Nightfall by Penelope Douglas
- Alisha Eadle
- 4 days ago
- 17 min read
Nightfall
by Penelope Douglas
Published by Berkley
Book 4 in the Devil's Night Series
What happens when it's five against one and nowhere to run?
EMORY
They call it Blackchurch. A secluded mansion in a remote, undisclosed location where the wealthy and powerful send their misbehaving sons to cool off away from prying eyes.
Will Grayson has always been an animal, though. Reckless, wild, and someone who was never bound by a single rule other than to do exactly what he wanted. There was no way his grandfather was going risk him humiliating the family again.
Not that the last time was entirely his fault. He might’ve enjoyed backing me into corners in high school when no one was looking, so they wouldn’t catch on that Mr. Popular actually wanted a piece of that quiet, little nerd he loved to torture so much, but…
He could also be warm. And fierce in keeping me safe.
The truth is… He has a right to hate me.
It’s all my fault. Everything.
Devils Night. The videos. The arrests.
I’m to blame for all of it.
And I regret nothing.
WILL
I never minded being locked up. I learned a long time ago that being treated like an animal gives you permission to act like one. No one has ever looked at me any other way.
Their only mistake is believing anything I do is an accident. I can sit in this house with no Internet, television, liquor, or girls, but I’ll come out of here with something far more frightening to my enemies.
A plan.
And a new pack of wolves.
I just didn’t expect one of my enemies to come to me.
I don’t know who smuggled her in or if they meant to leave her here, but I can smell her hiding in the house. She’s here.
And as the security detail leaves the supplies, the gates close, and the door to my gilded cage opens, giving me free reign of the house and grounds for another unsupervised month, I remember with a smile…
Blackchurch houses five prisoners. I’m only one of her problems.
Genre
Triggers
This book deals with emotionally difficult topics, either on-page or mentioned, that including sexual assault, rape, violence/assault, domestic abuse, bullying, incest, and murder.
I finally made it to the book that inspired the tiktok trend!
Spoiler alert - while it was sweet, it was such a small part of the book, that I'm surprised it became such a thing.
I really liked this book. It's overall story was interesting. A part of it was the setting. So different from the other books, because our main characters were trapped in a house with others, in the middle of no where. Everything is much harder in this book, because nothing can be solved with the help of friends, or a phone call. The other part was the unpredictability of it. I was constantly on edge, having suspicions of the side characters, but not full knowing what would happen next. It made it such a fun, interesting read.
Unlike the other books, I wasn't concerned about not liking Will. Will is the sweetest of the group, and while he has done bad things, he exudes such golden retriever personality, I couldn't help but like him. He fell in love, and fell hard.
He did some bad things. No arguments.
But he really did love Emory from the start.
Emory's story was interesting. Sad. Any storyline that involves abuse is sad, but I felt like Penelope did a good job depicting it, and just how hard that situation was for Emory. I felt through her words just how alone Emory felt, and why she felt she had no way out. She obviously liked/loved Will in the only way she could, which makes it all the sadder.
The unexpected storyline I also loved was Alex and Aydin. I wondered if Penelope would leave Alex single, but after Alex had disclosed in another book about what happened with her roommate and her boyfriend, I knew Penelope wouldn't have done that. And for some reason, When Aydin was introduced, and from his first interaction with Emory, I just had this feeling that he was the one Alex was talking about. I found their story so intriguing, and I loved the intensity between them.
I still think Damon and Winter's book is my favorite of the series, but Nightfall is a very, very close second. While I didn't think I was going to like this series - and some of the things the guys do still bother me - I ended up really enjoying it. If you love dark/bully romance, with morally grey characters, I think you will enjoy this too.
Will: “I know I may seem like the nicest one, and you probably think I regret the shit I give you sometimes, and someday I’ll wake up and reevaluate my life and its purpose, but I won’t. I sleep like a baby at night.”
Emory: “You wake every two hours and cry?”
