#devouring darkness

books I’ve read in 2022 📖 no. 121

Devouring Darkness by Chloe Neill

Zetar | Devouring Darkness | 15th October, 2021

American Black Metal

Artwork by Bruce Pennington 

REVIEW

DEVOURING DARKNESS (Heirs of Chicagoland 5) by Chloe Neill at The Reading Cafe:

‘n exciting action filled adventure‘

Some days seemed longer than others, hours going by slower than she would like and minutes dragging on for what felt like forever. Those were the days that provided Sophia with time to think, worry and regret. Her waking moments were usually filled with a flurry of tasks and people to keep her thoughts at bay. Today was one of those long days, since morning she had been trying to repress the replaying images of Cal and Damien fighting each other. Even now, it seemed like a bad nightmare. Sophia continuously tried to tell herself that, but her mother's death was a clear reminder that it was all real. She still couldn't understand how her ex-boyfriend had the heart to murder her mother, film it and send it to her. Damien stated in the video that he did it for her, to remove the part of her life that brought her pain and sorrow. 

Breathing out heavily, the daughter of Dionysus tossed and turned hoping to sleep. If only that were easier done than said. Bunching up the sheets in her fist, she soon drifted off into memories of her mother. Ones that could barely be recognized as memories but she remembered them all too clearly. Every single moment her mother spent with her was well remembered. Her grandmother, even more. Sophia remembered fondly the day her grandmother instructed her on how to make a chocolate mousse cake. The kitchen was a huge mess, and the cake turned out horribly. Sophia was utterly terrified of her mother coming home to such a disaster and ran into her grandmother's room to hide underneath her bed. Elizabeth Tremblay was a horrible mother among other things, but she was a decent daughter and left her own mother's privacy alone. 

Hiding underneath the bed, Sophia was waiting for her mother to get tired or drunk and pass out. She must have fell asleep because when she awoke, she was no longer in her grandmother's room under the bed where it was safe. No, now she was in the middle of a dark room, pitch black and she had no idea how big or small this place was. Or where she was. Walking slowly, she took her steps cautiously moving around the dark space. She couldn't even look down and see her own hands or any part of herself, which made her wonder if she was even all there. That was silly, of course she was or how else would she function. As her mind kept up a quiet debate with itself in the background, Sophia wondered for a quick moment where Cal was. That was when she realized something, her fingers slipped down to her throat and moved downwards only to feel her cool skin there. Nothing else. Cal's heart was gone. He had given her that pendant which correlated with the beat of his heart and now it was gone.

Immediately, her mind flashed back to her days of captivity. When Damien had held her hostage and at the end gave her the shock of her life with a staged death that looked to her like Cal. Except it wasn't him, he was alive and well. But now, at this moment she had no idea what happened to him. Turning her head to the left slowly, Sophia froze in her spot. In front of her stood Damien with a sinister grin. Even with everything that he had done, she couldn't help but sympathize for him. He was off his medication, which is why he was acting out and letting his impulse get the better of him. "Dam..ien.."she stuttered, staring at him in disbelief. He was supposed to be in prison, not here, not free. Tears started to stream down her cheeks and she heard herself sighing, but felt like it was someone else, not her. He took one long stride towards her and leaned closer to wipe away her tears with the pad of his thumb.