Dear Patrons/Readers,
It is with mixed emotions that I have reluctantly decided to set aside my long-term WIP and temporarily shelve CoRW to pick up a new project with better opportunities. This decision is in no way a reflection of the time and work that has gone into CoRW or the investments patrons and readers have made during the long journey of unraveling the world of Lafeara and its many characters, mysteries, and political conspiracies.
I think it’s simply time for somethi...
2023-10-27 16:21:54 +0000 UTC
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As we finish up April I realize I didn’t put up a new coupon to give Amethyst Patrons access to Advanced Chapters on WordPress (for those of you who prefer to read over there). So here is April-May coupon 100% for Amethyst Patrons. https://verawolfefantasywebnovels.com/
Advanced Chapters are here:
2023-04-23 19:59:38 +0000 UTC
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Dear Amethyst Readers,
Thank you so much for supporting CoRW throughout Book 3! Regardless of whether you finished reading this book on the day of its final chapter upload or months later on, I hope you’ll share whatever feedback you have with me. To that end, I have composed a few closing questions that would be invaluable when rewriting chapters for RoyalRoad and preparing to enter Book 4.
Resolution:
What storyline or subplots do you feel still need to ...
2023-03-25 16:55:58 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone!
As of today, the first rough draft of CoRW: Book 3 [A Plague of Witches] is complete with 118 chapters and roughly 350k wc, which will likely expand with edits and rewrites on RoyalRoad. I want to thank everyone who has supported me through my long hiatus and this final stretch in finishing off Book 3 (roughly 55k wc since returning mid-February).
To my Amethyst Tier Patrons, there will be no further Advance Chapters for the next sever...
2023-03-25 16:55:02 +0000 UTC
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Interlude XV: A Crown of Defeat
There was something liberating about the sea. Perhaps it was that the seemingly endless, unhindered landscape of glittering water reminded Eleanora so much of the red dunes of Ventrayna. The once Crown Princess of Lafeara stood on the shoreline, one boot an inch deep in the saturated pebble-sand mixture below, gazing out at the teal-green skyline. The playful screeches of seagulls pierced through the constant thrum of the wind and the soothing crash of wa...
2023-03-25 15:09:27 +0000 UTC
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Interlude XIV: Defender of the North Tower
Colonel Tybalt of Bastiallano’s northern border patrol stared grimly at the bloodied bandages left behind on the straw floor of the hospital tent. He could hardly come to terms with the message the sergeant, who served under Captain Arlo, had conveyed before dying from blood loss. The two covenless witches who had carried the injured knight to the border to deliver the news of Bastiallano’s defeat stood awkwardly in the corner of the tent. ...
2023-03-24 17:34:48 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue {Part Three}: A Prison of Doom
Beaumont clenched his jaw as he squirmed impatiently within the Iron Maiden Coffin. The dragon steel spikes that pierced his mortal shell had failed to penetrate the dragon scales beneath. Their twisted, mangled tips tore away at what little flesh remained, but the immortal hardly noticed. Like a lizard shedding skin, it had long outgrown, he was weary of carrying the deadweight of the itchy, defective mortal m...
2023-03-23 15:50:15 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue {Part Two}: The Saint’s Legacy
Strange how familiar the sensation of dying is, like returning to an unpleasant memory that locked Carina inside her own body, helpless to resist.
‘As if I’d die that easily.’
The Scarlet Witch’s white lips pressed into a hard line that twitched between an expression of cynical amusement and spasms of pain. She focused her remaining energy into her numb right hand as she pressed it against the cold blood that flowed ...
2023-03-22 15:04:25 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue {Part One}: The Death of Hope
Mary tried to keep a smile on her face as she trailed behind the noisy fledglings heading down the Fortress Castle steps on their way to the gardens. She still didn’t know how she felt about being assigned as the witch children’s guardian. On the one hand, the position had apparently been bestowed upon her by the Duchess shortly after Krisi’s elders rescued the Strom Witch and children from several canniba...
2023-03-14 16:18:56 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 105: A Tool of Fate
Serilda smiled down at the trembling forms of the once proud Lafearian King and Royal Consort. She had never tasted fear quite like this, from a King no less, although she had always had difficulty viewing Nicholas by that title, given her history with his father.
