
by rkgoff
Emerra Cole died just short of her twentieth birthday—but that won’t stop Jack Noctis, the embodiment of death, from asking for her help. Not that Jacky raised her from the dead. He says she came back on her own. He only dug her up, pulled her from her casket, and gave her a place to stay. While he hates to impose, he hopes she’ll lend him a hand with a murder that’s been giving him trouble. The anthropology professor, Trevon Wayde, was shot in the chest. The police are looking for his murderer, but Jacky wants to know why his soul is missing. Emerra returned from death with the Eyes of the Sphinx, a legendary ability that allows her to see things others can’t. Jacky thinks her new powers could be useful when it comes to uncovering what happened. When Emerra agrees to look around, she’s dragged into a world of magic and monsters. There isn’t much time for her to adjust. She’ll have to get her bearings while working side by side with a vampire, making friends with a wolfman and a bog-creature, and learning how to deal with an abrasive teenage witch. Thank god the mummy is there to help. Life after death is going to be interesting.
#3
2/17/2026
Peak #45
7d
#2
2/16/2026
Peak #48
0d
#1
1/24/2026
Peak #23
22d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 5 Oct 2026, 19:38 UTC
Entry forecast updated 5 Oct 2026, 19:38 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Previously appeared on Rising Stars, but no supported current projection is available.
beats 77% of similar stories
beats 97% of similar stories
beats 78% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 50–149 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.