Chapter One
Seraphina
Save Me – KELSON
Iwake to a shuddering impact.
The world snaps sideways, slinging my limp body across the car seat. My head slams into glass, pain and confusion blooming behind my eyes as metallic shrieks tear through the air. Shattered glass tinkers and scatters. The engine builds and roars, tires skidding, locking, struggling to hold traction.
My stomach drops, weightless for a heartbeat, then lurches hard as the wheels bite and the vehicle corrects.
Rain hammers down, loud enough to drown thought. The night outside is nothing but streaked darkness and flashing white.
My head swims.
I gasp and nearly vomit.
My body feels…wrong. Slow. Like I’ve been dragged up from deep water, and my limbs haven’t remembered how to move yet. When I try to brace myself, fire rips up my arms.
My wrists burn.
I look down, bleary-eyed. Tears threaten, blurring everything further. My breath stutters as clear plastic restraints bite into my skin, cinched tight and unforgiving. The flesh beneath them is already swollen.
Panic slices clean through the fog.
Trey.
The smell hits next. Iron. Thick and unmistakable. So strong it turns my stomach and I gag. My gaze drifts lower, catching on fabric clinging to my legs.
White.
No…was white.
The ceremonial gown is sheer against my body, soaked through, smeared dark and sticky in places. The sight drives something cold and sharp straight through my chest.
The dress Gideon’s wives dressed me in. Smiling, with gentle hands. Like they were dressing me to be presented before God himself.
Blood has ruined it—but it isn’t mine.
I think.
No.
I know.
It’s everywhere. On my hands. My arms. Pressed into my skin like it’s been branded there.
My husband’s blood.
Trey’s blood.
A sound tears out of me. My vision fractures.
The vehicle twists and jerks, the motor roaring, its pitch blending with the sound of my crying in the basement with Trey.
Cold concrete biting into my knees.
Trey on his back. Too still. His skin already losing its color.
