Prologue
HALEY
There’s an old adage about the difference between falling in love with a hero and falling in love with a villain. Go for the latter, it says, because a hero would ultimately sacrifice you to save the world, but a villain? He’d burn down the world just to saveyou.
Sounds pretty epic, right? And let’s be honest—who doesn’t love a bad boy?
The thing about villains, though… Ultimately, they’re just the heroes of their own stories. Still fighting for a cause. Still trying to prove something to the world.
Trust me, I’ve fallen for both. And those assholes? They broke my heart every damn time.
So now I’ve got a new saying:
Screwthe heroes and villains.
I want themonsters.
Dark. Vicious. Depraved. The men who slide into your heart like a surgical blade, so sharp you don’t even feel it until you’re on your knees, trembling and soaked in blood.
A monster won’t try to woo you with roses and chocolates, with sweet promises whispered across satin pillowcases. He’ll kick down a fucking door to get to you, though. Snap a man’s neck just for leering. One threat against you, and he’ll tear out the guy’s throat with his teeth, then kiss you with a mouth full of blood, no apologies.
A monster’s got nothing to prove and nothing left to lose.
And in bed?
Damn.
He’llownyou, pushing until he finds the very edge of your limits, then smashing right through them. And oh, how you’llbeghim for it—beg him to break you, again and again and again. To absolutely ruin you for anything less than a life of obsession and fire.
And while the hero slays his dragons and the villain burns down the world for the woman he loves, the monster will simply hand you the matches and gasoline, step aside, and smile as you burn it down yourself.
Because all along, the monster always knew you could.
He just had to make sure you knew it too.
1
HALEY
The blood on my boots was still wet when I stepped inside.
My weapons needed a good cleaning too, but the novitiate asked me to leave the daggers and stakes at the entrance, and I obliged.
The Temple of the Dark Moon, she reminded me, was a holy place.
Right.
Appropriately chastised, I nodded and followed the swish of her long black robes across the threshold, my eyes widening as the interior came into view.
The temple had probably been beautiful once, but now it lay in ruins. Half the ceiling had caved in, and broken pillars of onyx and moonstone flanked the inner sanctuary, several of them reduced to rubble. Deep, angry gouges scored the masonry as if some feral god-beast had been locked up inside.
Everything smelled like rot and death.
What the hell happened here?
Hoping whatever it was had already been dealt with, I lowered my eyes and quickened the pace.
“Yours?” the novitiate asked from beneath her dark hood, and I knew she meant the blood I’d tracked across the chipped marble floor. I wondered if she’d be the one mopping it up later or if that would be my job now—one of the many menial tasks the Goddess surely had in store for me.
