Perpetūra - Hyunjae Sample

A painter's hands close over a brush he uses only on the dead. He has been called to paint a living noblewoman in Joseon Korea, 1742, and the room already feels wrong.

Hyunjae has built her life on perfect order. Every duty met, every want folded small and put somewhere no one would think to look. Then a portraitist who works on the recently deceased is brought into her house, and his first real glance lands exactly where she has spent years making sure no one could see.

This is the opening story of Perpetūra, complete from first meeting to the choice it finally asks of her. On its own, it holds.

It is also a beginning. Four more women wait beyond it, across four more centuries, each carrying a feeling none of them can name. Start here, free. If it stays with you, the full collection is where it goes.

Contains explicit sexual content. Intended for readers 18+.