Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel by Amanda Bonilla

the crack. I wanted to curl up in ball, protect myself, but I didn’t have the strength for the simple act. “Do you even think you’d be here if it wasn’t necessary?” A sob broke through his chest. “I hate you!” His fist came down, bashing my chin. Another pop, blood welling from the split in my lip. The smell of the blood made bile rise in my throat.
    Henry hauled me up by the collar of my dress and slapped me with his open palm. “He was for me!” he shouted. “You ruined everything!” He followed through with the back of his hand, striking my other cheek. “I should wring your scrawny, ungrateful neck!”
    I looked up at the panes of the French doors leading from the parlor to our garden and caught a reflection in the night-shrouded glass. His dark and lovely form slid through the solid structure as if the doors hadn’t been there at all. An apparition. An angel come to take me to heaven.
    “Get off of her, you coward!” Azriel shouted, pulling Henry away from me. “You have no idea what you’re doing, who she really is!”
    Henry screamed in a maddened rage, and he must’ve been surprised as hell to see Azriel pop in out of nowhere. Floating in and out of coherence, I listened as he beat Henry to death. He paid him back for every single time in our five years of marriage that he had laid his fists on me. When Henry’s screams died with his body, Azriel took me in his arms, and I thought I’d die from the pain of it. He lowered me to the bed and whispered in my ear, “You’re mine now.”
    Mine .
    For some reason the word felt right. I wanted to belong to this beautiful stranger, this man who had rescued me from the clutches of death. He wanted me when no one else ever had, and I remember feeling like I wanted to crawl right inside him and stay there forever. It seemed hard to believe, his wanting me. I was so blinded by pain and grief that nothing made sense, least of all Azriel’s motives for killing Henry and taking me away. But I didn’t care. I wanted him too. As I was his, he was mine.
    There is a space of time afterward that I don’t have any recollection of. I don’t even know how long it spans. It could have been days or even weeks, but when I finally woke, I was in an unfamiliar place and forever changed. As though I’d been swathed in fine silks, I felt the shadows flow over my skin, entreating me to join with them. I am no longer myself, I thought, bringing my hand before my face. My skin seemed to quaver, shrouded by darkness and becoming solid once more. Like a contented feline, I stretched my limbs, aware of the fact that I no longer felt the pain of my many injuries. In fact, I’d never felt so invigorated or strong.
    The lamplight flickered in the corner of the room and I sensed Azriel nearby, his life force pulsing like a beacon through the fog. A sweet scent, like a field of pansies beneath the summer sun, permeated my senses, and I breathed deep, holding the aroma in my lungs.
    “What’s happened to me?” I whispered, my heart hammering in my chest.
    Dark mist stirred at my bedside and Azriel materialized from shadow. I stared in wide-eyed wonder as he sat beside me and brought my fingers to his mouth, bestowing a gentle kiss on my knuckles. “Fate has claimed you, Darian. No mortal will dare harm you again.”
    Being whisked away by a handsome stranger had been exciting. A touch romantic, even. But I knew virtually nothing about the man who’d saved me from my life of abuse. I learned very quickly that Azriel wasn’t a creature to be ruled by his emotions. He simply existed, and was unapologetic for his nature. It never mattered to me one way or another. I think maybe part of me died with Henry.
    The town gossips murmured that Dr. Charles and his wife had been the victims of a violent robbery gone wrong. The good doctor had been beaten to death, and his young wife had vanished. The police suspected a kidnapping, and they were fairly certain she’d been raped and