Page 1 (1/2)

1

Angel

It’s a hellish task, to have to choose between two lives—even when you don’t give a shit about either of them That’s why I’ve always tried to keep my heart locked away in a cold black box It helps if you can help it, but recently I’ve been compromised; a pretty little dove has fluttered her way into ht hell with her

That’s where I’ forced to pick between the only two people in this world who I actually care for: irl—one has to die, and the decision seeun

Sweat drips downand wild and desperately searching for a way out of this mess that doesn’t involve the death of my past or my future I’ve bullied my way out of so many battles before, but this time is different

Catalina is supposed to be my future; the woman I run my empire beside; the eventual er I’ve ever let past the cold gates ofthreatens to burn because of it

My brother, on the other hand, is reith; the kid I practically raised after our parents tragically passed He’s the reason I had to close off my heart in the first place There was no room in our lives for anyone else, we already knehat it was like to lose and eren’t about to put ourselves through that again All we needed to survive was each other, but even that began to fall apart Maybe, If I’d been more focused, then we’d never have lost our way and ended up here, on the edge of oblivion

If I wanted to, I could bla us to this end—hell, I could even blame Catalina—but I won’t I’m supposed to be the leader This is my own failure; there’s no one to blame but myself

Still, it hurts I was ready to take control of acy I was ready to rule, but so far only chaos has ruled under n Fire burns all around us The weeds and the vines that litter these cruside the last bits of th I’, the transforest cartel on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, but I’ve been put in an unwinnable situation This is the biggest decision I’ve ever had toin the balance—well, three, but I don’t count my own

I’ve faced so ery before, so much violence, that it hardly even makes me blink anymore, but now the lives at stake are ones I don’t want to risk, lives I’ve seen grow and flourish before my very eyes, lives that now teeter on the brink of destruction The duty has fallen on me to pluck one of these flowers from the face of the earth and sacrifice them to the flames, and if I don’t make a decision soon, then we may all perish

This is not a position I would wish on my worst enemy, but it’s the one he has put me in, and to make him pay for it is to make my final move

“Are you alright?” I grit my teeth and push forward, towards the stoic damsel stuck in between me and my bloody brother

Catalina My wild little jungle bird

She’s been ht at the end of the tunnel, the sweet perfu corpses, the vision that distracts hosts I’ve created with my own hands

Little did I know that the light she stood behind all along was a raging fire, one that threatens to crumble my empire and fracture my family forever

“She’s fine!” Dante barks back for her My brother sways on the other side of Cat, drenched in dark blood How much of it is his own and how et here isn’t clear, but I’ to the black stains—h

“Shut the fuck up!” I growl at hi out with a frustrated fury “These words aren’t for you Cat”