Kissing Secrets (Kissing Monsters 7)

By Lynn Robin

"Zane is standing in front of Kiss, a breathing shield to protect her against everything and anything, everyone and anyone.
But he can’t shield her from the truth.
No. Not even he can."

The Angel Made of Fire is still alive.

He has survived the attack of the Nightmares—but he holds Kiss and Zane responsible for the chaos that has been unleashed upon heaven and earth, demanding of them to find a solution.
No matter the fact that neither of them ever meant for this to happen;
No matter the fact that it has all been done out of love.

As Skylar realizes she is losing control over the Nightmares, she struggles to tighten her grasp and starts to realize she has given Julian far more power than he should ever have received.
A tentative trust blooms to life between her and August, but are they strong enough to stand up against Julian, the former Monster of Cages?

Secrets. Betrayal. Lies.
Angels. Monsters. Nightmares.

It all began with a kiss.
It will all end with another one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynn Robin
• Release date: Feb 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005900199

Lynn Robin

Lynn Robin (1992) is an author of Paranormal Romance novels.Born and raised in the historical city of Leiden in the Netherlands, she has felt the urge to write stories ever since she was little— preferably ones with ghosts and other spooky things (probably because her parents let her watch Stephen King film adaptions when she was nine).Next to that, she likes to add a healthy dose of romance to her books; star-crossed lovers and forbidden romances, preferably about monsters hiding in the bodies of young men, and girls blessed with angelic powers—or at least humans touched by magical abilities.She made her debut in 2017 with her Dutch series entitled the Schimmenwereld Serie (the Phantom World series), containing six books about ghosts, angels, demons, music, dance, art, and—of course—love. She won the Best Book of 2018 award with the fourth installment, Schimmendroom (Phantom Dream), chosen by the jury of The Dutch Indie Awards.In 2020 she debuted internationally in English with the highly romantic Kissing Monsters series which concluded with 8 volumes in 2021. Her latest release is The Sea of Her, a still ongoing paranormal romance series in a tropical setting about the Weeper of Pearls, a Wild Stranger from the Sea and a long-lost King of the Ocean.Besides being passionate about writing, she’s also a rather dedicated running/fitness/yoga/martial arts enthusiast, and likes to spend time with her family, play videogames, or freak herself out watching documentaries about haunted houses (for research, she claims).

Book preview

KISSING SECRETS

Kissing Monsters — Book Seven

Lynn Robin

KISSING SECRETS

Kissing Monsters — Book Seven

Copyright (c) 2021 Lynnette Robin Slijkhuis

Cover and interior design: (c) 2021 Kimberly Jolanda

ISBN: 9781005900199

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the author.

www.lynnrobin.com

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Table of Contents

Kissing Secrets

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Epilogue

Coming Soon

Kissing Passion

About Lynn Robin

Connect with Lynn Robin

Books by Lynn Robin

PROLOGUE

burn, fire, reborn

Several minutes ago

Usually, Althea heals the wounds of others: of humans, animals, the occasional monster—to her, there is no difference between good or evil. It simply doesn’t exist. A wound is a wound and should be healed.

She’s not so certain now. Because tonight she has, for the first time in her life, seen the actual face of evil: It was horned like a bull. Its eye sockets were empty pits. And it came to slaughter the angels.

It left with August instead, the Wandering Artist, her fellow Gifted One whose powers felt somewhat similar to hers. He surrendered himself in order to protect Chula and Nyokah.

Brave. Selfless.

It’s what every Gifted One is supposed to be, still she finds herself reeling after seeing August leave with the Nightmare—though it has already been at least a couple of hours ago—, amazed by his courage. Althea can only hope she’ll be just as valiant if ever the day comes she has to protect someone’s life.

Right now, she’s not entirely sure she would be strong enough.

Yes, usually she heals the wounds of others—but at this moment, the memory of the Nightmare barging in and August sacrificing himself for her and the angels still fresh in her mind, she feels battered and bruised herself. She keeps reaching for her chest, her heart, wanting to soothe the injury that fear and shock have left behind.

But she knows it would be pointless, because even her gift can’t take away the worry and anxiety gnawing away at her heart and stomach. She had never met August before tonight, but there is this bond between Gifted Ones, this wordless connection, and she can’t shake off the need to make sure he’s safe.

I’m fine.