Now though, the arrogant boy barely dared to raise his hazel-blue eyes from the marble ballroom floor—at least, until she commanded him to do so.
...
2023-03-10 16:49:32 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 104: A Bow of Reckoning
Fragments of glass and ice crunched beneath Percy’s boots as he strode through the ballroom—now a battlefield littered with dead, mostly decapitated witch hunters, though a stray noble or two could be found among the casualties. The Witch King moved to where Kirsi stood on the royal platform, one arm protectively wrapped around the rescued, trembling Viscountess, both of them staring down at the bloody remains of t...
2023-03-08 18:34:22 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 103: A Prelude to Devastation
The swarm of Charu butterflies divided themselves up curiously amongst the three veiled women. Carina was not surprised to see that more than half of the glittering specimens settled upon the veiled woman to the far right. However, she found it odd that six of the remaining fifteen insects split off to land on the veiled woman to the left, while the woman at the center was completely ignored. The remaining nine C...
2023-03-06 17:14:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 102 [Part Two]: A Delicacy of Divinity
“Earl Hawthorne!”
Percy turned away from the small gathering of witches dressed to the nines in rich silk, velvet, and jewels. “Earl Chase Coldwell,” he greeted the portly gentleman, ten years his senior, and his political rival, with a cool smile. “A splendid evening.”
“Quite,” Chase said, a faint smugness clinging to his otherwise polite tone as he gestured to the towering m...
2023-03-01 23:24:49 +0000 UTC
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March Update, WordPress Coupon, and Progress:
Hello Amethyst Patrons. I’m happy to be back to posting and working towards the end of CoRW Book 3. As of February 12th, I’ve written over 29,000 words in uploaded chapters on Patreon/WordPress (not including one that will come later this afternoon). I fully expect to finish Book 3 this month, well ahead of my original deadline of mid-April. Currently, based on Patreon/WordPress chapters alone, Book 3 stands at 365k total wc.
For t...
2023-03-01 21:53:51 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 102 [Part One]: The Splendor of Grief
The harsh morning light struck the towering walls of the palace-fortress with near clinical precision, outlining each crack in the mortar that held the stone formation of the defensive wall, at least 12 feet thick on the exterior side. The pale defensive structure loomed over the Duchess’s carriage as they inched closer, flanked on all sides by three Bastiallano knights.
Carina pushed aside the su...
2023-02-27 18:28:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 101: A Gift of Mercy
The Sisterhood of Crows left the gathering of Covens with haste, splitting up as agreed to divert any punishment Alora’s antagonism may have garnered. The silver-haired witch in question trailed behind Elder Verena. Alora anxiously and frequently jolted at the slightest sound, often to her detriment, as they sped through the brightening silhouettes of the forest's towering specters.
“Pay attention, Alora,” his...
2023-02-25 20:57:59 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 100 {Part Two}: A Voice of Division
Carina felt a tingling wave of nostalgia wash over her as she appeared in Hawthorn Forest, not far from the gathering of Covens. The primitive yet beautiful notes of harmonized voices singing at a distance seemed to lull the nocturnal creatures of the forest into a strange sense of security. A mother fox and her two small kits strolled out from the bushes, then paused at the sight of the ice witches. The Du...
2023-02-24 23:04:38 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 100 {Part One}: An Alliance of Ambition
“We cannot continue putting this off any longer,” Percy declared as he eyed the group of ice witch elders gathered around the Duchess, seated in his office chair. “My spies at the palace tell me that the Pope and his Witch Hunters have made themselves at home in Peony Palace. They’ve also taken over security for the other palaces and the fortress gate.”
The Earl exhaled as he stared down...
2023-02-22 17:51:42 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 99 [Part Two]: Hallowed Ground
[Trigger warning: Cannibalism]
The wind picked up, howling fiercely through the limbs of yellow birch, white oak, and cottonwood trees as Mary and her three tired charges crossed the barrier around Hawthorne wood. The three witch children started as the sharp breeze wrapped around them in a threatening but harmless breeze. Any mortal would have taken the cautionary shiver down their spine as a warning to t...
2023-02-19 01:40:34 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 99 [Part One]: A Shadow of Treachery
The deep, ancient magic prickled painfully beneath Mary’s skin as the Call of the Witch King pierced her ears with a deafening scream. The covenless witch clutched her ears as she lurched upright in bed with a raspy gasp. Beneath the disheveled bangs of her autumn-red hair, the makeshift bunks and hammocks of the hunting lodge came slowly into focus. Mary was not the only witch to have been woke...
