Demands My Soul

A Transgender Heroine's Journey & Romance Novel

From THE ONE Universe

Chapter 24: Meaning of Darkest Night

By Ariel Montine Strickland

Can the darkest night end? Can the light, however faint, begin to return?

Copyright 2025 by Ariel Montine Strickland.
All Rights Reserved.

Shadowsblade a Whateley Tale: Written by Shadowsblade

Created for war and forged in pain, dealing with demons within and without.

Chapter 5

We sat there with our jaws dropped. Talk about upping the stakes.

“We haven’t been told where the band tour will want to play yet. I expect that Oxford will feature, sometime in September. We usually get six or seven months to organise them, so should get a message soon. If ‘Exarctics’ have lost the singer and drummer, it will take some time before they can play again.”

For two thousand years, demons and humans waged war against each other. Twenty-five years ago, that all changed. Now two demon princesses must navigate a world that's been forever altered - and yet they'll soon find that far too much of it remains the same.

This is the story of Mikaela, and Charlotte, twin princesses (born to the protagonists of Demon Queened), forced to become adventurers as a rite of passage. In theory, it'll be easy! They're literally demi-gods after all. It's not like anything can hurt them... but will it really be so simple for two pampered princesses to live the life of adventurers?

From prejudiced humans to old demonic grudges, hidden villages, romance and potential heartbreak, the girls will soon find that there's a lot more to life than they realized.

This is a sequel to Demon Queened, but I'll do my best to make sure you don't need to read the original to make sense of it. I still recommend the original - it was a good series, in my opinion! - but reading it shouldn't be a necessity.

Chapter 4

The Cortina wasn’t a true copy of Tina, my original one, which ended her life bullet-ridden and on the roof of a Lowestoft car yard. Tina Too was tweaked by my pal Grayson, with better suspension, brakes, and some work on the Lotus engine, as well as a competition gearbox and high-ratio differential. She was placid around the city, but very hard to beat on the open road.

Sword and Sacrifice:
A Feudal Fairy Tale

Every hundred years, a sacrifice is demanded in order to ensure the prosperity of the nation, but one young noble swordswoman has taken it upon herself, not to break the cycle, but to at least postpone the loss of another innocent life for the next hundred years. How will the deity that holds back the dark react to her gesture, though. Will her sacrifice be accepted, or will both she, and the woman she loves, be taken for daring to try and change the pact?

The Photoshoot That Changed It All

Alpha Versus Aleph Null

In terms of the intellectuals she employed, a short sighted, skinny, nervous, young man with sufficient intelligence to understand her primary code and then develop it was a much better choice than a devastatingly impressive alpha male who’d peaked as a high school quarterback and then scraped his way through college no matter how much his smile turned her female staff into instant bed partners.

Jak didn’t fully appreciate how hungry he was. Stella saw him clear his plate with ease and was ready with more ham, homemade bread and eggs. It was all washed down with some excellent tea.

Chapter 2

I looked at him. He was sitting there, as nonchalant as if he’d told us that it had rained yesterday. Lena chuckled.

“I guess that we’re now drawn into the web of intrigue now. I’ve met a few spooks when I was in the SAS, but none of them were as spooky as you, my friend. I say, ‘my friend’ as I would hate to be on the wrong side.”

He stood up and put his hand out to me. We shook hands and then he held it out to Lena.

The Green-Eyed Maid Inn

She snorted loudly. “There’s no such thing. That whole men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is just a tired boomer stereotype to sell books. Ask away,” she said.

Abducted?
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Ava

It seemed as if I was just coming to terms just coming to terms with it. I am not saying that I accepted his absence and I was ready to move on, but just that I understood that his disappearance was a fact and that I needed to cope with my situation.