Will: “Don’t you know that you can have anything you want?”
His eyes searched mine.
Will: “I’ll hurt anyone for you.”
Damon: “Abuse can feel like love.”
I blinked, the voice so close that my ears tingled. Slowly, I raised my eyes to look at the side of Damon Torrance’s face, his shirt wrinkled, and his tie draped around his neck. The whole class fell silent, and I glanced at Will next to me, seeing his eyebrows pinched together as he looked at the back of his friend’s head. Mr. Townsend approached.
Mr. Townsend: “‘Abuse can feel like love . . .’”
he repeated.
Mr. Townsend: “Why?”
Damon remained so still it didn’t look like he was breathing. He looked at the teacher, unwavering.
Damon: “Starving people will eat anything.”
Will" “Why?”
I scowled.
Emory: “Why?”
What do you mean, why?
Will: “I wasn’t trying to scare you,”
he said, staring out at the rain pummeling the roof,
Will: “but why wasn’t I?”
Emory: “Real monsters don’t wear masks, William Grayson III. They look like everyone else.”
Damon: “I was almost hoping you’d put up more of a fight,”
Damon taunted. Michael teased back.
Michael: “Make ya hard, do I?”
But Kai just joked back.
Kai: “Don’t be like that,”
he cooed to Damon.
Kai: “He was really flattered you approved of his taste in women when you adjusted yourself right in front of him at the sight of my mother.”
Damon: “In a bathing suit, Kai!”
Damon pointed out, looking at Kai over his shoulder.
Damon: “I mean, what the fuck? Jesus.”
I shook with a laugh, remembering that day last summer when we were all at Kai’s house.
Damon: “And you all think I don’t have any shame. If she weren’t your mom . . .”
Kai: “My father would still rip your dick up through your stomach and out your mouth?”
Kai retorted. Damon quieted, settling back into his seat and sticking his cigarette into his mouth.
Damon: “Daddy’s boy.”
Kai shook his head, but I saw the smile fade as he looked out the window.
Michael: “Maybe we’ll stay in the area and go to Trinity instead, so we can all be close to Kai’s mom.”
Will: “What did you guys do? Dammit. You’re always pulling shit when I’m not looking.”
Damon: “We didn’t hurt her,”
Kai: “Just made her pee her pants a little,”
Will: “Here to see that picture of me again?”
I teased. But he wasn’t laughing.
Scott: “License and registration, please.”
I hesitated a moment for good measure, and then reached into the console, pulling out my registration and insurance card holder, and then my license out of my wallet. I handed him both.
Will: “I promise you, they haven’t changed since last week, Scott.”
He didn’t seem to hear me as he flashed his light on my license, like he hadn’t seen it a dozen times in the past three months, and then my registration and insurance, as if he didn’t already know that they don’t expire until my next birthday.
Scott: “You know how fast you were going?”
he asked, studying my insurance card.
Will: “It wasn’t fast.”
Scott: “Have you been drinking?”
he inquired, unfazed.
Will: “No.”
He paused, still looking over my material.
Scott: “You on drugs?”
Will: “Sometimes,”
Will: “Why does no one ever get to go into your room? Not me. Not Michael. Not Kai. Definitely no girls. Can’t we all go somewhere comfortable?”
Damon: “You wanna see my bed?”
Damon teased.
Will: “I’d like to make sure it’s not a coffin.”
God, she had a mouth on her. I loved her attitude and her anger, because I was always too warm and I needed the ice. It made me smile.
Will: When the bus stops, get in my fucking truck.
I breathed out a bitter laugh. Aw, someone’s lost his temper.
Emory: Why?
The next thing I know, the bus stopped, he yanked the earbuds out of my ears, and I sucked in a breath as he leaned into my face.
Will: “Because you’re mine,”
he growled in a whisper.
Will: “I think that’s why I’ve always liked this time of day best. People hide in the dark. They quench their thirsts in the dark. They build their secrets in the dark. We’re more ourselves here than anywhere else. I get to be me”
—he swallowed, staring at me—
Will: “when nightfall is coming.”
