Shadow Kissed

Chapter 1

One

Gray

Survival instinct was a powerful thing.

What horrors could we endure, could we accept, could we embrace in the name of staying alive?

Hunger. Brutality. Desperation.

Being alone.

I’d been alone for so long I’d almost forgotten what it was like to love, to trust, to look into the eyes of another person and feel a spark of something other than fear.

Then they came into my life.

Each one as damaged and flawed as I was, yet somehow finding a way through the cracks in my walls, slowly breaking down the bricks I’d so carefully built around my heart.

Despite their differences, they’d come together as my protectors and friends for reasons I still didn’t fully understand. And after everything we’d been through, I had no doubts about who they were to me now. To each other.

Family.

I didn’t know what the future held; I’d given up trying to predict it years ago. But I didn’t need my Tarot cards or my mother’s old crystal ball to know this:

For me, there was no future without them. Without my rebels.

“Gray?” His whisper floated to my ears.

After several heartbeats, I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing but the demon imprisoned before me, pale and shattered, fading from this realm.

“Whatever you’re thinking,” he said, his head lolling forward, “don’t.”

Looking at him chained to the chair, bruises covering his face, blood pouring from the gashes in his chest, I strengthened my resolve.

His voice was faint, his body broken, his essence dimming. But the fire in his eyes blazed as bright as it had the day we’d met.

“Whatever horrible things you’ve heard about me, Cupcake, they’re all true…”

“Please,” he whispered, almost begging now. “I’m not worth…”

His words trailed off into a cough, blood spraying his lips.

I shook my head. He was wrong. He was more than worth it. Between the two of us, maybe only one would make it out of this room alive. If that were true, it had to be him; I couldn’t live in a world where he didn’t exist. Where any of them didn’t exist.

This was my fate. My purpose. My gift.

There was no going back.

I held up my hands, indigo flames licking across my palms, surging bright in the darkness.

The demon shuddered as I reached for him, and I closed my eyes, sealing away the memory of his ocean-blue gaze, knowing it could very well be the last time I saw it.