The Devil & the Deep (The Devil’s Playground #1)

PROLOGUE

My eyes shot wide and I screamed against my gag as realization of what the queen had said settled upon me—as well as what it meant.

And that punishment, dear Myra, begins now…

As soon as those words left her mouth, the sparkling black-brown stone hanging between her breasts burst with blinding light, and searing pain surged through me.

My glorious tail ripped in two, and I watched in horror as the mutilated limb slowly morphed into smooth human legs.

Panic sunk its claws in deep, and I fought for breath as the sea I’d once trusted began to fill my chest, slowly drowning me.

I craned my neck, desperate to find a way out of my nightmare, but all I found was the sneering face of the man who’d betrayed me and a swirling circle of water high above him, growing as wide as the throne room’s vast ceiling.

My body slowly lifted toward it as he released his hold on me, and I kicked my new legs frantically to try to escape its pull, but the whirlpool was mighty, and I no longer was.

Without my tail, the vortex sucked me in easily.

Its roar drowned out the laughter of the queen and the one who had deceived me as it carried me into the darkened ocean above and my punishment beyond.

I torpedoed through the water, doing all I could to remain conscious as the pressure and lack of air in my lungs begged to be relieved.

My vision blurred at the edges, and I knew that if I succumbed to the sweet promise of sleep, it would be the eternal kind.

Instead, I dug my nails deep into my palms and fought the urge with what little strength I had left.

Just as the darkness began to pull me under, I saw an eerie blue light growing larger by the second, reflecting off the surface.

Moments later, I sliced through the waterline and flew through the air toward the shore.

I crashed hard, cutting my naked body on the jagged edges of the rocks as I rolled to a stop.

Panicked, I ripped off the gag covering my mouth as I fought for breath.

Coughing and sputtering up salty water between ragged inhales, I dragged myself back to the shallow water lapping at the shore, terror coursing through my veins that the queen had truly done as she’d promised.

The moment I touched the ocean, water filled my lungs once again.

You will live your life on land forever, Myra Morningtide, never to return to the sea…

This is happening, I thought as my heart thundered against its bony cage.

This is really happening... A whole new kind of terror rippled through my body, forcing a tortured scream from my throat, but it was cut short when I dared a look over my shoulder to see what lay beyond the shoreline.

A familiar skyline of decayed and derelict buildings in the background slapped me with the real curse I had to face.

Because I knew exactly where I’d been delivered.

The Devil’s Playground was as notorious below as it was above.

Fear and rage warred within me, the former because whatever hell I’d expected, it paled in comparison to the one I now faced; and the latter because the one I’d given my heart to had been the architect of that fate.

I couldn’t have done it without you…

I shuddered at the memory of his voice in my ear—the feel of his hands on my body—and I fought to block them out as I vowed to get my revenge someday, at any cost.

I’d given everything to him, and he’d taken it all away in an instant.

My home. My life. My tail. But every time I shut my eyes, all I could see was the smile on his face as he’d delivered ‘the traitor’ to the queen, and the sparkle of malice in his eyes as his arm draped around her shoulders as it once had mine.

All I could hear was their shared laughter as I was ripped from ‘their’ kingdom.

And as I sat on the shore, shivering and terrified, I was forced to face an inescapable truth: that my punishment was never designed to be a punishment at all.

It was a death sentence.

One the Devil’s Playground would gladly deliver.