Will: “Come here,”
he said again. I absently shook my head.
Emory: “Why?”
Will: “Because I’m your man.”
I held out the Twizzlers and Milk Duds, giving her first choice, but when she picked the Milk Duds, I opened the carton and spilled half in my hand before giving her the rest of the box. I gave her a choice to be nice. I didn’t actually want the Twizzlers.
I don’t scream, because . . .
Damon: “Because screaming doesn’t help. Does it?”
My heart thundered in my chest, but I remained frozen, staring up at him as he looked at my body and the bruises in the shapes of fingers wrapped around my upper arm. The scrapes on my legs and the blue and purple on my shoulders.
Damon: “Because you get tired of being the victim,”
he said, like he was thinking out loud,
Damon: “and it’s easier to just let it happen.”
He raised his eyes, meeting mine again, and my throat stretched painfully as his words burrowed into me.
He loosened his hold, but I didn’t run.
Damon: “To just pretend we’re in control of everything happening to us,”
he told me. He blinked a few times, his demeanor completely changed, a troubled set to his brow.
My chin trembled.
Damon: “Until you can’t remember who you were before you started lying even to yourself. Until you can’t remember ever smiling when it didn’t fucking hurt.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I ground my teeth to keep my shit together.
Abuse can feel like love.
I remembered his words from lit class.
Starving people will eat anything.
His eyes fell down my body again, his head cocking and taking the purple and red on one side of my torso and the others on my thighs.
He didn’t have any marks that I could see, but there were other kinds of pain.
Damon: “Will is like that,”
he said, his voice softening, somber now.
Damon: “Isn’t he?”
Like a smile that doesn’t hurt. I nodded.
Damon: “Easy, normal, peaceful . . . The only thing in my life untouched by anything ugly. Nothing has tainted him. He’s the one thing that’s still beautiful and thinks the world is beautiful and believes people are beautiful and all that shit.”
Will: “I hope we didn’t wake you.”
He looked thoughtful.
Will: “Your granddaughter was giving me the verbal beating I deserved. I apologize.”
My heart pitter-pattered a little, but then my grandma laughed.
Grandma: “Perhaps deserved. And perhaps she has my short temper.”
I leveled her a look. Settling back down into her bed, she took her mask off the hook, holding it.
Grandma: “It was a long time before I met someone who could take me. That’s the thing about broken people, Guillaume. If we ever give you our heart, then you know that you deserve it.”
Tears welled in me, but only for a moment.
Grandma: “He was patient with me,”
she told him, a far-off look in her eyes.
She dominated me, and I didn’t want it any other way. In the classroom, in the library, in the movie theater, in my truck . . . Watching her cash in on my ass was better than actual sex. I could be a bad boy, and I needed to be disciplined.
Will: “Hit me,”
I whispered over her lips before diving in to kiss her.
Will: “Hit me for all the tail I fucked after you. For all the nights I forgot about you, ridden to kingdom come by tits and ass ten times hotter than you.”
Emory: “Ten?”
she taunted me.
Emory: “Really? Come on. You can afford hotter than that! Maybe twenty times hotter! Still got their numbers?”
Emory: “You didn’t dress up?”
His green eyes held mine.
Will: “I didn’t want to make it hard for you to find me.”
Will: “You’ll be mine,”
he whispered, pressing himself deeper and deeper. I groaned, stretching for him.
Will: “You can ignore me. You can run,”
he said, grunting and tipping his head back as he closed his eyes.
Will: “You can leave. You can hide . . .”
He slid in, burying himself to the hilt and filling me so wide and deep that I cried out just once.
Will: “But you’re going to be fucking mine someday. Come hell or high water, Emory Scott. You’re my woman, and you’re going to come home to me every day and sit at my table and warm my fucking bed.”
He kissed me.
