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Back Kingdom of the Wicked
Chapters (58)
  1. About the Author
  2. Title Page
  3. Imprint Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Map
  7. Contents
  8. Prologue
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Four
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Eleven
  20. Twelve
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Eighteen
  27. Nineteen
  28. Twenty
  29. Twenty-One
  30. Twenty-Two
  31. Twenty-Three
  32. Twenty-Four
  33. Twenty-Five
  34. Twenty-Six
  35. Twenty-Seven
  36. Twenty-Eight
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. Thirty-Nine
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-Three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Acknowledgments
  58. Endmatter page 1

I wondered about those nights I thought I’d felt someone watching as I drifted into sleep. It was unsettling and invasive, having private moments become a spectacle for prying eyes. All the times I’d gotten dressed, or collapsed in grief. Emotions raw and unchecked because I thought I’d been alone. I glanced out the window, wondering if someone was out there now, watching this latest horror unfold.

I rubbed my hands over my arms, trying to shake the sudden chills. If my bedroom wasn’t on the second floor, and if I didn’t travel through the rest of the house to get here, I’d think the entire place had been ransacked. Aside from my trashed bedroom, the rest of our home was untouched. And so were my family members. Somehow Nonna must not have heard anything unusual, because she was napping peacefully in her bedroom on the lower level. Everyone else was at Sea & Vine until they completed dinner service. Thank the goddess.

Just to put my mind at ease, I made my way across the debris, and peered into Vittoria’s old hiding place. The grimoire pages I’d tucked back in there after I’d summoned Wrath were torn to shreds. Her perfumes smashed. The love notes were missing, along with her diary.

A tear hit the floor. Followed by another. I felt like I was falling, too. Slipping between cracks and losing myself to grief all over again. Seeing Vittoria’s things smashed and broken . . . it was all too much.

I crossed the remnants of what used to be our safe haven, and collapsed onto what was left of my bed. It sank with my weight, sitting cockeyed and wrong. Like everything else in my world.

A sob tore loose. The harder I tried fighting it, the more uncontrollable my sobbing became. How foolish to think I had nothing left to lose. The demons went and proved me wrong. Even if I put our room back together, it would never be the same again.

My sister’s belongings and everything she’d loved had been destroyed.

Vittoria had finally been erased from my world. And now I wasn’t sure I knew how to go on. I laid on my side and tucked my knees up to my chin and cried. I didn’t care if there was an incorporeal demon watching. I didn’t care if there was a witch hunter, or prince of Hell, or sadistic human monster delighting in my pain. I lost something I’d never regain, and I mourned.