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Three Kings of Bone and Star: Solstice in Bone and Velvet Volume III
On the longest night of the year, the stars watch back.
Tim Jarrett has lived for two years around the darkness that is Mistwood Cove, long enough to know which traditions keep people warm and which ones keep them quiet. Every winter, the town gathers for Yule with fire and lights and songs meant to hold the dark at bay. Every winter, something older listens from the trees.
This year, Adriana Kline draws attention as the nights grow longer, carrying her own loneliness into a town already heavy with wanting. She does not yet understand why three voices on the wind keep circling closer, or why the woods seem to lean toward her when she walks past their edge. She only knows that the season feels sharpened, as if it has been waiting.
Something ancient moves beneath the ritual and the snow, bone-bright and star-cold, patient as hunger. It watches the three who are drawn together and the one who has been chosen without being told. It does not need permission. It only needs the night to be long enough.
What begins as attention and desire slips quietly into devotion and dread, where longing becomes a kind of gravity and the cost of being seen may be more than anyone intended to give. In Mistwood Cove, the longest night does not end. It crowns its kings.
Content Note
This story contains explicit sexual content, intense power dynamics, supernatural coercion, predatory behavior, and graphic psychological and cosmic horror elements. Intended for adult readers only. Please see the in-book content warning for more detail.
Tim Jarrett has lived for two years around the darkness that is Mistwood Cove, long enough to know which traditions keep people warm and which ones keep them quiet. Every winter, the town gathers for Yule with fire and lights and songs meant to hold the dark at bay. Every winter, something older listens from the trees.
This year, Adriana Kline draws attention as the nights grow longer, carrying her own loneliness into a town already heavy with wanting. She does not yet understand why three voices on the wind keep circling closer, or why the woods seem to lean toward her when she walks past their edge. She only knows that the season feels sharpened, as if it has been waiting.
Something ancient moves beneath the ritual and the snow, bone-bright and star-cold, patient as hunger. It watches the three who are drawn together and the one who has been chosen without being told. It does not need permission. It only needs the night to be long enough.
What begins as attention and desire slips quietly into devotion and dread, where longing becomes a kind of gravity and the cost of being seen may be more than anyone intended to give. In Mistwood Cove, the longest night does not end. It crowns its kings.
Content Note
This story contains explicit sexual content, intense power dynamics, supernatural coercion, predatory behavior, and graphic psychological and cosmic horror elements. Intended for adult readers only. Please see the in-book content warning for more detail.
41 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 13, 2025
About the author
Allauren Willowgrave
6 books3 followersAllauren Willowgrave writes New Adult erotica with a dark bend, leaning into erotic horror and shadowed romance.
Allauren lives in British Columbia with her beloved husband and her cat, Hobbes. She likes her stories steamy, kinky, and edged with unease, the stranger and creepier the better. When she is not writing, she is usually watching paranormal videos or unsettling YouTube deep dives, getting attached to quirky Korean dramas, rereading classic gothic horror, or disappearing into an MMO. Most days you will find her at her PC, half in her next crooked little dream of a story, half logged into whatever world she is currently adventuring through.
Allauren lives in British Columbia with her beloved husband and her cat, Hobbes. She likes her stories steamy, kinky, and edged with unease, the stranger and creepier the better. When she is not writing, she is usually watching paranormal videos or unsettling YouTube deep dives, getting attached to quirky Korean dramas, rereading classic gothic horror, or disappearing into an MMO. Most days you will find her at her PC, half in her next crooked little dream of a story, half logged into whatever world she is currently adventuring through.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2025
She was never theirs to break. She was already becoming.
In a town that fears the woods but clings to its rituals, three boys die on the longest night of the year and don’t stay gone. Now ghosts, they drift through Mistwood Cove, invisible and bitter, watching the living move on. What starts as petty haunting turns into fixation, especially on Adriana, a woman who won’t mourn them, won’t bend, and won’t look away from what waits in the dark.
As Adriana’s dreams pull her deeper into something ancient and strange, the boys try to break her open. They whisper, push, invade. But the more pressure they apply, the more she sharpens. And in the forest, something old is paying attention.
What begins with loss and lingering ghosts twists into something cosmic, intimate, and terrifying. Adriana isn’t unraveling. She’s remembering. And the boys, who thought they were the main characters, start to realize she was never the one being haunted.
The boys shift from reckless teens to hollow echoes of themselves, desperate for meaning they can’t reclaim. Adriana becomes something other, something true, shaped not by fear but by choice. Their dynamic fractures as she ascends and they fade, exposing a connection built on watching, not knowing.