Will: “And you’re going to give me a Will Grayson IV. Mark my words.”
Will: “You’re Lilith,”
he whispered against my skin.
Will: “You can’t be burned if you’re the flame.”
Emory: “I bought Milk Duds and Twizzlers.”
I chuckled under my breath.
Emory: “I don’t know why because I was on my own, and I didn’t need all that candy, but I didn’t eat the Milk Duds.”
I swallowed, staring deep into his eyes.
Emory: “I couldn’t help but think . . . ‘Will would love this.’”
My eyes stung, but I blinked away the tears, knowing exactly why I bought the Milk Duds. They were Will’s.
Emory: “I want to kiss you,”
I whispered.
Emory: “On the lips.”
Will: “Yeah?”
Emory: “Yeah.”
Will: “Why?”
he teased. I panted, leaning back up and bouncing up and down on him as I held him close.
Emory: “Because,”
I whispered over his mouth.
Emory: “Because I want to be your girl.”
He circled my waist with both arms like a steel band, stopping me.
Will: “And you remember what that means?”
I gazed down at him, trying to hide my smile as I remembered everything he wanted. Me, coming home to him every night. Me, at his table and warming his bed. Me, making him a daddy. I nodded.
Will: “Someday you’ll be big and powerful,”
she continued. I turned to see her sitting up in bed and punching the pillows behind her, trying to get them to the right fluffiness.
Will: “Like I am now?”
I teased.
Emory: “And stunning in a three-piece suit with fabulous hair,”
she went on, thinking out loud like I wasn’t even there.
Will: “I look better wet.”
Emory: “And everyone will love you.”
She plopped back onto her pillows, lying on her back.
Will: “They already do.”
Emory: “And you’ll be the life of the party.”
I walked over, straightening her blankets and biting back my smile.
Will: “Mm-hmm.”
Emory: “With little magazine-cover-looking children.”
Will: “My sperm will be the stuff of legends,”
I joked.
Emory: “And married . . .”
Will: “Several times, I’m sure.”
Emory: “And to all blondes.”
My body shook with a laugh as I leaned over her, smelling her and me on her skin and dying to crawl into this bed with her. But she was done for the night.
Emory: “And the only time you’ll notice I’m alive, is when you sign the checks, paying my dog-walking service for taking care of your labradoodles every week.”
Will: “Like a busy, important, fabulous god like me would be bothered with such tasks? My eighteen-year-old former Playboy-bunny wife, Heidi, will sign those checks.”
Emory: “You’re going to remember this, Will Grayson,”
she said, sounding all tough.
Emory: “I blew your mind tonight. Even if for just a minute.”
She turned over, giving me her back, and I smiled, smoothing the hair off her face and neck. You’ve been blowing my mind for forever.
I closed the distance between us and swatted her about fifteen times lightly in the chest. Goddamn her.
Alex: “Are you hitting my boobs?”
She batted at my hands.
Alex: “Seriously.”
Emory: “You see Micah?”
I asked him in a quiet voice.
Emory: “Kind of playful, prone to smile, happy to let others lead because he’s afraid of upsetting the balance in order to take his place?”
I paused, feeling him pull my ponytail out of my shirt for me.
Emory: “Because he’s afraid of failing?”
Aydin: “Yeah.”
Emory: “That was Will,”
I told him.
Emory: “The joker. He never had a worry in the world. Happy, because he didn’t want to be unhappy. He was charmed.”
I turned around, my mouth dry and so weary I just wanted to crawl into bed, almost as if I didn’t care Alex was here.
Emory: “He hasn’t smiled since I’ve been here. Not the same way anyway. He hasn’t laughed or played or cracked a joke.”
Aydin: “He never does.”
I nodded, Aydin and I holding each other’s eyes.
Emory: “I did that to him. I killed him.”
Before I could stop it, tears sprang to my eyes, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. At this moment, I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to hurt Will anymore. I didn’t want to face the world. Aydin took my face in his hands, wiping my tears with his thumbs.
