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PROLOGUE

“No! Mother, please! Mother, help me!” I bellow, struggling in the arms that drag me backwards towards the onyx entrance. “Mother, please!”

She watches me dispassionately, her bright eyes as cold as her heart. There is no familial bond or love there, even as her daughter is thrown into hell. “Mother, please believe me!”

At my words, she simply turns, her dress coiling around her like a snake, and walks away, leaving me to my death.

“Mother.” I sag in the arms holding me, my bare heels digging into the rock as we plunge into darkness. My last sight is of my mother’s retreating back. The betrayal lies thick on my tongue, and I feel sick to my core, but as the darkness conceals the rest of the world from me, reality sets in.

If I don’t escape, I’ll die, so even as my heart breaks, shattering in my chest, I force strength through my skinny body.

“Let me go, I’m innocent!” I roar as I twist in their arms, trying to free myself.

They just laugh as they continue dragging me.

“I am. I was framed. Please, let me go. I have money⁠—”

“Your mother has money. You have nothing. Don’t you see, girl? No one can save you now.”

Fear pounds through me and sweat slicks my body as a cold chill makes me shudder.

Their leering eyes lock on me. “We could have our fun with her before we toss her in. She won’t survive an hour in there. It would be a waste.”

Their meaning is clear, and my eyes widen as fire burns inside me.

“No!” I wrench my arms from them and begin to run. Their laughter chases after me as sharp black stones cut into the soles of my feet. My blood makes me slip, and my chest heaves from fear as my tattered dress catches on the rocks surrounding us. The darkness consumes me as I plunge deeper into the earth, searching for a way out.

I don’t understand their amusement until it’s too late, my arms windmilling in the air as I try to stop my descent as I gape in horror. The rock ends abruptly in an opening that stretches as far as the eye can see. A yawning black hole dropping down into the bowels of hell. I ran exactly where they wanted me to.

Despair and desperation fill me as I stare at the darkness, knowing what awaits me down there. I’d rather die up here than go below. Spinning, I hang my heels over the edge of the jagged rock as I hold up my arms to ward off the leering men coming for me, their faces contorted with lust and greed.

As the door wardens of hell, it’s their job to carry out the sentence, yet the violence in their eyes lets me know they are no better than those they escort.

“Please,” I repeat, even knowing it’s useless.

“She begs so sweetly. It won’t save you though.” One chuckles, and I spare a look at the black hole behind me, knowing what lies in wait deep in the earth.

Hell, or as close to it as you get in this world.

I have been marked for death, and not even the fury filling me from betrayal can stop this.

Whipping my head back, I find one of the men in front of me, and my eyes widen as he places his palm on my chest and shoves. My scream echoes around the cavern as I tumble backwards over the edge, plummeting into the darkness below.

It feels like I fall forever, my body flipping and turning, my hair whipping back as I choke on air that seems to heat the farther I fall. Pain suddenly explodes through me as I slam into a rock protruding from the side. It pierces me, ripping my skin, before I plunge deeper. I feel my blood pump from the open wound as I struggle to breathe, and then I hit another rock with my left arm. It instantly goes dead and hangs from my shoulder limply, then I crash into the ground.

The blow knocks me out for a few seconds, and when I awaken, it’s to feel so much agony, I can’t breathe or think. When it eases slightly, I lift my head, and a choked whimper escapes my lips as I look around.

The cavern is light enough to see, since I’m in a circle of light, but in the darkness beyond, moving shapes are called by my screams. They inch closer, and I try to sit up, but my body doesn’t respond. When I look down, I realise my legs are bent at odd angles. My left arm won’t move, and my side is badly injured. Blood seeps into the sand and rocks below.

I’ll be dead before they even get to me, but part of me won’t allow that. Choosing a direction at random, I grab some of the sharp rocks protruding from the ground and drag myself forward, slicing my fingertips to pieces in the process. Each slide of my body on the ground is pure agony, but I keep going, refusing to give up until my hand hits something smooth. In dawning fear, I lift my eyes to the dark boot then up to the man’s face as he leans down. His mouth stretches impossibly wide to show rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

Screaming, I throw myself back into the circle, but the pain steals my consciousness for a moment. When I wake, I turn my head, trying to keep my eyes open, but there are so many monsters watching me hungrily now. I spy a vampire and a wolf, and those are only the ones I can name. The worst of the worst are gathered, the monsters the world could not control and rejected, who were thrown into hell for their crimes.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here, boys. New prey.” My eyes meet the sharp-toothed man’s face as he steps into the light, revealing one big eye in the middle of where two should be. It blinks at me as he flashes those sharp teeth once more. “She’s mine first.”

A chorus of roars echoes as he grins wider, staring at me through that one dark eye. “Welcome to Gehenna, girly, though I suppose you won’t survive long enough to see any more of it than this. Let’s feast!”

Curling around myself, I try to staunch the blood leaking from my side, knowing it’s only enticing them, but it’s useless. I’m losing too much, and I feel one of my lungs caving in. I’m dying, and my vision is blurring.