Prologue

PROLOGUE

I knew now what it was.

That feeling I’d had that first day on the boat, when the sun was high and warm on my neck in Barcelona — the way my stomach had somersaulted like we were in a deep sea storm even though we were still tied up at the dock.

It was a warning.

I didn’t see it then, didn’t recognize it as anything more than nerves and maybe a little sorrow swimming in my gut.

But now, with the blood pooling around my head, soaking into the teak and my hair all the same, I understood.

It was a warning.

The universe knew long before I did the way this all would end, and it cautioned me the only way it knew how.

But I ignored it.

Now, as the blackness invaded my vision, the splitting ache at the crown of my head going numb, I caught one last glimpse of the man responsible for it all and I wondered how I never saw it coming.

How did I never see what he was capable of, when pushed, when threatened?

How did I ever let him hold me, kiss me, have me in every way there is to be had?

How did I fall for the lie those eyes told, for the heart within that chest, for a man so evil?

They say love is blind, and in most cases, I imagine that means you look past the faults of those you love — how they leave the cap off the toothpaste or throw their dirty clothes on the floor — or perhaps past your own inhibition telling you that maybe you could do better, that maybe you deserve more.

In this case, it meant death.

Through the fiery haze, the smoke and the flames, the broken crystal and the last fragments of my heart — I saw the smirk of victory on his face.

I tried to ask him why, but it came out as a cough instead, the blood around my mouth bubbling with the effort.

And then, everything went dark.