A light is moving through the stacks
Lantern is setting out the next page.
LanternHow it was earned: Published work that helped Lantern reach its first one million story words.
How it was earned: Participated in Lantern’s September 2026 Back to School event.
How it was earned: Participated in the October by Lanternlight 2026 event.
In My Stories, Love is Torture.
Behind the byline
Coda Languez is a Software Engineer by the merciless light of day and an Artist/Author by the mischievous glow of moonlight. She harbors a passion for all things anime, horror, and comic-related, crowning her as a certified geek overlord in every realm imaginable.
Drawing inspiration from the twisted visions of Satoshi Kon, Kouta Hirano, Francesca Lia Block, and Clive Barker, Coda concocts a literary potion of black comedy, horror, magic realism, and dark romance, ensuring that her readers’ relationship with her morally ambiguous, sometimes outright nefarious protagonists remains deliciously ‘it’s complicated.’
When not conjuring code in her daytime techno-lair or weaving tales of psychologically unnerving romances and darkly humorous action after dusk, Coda can be found devouring anime epics, fantasy odysseys, and sci-fi adventures, or shamelessly surrendering to the siren call of competition reality TV (her secret indulgence).
At the heart of her quirky universe, she is the proud matriarch to an endearing little human, two Pembroke Welsh Corgi jesters, one sassy shepherd-lab sovereign, and the partner-in-crime to a husband who navigates her whimsical chaos with a saint’s patience.
For more info, check out Coda’s social media @codalanguez.
⌖ Within the Speakeasy hidden behind the Fungeon.
Visit the author’s website →The little things readers always want to know after the last page.
Forever shelf
In the headphones
Tiny author lore
On Lantern
Erotic Horror
Anna runs through Duskport with monsters at her heels and one prayer left: let the coal mine whistle sound. The whistle is supposed to weaken the Rust, strip the blood from the walls, and make the town survivable again.
It does.
Then the man in the iron cage breaks through her barricade.
He is eight feet of scarred muscle, rusted metal, and appetite. He cannot speak, but Anna knows the cruelty of his hands. Each time the whistle calls him back, her body recognizes what her mind has spent years burying: the lover who died on her kitchen floor, and the choice she made not to save him.
The Rust has returned him without a face and without restraint. Anna should want the whistle to take him away.
Instead, she wraps her legs around him and begs him to stay.
Dark fantasy romance
Once upon a curse, a kingdom bargained with darkness.
To save a dying queen, a fae lord’s stolen flower healed her—and birthed a princess bound by shadow.
Hidden away by fairies of light, Princess Lynneae grows up among lies and lullabies, until a mortal boy, Rowyn, awakens something forbidden in her heart. But when the sanctuary of spring falls, the darkness she was born from comes to claim her.
Now trapped in Maleus’s realm of ash and desire, Lynneae must resist the pull of her captor’s power, even as Rowyn crosses the Abyss to bring her back.
A tale of obsession, defiance, and doomed devotion, Taming Malice is a darkly seductive reimagining of Sleeping Beauty—where love is a curse, salvation is a sin, and the heart’s desire may be its undoing.
Beyond Lantern
Finished books, full-length worlds, and other stories waiting wherever you buy books.
Published book
Indulge in the seductive allure of the dark side with A Beautiful Lie - the ultimate enemy-to-lovers scifi romance.
Experience the captivating world of "Birth of a Sin: A Beautiful Lie", an exciting trilogy of dark romance featuring strong heroines, dangerous foes, and mysterious intrigue. The story takes place in a city plagued by crime and sci-fi terror, following the tumultuous relationship between Ira, the ruthless leader of a criminal empire, and Tristan, an enigmatic vigilante with a hidden agenda.
As their attraction grows stronger, Tristan's secret identity threatens to unravel their bond, while the treacherous underworld they inhabit puts their lives in danger. The trilogy starts with "A Beautiful Lie" and continues with "Pleasure in Pain" and "Wrath and Lust". With unexpected twists and complex characters, this series will keep you on the edge of your seat.
If you desire passionate romance, heart-pumping suspense, and forbidden love, then "Birth of a Sin: A Beautiful Lie" is a must-read. Will Ira and Tristan give in to their desires or destroy each other in the process? Find out in this gripping trilogy that will leave you wanting more.
