Page 2 of Stormhold

“I’ve other plans for her.” The man, whose eyes flickered like evil itself, spared me a glance over his shoulder from the passenger seat while he casually smoked a cigar.

“I say we put the bitch to good use after what she did to me.” A heavy boot nudged my side with a little too much force than necessary. I lost balance, which only made the men laugh as I struggled in the moving vehicle, before I felt a tight grip around my ribs, a little too close to where I didn’t want someone’s touch to pull me upright.

Biting the sourness on my tongue, I straightened my spine, my eyes going back to the road, and the long, grueling journey continued.

Hours later, the truck slowed down past long, winding roads where no other houses were in sight. Only tall trees and crops and rolling fields. It looked like a farm of some sort, and I was dragged out of the truck by my hair.

And within the next five minutes, I was sold to the ugly-looking man in a pale white suit, as if I were some kind of commodity.

“Have her.” The man threw me with a forceful push. The motion made my hips fall hard on the rough edges of the wooden floor. “Do whatever you want with her. I don’t care as long as I have my money.”

My eyes snapped to him, hardly registering the pain. I didn’t need to memorize his features. His face was one I would never forget. Instead of feeling the grave danger of my situation, all I felt was pure rage.

I met evil’s eyes with a blank stare. “My eyes will be the last ones you’ll see before you die,” I said quietly.

He laughed. They both did. The amusing kind, like what I said was a silly joke to them.

But I never joked.

It was a promise. One I intend to keep. I’ll escape this nightmare and find him.

Years later, I found out they called what happened to my family that night a tragedy in the town of Grimoire. A home robbery gone wrong. An unfortunate demise.

But that was far from the truth.

I heard the man speak to my mother. I heard what he said. I remembered everything.

My memory wasn’t a curse anymore.

Because I remembered them all.

The man with four fingers.

The man with a lisp.

The man with a squid tattoo.

The man with a limp.

And the man with evil eyes.

I promised to kill him, and one day, I will.

The same way he killed my family.

And my eyes will be the last thing he sees before his death.

Funny thing about men is that they think they can take, take, and take, but little do they know the only thing they take is the weakness that hesitates to kill them.

PART I

CHAPTER 1

BELLE

A howling storm tore through the city.

It roared like an untamed beast, opening its deep gray clouds to a torrential downpour that drowned the roads with inches of running water. The sight wasn’t unusual for Twin City, a city so well-versed in darkness, despair, and dread that a mere storm couldn’t shake it.