Ravage (Dance With My Demons, #3)

by Steph Macca

I can't help but wonder what my life would have looked like if just one person had seen me for what I really was—a broken specimen of fading life.

I breathe a sigh of relief at normality—blood—that's what's keeping me alive. And as long as I have blood pumping into my heart, I'm going to keep fighting.

I may not have known love, but we can still learn it. We don't have to become our trauma. We don't have to become the people who made us. I'll never be him.

Besides, if people see you as unapproachable, they leave you alone. They fear you, and with that comes a strange sense of respect.

Avery has this ridiculous ability to see the good in everyone. I think she lives in a world where she does so to protect herself—which is stupid and ironic because everyone has let her down.

The thought of her being hurt and let down makes me want to slaughter anyone who makes her cry. I love that she sees flaws in people and thinks they are beautiful.

"Not all monsters are born. Some are created—like me."

"Avery," he says finally. "You're not weak. It's okay to fall apart if you need it. Just as long as you can put the pieces back together.

Grey and Ashwood will help with that." "Will you?" I whisper, looking at him.

"Yes."

"What did they do to you?"

Sometimes, the darkness is where we thrive, where we are reborn after finding ourselves.

"While extreme mood swings are common, it's also just as likely that an individual might feel numbness. They may split from a situation or persons, dissociating to take a step back from reality."

Avery changed that. The night I bargained with my father to bring her back, to keep her out of federal prison, he only asked for one thing. Two percent of shares.

I gave him the position of majority shareholder for Avery's safe return.

Having her light here is what's keeping me grounded in the dark. I was so close to letting myself fall after speaking to my father, but she pulled me back from the brink.

Touch her and I'll make your nightmares seem like a happy place. I'll burn everything and everyone without blinking. They will beg for death because it will be the easy way out.

That's my fucking wife.