Where light falters, shadows rise, and the battle for salvation begins.
A broken past, a new purpose, and a haunting prophecy converge in a world on the brink. Hecate, a young woman tormented by loss and desperate to leave her pain behind, is thrust into a hidden war against forces beyond mortal comprehension. Taken under the wing of Solomon, an enigmatic mentor with secrets spanning centuries, she joins an ancient order dedicated to fighting the dark spirits that plague the earth.
But as Hecate faces demons—both literal and metaphorical—she discovers a chilling truth: her connection to a sinister prophecy that could alter the fate of Heaven and Hell alike. In the battle to save her soul and those she loves, Hecate must confront her past and embrace a power she never knew she had, or risk becoming the very evil she fears.
Saving Grace is a heart-pounding journey through shadowed worlds, hidden realms, and the thin line between light and dark. In the fifth installment of the Hellish series, the stakes have never been higher, and redemption has never been so elusive.
They moved through the house, the air thick with tension, until they reached the back bedroom. As the door creaked open, Hecate hesitated, turning her gaze away from the bed, afraid of what she might find. Then her mother’s voice pierced the stillness like a knife, sending a chill crawling up her spine. “What’s the matter, dear? Don’t you want to give mommy a kiss?”
Hecate’s breath caught in her throat. Slowly, she turned, her heart pounding in her chest as she faced the horror she had feared. Helena, once the embodiment of warmth and kindness, was unrecognizable. Her wrists, raw and burned, were cruelly bound to the bed frame, while boils and lesions covered her once-beautiful face and arms. A sickly stream of milky pus oozed from her body, pooling onto the bloodstained sheets. Her eyes—wild, feral, unseeing—glinted with madness, and a serpentine tongue slithered from her mouth, dripping with venom.
Jezebeth’s voice slithered from the shadows, taunting. “Maybe if you’d bothered to visit me once in a while, you filthy little bitch, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Solomon warned. “It’s the demon speaking.”
The twisted form of Helena let out a mocking laugh, her head tilting with a sinister grin. “Ah, Solomon, I was wondering when I’d get to see you again. Still trying to pretend you’re some holy man, I see.”
Solomon’s eyes narrowed. “You have the advantage, demon. You seem to know me, but I don’t know you. What name do you go by?”
Jezebeth’s laugh was sharp, a rasping sound that made Hecate’s skin crawl. She recoiled. The pain of seeing her mother’s suffering was nearly too much to bear. “You’re not going to trick me that easily, Prophet. Maybe you should ask my seventy-two brothers who you so kindly imprisoned so long ago. I’m sure they’d be eager to help.”
Solomon’s jaw clenched, his mind racing. “Is that what this is about? The resurgence of your kind?”
A cruel smirk curled on Jezebeth’s lips. “Eventually, Prophet, you’ll meet your end—and when you do, they’ll all be free. You thought you could bury the truth by planting that fake chest in the lake, fooling the Babylonians while you hid the real one away. But we know where it is, and it’s only a matter of time before we open it and unleash destruction on the world.”
A flicker of fear crossed Solomon’s face, but he steeled himself, pushing the fear back down. “Enough! Time for you to return to the hole you crawled out of.”
Jezebeth’s gaze flickered toward Hecate, the cruelty in her eyes fading into something softer, more vulnerable. “Help me, Hecate. I need you. I don’t think I can hold on much longer.”
The pitiful plea tore at Hecate’s heart, and tears spilled down her cheeks. “Mom! Just stay strong! We’ll save you.”
But in an instant, the demon’s hold on Helena snapped back, the transformation vicious and sudden. The voice that emerged was guttural, mocking. “Ha! You think you can save her, you little fucking whore? You’re weak and pathetic! In the end, she’ll die, like so many others before her.”
Solomon yelled, “I said, enough!” Then he began reciting the ritual in earnest, sensing that time was running short.
The air crackled as Helena’s body twisted, the demon’s resistance thrashing against Solomon’s incantation. Helena’s back arched unnaturally, her body straining against the ropes. Then, with a horrifying lurch, her legs floated upward, her body twisting until she hung upside down, her head bent backward like a grotesque mockery of a crucifix. The ropes tore free as her head spun around with an unholy snap.
“Azazel sends his best!” Jezebeth cackled, her head turned backward to face Hecate with insane delight. “Now, let’s see you fix this!”
The horror unfolded in slow motion. With a sickening crack, Helena’s body slammed into the bed, her neck snapping with brutal force. The rest of her body followed, the skin stretching and tearing, the ligaments pulling until her head was ripped from her shoulders. It bounced once, landing at Hecate’s feet with a cruel, mocking smile still frozen on its lips.
“See, told you,” the severed head whispered before it fell silent, the final vestiges of life snuffed out. From the body, a black cloud of smoke billowed, disappearing into the floor, leaving nothing but the stench of decay.
