Inheritance of Ruin (The Rites of Decay #1)

Do you hear that? She is laughing. The devil inside her is laughing.

I know what darkness looks like. I just pretend like I don’t see it in the mirror when I allow the thoughts to linger.

Because I have vowed to prove Mother wrong and never succumb to it; that wild, venomous thing she swears is calling out my name.

But meeting him, a man fractured, struggling to hold his soul together, everything begins to unravel. He is soft-spoken like a prince, gentle as a dove, and he flushes red with a simple kiss.

He is pure at heart until a shadow slip through the crack in his soul, twisting him into something else; something vile, arrogant…something I shouldn’t want as much as I do.

Every callous touch strips away something precious from me. Every filthy stroke bleeds rot into me, forces me to confront the darkness I have fought so hard to bury.

Mother is wrong. I am not my father. I am not a monster. But…what if I am?