Buy or learn more →Published book
From sweet seduction to brutal retribution: The toxic mafia romance continues with a vengeance.
Enter the chilling and twisted world of Ira Dante, a woman with immense power, wealth, and beauty. Tristan was captivated by her and saw her as his ideal lover. However, beneath her stunning exterior lies an obsession with extreme violence that destroys anyone who crosses her.
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Gothic Romance
Grief remade her. Once a woman of science and wonder, Victoria now moves through a world hollowed by loss; a cathedral of smoke and silence. In the hush of her workshop, where gears turn like rosaries and glass hums with trapped breath, she seeks what the heavens have denied her: life born from death, beauty drawn from decay.
When her creation stirs beneath the storm, it opens its eyes not to the light, but to her, the mother, the maker, the mourner. Between them blooms something fragile and forbidden, a tenderness that teeters on the edge of ruin. Every touch is a confession; every breath, a betrayal of nature itself.
In a city gilded with Art Deco splendor and corroded by secrets, Victoria becomes both god and ghost, haunted by the love she has forged from grief's raw marrow.
A reimagining of Frankenstein steeped in shadow and sorrow, Victoria is a gothic elegy for the ones we cannot let go; and the monstrous beauty born when we try.
Science Fiction Romance
Emotional engagement is not required or expected.
Maren Santiago counts things instead of feeling them.
Drinks.
Tips.
Steps between her apartment and the subway.
Eleven minutes in an elevator going three miles straight down.
She won the Decennial Carrier Lottery...which she never entere. Under the Kovalev-Chen Fertility Accords, participation is automatic, refusal is a treaty violation, and the Bureau of Interspecies Reproductive Compliance would like to congratulate her on her civic duty.
The pamphlet is reassuring and includes a FAQ.
Four to six hours.
A clutch of four to eight eggs.
Direct genital contact with the assigned drone.
Emotional engagement is not required or expected.
The pamphlet has no question for the drone.
Seven feet of iridescent chitin. Six amber eyes.
A species that has spent sixty million years three miles beneath the surface and has no word for blue because its world has never contained one. He touches her face like he is reading it. He makes a sound she can feel in her teeth.
He looks at her like she is the first sky he has ever seen.
The procedure is scheduled for four to six hours. Ninety-six hours later the Bureau arrives to extract her, and Maren looks at the woman with the clipboard and says "There's a sixth egg".
There is no sixth egg.
Dark Romance
She disappeared from a rave. One text, six hours late.
**hey did u leave early? lol**
She never went home.
Rachel Santos has been invisible her entire life. The middle daughter nobody remembered to pick up. The girl saved in somebody's phone as Hoodie Girl. When two strangers pull her out of a crowd and a third one feeds her breakfast like she matters, she doesn't fight it.
She sinks.
Into their loft. Into their beds. Into a world where she is photographed like a masterpiece, marked like territory, and fed like something precious. Three men, three kinds of hunger, and starving invisible Rachel finally full.
She stops going to class. She stops checking her phone. By the time the worship shows its walls, her apartment is gone, her phone is dead in a drawer, and there is no outside left. Just a lock, and she turns it herself.
Nobody Came Looking: A Love Story is book one of The Loft Duet. A descent with no ladder. It will not apologize to you.
For readers of: dark romance with actual teeth, horror that happens somewhere warm and well fed, and love stories you'll need to shower after.
Dark Romantasy
Brother Anselm has kept spotless discipline for fourteen years: flagellation on Tuesdays and Fridays, the canonical hours recited on schedule, sermons on lust so pointed the blacksmith’s wife says they make her feel clean. Then he finds something bleeding in the November leaves, carries it home, and locks it in the root cellar under a lie about a broken gate latch.
He tells himself she’s a specimen. He builds a feeding stand at exactly twelve inches, trains her the way a falconer trains a hawk, and fills a ledger with clinical notes about antler growth and dappled skin that no priest should be able to describe so precisely. He calls her demon the way he says Amen.
She calls him by the name he discarded the day he was ordained.
Custodian details three years of confinement, confession, and a Summa theology, a collection of handwritten notes that was not intended to hold them. It tells the story of a man who aimed to civilize a creature but ultimately learned which of them was truly being imprisoned.
