The Eighth

Rhea Harmon is a living target for the Devil as she possesses the power to detect one’s deadliest sin at first glance. Intended to be used as a weapon of war, the Devil sends Paimon, his right-hand man and top collector, to claim her soul and bring her to him in Hell. But the Devil isn’t the only one who is interested in Rhea. When Paimon arrives to collect her soul, he’s immediately taken with her and the resemblance she bears to his late-wife, Marissa. He falls in love with the mortal girl whose soul he is supposed to claim, and instead vows to protect her, thereby severing his allegiance to the Devil and sealing his fate as a traitor. Consumed by rage and fear, Paimon and Arazel, the Devil’s blood slave and ring leader to the circle of Lust, flee Hell in an attempt to save Rhea, but are instead forced to confront their pasts and their presents as they reevaluate the definition of sin and punishment. So what happens when a demon has to confront his demons, when Paimon has to turn to something darker, something more sinister for help? After centuries of living in exile, banned from their home and their right to rule, The Seven, the keepers of the deadly sins, are only too happy to answer his call, and if Paimon thought it was dangerous to make a deal with the Devil, then he had no idea what it meant to be blessed by the creators of sin. In the tradition of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, the horror/dark fantasy novel The Eighth combines the traditional elements of religious horror within a story woven around the Hell that Dante Alighieri created in his classic literary tale, The Inferno. The protagonists, Paimon and Rhea, are each put through obstacles that test their psyche as much as their bodies, and by making them responsible for their actions in both their current life, and their past life, the two of them are faced with a series of trials that test their ability to handle sin. Through moments of seduction, violence, and torturous rage they challenge the critical question of what it means to forgive, and more importantly, what it means to be trapped in their own personal definition of hell After Paimon, Lucifers top soul collector, falls in love with a mortal girl whose soul he is supposed to claim, he desperately tries everything in his power to save her from the Devils grasp. But what happens when a demon has to confront his demons, when he has to turn to something darker, something more sinister for help? Can Paimon survive the consequences of working with the Seven Deadly Sins-sins who have their own agenda with the Devilor will he fall into a deeper, darker kind of hell? The Eighth is a stellar horror debut from Stephanie Wytovich. An intimate, painful map of personal and literal hells that would make Clive Barker proud. Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author