Necessary Evil

Necessary Evil © Copyright 2022 Harper A. Brooks Visit my books at https://harperabrooks.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher/author. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. H.A.B. Publications LLC Cover Design: Claire Holt with Luminescence Covers www.luminescencecovers.com Interior & Formatting: Jennifer Laslie Editor: Words of Advice Editing Proofreading: Krista Cook Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 More Books By Harper A. Brooks About the Author Trigger Warnings THIS BOOK CONTAINS: Dark themes Mental illness Instances of non-con/assault Violence Group scenes Death Necessary Evil A great evil waits for me… And it won’t stop until it swallows me whole. I’ve been ripped from Dark Castle, thrown back into the mortal world where I don’t belong. Here, they think I’m crazy. They’ve locked me up and forced pills down my throat, telling me I’ve lost my mind. And maybe I have… I’ve fallen for three monsters after all. Prince Airic, Knight Reis, and shapeshifter Wels—they are the sinister men of my nightmares and my deepest fantasies. I can still feel their touches, hear their voices in my head, but they’re in danger. I have to get back to them because if the shadows close in, I can lose everything. The kingdom. My monsters. And ultimately, myself. Chapter One Stella I’m stuck here. I really can’t get back. In the past, in the depths of my childhood, when I thought of the Shadow World and the Dark Castle, it had been a place of darkness, bleached of colors, and a place where I could hide and seek comfort. Yet for all the pleasure it held, it always seemed so bleak in a way. But now? The regular world is that. Worse. Dark. Dull. Lacking. Closing my eyes in my ugly studio apartment, which no longer feels like home, I pull my legs up on the sofa and then pick up the cushion next to me and hug it tight. It’s a poor substitution. I don’t want to be here. But I can’t get back. Everything is heavy and dull. I don’t know how long I was gone. And what does it matter? Airic, Wels, Reis—my beautiful monsters. I don’t even know if they’re alive. Swallowing hard, I lean back and stare at the popcorn ceiling as shadows flicker with the changing light from the TV. The sound is down as I try to shift the weight in my chest. Before the portal opened to take me back here, Malachi, the monster who looked so much like Airic, had tried to steal something from me. Said things that keep slipping from my head. That’s the worst of being back. Everything slithers away from me when I try to grab on. And I’ve tried—God, how I’ve tried to get back. For days, I’ve agonized over it. Lost sleep. But I don’t have powers to open a portal. I wouldn’t even know how. When I was a child, they just opened, like something from the other realm had latched on to my loneliness. I swallow hard. Now…? Now I wonder if it was all a fever dream. But I let go of the cushion and touch my throat, where the bruise, love bite, call it what you will, fades but still mars my skin. It’s real. Wels is real. Reis. The boy I knew, Airic, who’s grown into a big and powerful prince—he’s real, too. Or was. I stand to get wine. The bottle on the rickety coffee table is empty. I downed it too easily, and now I’m ready to rummage through the rest of the holiday stash I’ve collected over the years. In the kitchen of my studio, I twist off the lid of a new one and pour a glass before downing that musty grape liquor, shuddering as the tannins from the cheap red seem to dry my mouth. I’m not drunk—far from it—but God, do I want to be. Normally, I’d be out trying to get another job—after walking out of that crap restaurant when I caught my boss fucking my nemesis, the bitch-ass Pam, who spread rumors about me—or going for a run, or something, but now I have no desire for that. What’s out there I want? Nothing. What I want and need is in another realm. I order in, have groceries delivered, and watch my bank account dwindle on my computer. What if— I stop myself. Malachi, he… If they’re dead, then I’ll— What? I laugh and slosh more wine into the chipped glass. Avenge them? Turn magic on that monster? Me? Stella the no one. Fuck. I can’t do a damn thing if I can’t get there. Maybe the wine will help— My doorbell rings, and I utter a small scream and jump. It rings again. Then someone starts thumping on my door loud enough to wake the dead. Or another realm. I stomp to the door and fling it open, and my aunt Marilyn, with her no-nonsense bun and streaks of gray in her hair, tall like me, frowns and pushes her way in. “Where the hell have you