Chula’s voice shakes Althea out of her troubled thoughts and she glances up to find the angel pushing away Nyokah’s hands. Althea instinctively looks the smaller angel over—she barely sees her curly white hair, nor the slits for a nose, the fox tail or the small wings emerging from the back of her lithe body: no, Althea studies her for wounds and injuries, the ones she tended to only this night.

They have all healed. Althea’s powers have won from the Nightmare’s poison.

Somehow, she doesn’t feel victorious at all.

Nyokah’s serpentine tail swishes restlessly across the floor, which is still a mess of torn pillows, tattered blankets, fallen candles and broken pots, jars, anything the candles were kept in. Althea had been working on cleaning up and recovering it all when the Nightmare, Lock, had forced open the door.

Althea keeps darting glances over to that very door, still fearing for the demon to come back. But the snippets of conversation to her left quickly drag her attention over to the angels.

We should leave now—they are our only hope, Chula is whispering.

But Zane is only a Monster Kisser, Nyokah counters softly, and Kiss… Even as Lady Scarlet, she could barely defend you. She nods to Chula, indicating her just-healed wounds.

It is still more than we can do, Chula counters. She sounds tired. She looks it, too. Althea quietly studies the angels from a distance, having picked up a torn pillow and running her hands over it, closing the seams; it’s all she can fix at the moment and she simply needs to do something.

Her gift feels wild and agitated, too big for her body to contain. If she could have, she would have screamed to release some of the pressure.

But she can’t. As far as she can remember, not a single noise has ever slipped from her throat, not a single sound has ever caressed her vocal cords, not a single word has ever danced on her tongue.

She’s never thought much of it. But right now, right now she’d…—

Whatever she wants, before she can figure it out what exactly she wants, it all slithers out of her mind the instant the corner of the room erupts in fire.

White-blue flames.

Angelic light.

The pillow slips from her grasp and her eyes widen as she stares at the angel now stepping out of the flames; they don’t burn him. They don’t burn anything, period, not even the floorboards.

Spellbound, she can’t take her gaze off him to see whether the other angels are aware of his arrival; this angel is tall, incredibly tall, and white fire forms a crown around his head, burning and shivering just like the wings protruding from his broad back. All he wears is a pair of pants, low on his hips. Although muscular and powerful, his pale eyes are the most intimidating of all: they, too, seem to burn like flames.

Still, there is another feature that Althea can’t look away from: as far as she knew, all angels are pale-skinned, nearly snow-white. This angel’s skin, however, is dark like charcoal, as if he once burned down to ashes and was then reborn.

Burned. Fire. Reborn.

Althea blinks, trying to catch up with her own thoughts—it’s like instinctively she already knows who this angel is, yet it takes her several beats to fully comprehend.

He is the angel from the story which Chula told her and Kiss earlier tonight.

The Angel Made of Fire.

The very first angel to ever exist.

There is an ancient air about him, something old, something wise, something heavy that Althea can sense filling the entire room, pressing down on her chest. The few candles that are still burning flicker nervously, as if daunted by the fire still whispering around the angel’s bare feet, sizzling around his head and softly growling from his back.

This fire is something else. Something alive.

And yet—there is a certain deadness in the heart of it all, tickling Althea’s gift. The urge nudges her to step forward, murmuring in the back of her mind to fix, heal, restore. There is something broken about this angel, something she needs to fix heal restore—

She shuffles forward, barely a few inches.

The angel’s gaze instantly lands on her, and it’s like a pair of hands pushing her back, an animal grunting a warning.

A king, ordering her to step back and not come any closer.

Althea releases a quivering breath.

Then, he speaks: Chula. Nyokah.

His voice—it’s dark like the starless night sky, it’s rich like an explosion of color, or molten chocolate maybe, Althea can’t quite decide. She feels his voice in her chest, even in her throat, almost as if the angel just spoke through her.

He didn’t, though. His own lips move as he speaks again: A beast has been here.

A Nightmare, yes. Nyokah dips her head. He… took one of our Gifted Ones away. He’s using him to make weapons.

"Make, you say. The Angel Made of Fire pauses, his eyes unreadable. I assume you speak of the Wandering Artist."

I do.

We can’t stay here, Chula adds—she doesn’t flinch under the greater angel’s gaze, though her fox tail twitches restlessly. If we stay, he’ll know where to find us. The Wandering Artist surrendered himself in order to keep us safe. A hint of guilt tugs at her human, yet not-quite-human features. We should find the Monster Kisser; we’ve been working together with him to find a way to stop the Nightmares—

"He’s with the former Monster Kisser, is he not? The one who… became a monster herself," the Angel