A dark, erotic, eldritch winter solstice ghost story that spirals through obsession, memory, identity, control, surrender, and what it means to be seen. It’s about the illusion of power, the gravity of longing, and what happens when someone walks into the woods and does not come back the same.
The Elevator Pitch: On the longest night of the year, three restless ghosts try to haunt a woman already being called by something older. What begins with whispers and watching spirals into a story of desire, transformation, and ancient power. Lush, unsettling, and otherworldly, it's about what people become when no one’s looking and something starts listening.
In a town that fears the woods but clings to its rituals, three boys die on the longest night of the year and don’t stay gone. Now ghosts, they drift through Mistwood Cove, invisible and bitter, watching the living move on. What starts as petty haunting turns into fixation, especially on Adriana, a woman who won’t mourn them, won’t bend, and won’t look away from what waits in the dark.
As Adriana’s dreams pull her deeper into something ancient and strange, the boys try to break her open. They whisper, push, invade. But the more pressure they apply, the more she sharpens. And in the forest, something old is paying attention.
What begins with loss and lingering ghosts twists into something cosmic, intimate, and terrifying. Adriana isn’t unraveling. She’s remembering. And the boys, who thought they were the main characters, start to realize she was never the one being haunted.
The boys shift from reckless teens to hollow echoes of themselves, desperate for meaning they can’t reclaim. Adriana becomes something other, something true, shaped not by fear but by choice. Their dynamic fractures as she ascends and they fade, exposing a connection built on watching, not knowing.
A dark, erotic, eldritch winter solstice ghost story that spirals through obsession, memory, identity, control, surrender, and what it means to be seen. It’s about the illusion of power, the gravity of longing, and what happens when someone walks into the woods and does not come back the same.
The Elevator Pitch: On the longest night of the year, three restless ghosts try to haunt a woman already being called by something older. What begins with whispers and watching spirals into a story of desire, transformation, and ancient power. Lush, unsettling, and otherworldly, it's about what people become when no one’s looking and something starts listening.
February 5, 2026
The deep, dark, gothic tones of this story were intensely gripping and so beautiful.
This was the third story and it certainly helped to know the previous two stories, as each one does bleed into the others, but each story also stood very much on their own.
Three boys who are stuck in a liminal space of sorts watch, haunt, and wait to see what impact their presence will have on one of the town's residents. They wait to see what the purpose of their presence is and if they will be granted the ability to move on.
The gothic feeling, this liminal space of nothing and everything all at once, was so beautifully written. This is a story that reaches down into your very being and grasps on to you, holing you tight. It is not a story I will easily forget, nor do I want to.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was the third story and it certainly helped to know the previous two stories, as each one does bleed into the others, but each story also stood very much on their own.
Three boys who are stuck in a liminal space of sorts watch, haunt, and wait to see what impact their presence will have on one of the town's residents. They wait to see what the purpose of their presence is and if they will be granted the ability to move on.
The gothic feeling, this liminal space of nothing and everything all at once, was so beautifully written. This is a story that reaches down into your very being and grasps on to you, holing you tight. It is not a story I will easily forget, nor do I want to.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
December 15, 2025
"If you listen for heaven on the longest night, you will miss what is listening back. The woods do not answer prayers. They remember debts."
Book 3 was much more heavier, sadder, the eerieness still lingers in Mistwood Cove, the coldness creeping its way across the small town and over the odd mix of people and other that live side by side. The Yule holiday was in full swing, another year later, as 3 teenagers(?) boys really, noticing a single hotshot attorney named Adriana Kline at Maren's Yoga Studio. Adriana was a loner type, self-righteous (my impression of her) stuck in her ways and how she handled her day to day schedule. Nothing special. Now Bran, Nico, and Tim were taking one last adventure not realizing how linked they were to become to Adriana.
I have tbh here, I did find myself rereading chapters b/c certain things didn't make sense to me as the story progressed. The haunting was minimal. I didn't understand the purpose. Aside from manipulation from the bad. Adriana, there really wasn't any background to her in order to understand her place with these 3 young men. If they had past interactions, or she represented them in a court case, that would make sense. It felt too.. random. She was a puppet who was there then gone. The supernatural elements were peculiar. There are worse things than d3ath. A rebalancing. I'm sorry, I didn't get the whole 3 Kings purpose.🕯️🕯️🕯️ I have an idea what it could represent but it might not be that.
