City of Smoke and Brimstone (House of Devils, #4)

by Kayla Edwards

“Only the best,” she said plainly. “Only the strongest, most capable person in all of Angelthene would be fit to protect your daughter.”

“A word of caution,” said the spider, her echoing words stilling Erasmus’s restless feet. “Place your daughter’s life in the hands of anyone other than Darien Cassel, and she will be butchered.”

“I see a thousand different futures for your daughter; trust me when I say they are all ugly.

“Nothing is set in stone, my dear—they call it free will for a reason

‘To forgive is to set yourself free. Tormenting yourself over your past mistakes will not fix them. What you choose to do with your future is far more important. If you truly love your daughter, I implore you to heed my advice—heed my warning, and find Darien Cassel.’ The pit in Cyra’s stomach widened. ‘But he’s a monster.’ ‘I don’t deny that. But he may be one of the only monsters capable of changing. Should he choose to protect your daughter, there will be nothing he wouldn’t do for her. You must find him. He is her best and only chance.’

“The waterfalls…,” he murmured, gesturing for Roman to hold on as he thought it through—as he pieced the puzzle together. As he remembered Tamika’s words as if she’d said them just yesterday. ‘Back in old times, people used to visit the Crossroads to speak to loved ones who had passed away. They would go on the shortest night of the year, when the divide between our world and the spirit realm is rumored to be at its thinnest. If a Crossroads wasn’t handy, a person could seek out a weak spot by going to a place of heavy darkness, or perhaps an area where elements meet with constant movement, such as waterfalls.’

“The waterfalls,” he said again. “They’re portals.”

Because I am, Loren—insanely in love with you. Whether you hate me or not, whether you want to be with me or not, and whether you refuse to believe me or not. And I will spend the rest of my life—our life—showing you just how much I care.”

tall. The darkness closest to him seemed thicker, as if a piece of the Void lived inside him. Begging to be unleashed. Just one whisper of that dreadful power—that was all it would take to end them.

‘Noble,’ Travis gasped. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Noble was a Mastiff dog whose greatest love—apart from sweet potato and shredded cheese—was naps. His arch-nemesis? Conversation. He might hate talking, but he always pulled through for Travis, and tonight was no exception.

“You are my present, my future, and my eternity, Loren.”

She said two of the patients and one member of the staff—all hellsehers—went loopy during one of the power outages and just started attacking. Their eyes went all black and crazy⁠—”

In Yveswich, there were three rules you never, ever broke. Not unless you wanted to be chewed up, digested, and shat out by a hungry monster, that is. Keep out of the fog. Don’t swim beyond the buoys. Stay away from waterfalls after the sun sets.

“There’s no fun in driving slow. Besides, the minute you get behind a wheel like this baby—” He dragged his large, scarred hands along the curve of the wheel. The gesture—so simple, yet so attractive—made Shay gulp. “—the only correct way to drive it is like you stole it.”

“I’m in love with this woman, and you’re not going to like the animal I’ll become if you take her from me.”

If you worry about something that hasn’t happened yet, all you’re doing is living it twice.

Every part of his soul, his aura, his body begged for her.

“Happy Escape from Donovan Day.”

“Nine is fine. It just…reminded me of something.” Dean’s smile grew impossibly big. “Another pull-out incident?”

“You’ve changed him. And I mean that as the highest compliment. Before you came along, he wasn’t…he just wasn’t happy,” she confessed with a sigh. “He always had more lows than he did highs. And I know he isn’t perfect, I know he still has a lot of demons he’s fighting, but…you’ve really brought him to life, Loren. You made someone who always wanted to die want to start living instead. You saved him. And I can’t thank you enough for that.”

“You know what’s causing it?” “It’s the Tricking.”

It’s similar to what happened with the first Well replica—when the missing women were later discovered to be the new breed of monster.”

“If it gets out of hand, millions will die. The infection is spread through a person’s saliva—if bitten by an infected person, the virus can turn them within hours.

“Brutus is a dragon. Black body, green eyes… Looks a lot like Sayagul. Wouldn’t you agree?” Roman opened his mouth. Shut it. Squeezed out, “Dean’s my…”

Paxton was not even his brother. They weren’t brothers at all. They were cousins. Half-cousins.

“You stole my heart, Shay.” “Well, in my defense, I am a thief,” she said.

Against all odds, they had managed to survive. But they were far from safe. A war was coming. And if they had a prayer of stopping it, they would have to act.

A person’s life was made up of nothing more than a series of decisions; one event led to another, followed by another…and so on and so forth.