Prologue
Nine Years Ago
Dynalya
The window shattered like the shards of a nightmare. Dyna screamed, ducking protectively over her baby sister tucked in her arms. The blast threw her father back, and with a shout he collided into the door as glass rained down, scattering across the floor.
Outside, the snowstorm released a haunting howl, blowing icy wind and snow through her bedroom. Black smoke spilled across the windowsill and down the wall, crawling over the floorboards. Red eyes made of flame glowed in the darkness. Vicious. Hungry. The wispy shapes of horns took form in the moonlight, and then the shape of an inhumanly tall man with shadowed spikes jutting from his shoulders.
Fear gripped Dyna’s racing heart, squeezing it so tight she couldn’t breathe.
The Shadow had come.
Thane, trapped under the demon’s spell, didn’t move from where he sat on his bed beneath the windowsill. Her little brother stared blankly at the Shadow. Snowflakes clung to his lashes, red ringlets gleaming against his pale cheeks as his shallow breaths puffed in the chilly air.
Her father’s hands flared green, but a gust of wind and smoke tossed him back as the Shadow snatched Thane from his bed through the window, lifting his body in the air.
Dyna stifled a scream, thrusting out a hand. Not her brother. Not Thane. She wanted to move. To save him. To do something. But panic locked her limbs in place.
Her father cried out, scrambling to his feet again, only for the demon to stretch open its jaws and swallow her brother whole. She covered her mouth, muffling her cries as the ground opened out from under her, throwing her into a pit of despair. A choked sob escaped her father’s lips, and his knees hit the floor. Another wail followed from outside. Her mother, who’d gone out in the storm to search for Grandmother Leyla, cried out her brother’s name.
“The Waning Amulets cloak all except sound,”her father had said. The cloaking spell protecting her mother from the shadow demon had broken.
The Shadow dashed away, vanishing from view.
“Baden!” her mother screamed.
The call snapped her father into action. “Hide!” he told Dyna, then he dove through the broken window and disappeared into the freezing night.
The warmth of her baby sister, wrapped within her shawl, reminded Dyna of the precious weight in her arms. She scrambled to hide behind her bed as screams carried on the wind. Dyna clutched Lyra close and covered her ears. Tears streamed down her face as she rocked herself back and forth. Trembling uncontrollably, her breaths shuddered as she stared at the snow whipping past the window.
Mother and father are out there!Dyna couldn’t leave them to face the Shadow alone, but what about her sister?
Lyra’s cradle lay knocked over by the fireplace. Dyna pulled it to where they were hiding and lay her sister down, wrapping her in more blankets, making sure she wore the little amulet tucked within her swaddle. It would keep her safe. Lyra gurgled in her sleep, completely unaware of the horror outside.
Dyna kissed her sister’s soft forehead with a whispered prayer to the God of Urn for protection and pushed the cradle out of sight behind her bed, then ran out of her room. The parlor was empty and quiet, carrying the herbal scent of medicine. Dyna ran past the table cluttered with tomes and dried herbs and went out the front door.
Her bare feet sank into the thick snow as she circled the cottage until she found her father’s deep footprints and followed them toward the clamor coming from ahead. Burning torches lit the night. The frightened villagers of North Star clutched their children and ran in every direction to escape the demon at their backs. It moved like a wraith, tearing babes from their mother’s arms and tossing them into its wide jaws, their screams vanishing into smoke and shadow. The demon eviscerated anyone in its path with its black claws, painting the white landscape into a crimson sea of death.
Dyna trembled, whimpers lodging in her throat.
“Blossom, what are you doing out here?” Grandmother Leyla was kneeling in the snow near the cottage. Blood and tears shone on the soft wrinkles of her face.
“Grandmother?” Dyna inched closer and saw who she held in her arms. Her world became a void as she took in her mother’s blank eyes. She lay lifeless in a pool of red, her abdomen torn open.
“The demon…” her grandmother sobbed, holding her daughter close. “It cut her down.”
“Mama?” Dyna dropped beside her. “Mama!” There was so much blood. She lifted her hands over the gaping wound, struggling to remember what her father taught her about healing. Her shaking palms sparked a faint green, only to sputter out. “Please work.” She pressed on her mother’s stomach and urged her power to come forth. “Work!”
“Blossom, she’s gone,” her grandmother said.
“No, I can save her.”
“Dyna, please. She’s already dead.”
Dyna shook her head, pulling at her hair. “No, no, no!”
“We need to hide.” Grandmother yanked her up, forcing her away from her mother’s stiff body.
