Page 1 of Dominion

PROLOGUE

It started with tears,like every life does, and the empty promises of broken parents who couldn’t give me the life I deserved to have. It started with darkness seeping into the dark room where a little, blond girl wailed, unaware that her cries wouldn’t stop that night. That the life she was brought into was nothing but an endless misery, mixed with lies, betrayal and faceless demons that would haunt her, her entire life.

It started with the ones who came along before I was born. With the ones who lied, who stole, who killed and maimed, but I paid the price for their sins. Me and others like me who didn’t know how to escape, who surrendered to the cruel destiny and the devil sitting on that altar.

It started with beautiful sinners and creatures of the night, with the shadows singing and crows dancing underneath the moonlight. They colored us in crimson. They cut our wings and fed us sweet poison until the dawn’s end.

I thought the hell I lived in was the one they created for me, but it was me. It was all me.

I created my own hell, just like everybody else did. Too blinded by the pain and misery, I forgot what it meant to fight.Nobody ever taught us how to be strong, but I could be. I would be.

I had to be.

Forthem.

It started with sinners, but it would end with me.

1

MEDEA

Alexandria, Egypt

150 BC

In the beginning, there were many.

The stale scentin the air reminded me we were no longer breathing the fresh air from above as we walked toward the catacombs underneath the city, spreading out like vines, creating a massive maze hidden from the rest of the world.

Fromthem.

From the others who didn’t belong to the Order. From the ordinary people who lived above the ruins of what once used to be the great dynasty.

My red cloak dragged over the rugged floor, the sleeves brushing against my arms, as the cold air rushing toward us from the opening at the end of the hallway caressed the skin on my cheeks, eliciting shivers all over my body.

I shouldn’t have even been here tonight. I shouldn’t have been wearing the cloak, but destiny was a motherfucking bitch, pushing me in the direction I once didn’t want to go to, but now I had to. I could kick and scream and wail for the life I wanted to have, but there was no use trying to change the path I was on now. There was no use trying to change what was decided for me once my sister died.

Rubrum Innupta.

To become a Red Maiden, the official part of the Order, that was my destiny. This gathering tonight, the one my parents have been waiting for, was nothing but a show created by those that enjoyed seeing the rest of us squirm. Families from the entire Roman Empire came here tonight, bringing their children with them for the first time—children who were of official age, needed for the Union.

Girls and boys rushed next to me, the sounds of crying, wailing, and screaming echoing around us while their guardians pushed them forward, the chains around their feet clinking together, creating a cacophony of noise.

I already knew my destiny, the family that was going to take me. I already knew the misery I was going into, but they… they had no idea. Their lives weren’t their own anymore. Their bodies belonged to the highest bidders waiting for us in the main chamber down, down below, where the darkness seeped through the cracks in the walls, dimming out the barely there lights hanging on the walls.

I could feel my mother’s eyes on me, and the punishing grip of my father’s hand on my upper arm, but I didn’t dare make any noise. The time for changes was long gone. The moment we stepped on the grounds of Egypt, the moment we left the safety of the boat we came on, my mind was made.

I was going through with this whether I liked it or not.

“Psilá to kefáli, Medea.” My mother’s voice came from my left, telling me to keep my head high, but I didn’t want to look at her. After today, they had no say in what I did or how I lived. If it wasn’t for them or the debt my father didn’t repay, I wouldn’t have even been here.

My sister, Cassandra, wouldn’t have tried to seek solace in the arms of a man who would kill her the moment she tried to get away from him. If it wasn’t for my parents, I wouldn’t be here, wearing this hideous red cloak, clutching the silver mask in my hands as if it was the lifeline I was holding on to.

We grew up with the knowledge of the Order and what they stood for. We grew up knowing that one day we might be the chosen ones when the time came, but my family was never in the line for that.

Until now.

Until my father destroyed everything we worked for, selling us to cover his own selfish ass.

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