Crescent (Book 1)

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Rosie stands at the edge of the tree line, snow up to her shins. She stares into the forest silently, unmoving, her breath fogging the air around her.

"Rosie?" My voice is silent. I can't move, and my feet are rooted in the thick snow. A branch snaps, the sound a great echo from within the trees. Rosie hears it too. She steps forward, disappearing beneath the shade of the trees. "Rosie, no!" I yell, but my voice is far- distant- nothing more than a whisper.

A shadow crosses in front of her, swift as a bullet. My heart stumbles in my chest. Rosie vanishes, the sound of her footsteps growing quiet. Then her scream rings out in the silence. And there's nothing I can do to save her.

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"Leave this place."

I'm shivering in the frigid dark. The snow is an unmoving sheet of white on the ground, and I'm naked in the middle of it all. Part of me knows I've been here for hours- the same way part of me knows that the specks of blood on my chest are not my own.

I rarely remember anything from my time in the woods. Occasionally, I see images. Flashes of my black-gray hide. Rabbits thumping through the bush, black birds perched on barren tree tops. Tonight, I remember a voice: "Run," the voice whispered into the trees. "Leave this place. For death comes on swift wings." The voice is an echo, a shadow now. "Leave."

My arms are shaking, wiping the blood off my skin. I don't know where I am or how to get back. Even tracking, which I've only done once, seems beyond reach. Trees shake on a silent breeze, limbs rattling against each other. A chill brushes down my neck, and goosebumps crawl across my flesh. Stillness settles in, and dread settles in my gut with it. Through the trees, I sense someone watching me.

"One girl- two lives." The voice from my dreams says, and I twist to see a figure standing behind me. They wear a deep red cloak, crimson like the droplets of blood beading in the snow at my feet. The figure's face remains hidden by their hood, but I can see two bony hands, blackened at the fingers. Its knuckles knock against each other as the figure raises its hands and points at me. "One living," the creature hisses. "One dying," it promises.

"Who are you??" I demand, sitting up straighter. The creature says nothing, only pointing at me again.

"You don't belong to the Lord of these woods yet." Ceth. Ceth's woods- his estate. I'm still near the castle. "Leave," the creature says again, robes floating soundlessly at its feet. "Death comes on swift wings."

"My death?" I kneel into a crouch as the creature turns to leave. At its silence, I feel sick. It's not my death I should worry about. "My family?" The creature floats over the mounds of snow, turning to leave. "Wait. Wait!" I stalk toward it. I stop just a foot away, the smell of iron hot in my nose. "Whose death?"

The creature is eerily still, but as I reach for its bony arm, flesh appears. It's bony face is gone. Beneath the blood-colored cloak, there's a reflection of a woman. Me, I realize. My gray-blue eyes and my brown curls suddenly reflect back at me, a moving breathing image.

I release it, falling back as the creature of bone appears again. This time, a frown fits over the creature's mouth of ill-fitting teeth. Its ivory skin is pulled taught over its face, and three hardened angles are cut into it where eyes should be.

"All things must die," the creature warns. "Now leave."

A whirlpool of smoke, soot, and snow overtakes the creature, and it's lost to the mists. I'm left shivering in the snow- More confused than I've ever been, only half-believing what I saw is real and not some imagined illusion from lack of sleep.

"There are things that even they don't know."

The cold weighs down on me, and the ceaseless night carries on. I will my senses into focus, listening for any sounds other than the calm of the wilderness. I wait until I finally hear something: an echo of a door closing in an empty hallway. No one knows I'm gone. No one's looking for me yet. The sound is all I need to find my way back.

The bridge appears, two lamp posts flicker in the lowlight of the sun rising in the east. The front gate of the castle is open, and I squeeze my eyes shut when I see him. Ceth stands alone, arms crossed over his chest. Waiting. I'm no fool to my position- naked, alone off castle ground with no recollection of how I got here.

My steps toward him are slow, deliberate, despite the frost already biting at my skin. I stop in front of him, keeping my eyes forward until he addresses me.

My stomach sinks as he comes to the same dreaded conclusion I have: "You shifted on your own." Ceth sniffs the air once, and a dangerous look settles in his eyes as he slowly looks over me. His eyes linger on my chest, on the smooth skin of my thighs. "Training has been going well after all."

He's smiling as if he takes pride in what he's done to me. Shame is heavy on my shoulders. I can only imagine what my father might say. He spent a lifetime protecting me from this life. Within the matter of a month, I've damned it all to hell.

With the snap of a finger, a fresh set of clothes appears in Ceth's hands. I reach forward to snatch them up, but he holds them just out of reach, leaning down. His smile feral as he whispers to me. "After seeing your mother, I thought we'd at least try to be more honest with one another."

"Honest?" I nearly gape at him, but then I remember what Moira shared. The memory of a man so unlike the one standing before me. She loved him- loved him so deeply she didn't care about the consequences. Now she was watching as he paraded women around the castle for show. He intends to do the same with me. I press my mouth into a flat line. "I haven't lied-"

He reaches out and his hand brushes down the side of my neck. "I suggest you get inside before I start asking questions." I tear the clothes out of his hands, yanking the clothes on before dashing across the drawbridge. He stalks closely behind, and I feel his heavy stare even as the drawbridge gates clang shut behind us. He yells after me as I bound up the stairs. "Maybe you should get naked more often. I won't need someone to take your measurements for the gala after all!"