Chapter 1
Iwas going to die if I didn’t get my hand out of this hole. A bead of sweat slid down my temple, and I pulled harder. Sharp boulders trapped my wrist and scraped my knuckles, but I kept my fingers curled around the precious metal. A mockingbird in the pine tree next to me laughed at my struggle.
“Ha ha ha,” I yelled back. A jagged edge of the stone cut into my skin. I hissed at the sting, but worse, the blood would attract them. I should have been more careful. “Come on, you stupid rock!”
Bits of dirt and pebbles gave way from the side of the mountain before me. I put my foot against the boulder and jerked. A smaller stone finally moved, spilling bits of dirt around my boots, and my hand came free.
“Yes,” I said triumphantly, and held up the gold nugget. It was only the size of my thumbnail, but it was the perfect addition to the bone-handled dagger I had started. With real gold I could sell it to the village chieftain and feed my family for months. I could even get the new pair of boots I needed.
A deep horn blew, stealing away my triumph in a blink. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I glanced up through the evergreen trees at the deep crimson sun staining the horizon.How could I have lost track of the hour? “Shit.” I had five minutes to make it to the house. Five minutes before darkness blanketed the land and I became prey. I was a fool for not watching the sky, and it could cost me my life.
I shoved the gold nugget into the pouch on my hip and ran. Dry needles from the thick wood of pine trees crunched under my worn leather boots. I despised the night, the darkness, thethingsin it. I loved the sun and the safety of its light.
A screech behind me made me jump. My toe caught on a root, and I fell forward, slamming onto my hands. My pant leg tore, and a small blot of blood stained my left knee. My throat clamped. I didn’t pray often, but I started to. I heard people did before they were about to die.Goddess of life, help me.
Another screech. I snapped my head up to find a tawny owl in the tree tilting its head, watching me with big yellow eyes. “Damn bird.”
The horn blew a second time.
The final warning.
Get inside or die.
I pushed myself to my feet and into a sprint. I was used to running for my life out here in the forgotten lands. All of us were.
The shadows from the trees grew longer as I chased the last of the sun.
“Aesira!” My father’s deep voice echoed faintly through the pines. “Get inside now!”
He shouldn’t be out here at this hour, but he was the kind of man who would lay down his life for his family.I couldn’t let him do that.
Faster.I pushed until my legs and lungs burned. Everything around me began to blur as I weaved between the looming trees and the patches of wild mushrooms. I put my hand on a mossy log and catapulted over it, landing in a puddle of mud on the other side.
A branch snapped behind me.Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
I peeked over my shoulder. Why didn’t I ever listen to the reasonable voice in my head?
The woods were dark now but between two tree trunks the figure waited.
I was being hunted.
I stuck out my hand and smeared blood across a leafy bush, hoping to distract him.
“Aesira!” my father boomed, closer this time.
Damn it, he was outside at sunset because of me. There was really only one rule in our lands, never be outside after dark.
Thump, thump, thump.The hunter’s footsteps followed close behind me. Something brushed against my back, and my skin crawled. I wanted to scream but that would take the breath I needed to keep up this pace. A branch smacked into my face, but I didn’t feel pain. Smoke from my house’s chimney came into view like a beacon. I was almost there.
I burst out of the tree line of the Wraith Woods into the clearing at the edge of our village. The two men on night watch were already in the tower, the ladder pulled up so no one could climb up after them. “Get inside!” one of them shouted at me.
“Aesira!” My father was somewhere near my neighbor’s cornfield.
“I’m here!” I yelled and sprinted in his direction.
“There’s one chasing her! Shoot him!” the night watch shouted. An arrow whistled and thudded into the ground behind me.
“Aesira, turn!” Kace roared from up high. I recognized his voice.
