Cover Reveal | The Control

My demons will ruin whatever is left of her halo.

BOWEN

I was living on borrowed everything: time, feelings, motives, even these stale breaths. 

I was expired in every way. 

No saving me. 

He should have lived instead. 

He deserved to squeeze every drop out of life and rub it in my face the way he always did. 

I was stuck here as half of a person and Eve expected me to be whole enough to fix her. 

We were too shattered to ever be put back together again. 

I was her demon.  

EVE

I was wasting every second of every day trying to make time move faster. 

I was ready to throw away this life as the Princess of Denmark and go back home where Bowen would be waiting for me. There was no stopping me. 

I had been promised to Bowen since our births.

I was determined to save myself for him and only him – my life line. 

I may be bruised and broken but that only dirtied up my angel wings. 

Nothing he couldn’t handle. 

I would always be his angel.

ABIGAIL
LA wasn’t home… just home for now.
Transplanted here to model I learned Hollywood isn’t where dreams survive the harsh reality of millions all sharing that same dream.
Executive assistant is who I am now.
Slave.
Hollywood’s darling took a liking to me. One not easily ignored when they give you a taste of the high life.
I was supposed to give up hope and give in to LA’s bad reputation but I had rules.
Well, just one: read the rules before you break them.
Unwilling to abandon all my morals, the filter came off my life to see the world I was one foot in was invitation only…

GRIMM
I’m not sure I was ever really Jason.
Whoever he was, was a distant memory now.
Grimm is who I am now.
Death.
I abandoned my birth name, companionship, happiness that wasn’t shaped like Xanax all because I was expected to be the kind of elite that pulls the strings.
Pull the strings but follow the rules.
No distractions.
No serious relationships.
Keep what we do secret.
Born into a rite I didn’t ask for, a society of puppeteers.
An invitation I marked not attending…

I woke up to my roommate and best friend missing. In her place was a note on my bedside table that read: You can only find me with your eyes closed.
No one thinks a note like that is meant for them.
I knew it was meant for me, a clue, a way to seek Justice.
Whoever left me that note was hoping I didn’t let my parent’s legacy die when they did. They wanted to see what kind of warfare I was capable of.
Justice before starting a war with the man who wrote the rule book…

I woke up everyday to the same nonsensical bullshit that was my life.
They say only bad things only happen after dark but I was the exception to every rule. I was bad and I happened whenever I wanted.
I wanted someone to challenge me, put me in my place, force me to be better than war strategies and hold the audacity to traipse across enemy lines.
A pink haired receptionist wasn’t my first choice for shaking my resolve.
I can still smell her but I wanted to know if she’d taste like Victory.
Death before dishonor meant not losing to her…

KHAOS
I’m not living under any kind of false pretenses here. I know I’m basically a rapper’s attitude with R&B feelings and a pop star’s bank account.
There were a lot of ways to describe my unconventional lifestyle of part time cult member and full time showman.
Risk taker.
Exuberant.
And my personal favorite adjective: undomesticated.
I surrounded myself with people who liked a good time but left after they served their purpose of making sure I felt nothing but top shelf feelings.
I wasn’t about to be like my brothers who let the darkness eat away at their vindication. The only crime I had ever committed was waving the glory of being invited, of saying I came and conquered around like a badge of honor.
Spoiler alert: None of that earned me respect.
There’s only one girl who managed to rob me of my fake smile… and my watch.

GRACE
I was a throw away, street trash, a child abandoned and scooped up by the bad people you only hear about after they get caught.
I was hard in a way people found uncomfortable and determined too much work to rehabilitate into society again. I was found guilty over and over enough to let the bad things become who I am, blurring the lines between freedom and a jail sentence.
Fraud.
Thief.
And my least favorite: fake girlfriend to a scary ass kingpin.
Forced out of a childhood I was surrounded by darkness, evil, and the kind of cutthroat loyalty that landed your body so mutilated they wouldn’t be able to tell who you were if you fell out of obedience.
They accepted me like family and there’s no quitting your family.
I had the respect to match my rap sheet.
There’s only one guy who managed to exonerate me… and my invisible wings.