More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Tonight, I’m leaving everything behind and reuniting with the one person who always loved me unconditionally. The one who gave me their life.
I trusted him. I was falling for him. I ignored all the signs and my instinct and went to him. I considered him my savior when he’s been my Grim Reaper all along.
The thing that rose from the ashes was a demon thirsty for blood. Reina’s blood.
Rai. Oh my God. My name is not Reina—it’s Rai. Reina was the other one, the one who told me she’d come back, the one who stopped me from going with her.
“I lived well with Daddy, Rai.” Tears glisten down her cheeks. “We didn’t have to run like you and Mom. We didn’t have to eat leftovers or sleep on the streets. I want you to have that. I want you to have my life.” “Reina…” I choke. “You’re Reina now. I’ll be Rai.”
Rai Sokolov. Daughter of Mia Sokolov. I’ve been on the run since the day I was born, homeschooled my entire life, and had no friends until Mom brought my long-lost twin sister to meet me a month ago.
I lean my head over and suck her bottom lip into my mouth like I did at twelve when she was sleeping in our guest house. A shudder goes through her as I brush my lips against hers one last time. “You’ll never escape me, my ugly monster.”
My villain and my savior. My damnation and my salvation. The only person I ever told my secret.
He really needs to stop saying things like that if all he ever plans to do is hurt me. He needs to stop touching me, calling me his, and looking at me with those intense eyes that seem ready to strip me bare and devour me all over again. My brain is starting to disregard the danger and focus on those small gestures, on what his body is saying instead of what his mind is planning.
“Your mother was the bratva’s Pakhan’s daughter. Mia Sokolov, daughter of Nikolai Sokolov and cousin of Ivan Sokolov.”
I keep coming back to her whether I like to or not. She has me under some black magic. It’s in the way she looks at me like she never looks at anyone else. Like I’m her one and only.
“Don’t ever mention my wife’s name and making babies in the same sentence or I’ll fucking kill you. Deal? Deal.”
As I kneel there, I realize something. Ari isn’t the only one who died. Today, I died with her.
“Why Cloud003, though?” I murmur in my sleepy haze. “Cloud because of Gray, my middle name. 003 because of the day I first met you, January 3rd. It’s the reason behind this room number, too—1003.” I smile against his skin. Damn this man and the lengths he went to for this. I love you, my mind screams. I love you so much, and it kills me to think you don’t feel the same.
“You can’t leave me, not anymore.” His lips brush against mine in a brief, heartbreaking kiss. “You’re my world now.”