2023-02-16 17:38:52 +0000 UTC
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Inspired by the final chapters of B3 leading towards the series conclusion.
2023-02-14 17:23:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 98: A Casket of Corruption
What makes a good King? Is it the years of prosperity, the trials of war, the plagues, droughts, and famines he endures? Is it the strength of his resolve, the breadth of his mercy, or the wisdom of his judgment? Is it the love of his people, the respect of his enemies—or the blood that runs through his veins?
The crown's weight balanced precariously at the end of his three fingers and taunted Nicholas as he...
2023-02-14 00:38:33 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 97: A Crippling Oath
If Declan were a cat, he’d certainly be running out of lives at this point. Since childhood, the half-witch had faced death on more occasions than he cared to remember. The burning gaze of his mother’s vengeful specter, a constant reminder of his first narrow escape and, by all accounts, his first kill, had cumulated into murdering a member of the witch hunter order, thus earning him their lethal hatred.
The wei...
2023-02-11 21:27:39 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 96: The Fragrance of Rebellion
“So, Octavia sent this forgery to the Pope,” Percy muttered in disbelief, “who then gifted it to Nicholas—as a wedding present?”
“The Dowager must have sensed her end was near,” Linby replied in a less than respectful tone.
“Perhaps the loss of Viktor’s magic pushed her over the edge,” Maylea commented with a speculative shrug. “A witch of her years, weakened by the aconitum her...
2022-07-14 21:36:56 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 95 {Part Two}: An Assembly of Allies
Carina and Beaumont exchanged glances while the spymaster turned and motioned to one of the hooded men behind her. The bodyguard responded with a curt nod before he strode across the garden in the direction of the ominous iron gate that led to the Dowager’s destroyed garden.
Carina's suspicions about the unpredictable spymaster rekindled as she watched the mercenary open the gate, which should have...
2022-07-11 16:19:45 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 95 {Part One}: A Gathering of Ghosts
The pale moon, overshadowed by heavy rain clouds, extended its ghostly beams of light across the palace grounds, casting each structure's dark windows and white mortar walls in a deathly pale. The Duchess, accompanied by her escort, Captain Beaumont, passed beneath the lifeless windows, unseen by those who slept within, blissful of the coming storm.
Despite the absence of a torch, Carina had no diffi...
2022-07-10 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 94: A Shift in Loyalty
The cool night breeze tickled against Sophya’s damp neck and arms as she struggled to raise the bucket from the well. Exhaustion and hunger quivered in her arms and legs as she strained and pulled against the brittle rope that tore open the day’s old blisters on her hands.
“Hurry up!” The middle-aged female witch hunter with braided brown hair and a scarlet eye patch snarled as she kicked a rock against th...
2022-04-27 15:41:38 +0000 UTC
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Quick Announcement. I will be on ‘Hiatus’ in May, so current/active subscribers for April will not be charged again until June 1st. If you’d like to hang around and enjoy the next month for free, that is entirely up to you. This ‘hiatus’ is meant to allow me time to catch up on finishing Book 3 without the added pressure of pushing those chapters out as quickly as possible. Real Life and Health tend to get in the way periodically, so I’m allowing myself more time to get Book 3 don...
2022-04-25 16:10:29 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 93: The Spinner’s Web
It wasn’t that Nicholas couldn’t define the restlessness that drove him from the bed where Priscilla slept. His Royal Consort appeared to have enjoyed their lovemaking, brief though it had been. After the palace servants removed their consummation sheets, Priscilla returned to bed with a smile and fell asleep after wrapping herself up in the King’s arms.
He had enjoyed her beauty then. The way her skin seem...
2022-04-25 15:53:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 92: A Beguiling Honey Pot
“You mean—He’s married her?” Eleanora blinked and set down her teacup while maintaining eye contact with the Duchess seated beside her bed. “Nicholas has a second wife?”
“Yes, your Highness,” Kirsi answered simply enough, though Eleanora imagined she sensed a hint of sympathy in the ice witch’s tone.
“But what about his mistress—Lady Rosamund—my father told me she’s pregnant?”<...
2022-04-13 16:10:40 +0000 UTC
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