The time has come to make Thalia mine.
Dreams of the Deadly, an all-new sexy and thrilling dark mafia romance and first book in the Massacred Dreams Duet from USA Today bestselling author Adelaide Forrest, is available now!
They took her from me.
Now I’ll take everything from them.
I was never meant to fall in love with her.
We were children when they betrothed us—an obligation I didn’t want.
Before long, her amber eyes had pierced right through me,
transforming my indifference into gentle devotion.
Then, they stole her from me—banished me from my home and robbed her of my protection.
They damaged her in my absence, and the girl I cared for hardened into a woman I cannot resist.
I’ve bided my time, amassing my strength; now none who stand in my way will survive.
The time has come to take back my kingdom.
The time has come to make Thalia mine.
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Excerpt
“You saw her as weak all her life, faulty and broken, but she brought you to your knees,” Calix said, wrenching my father’s head back for good measure. “Thalia is the reason you will die alone, with only the bodies of your family to keep you company as you make your way to the afterlife. She was never weak. She terrified you, because you saw what she could become.”
Calix pulled the gun from his holster, cocking it for good measure. “Calix,” I said, unsure why I stepped forward. My father was far from my family, far from anything I cared enough to save.
“This is the part where Rafael can take you to the car, λουλούδι μου. Otherwise you’ll find out what your father’s brains look like splattered across the altar,” Calix said, pressing the barrel against my father’s forehead.
“Wait,” I said, uncertain why my voice seemed to have a mind of its own. I couldn’t process what I was doing, my body moving as if in a daze as I closed the remaining gap between us. I squatted down, wrapping a trembling hand around the cane that my father had used to beat Lydia. The same one that had tormented me for years, breaking my skin open at his order. The wood was slick with blood, forcing me to wrap a second hand around the base as I spun on my heel back to face my father.
Calix’s eyes tracked over me as I spread my legs to shoulder-width, raising the cane over my right shoulder like a baseball bat. The breath wheezed in my lungs, torn from the darkest part of me that wanted my father—no, Origen’s—blood as payment.
It might have been Lydia who’d wielded the cane in more recent years, but my father had been the one to scar me. My father had been the one to order my beatings when he couldn’t be bothered to give them himself.
As much as I hated Lydia, she’d been another victim of the life designed to make us obedient.
I swung the cane, the whistle of air making my father’s head jerk as Calix pulled the gun away in the same moment. The wood clapped against the back of my father’s neck, his entire body sprawling forward as the wood vibrated in my hands. They throbbed in tune with the vibrations, an ache spreading up my wrists and to my elbows as I raised it again.
Calix raised a brow at me as my father fell forward, landing face-first on the floor slickened by blood. He pushed up to his hands and knees in a daze, his body as I raised the cane over my head.
I brought it down over and over again with a shrill scream, all the force in my body going into the movements. The wood split as it crashed against his spine a final time, splintering down the center as he flopped onto his stomach and didn’t move.
I panted for breath as I stared down at his unmoving body, wondering if I’d killed him or only knocked him out. I didn’t know which I preferred, thinking I’d been the one to end him, or that I’d be able to move forward without that stain on my conscience.
My fingers shook as I gripped the cane tighter, the hand that came down on my shoulder startling me into motion. I spun, swinging what remained of the cane through the air. Calix caught it a breath from the side of his neck, gripping it tightly as he raised an eyebrow at me in question.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed. My breath continued to come in wheezes, hard fought and hard won as I tried to pull the cane free from his grip.
He raised his other hand slowly, grasping my fingers and peeling them off the wooden shaft one by one. “Let it go, λουλούδι μου,” he murmured, his voice soft despite the fact that I’d nearly struck him with enough force to truly harm him.
I couldn’t decide if I would have regretted it.
When he’d finally pulled all my fingers off the cane, he took it from my hand, twisting it around so that the sharp, broken point pointed down. He never took his eyes off of mine as he drove it down into my father’s back, the thick squelching sound filling the room as he twisted it in the older man’s body.
The space where my father’s heart might have been, had he possessed one, was nothing but a gaping hole by the time Calix pulled the broken cane free and tossed it to the side.
“Time to go home, Little One,” he said.
About Adelaide
Adelaide Forrest is a USA Today & Amazon Top 40 Bestselling author of dark and gritty romance, such as the Bellandi Crime Syndicate and Beauty in Lies series. Adelaide fell in love with books at a young age and quickly discovered her love for writing soon after. She wrote short stories and then delved into full-length fiction at ten-years-old. Since then, she's created over 350 book ideas and hoarded them over the years.
When she isn’t writing, she can be found spending time with her two young children, dog, and cat. She enjoys traveling, chocolate, chai tea, and most importantly, being with her family.
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Website: https://www.adelaideforrest.com/
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