Legacy in Ruin

LEGACY IN RUIN Children of the Fallen, Book Two D.M. SIMMONS COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY D.M. SIMMONS All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a review. All requests, contact the author at www.dmsreadwrite.com. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidences are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. ASIN: B0BZJWX4PS Published by Foggy Day Publishing Cover Design by RFK Designs Contents Author’s Note Playlist Prologue 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 Acknowledgments About the Author Also By D.M. Simmons Author’s Note Legacy in Ruin is a dark paranormal, why choose romance told in dual POV. It is intended for mature audiences and contains strong language and graphic sexual content and situations that may be triggering to some readers, including kidnapping, violence, murder, bondage, submission, spanking, control, possession, and blood play. Read at own risk. This is the second book in the Children of the Fallen series and should be read after book one, A Cursed Throne. The series is part of the After the Fall universe. It is not necessary to read the first duet (Fealty of the Fallen & Legion of the Queen), but it is highly recommended. Playlist Listen on Spotify Miracle – Uplink (feat. Rosenfeld) Throne – Rival (feat. Neoni) Runaway (Heuse Remix) – Halcyon (feat. Valentina Franco) Starts Right Here – League of Legends (feat. Kenny Mason & Foreign Air) Chroma – Pixel Terror (feat. EMELINE) Walk Away – Facading Do Better – Feint Ghost in the Machine – Trivecta Game Over – Dreamkid All I Need Is You – The Last Concorde (feat. Dreamkid) Hearts Don’t Beat the Same When They’re Hurting – Dreamkid Broken – Juno Dreams Motions – Sub Morphine A Thousand Lives – At 1980 (feat. Dana Jean Phoenix) At the Crash Site – ELFL Distant Sunset – Midnight Danger Shoulder Blades (All the Damn Vampires Remix) – WOLFCLUB Lovebomb Me – VHS Dreams Wanderers – The G (feat. Mint Simon) TRNSIT – Arwelone (feat. High Fantasy) Into the Unknown – New Arcades Far From Home – Juno Dreams Into the Night – Arwelone (feat. Camille Glément) Offline – 86 Crush Awaken – Juno Dreams Souvenir – The Midnight Call 4 U – Ace Marino Heroes – The Midnight Royal Blue – You Drive Back to You – Bunny X Running in the Night – FM-84 (feat. Ollie Wride) Prologue Nev Eight years ago 13 years old “Nev!” The booming weight of my father’s voice barrels down the hall. “You kids better not be in the study.” I turn my attention to the door then back to Luca, brows shooting up to my hairline. “Shit! If he catches us in here he’ll freak out.” It wasn’t that I couldn’t be in here without permission. My father’s study, mother’s garden, even the library…. I had free reign of the penthouse we called home, and that freedom extended to Declan, who lived with us, and our two best friends, Luca, and Kai. The problem was, the last time the four of us were in here, we’d left such a mess and he banned all of us from the room indefinitely. “It’s fine,” Luca looks over my shoulder. “He’s with mine and Kai’s dad, so the worst he’ll do is reprimand you in front of me, then buy you a pony later. In fact,” he turns his attention back to me, wagging his brows, “why don’t you let him catch us in here so you can finally get that horse you’ve been wanting.” Typical Luca. Every bit a child of the Fallen, he pushed the limit, every chance he got. I secretly adored this about him, but I’d never tell him that. He’d use it to goad me into doing more than he already did. Like tonight. All it took was him daring me to take a bottle of Will’s special reserve Dalmore and I’d done it, without thinking twice. “Now see,” I grin. “That’s a good idea.” For a minute, I forget all about my father’s warning and think about the dark bay Thoroughbred I’d been begging my parents to buy. We already had a stable and grounds at our place in the country, and having my own horse would make it easier to practice steeplechase, a sport I discovered a year ago and loved. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Luca clicks his tongue, while flashing me a mischievous smile. “Are you finally going to use the fact you have mommy and daddy wrapped around your finger, and do something that’s to your advantage, baby girl?” “I don’t have them wrapped around my finger,” I roll my eyes. “And stop calling me that.” “Sure you don’t,” he laughs. “You don’t have them, or any of us, wrapped around your adorable finger.” Luca wasn’t lying. I could get my parents to do whatever I wanted, my father, in particular. I knew he wouldn’t really punish me if he caught us in here. He called me his princess. Something my Aunt Lila found both cute and ironic, since the only other being he’d ever given a free pass on anything, was my mother. Nonetheless, between my parents and the extended family I grew up around, I was admittedly, pretty spoiled. But I never let it go to my head and didn’t use it to my advantage. I preferred to be treated as any other thirteen-year-old, despite the fact I was not like anyone my age, or for that matter, anyone else, period. I was the daughter