At her touch, my mind empties of everything except…
Screams.
My parents are dying, and I can’t help them. A beast covered in blood has torn them apart, and now he is coming for me.
He will kill me, too.
My heart is suddenly pounding. Within my mind, I’m seconds away from death.
ButIhave the power now.
This dark crown is everything I need.
I don’t have to be afraid.
Why was I worried?
My forehead creases because I can’t remember now.
I can destroy whatever I want to destroy. I can walk out from this dark plain, dragging the ash with me wherever I go, and I can make the world what I want it to be.
Nothing is beyond my reach.
And nothing… not one fucking thing… will ever hurt me.
The shadow-woman’s lips rise into a smile. “Nowyou are me.”
She unwraps her hand from my wrist and draws back, but before she goes, she slaps the silver pin from the anvil, sending it flying into the dust, where it quickly disappears beneath falling ash.
I pay it no mind.
It’s no longer important. All that matters is this crown and the power that comes with it.
I turn my left hand over, palm up, giving my golden medallion cold consideration as I decide what to do with it.
If I take it off, I can merge it with the base of the crown. That way, I can turn its light to dark and wear all of my power like a queen?—
An explosion of white light blasts across my vision, knocking me backward. The light pours through the shadow-woman, ripping her figure apart, silencing her screams, and cutting through the beasts that stood behind her.
The air shrieks as a black-feathered creature soars across the space above me, and three figures jump from its back.
Each one is swathed in light that radiates out from them, disintegrating every dark thing nearby.
When a monster tries to ram into them, it shatters into dust.
When I step closer, pain strikes through my heart, cutting so sharply that I scream in agony and jolt backward, away from the light.
“The darkness has her!”
I recognize that voice. It belongs to a girl named Cailey.
She crouches where she lands, her hands outstretched, pouring white light into our surroundings, cutting down any monster that tries to approach.
“Dusana!” she cries. “You have to reach Asha or we’re lost!”
One of the other figures runs toward me. It’s Dusana, her golden hair forming a halo around her face, the flowers she was weaving still entwined in the strands.
Her steps slow before she reaches me, and her face drains of color. “Asha?”
