The Book of Azrael (Gods & Monsters, #1)

by Amber V. Nicole

“But it’s impossible. You cannot exist. The Ig’Morruthens died in the Gods War.”

Gods, how many celestials looked like college frat boys? This was what we were up against?

I swallowed a breath to calm my nerves. Without breaking stride, I donned the face of the Bloodthirsty Queen. It was who they were expecting, who they feared—and rightly so. She had earned her reputation over the centuries.

I was a blade made of fire and flesh.

My reflection showed me a shadow of the person I used to be.

I had carved her a place of peace with claws and broken bones, paying for her safety with rivers of blood.

I ached for a life outside of this. A life with my sister. A life where I was loved and could be loved. Just a life.

Surrounded by such beauty, I wondered what would happen if I just kept going. I felt true freedom at that moment, and I reveled in it, never wanting it to end.

The stars were my only company, and I savored the solitude.

So, for the moment, I was at peace. I was not Dianna, the fire-wielding death queen, or Dianna, the loving and thoughtful sister. I just was.

I watched with contained horror as the same smile that could light up a room disappeared forever.

We can’t live in the past, D. Nothing grows there.”

“I will never be a leader like you.” “Excellent. Be greater.”

This woman was the definition of destruction.

She was all poison and acid with her words, throwing them as weapons.

He looked so different. Who had made him hot? Why was he hot now?

“Is that your idea of torture? This is just a Saturday night for me, baby. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

What would it be like to truly be loved? I wondered what it would be like to be wanted for me and not my powers of destruction.

He probably hated me, but he could not hate me more than I hated myself.

My palm continued to burn, even as I felt it heal, and I wondered if I’d traded one monster for another.

Gods, he was beautiful, but he was a complete and utter dick, and I was over beautiful but cruel men.

You and I have lived long enough to know just how cruel and vindictive powerful men can be.

I basked in Gabby’s joy, knowing that everything I’d said was a lie. There would be no beaches for me after this.

He smiled, and my breath caught at the devastating beauty of it.

He was the most beautiful and annoying thing I had ever seen.

The man was ridiculously beautiful.

Mortal lifetimes are fleeting, yet they build contraptions that could end them in moments.”

“I will not let him have you.”

Her only fault is that she loves me.

I decided then and there that this woman should never beg.

I understood she cared for her sister, but who cared for her?

I didn’t remember how long we talked, but somewhere amidst her laughter and smiles, I decided I would rip the world apart for her.

Oh, how I wanted to taste that beautiful, defiant mouth.

My stomach fluttered at the sight of him. What was wrong with me?

He always watched me, especially when he thought I wasn’t looking.

There is no victory in war, only death.

“Dianna is different. I have seen evil. I’ve seen it born, what it craves, and how it acts. She may be stubborn and erratic. At times, she is rude or crass, even violent or dangerous, but not evil—not even a little bit.”

People tend to do what they feel is necessary in times of crisis.”

He plucked a gorgeous yellow lily, slowly twirling it by the stem. I stared at him, transfixed by the sight of the powerful World Ender holding such a small and fragile bloom.

Time passed, yet it had no meaning when I was with him—and that terrified me.

How was it that she looked exquisite even as she slept?

She is a woman who craves love, no matter what she says. If you have no intention of staying or being with her, don’t court her and make her care. Don’t be the one to make her fall if you have no intention of catching her.”

I leaned my forehead against that perfectly ordinary door and knew the woman beyond it was more precious to me than I wanted to admit to anyone, let alone myself.

Dianna’s touch set fire to a place inside me, and I found myself wanting to burn.

It was not my place, and I shouldn’t care, but a part of me hoped he had never laid a hand on her naked flesh.

“I have trained for centuries; so have they. You have the right motions, just not the execution. You were also trained by someone who probably did not want you strong enough to overpower him. Dianna, you are already dangerous. Now let’s make you lethal.”

I missed her playful swats and bumps. I just missed her.

“Don’t you know? Love is the purest form of destruction there is.”

I was dreaming of men who gave me pretty dresses and prettier words, as if my world weren’t fire and hatred and pain.

Oh, what a fool I was. I had fallen for someone who had no intention of catching me.