Ashanti's Amulet

Prologue

My footsteps echo down the empty corridor, pounding against the floor as I run against the summer breeze. I'm looking for something, anything, that would give me a sign of where she was. The servants and our parents had long gone to bed, but Diamond told me she was going to run away with him. Him. That mysterious stranger that swept my sister off her feet with his looks and charm. But something was off about him. about all of this. Diamond has never let her guard down before. Diamond doesn't stray from home, nor does she look for life outside our home. Not like our brothers, and certainly not like me. She was different from the rest of us up until yesterday when she all of a sudden fell in love with an outsider. She refused to listen to reason, but I had to find her before she was long gone.

I shouldn't have said anything earlier. I should have at least pretended to be happy for her and to see her find love after this hellish year. Her fiance and my best friend's older brother had run away. Then Garroth ran off, Zane took a life of priesthood, and Vylad was practically kicked out. I wanted to leave too, but I couldn't dare leave my own twin sister behind. And yet, in just 48 hours, she chose to leave me without a second thought. I was pissed. We fought after dinner and she called me selfish. I called her an idiot.

Idiot. I'm the idiot. I was too wrapped up in my daydreams to see that I wasn't only one looking for a way out. Maybe she was secretly waiting for this moment. It was hard to believe that she, a seriously stickler for following the rules and being the perfect example of a noblewoman, would marry out of love without anyone's approval.

She said she was going to meet this man at the willow tree in our mother's garden, at the bench where she used to read us stories about knights and magic. It was almost ironic how our life turned out, with one brother in the Guard academy and the other preaching about dark entities. I wished that Vylad had taken me with him before leaving, but I can't change the past. And now, I needed Diamond to stay with me more than ever. I couldn't let her leave me if I could stop it. Call me selfish. I don't care.

I turned the corner where the outer stone wall leads into open archways held up by ornate pillars. Our great-grandfather designed it so that this hallway would turn into an outdoor pathway so we could get a view of the beautiful landscape that is our backyard. Mother's garden was just a little further ahead. I was running out of breath. My legs were burning, and I was sweating through my nightgown.

The willow tree was coming into view, the branches frowning before me. I could see a figure behind the leaves, but I needed to get closer. I took a detour between one of the archways, not even thinking about muddying the hem of my gown as I stumbled down the hill. I slowed down to a walk as I approached the tree, a chill brushed against my cheek, snaking around and down my neck and back. I shuddered, despite the warm weather. It was unusually quiet... like I just stepped into a world of no owls or grasshoppers. I was afraid to even catch my breath as I slowly stepped through the grass when I realized the figure standing behind the branches was too tall to be my sister. The broad-shouldered body must have heard me approach because they started to run in the opposite direction.

"Hey! Wait!" I called out to the stranger as I brushed the branches away, ducking into the tree's embrace.

And then I saw red dripping down the base of the tree, into the grass where a dent resembled a body once lay there. I choked back a gasp as I froze in place. My legs started shaking and my heart pounded loud in my chest. It could have been anyone... and yet I knew exactly who had been in that spot, laying limp and breathless. I felt myself breathing heavily as I spotted something pink in the corner of my eye, beside me on the ground. When I glanced down, it felt like the world was spinning and collapsing around me. Diamond's bloodied ribbon, the one she always wore in her hair, lay weightless in the grass.

I wouldn't think straight. My sight was getting fuzzy and my ears were ringing. My knees gave out and despite catching myself with my hands, I was shaking feverishly. She was gone. And not only that but she wasn't coming back. I was the last Ro'Meave child left. I couldn't even form the words to call out for help.

So instead I screamed.