Page 35 of Lunar Diamonds (Celestial Magic #1)

DRAKE

I followed Riley back up the beach, submerged in numbness, the stench of charred flesh burning my nostrils.

Rhianna. Rhianna. Rhianna. A permanent stain. Always around to haunt my life.

She’d never let me go. Broken bond or not, our lives were entwined.

Fuck. I took deep sniffs of the ginkgo, adding to the burn in my nose. It didn’t work, seeming to only exacerbate my frustrations.

I should have killed her. One final act, take her down, spare Riley the grief of her shit. Because the five-day threat was a promise.

House Kingwood would make Coldharbour bleed.

You failed again, trash.

I did, watching everything play out without doing a thing.

Useless.

Hecate only knew how I made it back to the mansion with so much lead in my limbs. But I did, on the verge of screaming the walls down.

Useless fucking trash…