Love Begins in Hell (The Moon Journals: Part 1) by Ally Thomas

stepmother.  “I can inform you that you will be allowed to seek revenge for the deaths of your family members.  There are more than just your aunt and sister unfortunately.  If you are strong enough, my dear, then you will have your revenge.  Dante can be your champion or you can do it together.  It doesn’t matter by the rules.”
    I watched stunned as I saw Dante’s features grew still. My mother, the Moon Goddess, was giving us permission to kill Dante’s father, Lucifer.  No one was asking Dante what he wanted to do.  Good or evil, the man was still his father.
    “If I avenge my family, I’ll destroy yours, Dante.  I don’t know that I can do that,” I announced, looking in his direction while I knew my mother still listened.  “There has to be something we can do to prevent a war.”
    Dante spoke up as he held my hand.  “I agree.  There has to be some compromise we can reach.”
    My mother laughed at us which I found really odd, only adding to my suspicions.  “I see love has found you as well.  Love, love, isn’t it grand, my dearies?”  She walked over to me, reached out, and wiped my face.  A stinging sensation flooded the right side of my face and I screamed falling backwards.
    I heard Dante yell, “Elana!”
    I managed to stand up and I saw what I had suspected all along I would see.  The woman before us claiming to be my mother was actually my wicked stepmother.  She had embraced the dark side as well. Her white chiffon dress morphed into a shiny black color and her amber eyes blazed a fiery red.  Her blonde hair filled in with the colors of black and ashen gray.
    When she opened her mouth, it was filled with rows of fangs.
    Dante clamped down on my hand, jostling me slightly.  “We have to move, Elana.  Move.”
    “You bitch,” I screamed at her.  “What have you done?  So help me if you’ve killed my father?”
    My wicked stepmother howled with laughter, a high piercing sound that set my teeth on edge.  “Oh he’s dead alright.  Along with all your family.”
    “No!” I stepped towards her, but Dante pulled me closer to him.  He slipped a small object in the palm of my hand.  “Drink this, quick!”
    “What a sight you too misfits are?  Lucifer was right, Dante.  You make a weak-ass demon.  Maybe I’ll start my own collection of skulls like your father, starting with yours.”
    Raising her hands out, the monstrous woman roared at us.  Balls of fire surfaced on the palms of her hands and she took aim at us.
    Before I could respond, Dante snatched me out of harm’s way.  “Run,” he yelled.  “Run and drink that potion now!”
    I didn’t look back at my wicked stepmother as I raced behind Dante.  She was still there and I felt the fire bombs hitting all around us.  Even as small as they were, about the size of an orange, their force was brutal.  Opening my hand, I saw the small blue bottle of magical potion and I quickly remembered Dante had used it to turn into a cloud of smoke.  I kept running, seeing that Dante was making his way to the end of the pier.
    He arrives moments before I did.  He grabbed my hand.  “We’ll drink this together.  Okay?  On three.”
    “Where are we going?” I screamed, frightened I’d never see him again and end up in some awful place like home.  I knew, after seeing my stepmother, that the Garden had been burned to a crisp.
    “Call Orlando’s name.  Say it over and over,” Dante demanded.  “Okay?”  He flipped the cork out of my glass bottle, flipped the one for his, hit his bottle to mine and then slammed the contents down his throat.
    My eyes widened and I giggled.  He was no demon , I thought.  He was my white knight!
    “Drink, Elana!”
    I drank the contents of the potion down and felt the syrupy sweetness lodge at the back of my throat.  I thought of pomegranates or cherries.
    Dante pulled his arms and buried his hand in my hair, at the base of my skull.  “Orlando,” he said.  “Say it