and Gamma made her life unbearable. When she finally breaks and seeks freedom at the Moon Goddess temple, she does not find release.

She finds truth.

Aphrodite is not human at all. She is a rare white wolf, descended from an ancient Direwolf bloodline long believed extinct. The ritual meant to sever her ties awakens her wolf instead and with it comes the scent of five mates bound to her by fate.

The Alpha twins who once scorned her now cannot stay away. A human hunter walks beside her and proves that strength is not born of fangs or dominance. A cursed Wolf King holds the key to her past and her father’s imprisonment. And watching from the shadows is one who was never meant to interfere at all.

As gods fall, packs fracture, and war reshapes the world, Aphrodite must decide what destiny truly means. Is it submission to fate or the courage to choose her own path.

Love does not come in one form. Neither does power.

In a world ruled by gods and wolves, Aphrodite will become something neither ever expected.

Not a queen.

But the axis upon which the world turns.
From Substitute To Queen

From Substitute To Queen

1.6m Views · Completed · Hannah Moore
For three years, Sable loved Alpha Darrell with everything she had, spending her salary to support their household while being called an orphan and gold-digger. But just as Darrell was about to mark her as his Luna, his ex-girlfriend returned, texting: "I'm not wearing underwear. My plane lands soon—pick me up and fuck me immediately."

Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.

Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.

In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?

From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Tempted By The Enemy

Tempted By The Enemy

3.9k Views · Completed · rituparna darolia
Twenty-two-year-old Alyssa Van Every is in a dilemma. Her close friend, Sienna, is marrying billionaire, Lucas Donnelly who, along with his brothers, happens to be her older brother, Alex's sworn enemy.
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
Alpha VS Omega' Twin VS Twin (A Dark Werewolf Romance)

Alpha VS Omega' Twin VS Twin (A Dark Werewolf Romance)

1.1k Views · Ongoing · June Calva
Callum Brennan was born to lead London's most powerful werewolf pack. Then his twin brother framed him for murder.
Stripped of everything, Callum is thrown into the Rookeries, where packless wolves go to die. But he survives. He builds a pack from the broken and the damned. He falls in love with Valentina, a dhampir hunted by the same vampire Parliament that destroyed his life.
In a city ruled by immortal aristocrats and controlled by ancient dragons, Callum learns the hardest truth: individual virtue cannot defeat systemic evil. But small victories matter. And some fights are worth losing everything
HER ALPHA, HER SAVIOUR

HER ALPHA, HER SAVIOUR

2.1k Views · Ongoing · Iris
I sold myself to a monster to save my mom—and walked into a cage.

Kane Hellboud, charm and wealth personified, wanted only me in exchange for her treatment. No cameras, isolation, or noose-like rules were part of the deal. Behind his smile? Cold, violent possessiveness that destroyed our fake marriage.

Most of all, I didn’t know the supernatural walked among us, hiding in the cracks of ordinary life. Not until Abel Stone stepped into mine—dark-eyed, sharp-tongued, and oozing dangerous promises. He’s my new boss. He shouldn’t make my skin tingle or my pulse race. I shouldn’t feel this primal pull, this illogical recognition that tugs at something deep in my bones.

Around him, lights burst, electronics fry, and something ancient in me awakens.

Kane feels it. His grip tightens, punishments turn brutal, and he hides the truth of what I am.

Trapped between two powerful men, I’m no prey, no pawn—no helpless victim.

Prisons burn. Monsters bleed. As for me? I'm the storm in skin—deadly beyond suspicion.
The Dragon's Last Fae Queen

The Dragon's Last Fae Queen

6.2k Views · Ongoing · Sylvia Sylvester
Hidden all her life in the slums of Emberveil, Aerith has one rule: never let the dragons see her eyes. Fae are extinct, hunted, burned, and erased from the kingdom. Or so everyone believes. But on the night of her eighteenth birthday, when her forbidden magic stirs awake and her grandmother falls deathly ill, Aerith breaks the one rule meant to keep her safe. She enters the royal dragon pharmacy… and collides with a werewolf princess who drags her straight to the dungeon. There, in the deepest shadows of the palace, the youngest dragon prince sees her glowing eyes and instantly knows what she is. A fae. A secret the entire kingdom would kill for. What would be her fate? Another dead Fae? Or the Last Dragon's Fae Queen?

