“I think I'd miss you even if we’d never met,” Azrael whispered as his fingers trailed the side of her face, leaving an alluring warmth.
Anna’s throat became dry, “We shouldn’t have met then―”
“No,” he said, “Even if it means losing everything, I would rather have you.”
They were destined to fall from the start. A forsaken bond. A hopeless cause. And yet, in that stolen moment, Anna didn’t care anymore, neither did he.
* * * 
Anna is a human in a world where her kind is treated like dust, while Azrael is the demon duke infamous for his ruthlessness and bewitching looks.
On a fateful night, her life gets entangled with him. Azrael takes her as his fiance, however, theirs is a relationship formed over a contract; a marriage of convenience.
In a land where the hatred between humans and demons runs deeper than blood, she can not let her guard down. 
Anna harbors no feelings for the handsome duke, nor for his kind. Though that doesn’t stop her heart from stuttering whenever he’s near, nor the ghost of a familiar fear to surge at the sound of his voice.
But he’s always near.
Telling her what to do.
Making her feel warmer, hotter than he should.
* * * 
To yearn for someone who is forbidden to you is a terrifying feeling. To burn from desire and never speak of it, to have a secret that is horrible to almost everyone, to hide something that could ruin everything.
This is a story carved in hidden desires, inked in blood, and sealed with a fatal sin. Will Anna make it out alive? Or will her heart lead to her downfall?

The Duke's Secret Sin

As far as she could remember, Anna always knew that there were missing parts in the past she remembered. But even though she forgot many things, there were some scars that never left her mind and soul. 


And every time she remembered a little more about it, her consciousness would almost slip from reality, dissociate from it―as if to relive what she should have never recalled. 


However, something like that never happened without any trigger to her memories. Then what exactly made her feel that way when she looked into those rings? 


They were not familiar and neither did the slight dissociation from reality brought back any memories this time. 


All that came was that frightening feeling of emptiness. 


But beneath those waves of puzzlement, she was still relieved. Her heart was too fragile to go through that pain again, not so soon. 


It made her blood run cold whenever those fragments of forgotten memories invaded her mind. 


Pick Your Poison