9 parts Complete Prologue: The Night of Separation
Thirteen years ago...
The storm that raged over Paris on the night the twins were born was unlike any in recorded history. Lightning painted the sky in impossible colors while thunder spoke in languages that predated human speech. In a small house in Montmartre, where ancient cobblestones hummed with accumulated magic, two baby girls entered the world as the very fabric of reality trembled around them.
Ravenna held her daughters for what she knew would be the last time, her tears falling like blessed rain onto their tiny faces. Annabelle, with hair like spun copper, reached toward her mother with fingers that already sparked with earth magic. Grace, pale as moonlight, gazed up with storm-cloud eyes that held depths of understanding no newborn should possess.
"Remember," Ravenna whispered, her voice breaking as she placed silver and gold pendants around their necks, "you are loved beyond measure, beyond time, beyond the very boundaries of existence itself."
Outside, dark forces gathered. Inside, love made the ultimate sacrifice.
Two couples waited in the shadows-Marcus and Elena, who would carry Annabelle across the ocean to safety; Catherine and David, who would take Grace to the other side of the world. Both babies would grow up believing they were ordinary, their true nature hidden until the day they turned thirteen and destiny came calling.
As the storm reached its crescendo, the couples vanished into the night with their precious cargo, leaving behind only empty cradles and the echo of a mother's broken heart.
Thirteen years. That was how long the protection spells would hold.
Thirteen years until the magic in their blood would awaken and call them home.
