Duplicity: The Colony Carnival

The Colony Carnivale #18

by Ruby Nyx

They say The Colony Carnivale appears without warning—rolling into forgotten towns under blood-red skies, offering laughter, lights, and salvation for the bored and broken. But beneath the painted tents hides a different sin, each act a different obsession. Lust. Power. Revenge. Fear. The Carnivale feeds on it all—and so do the souls trapped inside.

The games are rigged, the prizes are cursed, and the performers aren’t quite human. So buy your ticket, brave the insanity, and pray the lights go out after you do. Because once you enter, the show owns you.

Welcome to The Colony Carnivale—where the fun never dies, it just screams louder.

93 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 18, 2026

About the author

Welcome to the shadows. I’m Ruby Nyx — a brand new indie author figuring this whole book world out one chaotic page at a time.

By day, I’m a shameless hobby hoarder, sticker collector, and cottage baker who thinks the best ideas always hit at midnight (when I should 100% be asleep). By night, I dive headfirst into dark fantasy and romance — spinning tales of blood-stained crowns, broken heroes, and heroines who set kingdoms on fire instead of falling in line.

I write for readers who crave more — more heat, more heartbreak, more danger. My stories are laced with messy magic, wild love, forbidden devotion, and the kind of obsession that leaves bruises. Nothing soft. Just sharp edges and whispered secrets in the dark.

When I’m not wrangling plot twists or dreaming up morally grey men who ruin everything for love, you’ll find me baking cookies, trying to sneak in a nap, or being thoroughly bossed around by my kids.

If you’re here, you’re part of the madness — so grab a cookie, stay up too late, and come get lost in my wicked little world.

Reviews

[Neapolitan670 📚🖤]

Those girls are not to be messed with!

Anne and Marie were rescued from an auction by Dario and taken to the Carnivale, he saw the darkness within them and they’re just what the Carnivale calls for. By day they run the candy floss stand, with breaks for nefarious reasons. At night they seek their prey in Delirium…their mirror maze is a reflection of their own dark desires.

The gore and specialist treatment the carnival attendees receive from these two is filled with sticky situations 🤭 The narrative pulls you into their messy world.

🩸 Play | Spice | M^*der | Twins | Violence & Gore | Body Mutilation | Substance Abuse | Erotic Horror

[Natasha Stills]

This one was a good short story. Perfect amount of gore and spice.

[Charlene's Bookish Archives]

Where mirrors lie and love unravels, breathtakingly beautiful and devastating.

Ruby Nyx leads you straight into the Infinity Maze and never lets you find your way back, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Duplicity is pure Carnivale magic, gorgeous, deceptive, and achingly poignant.

You step in laughing, hand in hand, expecting nothing more than a private thrill, and then the maze shifts. The reflections warp. The person beside you is gone. Watching, helpless, as everything you thought you knew turns fragile, thin, and fraying right before your eyes. Sweet smiles, soft voices, sugar spun pastel sweet, but it tastes just a little too good. Just a little too sharp.

That’s the spell here: the beauty that hides the knife, the intimacy that becomes a trap, the love that looks different once the mirrors are done with it. Every path leads somewhere deeper, and nowhere safe. The writing is luminous, haunting, and so vivid you can almost feel the walls closing in.

This series just keeps raising the bar, and Duplicity stands tall among the best of them. Step into the maze, if you dare. Just don’t trust what you see. 💀✨

[Jess Goudie]

🖤🎪 ARC REVIEW 🎪🖤

📖 Duplicity
Colony Carnival — Book #18
✍️ Ruby Nyx

💀 Jess’s Skeleton Rating:

💀💀💀.5 — Another quick trip deeper into the Carnival! 🎪🖤

⚠️ PLEASE READ ALL TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING! ⚠️
The Colony Carnival has NO limits, so make sure you check those warnings before stepping inside. 💀

💭 My Thoughts

Another quick read! 📚🎪

This time we're introduced to twins Anne and Marie...

🍭 By day? Selling cotton candy.
🪞 By night? The Infinity Maze.

Because apparently nothing inside this Carnival can ever just be innocent. 😂🤡

We also get another appearance from Dario, who saves the twins from being sold at an auction — and I love that the further we get into this series, the more we see how Dario connects to so many of the Carnival's characters and their stories.

