The Initiation by Elena Monroe is a Dark New Adult Romance. It's book 1 in The 4Horsemen Series, it's releasing on August 4. Keep reading for an excerpt.
Title: The Initiation
Series: The 4Horsemen #1
Author: Elena Monroe
Genre: Dark New Adult Romance
Release Date: August 4, 2020
The seals have been revealed and God’s judgments on the earth is in. The Clave is here to deliver the news.
ABIGAIL
LA wasn’t home… just home for now. Transplanted here to model I learned Hollywood isn’t where dreams survive the harsh reality of millions all sharing that same dream.-
Executive assistant is who I am now. Slave. Hollywood’s darling took a liking to me. One not easily ignored when they give you a taste of the high life.
I was supposed to give up hope and give in to LA’s bad reputation but I had rules. Well, just one: read the rules before you break them.
Unwilling to abandon all my morals, the filter came off my life to see the world I was one foot in was invitation only...
GRIMM
I’m not sure I was ever really Jason. Whoever he was, was a distant memory now. Grimm is who I am now. Death.
I abandoned my birth name, companionship, happiness that wasn’t shaped like Xanax all because I was expected to be the kind of elite that pulls the strings.
Pull the strings but follow the rules.
No distractions.
No serious relationships.
Keep what we do secret. Born into a rite I didn’t ask for, a society of puppeteers.
An invitation I marked not attending...
We were all related to monsters. All heir to corrupt kingdoms.
Forced to uphold some delusion that we are doing God’s will by ridding the world of the bad people when we should be included in that kind of purge.
It’s down to the right. There’s a bunker. That’s where they keep the sacrifices, I was finally tired of wondering around when I knew exactly where to go.
I found them by mistake one year when I was ten, back when inviting your whole family was more common. They expected everyone to be present even if you weren’t weilding a musket and shooting real people down.
The four of us used to play hide and seek on the grounds just to keep ourselves entertained. I always had the best hiding places, this was our vacation home when it wasn’t being used for some ceremony the Clave hosted.
I was ten years old when I found people in cages in the bunker we were told to stay away from. They were all dugged, out of it like they were dreaming with their eyes open.
I envied them. Dreaming with your eyes wide open seemed like the perfect antidote to life, too bad that kind of safety only came before you died.
It wasn’t until my first attendance I realized these people weren’t lucky at all. They were bait, aggression running wild, enemies of the Clave that we hunted for sport.
None of them were going to survive - the least we could do was let them dream with their eyes wide open.
GRIMM: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Leaving her in the car I perched on the hood of my car waiting out the fucking Lakers game the next target was enjoying without any clue he was about to make it his last.
Death is always a surprise.⠀I’m always a surprise.⠀Abigail followed suit, stopping in front of me, close enough for our chests to touch with every inhale and exhale she asked me one of the most personal questions she could.⠀
My name, who I was, the monster inside me, what I do for The Clave was all in the off limits box. The same box I even hid from myself so showing it to her was going to be hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It’s not who I am anymore, almost a murmur instead of a confession. Then who are you?⠀My hands grazed her hips keeping her in place, normally this was the part that made people run and normally I didn’t stop them. ⠀
A monster, Abigail.⠀What kind of monster?⠀She didn’t even fidget or flinch at my words. Pure curiosity in her eyes trying to figure me out.
The kind that goes bump into the night. The kind that doesn't get saved in the end. Love is universal. It finds that one person who loves all the parts you don’t.
Abigail was an optimist, and I didn't see that coming. She was surrounded by so much bleak shit I figured she saw shit half empty jump like us.
Instead she saw all of us only a shade of black that wasn’t that dark after all. Not as dark as we all saw it for, obsidian.
It’s down to the right. There’s a bunker. That’s where they keep the sacrifices, I was finally tired of wondering around when I knew exactly where to go.
I found them by mistake one year when I was ten, back when inviting your whole family was more common. They expected everyone to be present even if you weren’t weilding a musket and shooting real people down.
The four of us used to play hide and seek on the grounds just to keep ourselves entertained. I always had the best hiding places, this was our vacation home when it wasn’t being used for some ceremony the Clave hosted.
I was ten years old when I found people in cages in the bunker we were told to stay away from. They were all dugged, out of it like they were dreaming with their eyes open.
I envied them. Dreaming with your eyes wide open seemed like the perfect antidote to life, too bad that kind of safety only came before you died.
It wasn’t until my first attendance I realized these people weren’t lucky at all. They were bait, aggression running wild, enemies of the Clave that we hunted for sport.
None of them were going to survive - the least we could do was let them dream with their eyes wide open.
Excerpt 2
GRIMM: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Leaving her in the car I perched on the hood of my car waiting out the fucking Lakers game the next target was enjoying without any clue he was about to make it his last.
Death is always a surprise.⠀I’m always a surprise.⠀Abigail followed suit, stopping in front of me, close enough for our chests to touch with every inhale and exhale she asked me one of the most personal questions she could.⠀
My name, who I was, the monster inside me, what I do for The Clave was all in the off limits box. The same box I even hid from myself so showing it to her was going to be hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It’s not who I am anymore, almost a murmur instead of a confession. Then who are you?⠀My hands grazed her hips keeping her in place, normally this was the part that made people run and normally I didn’t stop them. ⠀
A monster, Abigail.⠀What kind of monster?⠀She didn’t even fidget or flinch at my words. Pure curiosity in her eyes trying to figure me out.
The kind that goes bump into the night. The kind that doesn't get saved in the end. Love is universal. It finds that one person who loves all the parts you don’t.
Abigail was an optimist, and I didn't see that coming. She was surrounded by so much bleak shit I figured she saw shit half empty jump like us.
Instead she saw all of us only a shade of black that wasn’t that dark after all. Not as dark as we all saw it for, obsidian.
©Elena Monroe 2020
Elena Monroe grew up in Florida scribbling down stories from a very young age. These stories were really just wavy lines filling the paper, but she knew each word, each emotion, each character's name, and there was no tricking her into forgetting what each line signified. Just like her unconventional way of writing as a toddler Elena is setting her own rules and just telling stories.
Much like her debut novel, The Best Years, life certainly imitated art. Transplanting from the South to the East Coast, Elena currently lives in Connecticut with her soon to be husband, reformed bad boy.
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