He is the night's reckoning, the shadow that haunts my dreams. This year, he wants more than just my fear. Halloween is a celebration of the bizarre, the unexpected, the dark. And I've always had a twisted enjoyment that dances with the macabre. Things turn sinister when every guy I date ends up six feet under, courtesy of an obsessed stalker. Like a ravenous beast, the murderer hides in plain sight. His identity? None other than Nyx, my brother's best friend and my secret admirer.

Stone was my best friend. My protector. My everything. Until he wasn’t. Kids like us didn’t have the best life, riddled with trauma, bounced around in a system that didn’t want us and couldn’t handle us. In our darkest hours, we had each other. Until we didn’t. We tried to hold on to what little we had. Maneuvering the rough waters of our circumstance. Until I couldn’t.

Who leaves their girlfriend in the woods after a fight? My now ex-boyfriend, that’s who. One fight—okay, a big fight—because I found out he was cheating on me while we were camping, and poof! He left me in the woods. So, I start walking to town, only I end up at the river, where I meet Axel. This guy is huge. With a storm rolling in, I don’t have much choice but to trust him and take shelter in his cabin, since I’ve been walking for hours away from town. Several days of rain wash out the road and it looks like I’m stuck here with my giant.

In a world of warring orcs and men, Lady Norr is condemned to a childless marriage, a cruel lord husband, and a life of genteel poverty—until the day her home is ransacked by a horde. Leading the charge is their hulking, deadly orc captain: the infamous Grimarr. Grimarr has a wicked plan for Lady Norr, and for ending this war once and for all. She’s going to become his captive, and the perfect snare for Lord Norr. There’s no possible escape, and soon Lady Norr is dragged off toward Orc Mountain in the powerful arms of her greatest enemy.

I caught her staring at me from across the quad, eyes fixed on the football jersey stretched across my wide chest. And if I flexed my muscles, showing off the strength of a defensive tackle, it was just to see her blush. And then she did, and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Her wide eyes. The freckles on her cheeks. I needed to know her. The girl who scampered away every time we bumped into each other—by accident and by design.