B E F O R E

DEATH WAS NOT PEACEFUL or beautiful. Wendi Graves died brutally at the hands of a man she loved dearly, and the worst part? He had enjoyed it. He loved the way her flesh tore under the blade of the knife, the way she sounded screaming, and the way she fought him. During the trial, he confessed to everything; he wasn't afraid of speaking the truth, and none of the Graves was.

   He was an excellent father to Lavina and Aslan, taught his daughters how to write, ride a bike, and make more than flowers grow in their garden. The magic in their blood gives them endless possibilities. However, once Lavina turned eighteen, his mind had shifted. Dark. Cruel. Cold. Wendi had tried all the spells in her grimoire to help heal the man she married, but none affected the darkness that took root in his mind. Everything Wendi did to save him only made him worse.

   One day, Lavina had heard Aslan scream because she'd walked in on her father trying to strangle their mother with a telephone cord. As a Graves child, one of the first spells she'd been taught was to repel an evil presence. The Graves are known to have many enemies, most wanting them for slavery or death. Casting the spell onto her father, knocking him out cold, she aided and tended to her mother's wounds after they locked him away in the spare bedroom. As Lavina healed their mother, Aslan questioned them, wanting to know what was wrong with Daddy.

   Wendi sighed and told them, "Girls, if you don't live for something, you will die for nothing."

   "How does that have anything to do with Dad, Mom? He just tried to kill you!" Lavina questioned.

   "I'm living for him, baby."

   The truth to that dangerous lie was that if you died for something, then you lived for everything. Four years later, Wendi had died trying to save a man she loved, and she lived for the family he'd given her: her everything.

Only the worst had yet to come for the remaining Graves family.