Devotion by Rachel Jonas

Many worship at his feet.
He only bows to her.

THE SPIDER
I move through Layla’s world in silence, always watching.
It’s incredible where you can hide a camera these days.
She’s the daughter of my enemy, a threat to my flock, and I had a solidplan for her.
The weight of her father’s sin was meant to fall on her shoulders.
Only, the second my world bled into hers, that plan derailed.
I’m hooked on her—this walking enigma with a sharp tongue, a dark sense of humor, and eyes that haunt my dreams.
I’ve accepted that Layla’s awakened something in me.
A hunger that can only be sated by what it craves.
Her.

THE SACRIFICE
I’ve spent my whole life outrunning the darkness woven into my DNA.
But the darkness is his first love.
I’ve been assigned to photograph the trail of bodies he’s left across our city.
With each lifeless victim staring back through my lens, I learn more about the man they call “The Widowmaker”.
He’s cold, he’s calculated, and somehow… he knows me.
Like, really knows me. My secrets. My true self.
Monsters are meant to be slain. Banished to dark, forbidden places.
But the one under my bed won’t go quietly.
He agrees to retreat into the shadows, but there’s one condition…
If he goes, he gets to take me with him.