The Desire of Cyborium

by S K Collier

Everything I thought I knew was a lie.

The castle. The forbidden voice magic. My mother the queen who erased my father from history. Six years of wanting Silas, the man who finally corners me in a midnight pool, his hands possessive, his promises filthy.

Being kidnapped by Zoltan — the brutal shapeshifter hunter bred to kill witches like me — who chains me up in his tent, then cleans my wounds with impossible tenderness. The enemy who should execute me but can't seem to let me go.

All of it felt real. Dangerously, desperately real.

Until I woke up.

Now I'm somewhere else entirely. Somewhere with neon-drenched streets and chrome spires piercing polluted skies. A world that shouldn't exist but feels more familiar than my own skin. The people I knew are here too — but everything's different. Everything's wrong.

Or maybe everything was wrong before, and this is the truth I wasn't supposed to remember.

My magic is real. The neon smoke that erupts from my skin, bending reality, turning everything to ash — that's mine. But the castle? The cliffs where I sang to the sea? The life I thought I'd lived for eighteen years?

Someone put me there. Trapped me in a beautiful fantasy while my real body lay suspended in a nightmare.

And now that I'm awake, they're coming for me.

Shadow creatures with hollow eyes. A threat my mother died to protect me from. Enemies wearing the faces of friends. And Silas — always Silas — who might be my salvation or my damnation, depending on which world is telling the truth.

I don't know what's real anymore. The fantasy that felt like home, or this dark, fractured reality where survival means blood on your hands and trust is a luxury no one can afford.

But I know I was born dangerous. Born with power that shouldn't exist.

And whether I'm a witch in a castle or something far more terrifying, I'll burn every lie to ashes to find out who the fuck I really am.

Even if both worlds try to stop me.

THE DESIRE OF CYBORIUM — Where dark fantasy meets cyberpunk, forbidden romance collides with brutal reality, and nothing is what it seems.

A dark romance blending paranormal fantasy, sci-fi, and morally gray obsession. Features explicit content, violence, kidnapping, reality manipulation, and a heroine who refuses to be saved. For readers 18+ who crave genre-bending romance with high stakes and higher heat.

Perfect for fans

Enemies-to-lovers with captor dynamicsFantasy worlds that fracture into something darkerMultiple realities and mind-bending plot twistsMorally gray men who don't know if they want to protect you or possess youHeroines who fight back and take no prisoners

379 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2025

About the author

I write dark fantasy and paranormal romance where magic corrupts and monsters don't apologize. With a background in psychology, I'm obsessed with crafting characters who live in the morally gray spaces - the ones whose darkness feels disturbingly real because I understand exactly how minds break and rebuild.

Born in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, I traded snow for Texas sunshine and now spend my days creating feral heroines, tubing rivers with my kids, and hosting BBQs that definitely count as a love language.

My greatest magic? Turning chaos into stories that bite back and loving my children fiercely through it all.

I survive on coffee like it's a controlled substance. Pretty sure my blood type changed to dark roast somewhere around book two.

Reviews

[Zachery Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up "The Desire of Cyborium" on a whim after seeing it pop up in my TikTok Feed. I'm an enjoy fan of fantasy novels with witches, monsters, and a hefty dose of revenge. I mean, who doesn’t! As someone who always craves something grittier, this one scratched that itch in ways I didn't expect. It's the first in the "A World of Desire and Sin" series, and at around 371 pages, it was a quick, intense read that I knocked out over a weekend. It’s also told in first person, as if you're right there with Myna.

Cyborium is this walled-off dystopia blending cyberpunk decay with fantasy elements, plague-ridden slums, elitist councils hoarding magic, and these twisted "PODs" that feel like nightmarish prisons. The magic system is mutated, tied to trauma, and can literally tear reality apart. Myna Embrook is a witch who's been through hell, branded, shackled, and haunted by years of implanted memories from her childhood tormentor, Noxvrith. She's not your typical "strong female lead"; she's feral, foul-mouthed (plenty of that throughout, quotes like “Fuck me sideways, that little piece of metal had everyone’s panties in a twist,” gave me and unapologetically vengeful.

The plot is interesting at the beginning, and the narrative keeps me turning the pages. Then it races along with high-stakes action, hunts for betrayers, unravels secrets, and power struggles that could rebuild or raze the world. There's gore, profanity that fits the tone, and you know, one of the reasons we read these titles! (Chapter 5, shower scene) that lean into the obsessive, romance promised in the blurb. It's not soft or fade-to-black; it's possessive, monster-fueled heat that ties into the themes of desire. If you're into alpha males with dark edges, Noxvrith delivers, but it's Myna's arc from broken survivor to world-burner that kept me turning pages.

The ending sets the series nicely but leaves a couple of threads dangling, which might frustrate you if you're not into cliffhangers. Also, fair warning: this is heavy on triggers, so it's definitely "not for the weak," as the author puts it.

[Ele Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Desire of Cyborium is a Dark Romantacy but I think it's sprinkled with sci-fi too. The book was fast paced and kept you wanting to turn the next page to find out what happens. And the plot twists, especially the first one, had me dropping my jaw! The world was quite inventive, and Myna was unapologetically herself. I really enjoyed this book.