The thing that stood out to me was the isolation and loneliness. Especially with Robert Montgomery who still goes and puts his sister's missing posters in town, hoping for something in the silence of not knowing these past 3 to 4yrs. Robert is fading away like those posters. Why not go beyond the town? Has no one not noticed others disappearing? It's not a bad book, it just raised more questions than answers. You don't have to tell me everything but give me a hint to something.😂 The book cover is creepy. As it should be. Maybe the next book will interlock with this one more.🤷 Happy reading.*•>§<•*🌳🦌🌳🦌🌳
🚩🚩 Read the TWs. The book is intended for adults.🚩
🚩
🧟♂️🧟🧟♂️Thank you to Ms Willowgrave and Booksprout. The opinions shared here are my own.🧟♂️🧟🧟♂️
Book 3 was much more heavier, sadder, the eerieness still lingers in Mistwood Cove, the coldness creeping its way across the small town and over the odd mix of people and other that live side by side. The Yule holiday was in full swing, another year later, as 3 teenagers(?) boys really, noticing a single hotshot attorney named Adriana Kline at Maren's Yoga Studio. Adriana was a loner type, self-righteous (my impression of her) stuck in her ways and how she handled her day to day schedule. Nothing special. Now Bran, Nico, and Tim were taking one last adventure not realizing how linked they were to become to Adriana.
I have tbh here, I did find myself rereading chapters b/c certain things didn't make sense to me as the story progressed. The haunting was minimal. I didn't understand the purpose. Aside from manipulation from the bad. Adriana, there really wasn't any background to her in order to understand her place with these 3 young men. If they had past interactions, or she represented them in a court case, that would make sense. It felt too.. random. She was a puppet who was there then gone. The supernatural elements were peculiar. There are worse things than d3ath. A rebalancing. I'm sorry, I didn't get the whole 3 Kings purpose.🕯️🕯️🕯️ I have an idea what it could represent but it might not be that.
The thing that stood out to me was the isolation and loneliness. Especially with Robert Montgomery who still goes and puts his sister's missing posters in town, hoping for something in the silence of not knowing these past 3 to 4yrs. Robert is fading away like those posters. Why not go beyond the town? Has no one not noticed others disappearing? It's not a bad book, it just raised more questions than answers. You don't have to tell me everything but give me a hint to something.😂 The book cover is creepy. As it should be. Maybe the next book will interlock with this one more.🤷 Happy reading.*•>§<•*🌳🦌🌳🦌🌳
🚩🚩 Read the TWs. The book is intended for adults.🚩
🚩
🧟♂️🧟🧟♂️Thank you to Ms Willowgrave and Booksprout. The opinions shared here are my own.🧟♂️🧟🧟♂️
January 23, 2026
Book 3 of the Solstice in Bone and Velvet: Short Stories of Yule series. While it can be read as a standalone read the books in series order for maximum enjoyment.
'What begins as attention and desire slips quietly into devotion and dread, where longing becomes a kind of gravity and the cost of being seen may be more than anyone intended to give. In Mistwood Cove, the longest night does not end. It crowns its kings.'
The characters carried the story and they were very compelling and complex and dark and gritty. Plot was intriguing and intense and well paced. World building continues to excel and impress. Another great addition to the series. Enjoyed immensely and highly recommend.
Grab a copy, kick back and enjoy!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
'What begins as attention and desire slips quietly into devotion and dread, where longing becomes a kind of gravity and the cost of being seen may be more than anyone intended to give. In Mistwood Cove, the longest night does not end. It crowns its kings.'
The characters carried the story and they were very compelling and complex and dark and gritty. Plot was intriguing and intense and well paced. World building continues to excel and impress. Another great addition to the series. Enjoyed immensely and highly recommend.
Grab a copy, kick back and enjoy!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
February 10, 2026
✨ ARC review ✨
4.5 stars
An excellent third in the series. This one was more sad and less spicy than the others, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It can be read as a standalone, but I'd say reading the previous two short stories in the series does enhance the reading experience greatly.
I received an e-ARC of this book. I am leaving a review voluntarily, and it is my honest opinion.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm obsessed with the author's writing style. Hauntingly beautiful in the quiet moments as well as the grotesque.
All in all, I can only recommend this series! Especially if you love gothic vibes, haunting, lyrical prose, messed-up, complex characters, and strange creatures.
4.5 stars
An excellent third in the series. This one was more sad and less spicy than the others, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It can be read as a standalone, but I'd say reading the previous two short stories in the series does enhance the reading experience greatly.
I received an e-ARC of this book. I am leaving a review voluntarily, and it is my honest opinion.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm obsessed with the author's writing style. Hauntingly beautiful in the quiet moments as well as the grotesque.
All in all, I can only recommend this series! Especially if you love gothic vibes, haunting, lyrical prose, messed-up, complex characters, and strange creatures.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews