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“There’s only one thing worse than a nightmare… and that’s a memory of my mother’s death. It was the last memory of my mother I only seemed to be able to recall in my dreams. She was speaking to a tattooed woman who I could only remember as a shadow. The tattoos wound around her with black wisps, blocking out her face. It was magic that I remembered and that kept drawing me back to this place. Magic that didn’t want me to recall what had been done to me. Magic that had come from a witch. My mother clutched at me as if the woman might take me away. “No!” she shouted. The sharp tone of her voice brought tears to my eyes. She’d never told me what would happen when I turned sixteen. “Who is this, Mama?” I asked. The witch’s voice never did come through quite right in my dream-memory. The words came out as broken, garbled sounds, like pieces of glass falling down a metal tube. “You made a deal,” she hissed and reached for me. That’s right. I always seemed to forget this part when I woke up. My mother had s0ld her firstborn child in exchange for power over a Blood Stone… over the force of hell itself. Anger burned in me that she’d have been capable of such a thing, but the way that she bravely stepped between the witch and me said how much she regretted such a bargain and she was going to fight to have it undone. Perhaps she imagined she’d never get pregnant. Perhaps I was a mistake and I was never supposed to have been born. Regardless of her intentions, here I was, payment due, and the Witch of Shadows had come to collect her debt. “I curse you, witch,” my mother spat, even as the witch’s magic ripped her out of the way. I screamed as an invisible force dragged me to the witch’s feet. Even in my dream-memory, I couldn’t make out her features. Tattoos and shadows spiraled around her, but the magic couldn’t wipe out the scent that filled my nostrils. Sulfur. That stench wrapped around me and made me gag. This was a Witch of the Shadow Coven, one of the dark arts and old ways. Blood magic was the darkest of them all and even though I knew what was coming, I was horrified when its burning magic tingled through my veins. I turned to look at my mother, my vision blurred as tears welled in my eyes. I hated this part, not because of the pain that came next, but because I would have loved to have seen my mother again. Even through the splotchy limit of my sight I knew she would be stunning. Sharp, angled cheekbones set on a stern face, currently tilted up in determination to use the power the witches had awarded her against them. There was only one thing a Witch of the Shadow Coven could want with a virgin—a succubus virgin, no less. Sacrifice to redeem a sin. I was to resolve one of the cardinal sins. Each supernatural was capable of this twisted purpose. I sensed the sins the witch had already quelled. Four. Four sins were missing from her rotten soul. Greed. Envy. Gluttony. Anger. That left three left to be resolved. Sloth. Pride. Lust… I knew which one I was for. The witch raised her ceremonial dagger and moonlight glittered on its dangerous edge. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. “You will redeem me,” the witch said as shadows writhed over her face, forming a malicious grin. —Seven Sins: A Reverse Harem Romance Complete Series