“Prince? Dickhead? Asshole? Or stalker?” A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips. “Maybe I should show you the one title I want you to use.” Before I could react, his hand closed around my chin, tilting my face up. His lips crashed into mine, hard, claiming, breath-stealing. When he finally pulled back, his voice was a rough whisper against my lips. “You could call me yours… because you are mine.”
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.1k Views · Ongoing · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-
The Alpha's Stripper Mate

The Alpha's Stripper Mate

53.8k Views · Completed · Havilworth
"Come here."
"What?" It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. I did not wait for him to answer me, I walked toward him.
"Dance on my lap."
My head screamed at me to turn around and run. But my whole body responded to his command.
"Yes, Alpha," I pulled my dress over my body, it dropped over my head and fell to the ground behind me. I was left in nothing but my matching bra and thong. My hands covered my chest on reflex.
"Let me see."
My hands dropped to my sides.
I lowered myself into his lap, facing him. His eyes peered into mine, and I could feel his hot breath fan my face. His dick responded to all my moves, hardening against my now-moist vagina. I swallowed hard, allowing my lips to part in a ragged breath. His hands trailed up to my waist.
"No touching."


At the tender age of eleven, JoJo Wyatt was forced to grow up far sooner than she should have. Born to a cruel father and a weak mother, she quickly realized she had to become the breadwinner for herself and her sister. Nothing else mattered to her, not even the hottest men. In fact, she despised them. After one horrific night, she swore never to have any contact with the male species again. That was, until she started working for him as his stripper.
Meanwhile, Alpha Lake Rush, thirty, was the most feared Alpha in the country. Burdened by his own share of life's struggles, he had learned only to be cruel and reckless, rejecting not one but two mates. But what happens when he discovers yet another mate, and she turns out to be his stripper?
To protect what’s mine

To protect what’s mine

529.7k Views · Completed · Winter Rowe
Amalie is more special than she ever thought possible. Why would the twenty-two-year-old think any different after she has been told she’s nothing for her whole life by her family? Adoptive mother of a three-year-old, Ama has been locked up by her family for the past seven years. But everything changes when her old friends, the Alpha twins, Markus and Calyx, take over the Moonstone pack. Finding out that the twins are her mates, she is a white wolf, and has a connection to the Moon Goddess, is just icing on the cake of her life is a huge mess. Ama just wants a normal life with her mates and protecting her pup, but life rarely gives us what we want. She is thrust into world that she no longer remembers and has forgotten her. Amalie is charged with protecting those closest to her. But she has her own past to overcome as she heals and attempts to move forward. Will she come out alive or lose herself along the way? After all, someone has to be pulling the strings, why not pull her along for the ride?
Let Them Kneel

Let Them Kneel

234.3k Views · Ongoing · My Fantasy Stories
Kaelani spent her life believing she was wolfless.
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.

But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.

Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.

When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.

For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.

Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.

But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.

And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.

Especially him.

She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.

Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

2.7k Views · Completed · Ellis Carter
"Ten years of atonement, and you flee?"

His fangs glinted as he gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. Dragon scales shimmered along his neck, breath scorching my skin.

"Your Majesty... I beg—" He shoved me onto the bed. Silk tore with a sharp rip, cold air rushing over my exposed body.

"Scared?" He smirked, palm sliding down my waist, fingers tracing slow, burning circles. "Yet you shiver... not from cold."

I lunged for the candlestick, but he caught my wrist, pinning it overhead. His knee forced my legs apart.

"When your father gave you to me," his lips brushed my ear, voice a dark rumble, "you were already mine."

On the eve of freedom after ten years of servitude, Lina Valeria stood one night away from reuniting with her betrothed. But Dragon King Augustus condemned her to the Abyss Mines on false charges—a trap forged from obsessive desire.

Augustus Ashenwing, Supreme Sovereign of Skyhold Citadel, is ruthless and feared by all races. His obsession stems from ancient grudges and dragonkind's most dangerous instinct: possessive desire. He demands her submission, binding her to his throne as his consort.

From prisoner to queen, Lina battles him through court intrigue and twisted passion—fighting for her mother, her freedom, her dignity.

Yet this cold-blooded tyrant reserves all tenderness for her alone. He indulges her temper, bends his pride, compromises without limit—anything to see her smile. Gradually, her heart wavers. But loving him means betraying Kain, who waited eleven years. Torn between duty and desire, she drowns in agonizing guilt.

Love and hatred intertwined—a forbidden dragon romance in a realm of oppression.
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

1.4m Views · Ongoing · Louisa
Dear readers, this novel is coming to an end soon. I highly recommend another fantastic story of the same genre:


I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.

On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...

Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.

George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.

His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"

Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.

When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.

"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"

George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"

"I'm afraid that's impossible."

Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."