Avina St. Graves

He’s coming for you. Death is meant to come on a chariot of broken dreams or in the dark trenches of a storm, not in love letters and gifts. He did not take my soul when I was meant to die. He did not want it all the other times that I’ve offered it to him on a silver platter. Yet, time and time again, he reminds me that I am his: His night monster, his dark love, his perfect other. Death was the only thing keeping me alive. He watches me from his corner, taunts me with sweet messages, marks my body with his touch as I sleep. He took the people that I love away from me. Still, no one believed me when I said that I saw the faceless man on the night of the accident. No one can escape death. Me? I’m chasing it.

No one tells you what to do when the boy who shattered your heart comes back to steal it.  Roman Riviera was my everything once upon a time. I found my knight in shining armor in the form of a fellow foster kid. He protected me and promised to stand by my side forever. But Roman Riviera is a liar. He left me with monsters.  Three years later, I found him in the middle of the night, soaked in my family’s blood and carving his initials into my foster brother’s skin. He tied me up and dragged me away from the life I had made without him. I tried to run, but he chased me. I wanted to scream, but the sound never came out. He says that I’m never getting away from him. He says he’s back for good. I don’t believe him.

What’s that saying? What goes around, comes around? You torch my house, I demolish yours? Kohen Osman is a pyromaniac who keeps trying to steal my gig—which is… well, stealing. The difference is, he has sticky fingers because he’s a spoiled brat who thinks he’s better than the family of junkies that live down the block. I thought life at reform school would be better with neither Kohen or my family anywhere in sight. But my freedom from them was short and not sweet. There’s only so much a person can take before they turn into dust. One day, he’ll burn for everything he’s done. They all will. And I’ll be the one who lights the match.

Three days is all it took for everyone I love to die. The fall from grace hurt. I was one of the few specialist snipers in the military who is a woman. I made a name for myself. Set records. But death has a way of changing everyone. The descent from Special Forces, to dirty fighting pits, to becoming a bodyguard for the man whose heart I broke, I never thought I’d stop drowning. One night is all it took for everything to change. One shot is all I need. My name is Zalak Bhatia. They call me Scorpion. *This book is set in a shared world with authors Lauren Biel, Dana LeeAnn, Harleigh Beck, Amber Nicole, Willow McQuerry, Jenn Bullard, Kinsley Kincaid, and Ann-Marie Davis.*