Aydin: “Stop crying. You’re in the company of killers now. You’re not special.”
More tears spilled over, but I drew in a deep breath, hearing him.
Aydin: “Welcome to the tribe,”
Damon: “Not going to fight me again?”
It took a moment, but I raised my eyes, meeting his.
Emory: “It’s easier to pretend that we’re in control of everything that happens to us.”
I paraphrased his words.
Emory: “It’s almost peaceful. To just let it be.”
He stared at me and then . . . nodded. He touched my face, and I jerked away, but then he brought up his hand, showing me the blood he’d wiped off. I touched my face, too, patting the scratch. Was that from Martin or the escape?
Damon: “Does Will know?”
he asked, rubbing my blood between his fingers.
Emory: “No.”
He lifted his gaze to mine.
Damon: “Because he’s the one pure, beautiful thing untainted by ugliness,”
he repeated nearly his exact words from the shower.
Damon: “And we love him for it.”
Emory: “I warned you I wasn’t a happy person, and there were so many reasons I didn’t want to let you in, but . . .”
She trailed off, trying to find her words.
Emory: “The only time I ever loved my life was when I was with you.”
My hand still lingered on her brow, unmoving. Now? She was telling me this now?
Emory: “I was always your Em,”
she whispered.
Emory: “No matter what I said or what I did or all the ways I let life win over the years . . . That night, I knew. I was in love with you.”
Damon: “Tighter, man,”
Damon growled against my mouth.
Will: “This is as tight as it gets,”
I told him.
Will: “You’re not sticking that in my ass.”
He snorted.
Damon: “You’re right. Your dick is smaller. You should top.”
Will: “Fuck you.”
I wasn’t a grown-up. He was wrong. I never grew. I was always this pile of dead leaves, blowing in the wind and letting the seasons, whoever they were, come in and change me and walk on me, and I never fought for anything.
The path to who we want to be is winding, at best. Everything was justified because we were all the victims in our story.
I looked up, meeting his gaze despite my shoulders wanting to slump and the urge to fold in on myself. I’d made a mistake. I wasn’t a bad person. I wasn’t. I turned to leave, but then I heard Damon’s voice behind me.
Damon: “We set Rika’s house on fire, Kai,”
I turned and looked at him as he stared at his friend.
Damon: “Stole all her money. I kidnapped her, and you forced Banks to marry you. I tried to kill Will . . .”
Kai: “We made mistakes,”
Kai argued with him.
Kai: “We would never do that again.”
Damon: “Speak for yourself,”
Damon fired back.
Damon: “The role of the villain is only determined by who’s telling the story.”
Emory: “Not everyone is born knowing their path is from point A to point B, Alex,”
I bit out.
Emory: “You and Will are the same. You sit up there on your high horse, all ‘love conquers all’ and shit, and refuse to understand that there are impossible choices others have to make, but it doesn’t mean we don’t love.”
Emory: “I’m marrying you,”
I whispered. He nodded.
Will: “’Bout time you caught up.”
Will: “Don’t sleep tonight.”
He gasped, pumping his hips and hovering over my mouth.
Will: “Don’t break this. Don’t break the spell.”
I rolled into him, heat pooling in my belly as I devoured his shoulder, his neck, and his mouth, unable to get enough.
Emory: “I loved you last night. And I loved you this morning. I’ll still be here. I’ll still be me tomorrow and every day after.”
Will: “You know they might start without you if she wizens up,”
Michael: “Remember when we kidnapped her mom, stole all her money, and burned down her house? That was good times.”
Rory: “What the fuck?”
Rory spat out.
Rory: “You’re not serious.”
But Michael scoffed, defending himself.
Michael: “Damon suffocated her with chloroform, threw her over his shoulder like a sack of flour, and took her to sea!”
Damon: “We were bonding. You’re just jealous.”
Will: “I’m just glad your ‘bonding’ didn’t go under the clothes before you knew she was your sister. Can you imagine?”
