When Life Gives You Lemons
Hey, shadow darlings!
Well, life has handed me a plot twist that feels more like a curse from a trickster god. Earlier this week I fell leaving a dentist office and I broke my ankle. Fortunately, I don’t need surgery, but unfortunately, I am on bed rest for six weeks.
This has really not been my year.
Dealing with a broken bone has really derailed my revision schedule, especially since I can’t walk for the next month and a half. So I’m moving the release of King’s Kiss ebook to December 16th. Print copies will be available after New Years.
I will still be in a medical boot by then and dealing with physical therapy, but I want to at least get the ebook out to you this year. With how crazy the post office gets during the holidays, icy roads that are a fall risk, and with only husband to help package a mountain of pre-orders, it's best for everyone that I wait to begin shipping until mid January.
I’m sorry, darlings. This was not the update I wanted to write, but when life gives you lemons…
We throw them at Rune. Jk lol sort of.
The whole ordeal has been really frustrating to say the least. The cherry on top of what 2025 has been for many. But I am holding onto hope that 2026 will bring good things. Spring is rebirth. Spring is when snow melts and bones mend and stories take shape.
This book deserves to arrive when I am strong enough to stand on both feet again… literally and metaphorically.
What this means for you:
👑 Pre-orders: If you pre-ordered from my website (books, boxes, print packs, dust jackets, etc.), or pre-ordered the white exclusive edition from @BookishSigns, you don’t need to do anything. Your pre-order will automatically shift to December 16th.
Amazon will send out a notice of the new release date later today.
👑 Timeline: Orders will begin shipping the third week of January and will go out in waves throughout the month until February. Keep in mind things may move slower than usual as I don’t have any assistants other than my husband to help me pack orders.
The white exclusive edition will likely begin shipping in February. Please have patience with Amber (@BookishSigns). The book printer takes ten days minimum to process orders. The exclusives must arrive at my home first to be signed before they can go to Amber to be painted, then packaged to be shipped to you.
👑 Arc Team & Street Team: You’ll receive your ARC hopefully by early December.
🎁 My Gift: As my thank you for your patience
King and Queen of Shadows print is now added to all King’s Kiss pre-orders. It’s automatically included with orders placed through my website.
If you pre-ordered the ebook on Amazon, just fill out this FORM to claim your free swag.
Everyone who pre-ordered from my site will also receive a special 50% discount code off any one item in the shop. This code will arrive with your fulfillment notice.
For any questions or pre-order adjustments, reach out to us through the Contact form.
👑 As my extra gift to you, here is a surprise art reveal by @kotimori (included in the overlay set of the print pack) and a King’s Kiss snippet of this scene! 💋
King’s Kiss © Beck Michaels
A sly smile edged the prince’s mouth as he slid a ring onto her finger. Not the golden monstrosity she’d expected, but a dark, beautiful band. Onyx metal twisting like vines, with a ruby center that pulsed like a living thing.
“Do you choose to bind yourself to me by accepting this ring?” he asked.
The strange words weren’t loud. But they stilled Alora’s thoughts and the beat of her heart.
The prince gazed back at her, calm and unreadable.
The torches dimmed.
Shadows flickered unnaturally against the wall, and Alora swore Aldric’s shadow stretched behind him up the wall, forming like horns above his head. And for just a breath, his eyes caught the torchlights, flickering with flame.
Her breath hitched.
The throne room doors burst open with a thunderous crack.
Prince Aldric stormed in with his guards, expression contorted with fury. “Impostor!” he bellowed.
Gasps rang through the room. Alora and the wedding guests stared at the prince then at his twin standing beside her.
The impostor’s smile curved into something terribly familiar as his blue eyes bled red. She stumbled back when shadows burst from his body. They blotted torches one by one, ripping through the chamber. Cries rang out as wind wailed through the air and the church drowned in darkness.
A black cloud rippled on the altar. From it, emerged a figure of nightmare. A man she didn’t know but had met in her dreams.
Long black hair spilled around a pale face chiseled like marble, beautiful in its otherworldliness, garnet eyes glowing in the dark. He loomed above her in a black ceremonial coat, a cape streaming behind him like a veil of blood. His ears were tapered to points, and crimson markings pulsed across his skin with a life of their own.
Alora was rooted in place, blood going still in her veins. Her body knew him before her mind could name him.
Rune.
He grinned at the gawking crowd behind her, fangs gleaming. And his voice rumbled in the silence, dark amusement curling in every biting word. “Praise the Seven.”
The High Priestess’s face drained of all color as she pointed at him with a trembling finger. “The Shadow God!”
Panic erupted.
People fled in all directions, screaming. Calveron’s guards struggled to move forward as the frantic throng pushed against them.
“Stop him!” Prince Aldric shouted, drawing his sword. “Who closed the curtains? Tear them down, damn it! Let in the light—”
Rune raised a clawed hand.
The shadows surged out, spearing the guards. Swords and windows shattered. Men flew backward. The castle shook as fissures veined the walls.
And yet Rune never looked away from her. He stood before her, towering, terrible, crimson eyes unforgivably calm. Ancient and burning.
Prince Aldric and his men charged forward, but everything seemed to slow, as if they existed out of time itself.
A sly knowing smirk rose to Rune’s face. He took her chin in his fingers, black talons cool against her skin, and he asked once more. “Princess Alora of Argyle, do you choose to bind yourself to me?”
Her heartbeat slowed.
The unusual proposal felt mythic.
A ritual written in spirit and bone.
The room trembled and the shadows writhed on the wall, as if awaiting her answer. Perhaps he had always been her way out, or perhaps it was simply the fact that Rune still gave her a choice. Accepting his ring would spare her from Aldric’s clutches. And that in itself was reason enough.
May her mother and father forgive her.
“I do,” she breathed.
Her reply fell like stones into a still pond. The ring pulsed with a heartbeat not her own and the sensation sank into her being, as if weaving through her very soul. She gasped, the bouquet slipping from her grasp.
Wind ripped through the chamber and the ground vibrated beneath her feet. Screams and the clash of metal rang into focus as time resumed. Aldric leaped up in the air, raising his sword above her head with an angry roar.
The shadows swallowed her whole.
Alora opened her eyes to darkness and abrupt quiet. Her chest heaved with wild breathes, heart hammering at how close she came to death. She stumbled back, her heels clacking on the hard stone, struggling to adjust her sight. The scent of damp earth and dust made her cough. At last her vision cleared with the faint moonlight trickling from the small opening in the ceiling far above.
She knew this place.
But this time… no dragon lurked in the cavern.
Alora whipped around.
Shadows clung to Rune like a living mist. His crimson eyes glowed bright as they watched her intently. A predator who had been kept waiting.
“Welcome home.” The God of Shadows smiled, the edges of his fangs glinting. “Wife.”
✨ King’s Kiss now releasing December 16th ✨
Thank you for your grace as I navitagte through the chaos life has thrown my way. Sometimes I have to remind myself that all good things take time. I want this book to be breathtaking and that means giving it all the time it needs to shine.
I’m bummed that King’s Kiss couldn’t be a fall book, but that’s ok.
It will be my Christmas gift to you!
With all my love,
xoxo ❤
Beck
P.S. Rune says not to worry, he promises to make it up to you, too. 😏
