Crowns and Daggers

Chapter One

A/n Hello, I'm Seven of Cups, and I co-wrote this story with @goldenfoxx19. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to offer us any constructive criticism.

Raven shoved her way through a crowd of shadowy figures, her heart racing. There was somewhere she needed to be, but she couldn't remember where, and panic squeezed a tight band around her chest. Cold hands reached out, grabbing at her coat, ripping chunks of the fabric off, but still she pushed on toward that unknown destination. She clawed past a final group of phantoms and came suddenly into a wide stone clearing, void of everything except for a giant made entirely of dark, stormy clouds. Lightning flashed inside of the beast as he rumbled, "This is the key to everything."

He opened his huge clenched fist and held out a tiny ruby set into a small gold band. The prince's royal ring. Raven looked up at the giant, meaning to ask him what he meant, but the stormy creature was fading into mist.

"Wait!" Raven called, but the giant was already gone. The shadowy figures behind her and the stone clearing smudged together in an unrecognizable gray sludge, dissolving into pure black.

Raven opened her eyes. The warm morning light bathed her skin as she struggled to hold on to the last wispy tendrils of her dream. She squeezed her eyes shut again in concentration, but the only detail that stood out of the blurry dream was the prince's ring. Shaking her head in confusion, she pushed herself up to her elbows and glanced around the abandoned warehouse that she lived in, along with several other street kids and her best friends, Wilder, Indigo, and Kairo.

Though the weak sunlight streaming through the high windows showed Raven that it was still early, the warehouse was already bustling with kids folding up the blankets they used for beds and carrying food and supplies in.

"Get up sleepyhead! It's already nine!" came a familiar voice from behind her, and Wilder strolled up and dumped a piece of bread and some cheese on her lap. Raven groaned and sat up.

"I see you've been out already," she said, gesturing at his wind-blown, chestnut colored hair and ruddy cheeks. He grinned and bounced from foot to foot.

"Yeah, Rae. You should have been out too. You're one of our best runners. You steal like it's nobody's business!"

"I deserve sleep now and again for all the work I do," Raven grumbled. Wilder laughed and stretched out his hand for her to take. She accepted it and Wilder pulled her to her feet.

"We need winter clothes still. Those are a heck of a lot harder to find and steal than food."

"So you want me to go? What about Indigo or Kairo?" Raven asked, quickly braiding her long black hair.

"They're out somewhere. Kairo said he'd be back soon, but Indi...honestly, she's probably running around on the roofs again, annoying the royal guards."

"Okay. Well, see you later."

Wilder nodded and wished her luck before walking away.

Raven grinned at him one last time and grabbed her satchel before flinging herself out the doorway and into the chilly streets of the capital city of the kingdom Zimeania.

She shivered as a cold breeze ruffled her hair. Goosebumps were already rising on her legs. She needed winter pants, and fast.

Raven dashed around the corner and bumped into a disapproving-looking older man. Using the collision to her advantage, she slipped her slender fingers into his coat pocket, grabbing his coin purse and putting it in her satchel.

"I'm so sorry sir," Raven apologized, trying to look innocent.

"Be more careful next time. You could have seriously injured me," the old man glared at her down his hawkish nose, oblivious to the fact that he'd been robbed. Raven bowed her head and hurried away, resenting everyone who looked down on street kids.