Mark of the Cursed · The Book
Shadows & Pain
Book One of the trilogy. Dark fantasy, grimdark, told by a demon.
A man raised his hand, and his own shadow did not raise it with him.
That was how it began. Not with fire, not with thunder, but with a small, polite gesture that went unanswered.
Read a sample on Kindle
The story
Some doors are held from the inside.
Kael can call the darkness. It obeys him, and takes a piece of him every time. First the feeling in his fingers. Then the warmth of a child's hand he is holding and can no longer feel.
Veylan, who carries two powers that want to tear him apart, stays at his side regardless, and neither of them ever says why.
When they reach the last safe place in the world, a woman and her eight-year-old son with them, they find walls, rules and bread. An old museum behind boarded windows, guarded by consecrated relics.
But the most dangerous walls are the ones still standing. The order that takes them in fights the darkness with weapons made of darkness, and beneath its foundations lies the reason. Chained. And a long way from dead.
Sometimes a curse is the only way to freedom.
Content notes
Systematic torture and mutilation within a religious order, body horror, graphic violence, death of a main character, loss of loved ones seen through a child's eyes, captivity and restraint, loss of bodily sensation, religiously motivated violence, self-sacrifice. No happy ending.
Prologue and 44 chapters · approx. 87,000 words
Editions
| Edition | ISBN | Copy |
|---|---|---|
| English · Shadows & Pain | ||
| Kindle ebook · out now | Amazon | Open |
| Paperback · coming soon | 978-3-67636-009-8 | |
| Hardcover · coming soon | 978-3-67636-008-1 | |
| German · Schatten & Schmerz · 31 October 2026 | ||
| Paperback | 978-3-67636-004-3 | |
| Hardcover | 978-3-67636-003-6 | |
| Paperback, sprayed edges | 978-3-67636-007-4 | |
| Hardcover, sprayed edges | 978-3-67636-006-7 | |
| Ebook | 978-3-67636-005-0 | |
Any bookshop can order the print editions with the ISBN.
From the Shadowbloggers
What the first readers say
All reviews come from Shadowbloggers who received a free advance copy. Nemoria approved them but did not edit them.