Duplicity gives us another little piece of this massive, twisted world, and once again I'm curious to see where these characters pop up next. 👀🖤

🎪 18 DOWN... 13 TO GO! 💀

At this point, I'm way too deep inside the Carnival to even consider escaping. 😂

🎪 THE CARNIVAL WON'T LET YOU GO UNTIL THEY SAY YOU CAN. 🎪

#Duplicity #RubyNyx #ColonyCarnival #ARCReview #JesssSkeletonRating

[Liz Bench]

I really loved the dedication, and I absolutely adore the twins! There was also one part that genuinely made me laugh, but if you want to know what it was, you'll have to read the book yourself. 😂
My only real issue was the pacing. There were moments when I found myself getting a little bored, while other parts had me excited to see what would happen next. I wish the pacing had been more consistent throughout the story.
Other than that, this book was beautifully written and had the perfect atmosphere for a carnival. The overall feel of the story made it a great fit for the carnival theme. 🎪
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a carnival-themed read! 💜

[AJ Robertson]

We follow the twins, Marie and Anne, in this one. They had a rough bringing up, if you can even call it that, but their background is what they use to feed their darkest desires. After not having control for so long, Dario finds them at an auction and brings them into the Carnivale. The acts the commit are wicked, but that makes it into an art form. The actual artwork in the novel is quite nice, so I definitely recommend taking a peek. Gore, knives and blood are served, of course. There is some hella taboo action here that may make you blink and reread a few times, but yes, that's exactly what it said.

“Gentle is for the weak. Besides, you’re prettier when you wince..."

[Ravin Rose]

Duplicity brings a completely chaotic, sweet, and sinister energy to the Carnivale! Ruby Nyx centers this 18th novella on Anne and Marie twin candy connoisseurs who present as pastel-sweet on the outside, but are completely unhinged and vengeful on the inside.

Rescued from an auction by Dario after years of trauma, the twins take over the Infinity Mirror Maze, channeling their past into wicked, blood soaked acts that feel like performance art. The mix of cotton candy sweetness, heavy gore, and high taboo spice makes their story wildly addictive. They are downright evil, strangely adorable, and completely unforgettable

[Jolyn]

Anne, Marie, and their mirror maze are not one you will forget when it comes to the Carnivale! This story was addictive in all the right ways. It was dark, deranged, gory, with a dash of cotton candy spice. Honestly these twin though they were completely unhinged, they were kind of adorable in their own chaotic way. They come from trauma and were brought to the carnivale by Dario to supply the carnivale with everything it needs for a lot of the booths while also feeding their own hunger for vengeance. But absolutely most definitely check your triggers because it’s got a dinner menu of them!

[Jade Ford]

Disclaimer: I'm reading these novels as a set of ARCs! Please note that they are dark, and come with a lot of trigger warnings! I'm quite new to dark novels, and they seem to hit me one of two ways - either I have the reaction of being grossly fascinated and unable to look away (a bit like when humans see an accident and can't help but side eye), or it turns my stomach and makes me flinch - both reactions I find interesting as a reader, but I tend to prefer the horror of the first! What type of dark reader you are with your own preferences/triggers, will no doubt affect how you find each of these reads and you should always check your trigger warnings first.

Duplicity added more gore to the carnival with the added drama of twins. I enjoyed their dark backstory and how it fed into their activities at the carnival, and enjoyed the complicated mix of sweet and danger. This was a gentle interlude along the carnivale journey, although aspects of it did not appeal to me, it definitely isn't forgettable.

[Villanerareads]

Yes, this was an ARC. No, my standards haven't disappeared because I got a free book. 🖤

Twins? Murder? Sexy time? Say less.

I'm a sucker for female killers and this absolutely delivered. It follows two twins who are victims of trafficking, and despite being a short read, it packs a hell of a lot in.

I also really loved the little nod to Coax. It made everything feel even more connected and kept the story firmly planted in the Carnival universe, which I really appreciated.

Short, snappy, fucked up and exactly my kind of read

[Cindy Penner]

Duplicity, #18 in the Colony Carnival series, was such a fun read! We meet Marie and Anne, two candy connoisseurs who are sweet on the outside and downright evil on the inside. No one can resist their sugary charm, and that irresistible sweetness gets them into all kinds of trouble.

I loved this feral little tale! It was twisted, unhinged, and so much fun. And now, on I go to the next delightfully unhinged story in the series.

[Pretty_Poisons_Dark_Romance]

This is the 18th novella in the Colony Carnivale. Please check the trigger warning if needed. These are dark spicy stories. I really liked how we got to follow twins in this one. Anne and Marie were so good! There is a lot of gore in this story. I loved how Ruby worked in the cotton candy! I would absolutely love seeing more of these two from Ruby Nyx. I will be reviewing all novellas in the series and they can be found on my profile!

[Tanya Kolb]

This one threw me off a little. I thought there was already a mirror maze run by Talat. Is this the same one or a different one? It seems odd that the twins would be inside his attraction doing this.
I love the idea of the twins, especially the two sets. Their relationship was beyond weird though. I was not expecting that to go the way it did at all. I kept expecting them to end up in the delirium tent at some point.
I think they definitely have a place in the Carnivale.

