Kell Frillman – Author

My dark romantacy, Tragic Kingdoms, is now officially available for pre-order! Please enjoy the first sneak peek, but don’t forget to check out the trigger warnings!

PRE-ORDER TRAGIC KINGDOMS HERE. (Official release date is Oct 31, 2023)
Check out TRAGIC KINGDOMS on Goodreads HERE.
ARC application is open until Oct 15th, apply HERE. (ARC’s go out on October 17th.)

Content Warnings:
– Game of Thrones vibes
– Violence, murder, slavery, cannibalism (nondescript)
– demon spice, dubcon, noncon
– physical & psychological abuse
– power dynamics in toxic relationships
– threats and mentions of ca / csa (nondescript)

The tantalizing effect of the demon’s touch swiftly penetrated the mind of Rayne Astasuel with its all-consuming desire. As her eyes rolled up, the colors that comprised her vision blurred together in a psychedelic swirl of ecstasy. Her back arched off of the chilled stone as elongated, tingling fingers brushed across her inner thighs.

Flickering candles surrounded the pair in an ominous warning, living flames that dreaded what horrors the ritual would lead to. Still, Rayne was determined to proceed; this moment was what she’d been prepared for her entire life.

Reaching for the demon, the young woman shrieked as he thrust his impossibly thick cock into her desperate, wet cunt, ramming into her cervix without a hint of mercy.

A steadily rising drumbeat quickened as his thrusts increased while echoed hymns of a haunting melody filled Rayne’s mind until she could focus on nothing else. The steady beats and ethereal voices melted into a swirl of vivid colors until the strange concoction encircled them as if fusing their separate life forces into one.

The demon growled possessively into Rayne’s ear, causing the swirl of colors inside of and around her to intensify. Sharp nails raked across the back of his shoulder blades just above his protruding bones. Her voice rang out in unison with the visual sound an instant before every nerve in her body buzzed with an explosion so potent that it tore apart what little there was left of her human psyche.

Her lover’s merciless thrusts finally slowed, and she heaved as her moistened body slumped against the stone. Still clinging with desperation to his impossibly chiseled form, her fingertips slid into the sharp-edged feathers of his black wings. The sting of slick cuts only added to her induced pleasure.

A shuddering grunt poured out of the demon’s lungs just before he collapsed the full weight of his sweat-soaked body onto hers. Bright colors continued to swirl behind the lids of her eyes as she grasped at his wings with blood-soaked hands again while tightening her trembling legs around his waist.

Ferocious and overwhelming desperation to hold the beast against her surged through her muscles. They were joined now; even when physically separated, she would be forever consumed with a need that only he would be able to fulfill.

The drums and hymns slowly softened, slipping away, threatening to leave her with the dread of emptiness.

“No,” she begged as the demon violently ripped his body away. Everything was suddenly distorted in a most disturbingly natural way as if she was seeing things as they really were for the first time rather than viewing what her limited human sight interpreted of her surroundings.

As quickly as Rayne’s lover joined with her, he was now gone.

Her flesh ached with an impossible cold. Her most favored vassal, Raven, quickly covered her exposed flesh with sheepskin, and she desperately clutched the fur pelt to her shaking incomplete form. The vassal ran her palm soothingly over Rayne’s golden, tangled hair and gazed down at her master with the proud, loving smile of a mother.

“It’s done, M’Lady,” she assured her through her suffering. “Asmodeus granted you with his seed. This child born of power and darkness will help your family regain what’s always been rightfully yours; it’s the beginning of the end for those who betrayed you.”

Joining with Asmodeus came with brutal consequences. He was the demon of lust, a fallen god whose very essence was contrived from a black hole of emptiness and constant need.

Rayne would crave him every minute of every day for the rest of her existence. Perhaps he’d occasionally appear and temporarily relieve her of her suffering, or perhaps he’d turn his back, but her sacrifice would be nothing in comparison to the sadistic torture she’d force her family’s enemies to endure.

The kingdom of Alta Silva belonged to Castle Astasuel for hundreds of years. When Rayne’s ancestors fled from the rising embers, they’d claimed the new, lush land as their own, so whoever chose to settle thereafter was forced to do so under their jurisdiction. The blood of Castle Astasuel and the family’s magic were connected to their presumed origin: a dark and mysterious void far beyond this earthly plane.

Black magic was their home and their identity, but others always sought to covet what they didn’t naturally possess.

Rayne’s mother’s father’s father, Auberon, had been the family’s fool and their greatest shame. The revolt in Alta Silva took him by surprise, so he was forced to take his family and flee to a desolate, unclaimed land rather than risk dying in vain, failing to protect the power they possessed.

Castle Astasuel was feared and respected when they ruled Alta Silva. Before Auberon took his last gasping breath, Rayne’s father, Ambrose, swore he’d do what his father couldn’t; he’d set events in motion to reclaim the kingdom Auberon humiliatingly surrendered and abandoned.

Rayne hadn’t been born to live in obscurity; she existed to spread the darkness of her bloodline’s origins. She’d stop at nothing to seek revenge.

Mating with the demon was intended to be the beginning of the end.