The Shadows of Starlight

Chapter One

Kye Merran

Dusk evanesces; night cascades in.

I stumble through the dark alleyways of Nieves' city like a drunken man, haunted. Ignus's pleas fall on deaf ears.

"Leave. Now."

"I shouldn't have shown you."

"I made a mistake."

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't think, didn't consider, didn't realize."

"Flame. Please."

I can't leave, not again. It seems that I am physically incapable. Rationality has never been my strength.

I came to the city for the wedding. For Val, because I had to see her, I had to know that she was alive. Then I forced myself to leave, because I told Lucine and Quinn I would, I promised them. And I made it out; I made it to the forest that follows the Alba. But then came the vision. The wretched vision. Each image, each sound a shard of glass, carving jagged lines through my heart. A choice. A whip. Blood. Screaming. Simple fragments, but they were more than enough.

How could I go on? How could I not turn back?

I still can't unsee the blood, nor unhear the screams. I try to push it out of my mind but it's impossible; everything is still so alive and killing me inside, merciless.

I'm going to save them. All three of them. Tonight. I'm not waiting. I can't afford to. If I wait I'll go insane. No. I've already gone insane. My hands are shaking like a madman's. My mind is racing. I glance out into a street, flatten my back to the cold stone wall. My knife is clutched in my fingers; I just have to wait for the right moment, the right solider, to strike. Aim for the eyes or the throat, drag the body away, take the uniform. You're from Trivette, formerly under General Andras's command. You came with news of...who? Arden? Lucine? Neve? Kye Merran? No, too suspici—

Footsteps sound behind me, light, barely there.

I turn, bracing for an attack, rage still burning through me, chilling me, shimmer and shadow, ice and fire, blood and starlight—

The alley is empty.

For a terrible, terrible moment, hope lifts my heart, because there's one person I know who can blend into shadows, one person, one person, please...

I squint, trying to see in the darkness, heart pounding, breath catching, dagger trembling. Aching for an impossible possibility.

Then a weight hits the ground behind me—boots on stone—and I spin, jumping back as a blade sings through the air, narrowly missing my stomach.

I reach to my hip but there's no sword there—I couldn't bring one because under Rurikan rule, being armed, according to Callan, is an offense punishable by death—and by the time I realize it, the mistake is already made.

There's a hard kick to my abdomen, and it's enough to send me tumbling. My head slams against the ground; the world goes fuzzy for a terrifying moment. My attacker pins me to the ground and, I can't seem to breathe; my head spins, throbs, screams.

Don't use your fire. Don't use your fire. Don't use your fire. Nobody can see, nobody can know, you can't be caught—

I realize with a start that my dagger is no longer clutched in my fingers. No, no, no—

A man's voice, low and threatening, almost inhuman at my ear: "Good disguise, but not good enough, Kye Merran, especially after curfew. Wait until His Majesty hears of this."