The sequel to 'A Beautiful Lie', called Pleasure in Pain, reveals Ira's sadistic and insane nature as she carries out illegal activities such as drug trafficking, weapon theft, and countless murders to achieve her goals. As a vigilante, Tristan knows the danger of getting involved with someone like Ira, but she refuses to accept rejection.
Will he succumb to her twisted desires or resist her sadistic allure? Find out in this bone-chilling tale of dark romance that delves into the disturbing world of obsession and extreme violence.
Published book
Get ready for an unforgettable conclusion in the final installment of Birth of a Sin. Tristan and Ira experience unforeseen circumstances that passionately blur the boundaries between love and war, forever changing their lives.
"I love you...I know you don't believe me but I do...I'll prove it to you."
Tristan didn't expect to fall for Ira, his captor. She had kidnapped him, experimented on him, and turned him into a genetic freak. But as he spent more time in her luxurious prison, he couldn't deny his attraction to this dangerous woman. Ira was a monster who thrived on death and fear. But beneath her madness, Tristan saw glimpses of a woman with a mutilated heart. Despite all she had done to him, he couldn't deny that Ira Dante was the most powerful, beautiful, and wealthy person he had ever met.
She offered him everything, and Tristan was determined to take it all. He would possess every inch of what she offered, even if it meant becoming the monster she wanted him to be. Together, they embarked on a twisted relationship that could only lead to sin and destruction.
Will their desires tear them apart? Or will they succumb to the darkness and become the ultimate power couple? Only time will tell in this dark crime romance.
Buy or learn more →Published book
A jester services his evil queen. An infamous outlaw murders a mayor to rescue her henchman. A wolf murders his family for his huntress. A serial killer gifts a flesh and blood heart.
The love between Wrath and Lust transcends setting and genre
Coda Languez dances between the romantic and horrific in this sinful anthology. Dive into ‘The Letters Between Sex and Violence’, a collection of bleak surrealistic tales dedicated to the exploration of the most toxic of romances.
Buy or learn more →Published book
A young woman overwhelmed during a rave; a hiker caught in a web; a prince enslaves a dragon; a dream becomes far too real…
Whenever there is sex, there is violence; two sides of the coin.
Coda Languez returns with a dark and sensual Anthology that toes the line between titillating and unnerving. ‘Letters Between Sex and Violence vol. 2’ pushes the boundaries of good taste further than the last, with ten tales that will make you cringe or leave you aching for more.
Or both.
Buy or learn more →Published book
Enticing Tales of Love and Danger: Where Fantasy and Fear Collide
Prepare to be captivated by Letters Between Sex and Violence, where love teeters on the edge of ecstasy and peril. This electrifying collection plunges you into a whirlwind of tales: a seductive twist on Little Red Riding Hood, an apocalyptic romance fueled by Gaia's wrath, a dark fantasy of dragons and vengeful princes, and a whimsical journey of a daring feline on her final life.
Coda Languez masterfully blends romance and horror, inviting you to explore a universe where love is both an exhilarating adventure and a chilling mystery. Get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions that will leave you breathless and craving more.
Buy or learn more →Published book
Are you brave enough to enter a world where love is as treacherous as the sea, and the line between desire and darkness blurs beneath the waves?
"Thalassophobia: A Lovecraftian Fairytale" is a thrilling tale of forbidden love, obsession, and horror that will leave you breathless.
Follow Erica, a woman haunted by her fear of the sea, as she moves to a coastal city to start a new life with her long-term boyfriend. But beneath the waves is a monster that haunts her dreams and desires only one thing...Her love.
Kidnapped during a storm, Erica finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle that threatens to consume her.
With an eerie gothic setting and a captivating blend of horror and romance, this twisted adaptation of the original Little Mermaid story will pull you under its spell and leave your heart pounding like the waves against the shore.
Read "Thalassophobia" now!
Buy or learn more →Published book
In the darkness of night, the moon is the only light. Your beauty will be as fair as your heart. But in the brightness of day, the sun enters the fray. You will be a nightmare, destined to be torn apart.
Cole Holton is a burden.
At least that is what he tells himself, and death would be the only way to end the nightmare known as his life.
Until he meets Mallena, a woman with the stars in her eyes and a curse haunting her heart. A woman who is losing the one thing she gave him... Hope. Can Cole break the curse and free Mallena from despair? Or will he fail and fall to his own demons?
Buy or learn more →