Jethro

I’D LOVED HER for months.

Yet it seemed like my entire life.

I’d fallen for her as an adult.

Yet she’d intrigued me as a child.

She’d been born for me.

I’d been born for her.

We were linked. Joined by fate and history and destiny. Star-crossed, doomed from the start, absolutely forbidden lovers.

Bound and gagged and utterly fucking helpless, I faced the truth head-on. I’d entertained fantasies of living a normal life. Creating my own family, putting an end to grief and wretched revenge.

But I think I’d always known that no matter what we did, no matter how hard we fought, no matter what we sacrificed, there would be no other ending than the one signed in blood by my ancestors.

I’d said I’d loved her.

I’d proved I’d loved her.

I’d vowed to love her forever.

But the Debt Inheritance was too strong.

It wanted what it’d been given time and time again. Fate marched us faster and faster, stealing everything we’d promised.

Not many people had lived in hell. Not just visited for a while, but actually slept and ate and breathed there. As I watched my father manhandle my woman, the girl I wanted to marry, I set up home in hell. I breathed its sulphur air. I ate its brimstone hate. And I gave my soul over to the devil because what good was righteousness when only evil prevailed?

I was a demon’s son.

The demon’s son.

Wrought in fire and moulded by sins. My blood forged with terror; my body formed from mistakes and wrong turns. Debts. Contracts. Vengeance.

And no matter how I raged to be free, to end my predetermined inevitability, I couldn’t find a way to triumph.

Nila had fixed me.

She’d helped me escape my purgatory.

She’d been the nebula of perfection. The freedom of flying with no wings. Granting wind to a kite with untethered strings.

I’d soared. I’d rejoiced.

And now, I’d fallen.

Whatever Cut would do, whatever he would make me witness and Nila endure, I wouldn’t walk away intact.

I would breathe, but I would die.

I would blink, but I would be soulless.

I would vanish inside.

My heart would split open, veins slashing bloody substance all over a life I no longer wanted.

I knew what hell was.

As I fought the rope and begged for salvation.

As I blinked back tears and resigned myself to living the worst day of my life.

I knew what hell was.

I knew...

Because I was there.