Damon hooked my neck, yanking me down, and I laughed as we play-fought for a moment.
Micah: “I’m starting to feel like we need to grab this girl and Emory and run,”
Micah mumbled to Rory.
Will gazed between them, a smile slowly forming at his cousin diving into the fray with us.
Will: “And my wolfpack, it grew,”
he said, choking on fake tears,
Will: “it grew by two.”
Ryen: “Shut up,”
Then he held the mask out to me.
Emory: “Real monsters don’t wear masks,”
I teased. He shrugged.
Will: “Real monsters might not care about being identified, either. No mask, no fun for you.”
Michael: “And your last name?”
Michael demanded.
Athos: “I don’t have one.”
He frowned.
Michael: “You have one. You weren’t born here, kid.”
Athos: “Maybe I was beamed down to study your species.”
He started to move around Michael, but Damon spoke up.
Damon: “And one more thing.”
Aydin stopped.
Aydin: “Jesus, what?”
Damon: “Meet us at Sensou tomorrow night. 10 p.m.,”
Damon told him.
Aydin: “Why?”
Damon smirked.
Damon: “Having Alex means you’re in the family, and there are two ways to get initiated into our gang. If you want to be in ours, you can either be beat in or—”
Rika: “Damon!”
Rika barked. The guys started laughing and Damon quieted, looking at Rika like a four-year-old saying What did I do?
Emory: “How are you?”
I asked as Will pulled the curtain closed from the night outside. Alex’s head bobbed a little.
Alex: “I feel so good right now.”
Rika laughed under her breath, leaning over from the other side.
Rika: “A little high, are you?”
Alex: “Yeahhhhh,”
she said, sounding all satisfied about it.
Emory: “I think Aydin wants to be naked in this bed with you right now,”
I told her.
Alex: “He’s sooooo adorable.”
She blinked, looking sleepy.
Alex: “Did you see his muscles in that T-shirt? Shiverrrrrs.”
Damon: “Jesus Christ,”
Damon grumbled, turning away.
Judge: “Live for your love, love your life, and raise hell.”
Mr. Grayson: “Take care of him.”
He touched my arm, leaning in.
Mr. Grayson: “He’s kind of my favorite.”
Misha: “Ugh,”
Misha said, walking past us, clearly hearing. I held back my snort, Mr. Grayson shot his other grandson a look.
Mr. Grayson: “That one’s like me,” he whispered.
Mr. Grayson: “Too much like me.”
He started to walk away, but I stopped him.
Emory: “I have to tell Will about that night. I just wanted to warn you.”
His back went rigid, and he didn’t turn to look at me, but he knew what I was talking about. I couldn’t keep the fact that I’d helped conceal a body from Will. Damon sighed.
Damon: “I appreciate the heads-up. I’ll be waiting for the beating.”
I laughed.
Emory: “Just keep Winter close. He won’t hit you with a pregnant woman nearby.”
He shook his head and kept walking.
Damon: “He’ll just get her to hit me for him,”
he grumbled.
Damon: “What?”
Damon shouted from inside the room. We all stopped, looking at each other.
Damon: “It’s a boy?”
he blurted out.
Damon: “Are you sure?”
We leaned in, and I folded my lips between my teeth to contain the laughter. A baby cried, there was some shuffling, and then we heard Damon’s playful little growl.
Damon: “Ugh, what am I going to do with you?”
Winter: “Damon!”
Winter growled.
Winter: “I’m going to kill you. You better love him. You do, right?”
There was a pause, and I met Alex’s wide eyes with my own. Drama . . . Damon and I ran the construction business together now, him building and me designing, so I’d gotten used to his . . . brand of humor. Finally, he answered.
Damon: “Y–yeah,”
he stuttered, not sounding convincing.
Damon: “Yeah, of course, baby. But, like, are you sure there aren’t any more in there or something?”
Winter: “Damon!”
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