Prologue
Dynalya
The snowstorm howled and rattled the window, wailing a warning to run, hide, and pray to the Gods, but there was no hope of escaping what had arrived with the night. Dyna turned in place in her bedroom, this dreaded room she couldn’t escape.
At the familiar creak of old wood, Dyna glanced at the nine-year-old version of herself sitting in the rocking chair by the fireplace. She held a bundle of blankets wrapped around her baby sister. Her wide green eyes stared out the window, watching the storm. The evergreen trees thrashed in the violent wind, threatening to snap in half and wrench free from the earth. In the moon’s gleam, snow whipped like diamond dust; its beauty lost to the darkness surrounding her family’s cottage.
Dread crept up Dyna’s back.
Her younger counterpart clutched baby Lyra as she rocked her, feet pushing off the floorboards in a nervous pace. She knew they both sensed something sinister hiding within the darkness. Instinct prickled Dyna’s skin in warning, tightening her limbs.
The Shadow was watching.
The thought came unbidden, a familiar call, a warning of what was to come.
“Get up!”she shouted at her child-self. “Run!”
Younger Dyna didn’t hear her.
They both flinched at the spark of embers that burst from the logs in the fireplace. The fire struggled to heat the small space of the bedroom, smothered by the cold clinging to the air. The flames cast an array of disturbing shapes on the walls. They stretched and writhed, creeping toward the ceiling.
Thane, her younger brother, slept in his small bed beneath the windowsill. His mouth was propped open in a slight pout from where his chubby cheeks were pressed against his pillow. Her heart ached. He was so small, and precious. She walked over to him, wishing she could brush back the curtain of red ringlets dangling over his forehead.
The sound of her parents’ voices slipped through the crack beneath the door like a draft whispering secrets.
“Cease to argue with me on this, Ayla. We are leaving. This instant.”
She gasped at the sound of his voice, feeling her eyes well with tears.“Father!”Dyna rushed to the door, but it would not open. She could not reach them. She banged her fists against it, crying out to them. “Mother! Father!”
A clatter of movement beyond the door followed a rustle of fabric. “Pack as many provisions as you can carry and dress warmly.”
“The council deemed the village safe, Baden,” her mother insisted. “We needn’t leave.”
“The council knows nothing. I’ve tried to tell them, but they refuse to listen. The winter solstice has arrived, and the Third Shadow Winter has come with it.”
The definitive tone of his claim sent a chill down Dyna’s back. She glanced at her younger self, who also listened, her wide eyes on the door.
“I don’t understand. Your father already defeated the Shadow at its last coming.”
“Aye, as did my grandfatherten yearsbefore him. It always returns.”
Trepidation skulked into the house, filling the heavy pause. Having been born two years after the Shadow’s last coming, Dyna’s younger self had only heard tales of the demon, dark tales of it swallowing children whole in the dead of night.
She rose from the rocking chair and tip-toed to the door to peek out through the crack. Dyna peeked with her but the foyer limited their view of the apothecary. She could only see the small round dining table covered in glass bottles and dried herbs. Her parents were in the kitchen.
She strained to push the door open. She needed to see them, to embrace them, to warn them.
“I’ve made my decision, Ayla.”
“You will have us leave in the middle of this storm? Where are we to go?”
He sighed. “Belzev offered us shelter in Lykos Peak until winter’s end.”
“God of Urn, are you mad? We can’t take the children there.”
“It will be much safer than here. He has sent Zev to meet us.”
Dyna closed her eyes at the mention of her cousin. He would arrive too late.
