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Prologue: Ravenna

Hell, five thousand years ago

Shadows flash by as I race through Hell.

Clutched tight in my arms, Lilith whimpers, and I loosen my grip on her fragile body.

My heart is breaking. I bite back a sob—I have no more tears left to cry. I don’t know if I can do this. Or even if I should. Grief bleeds into guilt, devouring what’s left of my soul.

How do you destroy the one you love? Because even after everything—the blood, the betrayal, the darkness—I still love him. And our daughter will pay the price for that love.

Maybe I’m unfit to be a mother for choosing him over my baby. But he has no one. My Lilith will be loved—for a short time, at least. But she cannot stay here.

Grimlet, my only friend in this dark place, clings to my shoulder, his claws tangled tightly in my hair. I brought him to life from the stone of the palace, a companion in the shadows when I first arrived in Hell. He senses what I mean to do, and his terror is a living thing.

I wish I could send him to safety as well, but he wouldn’t leave my side.

I run on.

The shadows crawl at the corners of my vision as I race through the village of ghosts, their whispers haunting me every step. Once people I loved, now twisted evil creatures. Then I’m in the gloom of the forest, the black skeletal branches groping for me as I pass.

A vast roar rises up in the distance, shaking the very fabric of the world.

For a second, I falter. Oh, Goddess, he knows.

But I’m nearly there. The trees open up into the glade where we first met. At the far end stands the pavilion where we said our vows and promised to love for as long as the stars shone and beyond.

Once beautiful, with graceful lines and marble floors, now, like everything in this place, it’s fallen into twisted ruin.

I love you.

His words echo across the years.

Another roar shatters the silence, and the earth trembles. I’m out of time. He’s coming for me. I hurry across the blackened ground, my feet stumbling to a stop at the entrance to the pavilion. Inside stands the last mirror in Hell.

I have destroyed all the others.

And this one will soon be gone. Reaching out, I touch the plain silver frame and whisper the words of a spell. The mirror shivers and changes form. Grimlet squeals and hurls himself offmy shoulder, scampering a short distance and huddling to watch how this unfolds.

Seven feet tall, the silver frame morphs into deep black, carved with intricate patterns. A demon’s head hangs in the top center, emerald-green eyes gleaming with malice, and wings of black metal sprout from the sides. Flames of crimson burn fiercely within the frame, but as I watch, they sputter and die, leaving only darkness.

I don’t want to say goodbye. But I can feel the tremor of his footsteps, the raw power of his rage reaching out.

“I love you, my sweet one.” I kiss her on the forehead and stare into her eyes. Her father’s eyes; bright, emerald-green. “I would do anything to stay with you, but I don’t have the strength to save us both. Be happy, Lilith. Until you must be true to your destiny.”

The destiny I have forced upon her, an innocent child.

The goddess Selene heard my pleas and gifted me with the power of destruction, but I have bestowed it upon my daughter in the hope she will be strong enough to do what I cannot.

I hear a whisper in my mind. Selene.What have you done?

“The only thing I could do. I cannot destroy him. Please, please help her. Help my daughter do what I cannot.”

For long seconds, there is only silence. Then I hear her voice in my head,I will do what I can. But I don’t know if it will be enough.

“It will have to be.”

I draw the power from deep within my soul and utter the words that unlock time and space, searching for the one person who can give my daughter the love she deserves. The mirror ripples, the flames burn brighter, and then it clears. Through it, I see a temple. But where is she?