Page 1 of Devoted

Prologue

EZEKIEL - AGED TEN

“Icannot,” I sobbed, my arms shaking as I held them up in front of me. My power was fading. “Please, I cannot.”

“You can. Unless you would rather be weak. Is that what you are Ezekiel? Weak? Do you think weakness is what makes soldiers?”

My father’s words were accompanied by a searing blast across my cheek. I sobbed harder, but did not drop my hands.

That would only make it worse.

“Push past those tears,” he roared. The shield shoving against mine crept closer. We were in the training chamber, as we were every day. Every day for the past three years, it had just been us, in this cold stone room. No windows. No furniture. Just torches around the edges, casting shadows. Shadows I wished I could hide in. Maybe there, he could not find me. “Sorrow is not what we need. What do we need, Ezekiel?”

I knew the answer. I did not agree with him though. It went against everything Mother had taught me. Even now, with sweat rolling down my skin, every muscle aching, I could not make myself do it. I could not behave the way he wanted me too. The way he needed me to.

I would not unleash the monster that was my temper.

His power grew brighter as his brow furrowed. He stood on the other side of the chamber, not a single hair out of place. The only outward signs of his displeasure were the twitch in his moustache and the increasing volume of his voice.

“Tell me, Ezekiel, what do we need to be the best? To be the most powerful? To beworthyof the Seraphim? What. Do. We.Need.”

I gritted my teeth. No. I held the monster down. I was not giving in. I would not let him change me. I did not need to be like him. I could be powerful. I could serve as one of the Seraphim and still be myself.

Father’s eyes narrowed and he spread his fingers wider. My power was eviscerated by his and I flew through the air, colliding with the stone wall. My bones cracked, pain sluicing through me, but I tamped it down.

I got to my feet, trying to stop myself shaking. In my ear, I could swear I heard my mother’s whisper—‘Do not let him see your fear.’

But she was long gone, killed in the war between God and Lucifer. The war that had changed everything for all angels.

For me, it had taken away my only protector, the only one who’d truly loved me. It had left me alone withhim; the one who had used her death as the excuse he had been searching for to truly unleash himself, to give in to those sinful impulses we were not supposed to feel as angels.

Now, he wanted me to do the same.

Father had not been struck down to Hell with the others, thanks to the side he had chosen to fight on.

But that was where he belonged. I was certain of that.

He barely gave me time to get to my feet before another onslaught of power hit me. I raised my hands, wincing as I tried to fend him off.

It never lasted.

“What do weneed?” he roared, spittle flying as his composure broke. “To be the best? The strongest? To fight alongside God’s most elite soldiers? What do youneed,Ezekiel?!”

My power rose but faltered in the wake of his, sending me stumbling once more. The monster inside me sniffed the air, begging to be set free. To end this.

“You are weak,” he spat. “Pathetic. You will never be worthy of the Seraphim. You willnevermake me proud. I should put you down right now before you can embarrass me further.”

Something in me snapped, a snaking fissure forming. How dare he. Howdarehe? He was meant to be my father. He was meant to love me.

This was not love.

The monster roared inside me.

My power rushed free as I let that feeling overwhelm me, the one I knew he wanted. The one he demanded from me. Despite my insistence that I would not let it consume me, I had no choice. I could not stop it.

It exploded from me, lighting up the entire chamber with blistering brightness. An inarticulate yell ripped from my throat as I threw my arms open wide.

I released it all.

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