Garrotte

They paid to handle her. Then they paid for it. Until he handled her.Every performance has a price.Kordi is the Colony's puppet mistress by day, stitching exquisite marionettes from the remains of those who fed the Carnival's hunger. By night, audiences gather to watch her impossible theatre. A puppet show of carnal desires, where flesh meets fantasy. A select few can even pay to become her handler, taking hold of the strings that make the final act possible.Some never leave.But when a handler mistakes possession for permission, Kordi ensures they don't survive the performance. She assumes the Colony has worked its magic to simply dispose of the bodies she leaves behind, until she catches Drogue: towering, masked, and kneeling in the dark beside the bodies of men who hurt her. A stranger who has been silently collecting her carnage ever asking for recognition.Drogue was there the night she first killed. He could have stepped in to save her from that darkness. Instead, he watched her survive. As the Colony's appetite grows and its patrons surrender to their darkest desires, Kordi and Drogue transform her theatre into something far more dangerous than entertainment.Every show becomes a judgment. Every string a sentence. Every standing ovation another step toward exposing the monsters hiding beneath velvet masks.In a Carnival where everyone feeds on what people are willing to become, the most terrifying performance has only just begun.WARNING: This book is Erotic Splatterpunk and contains detailed descriptions of horror, gore, and more. Please read the trigger warnings before reading.