The Fated and the Damned

The Fated and the Damned Chloe Hodge Copyright This book is written in British English. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The Fated and the Damned Copyright © 2023 by Chloe Szentpeteri First edition: February 2023 Paperback ISBN: 978-0-6453849-4-9 Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-6453849-6-3 E-book ISBN: 978-0-6453849-5-6 Special thanks and acknowledgement to: Editor; Aidan Curtis, Cover artist; Cover Dungeon Rabbit Formatter; Rebecca Camm Find me at: www.chloehodge.com Instagram: @chloeschapters TikTok: @chloehodgeauthor Facebook: Chloe Hodge Author Reading Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chloesreadingcoven Contents ABOUT THE BOOK DEDICATION PROLOGUE PART ONE ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN PART TWO EIGHTEEN NINETEEN TWENTY TWENTY-ONE TWENTY-TWO TWENTY-THREE TWENTY-FOUR TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-SIX TWENTY-SEVEN TWENTY-EIGHT TWENTY-NINE THIRTY PART THREE THIRTY-ONE THIRTY-TWO THIRTY-THREE THIRTY-FOUR THIRTY-FIVE THIRTY-SIX THIRTY-SEVEN THIRTY-EIGHT EPILOGUE JOIN MY COVEN A SMALL FAVOUR... LANGUAGE GUIDE MORE BOOKS BY CHLOE HODGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE BOOKSteamy, romantic, and dangerous, The Fated and the Damned is the deliciously dark conclusion to the Cursed Blood duology. Please note: This series contains explicit content which may be triggering for some. This book will include explicit romance, mature language, violence, gore, animal harm, reference to drug use, and emotional manipulation. This book is intended for readers 18+. This is book two, the final book in this duology. DEDICATIONFor all the spice loving, bad boy hunting, romantasy readers out there. This is just the beginning you thirsty bitches. ~It’s corn~ Did that dedication speak to your dark soul? Do my stories bring you joy or mild amusement? Want access to teasers, giveaways, memes, recs, and more? Join my reading tribe! Come and find us at Chloe Hodge’s Reading Coven https://www.facebook.com/groups/chloesreadingcoven PROLOGUEThe Dark QueenI’d forgotten the taste of blood. The metallic tang upon my lips, the surge of power slipping through my veins. A gentle buzz thrummed through my body, and I marvelled at every small sensation tingling beneath my skin. I was whole again. Beautiful and strong, soon to be unstoppable. The underling fixed between my thighs picked up his pace as I arched my back, opening my legs in a simple command. His tongue swept up my centre, heightening my desire, my need for release filling me up in waves.I fisted his hair in one hand, grinding my hips as I pulled him closer. A soft moan spilled from my mouth and I paused, taking a breath before once more feasting on the neck of the witch hanging limply in my other hand. Her blood—the very essence of her power—misted past my lips, coating my tongue as I swallowed greedily.This was what it meant to be alive. My enemies laid before my feet, my disciples responding to my every whim. I had forgotten what it was to have magic, and I had no qualms about restoring it. The ritual circles my faithful flock had been casting to drain the girls of their vigour were no longer necessary now that my body was fully restored. The last few months I had been little more than a wraith as my strength slowly returned, my body repairing a little more with each kill.But now … I was restored to my beautiful self. Better, in fact, no longer needing spells or ceremony to serve my dark magic. I was no longer a witch, but something other. Neither living nor dead, but a new breed of chaos. My power was heightened, my thirst for blood and strength never sated. Gone was the hunger for feeble human food. My resurrected form could take power direct from the source—feed on witches like the vampires of old. Baba Yaga had even fashioned my teeth like them, enhancing the pleasure of each kill.Witches were my sisters once, yet I felt nothing but joy when I drained them of blood. No sorrow or empathy, no regret or guilt. Not after witchkind had hunted me down, killed my followers and tied me up like a dog as they watched the flesh melt from my bones. No, I would offer them no mercy, no quarter, and I would take pleasure from ripping out the throats of every damned witch I destroyed.Pleasure had been beyond my reach for too long. Any physical sensation at all, thanks to that wretched horseman. I’d expected pain for my treachery—torture by the hands of demons and ancient creatures beyond even my comprehension—and indeed Death and his minions had granted me such for a time. When that didn’t break me, he’d gifted me something so much worse.An eternity of emptiness. I’d been but a speck of energy in a void of darkness. Incorporeal, unable to feel or speak or do anything at all except float alongside the other souls damned to a fate worse than death. Trapped. What could be more horrible than the agony of physical pain? The absence of everything that made one alive. Just another ripple in a never-ending river.It was worse than any hurt I might have felt by a blade. I’d have taken the stake over the desolation he’d wrought upon me any day, if only to feel something. Somehow, I’d clung to my sanity all these long years and, against all odds, my followers had defied the will of the gods—defied Death himself to bring me back. And, like any fool brought to their knees, I had learnt my lesson. Challenging a greater power was not without risk. My death had been the price of such stupidity, and I would not fall so easily again.Not with an army of loyal worshippers at