[Kimberly Farrell]

Please check your triggers as this book may contain something uncomfortable for you.

This is apart of the Colony carnivale series.

Duplicity follows the set of twins who went through so much at a young age. At an auction they were able to escape but to a different monster.
The twins run the cotton candy stand and use the mirror maze as a different type of game.

I really enjoyed their ability to match with each other but also have small differences as well.

[Marci Simmons]

Disclaimer: I am reading these books as a set of ARCS. Note they are dark and come with quite a bit of trigger warnings.
This was Book 18 of The Colony Carnivale. Duplicity by Ruby Nyx was so good and about the two sisters Anne and Marie who have been through a lot. They were auctioned as children and now they pretty much take vengeance on anyone who they think would’ve been there or helped them.

I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Heather]

“You’ve spent your whole life taking whatever you want from people. Isn’t it time someone gave you exactly what you deserve?”

Anne and Marie are twins with brutal pasts who once involved in the Carnivale use their histories to torture the men (and a few others) who used to torment them. The brutality is extreme but artistic in a way; their mirror house captures them, and they feed the Carnivale. My biggest complaint is their brief dalliance between the other twins Cole and Asher is brief because holy hell that has some hot potential. But they are two parts of one broken whole and it is an enjoyable story.

[Bonnie James]

Duplicity is unsettling in the best possible way.
Ruby Nyx creates such a thick and atmospheric Carnivale setting. The tension is constant, the writing is immersive, and the combination of erotic darkness and genuine unease works perfectly.
I raced through this one. Short, sharp, and definitely the kind of story that leaves an impression.

[Jennifer Taylor]

Book 18 in The Colony Carnivale. In this story we meet twins Anne and Marie. We meet them at an auction where Dario finds them and takes them to the Colony. They run a mirror maze and unleash some feminine rage out. There is blood, gore and knives being used. There is also some nice artwork included throughout the story.

[Liz Ranne]

I loved this! It's Anne & Marie's story & it was awesome! They were rescued by Dario, & they have special talent. Their attraction is the infinity maze; it's not fun & games. Walls move; some disappear, you get separated & things happen. By day they sale cotton candy, by night they have different jobs. Loved the story! Recommend this novella & author!

[danie]

Thank you for the arc opportunity!

I wasn't a huge fan of thise one. The writing was good, but i didn't feel anything for the characters and that made me struggle abit through this one. I can definitely see a lot of people loving it though!

[__boundbybook__ 🥀Shaunie🥀]

This was so good! The gore was high and so was the anticipation!
It was dark spicy and everything you expected for this shared world!
This was a perfect addition to the series and definitely a huge recommendation!

[Sabrina]

Book 18 of the colony carnivale.

Annie and Marie are the twins. Their upbringing is what drives them and I enjoyed every dark part of it. I may look at cotton candy differently from now on. Definitely worth it.

[Katie P]

I love twins.
Anne & Marie did not have the best start to childhood but man are they living now. This was taboo and full of mirrors, trapdoors, and cotton candy. I hope we get more of these two with Cole & Asher.

[♥︎Obsidian°Scorpio°Reads♥︎]

Book 18 Of The Colony Carnival

What a hell of a mirror 🪞 effect!.

The way Ruby Nyx bring anna and Marie to life in theis was breathtaking. These girls might wanna play but are you brave enough to enter?.

Please read your triggers

[Dashunchik]

I really wanted to enjoy Duplicity, but the twins' story just didn’t resonate with me at all. Out of the entire series, this one felt the least captivating—the pacing was off, and there wasn't much in terms of plot or memorable scenes to keep me invested.

Thanks for the ARC.

[Crystal O]

Number 18 to the series brings us twins Anne ans Marie who was rescued by Dario from an auction and filled with twisty darkness perfect for the carnivale. These women are not to be toyed with and bring just the right amount of spice and gore for your pleasure.

[Aura]

Arc reader review.

The writing was really good, the twins were sweet in more ways than not. For a few pages I thought we would have a little more when it comes to Asher and Cole but no. Maybe they will be introduced in another book.

[Melissa Allen]

Book 18 of the Colony Carnivale...
Here we meet the cotton candy twins Ann and Marie, see what they did there? Not only do the twins run the cotton candy booth but also a mirror maze where they really get to play. These girls have to be a couple of my favorites! On to the next one... xoxo

[heather]

Had me bolting up in my seat a multitude of times and screaming wtf. Gore, cotton candy sweets, taboo, sharp objects and crushings are tucked away beneath the beautiful artwork.

[Kalene]

Ruby's book was so amazing!!! I am left hanging and wanting more though. This shared world has me in a chokehold