A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray
Prologue
Willow
I didn’t screamwhen Azel made the final slice in my back. After hours of torture, I had nothing left to give—until the sick, twisted fallen angel began broadcasting horrific images of my family directly into my mind. I screamed then, and something inside me shattered so thoroughly I knew that if I survived this, I’d never be the same again.
He leaned over me. “Do you see, witch, what I will do to them if you don’t let me into that fucking compound.”
My body was jostled roughly as the grasping hands of his demon followers carried me to the warded gates of the knight’s compound. A ward that I’d created.
The knights of Hell protected this city from the demons who resided here, and their compound sheltered those most vulnerable to attack.
They’d trusted me to help them do that.
Azel had held my friend Luna and her brother Ronan captive most of their lives, but they’d gotten away. Now Luna was here, finally safe and mated to one of the knights. But Azel wanted Luna back, and I was currently the thing standing in his way.
The demons dropped me. I hit the ground hard, and stared blankly at the massive iron gates blocking our path. Azel crouched beside me, his mind twisting deeper into mine, attacking, stabbing, breaking me from the inside out now. He’d found my weakness, my family. And I wasn’t sure how much longer I could withstand this torture.
Everything went dark. He’d taken my sight, so all I could see were those images; my family, bleeding, screaming. Suffering.
I cried out, suddenly not sure what was real and what wasn’t, if it was actually happening or just a horror show of his own making playing in my head.
“You can make it stop, witch,” he said, his hot breath on my neck. “Drop the ward or I will tear the skin from their flesh, starting with your sisters.”
I couldn’t think—the pain, my family…I couldn’t let him hurt them, I couldn’t…
“Now!” he roared.
Tears stung my eyes as their blood-covered faces contorted in agony in my mind, as he continued his relentless onslaught. I wouldn’t let him hurt them, I couldn’t. He would kill them if I didn’t do this, and he would make them suffer when he did it.
A sob was torn from my raw throat as I held out a trembling hand, palm down, fingers spread, and I choked out the words that would drop the ward.
Azel laughed, the chilling sound, lifting goosebumps all over my battered body.
Still blind, I could only hear what followed, the gate exploding open, fighting, yelling, screaming, the heat of flames on my skin, until consciousness was too much of a struggle—then there was nothing.
When I woke next, my sight had returned, and Grace, one of the knight’s mates, was crouched beside me. I struggled, trying to get up, to search for the rest of my friends.
“It’s okay. Azel’s dead, he can’t hurt you now,” Grace said as her mate Chaos, and leader of the knights, strode toward us.
I couldn’t face him, I couldn’t face any of them. I’d failed them all.
But before Chaos could reach us, Warrick, alpha of the hellhounds was beside me. The huge male growled, raw violence and molten rage radiating from him as he carefully lifted me and held me protectively to him.
“I’ve got her,” he snarled at Chaos.
“Willow?” Grace said, asking me if going with the alpha was what I wanted.
“Warrick will take care of me,” I rasped. We weren’t friends, he and I, I didn’t really know what we were, but he made me feel safe. And I desperately needed to feel safe. My gaze slid to Chaos. “I’m sorry. I tried to stop him. He was…he was just too strong.”
“You did nothing wrong,” Chaos said. “Jesus, we should have done more to protect you.”
“No shit,” Warrick barked, then he turned and carried me away.
I squeezed my eyes closed and focused on the heavy beat of his heart, and tried to force those awful images from my mind.
Warrick pressed his mouth to the top of my head. “No one will ever hurt you again, dove, I promise you that.”