Terror at the Gates (Blood of Lilith, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

Most spent the weekend roaming from club to club on Sinners’ Row, returning to their respective districts to worship at temple early Sunday morning. By Monday, they would be cleansed and forgiven, ready to live piously until the weekend. Forgiveness is an invitation to sin. It will be our ruin.

Forgiveness was an invitation to sin. I witnessed it every week, which was why I’d decided a long time ago that I did not care to be forgiven. I’d rather be a sinner than a hypocrite.

My magic was the downfall of my obedience. It wasn’t until then I realized everything the church had tried to say about women was a lie. We were not responsible for lust in men. We existed, and they desired.

men had a hard time wrapping their dicks around the word no, and since our world valued them more, we were the ones who suffered.

Beware she who bleeds, bound in chains. Beware the exile, the young winged beast, who dances unafraid before fire. Beware the woman with many names, the maiden, the whore, the scarlet serpent. Beware the temptress who whispers in the dark. She is the beginning and the end. She is peace and chaos. She is terror knocking at the gates.

I also didn’t understand why my mother, who was strong, determined, and more independent than any of the other family matriarchs, gave her power to this institution that had done nothing but harm me.

“That’s because you do not like to be contained.” He paused and then added, “Most wild things don’t.”

You act like this has to mean something. Fucking brat. She meant everything.

“You go home, you sleep. You wake up in a different world. People will tell you it gets easier, but it never does. There are good days, and there are days when the pain hits like a fucking freight train.”

“I would go to war for you,” he said again. “I would fight endlessly to keep you if that’s what you wanted.”

They will call her a demon, but I watched her transform, and I will call her goddess.