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PROLOGUE

Decades ago…

Betrayal was more confusing than Eira had imagined.

If asked, she’d have said anger would come first and foremost. A wild desire to thrash or fight. To run, as far and as fast as she could.

What Eira hadn’t considered was the numb inability to do anything but sit there, bewildered. To passively accept the fact that she was wrapped in the very arms that had stolen her away, listening obediently while he whispered that it was for her own good.

There was no reason to fight her abductors because she already knew they would never do anything to hurt her. Eira wasn’t even entirely sure she was being betrayed or stolen or abducted, but her mother’s screams unnerved her, following them long after they left her crumpled on the horizon. The keening wails were still lodged in her ears, as if sound could carve itself into a body.

For now, she could ignore it. If the condition turned out to be permanent, well…

Eira would just have to figure out how to live with it.

And if Winnie said leaving was for her own good, then it was. Surely.

✧ ✧ ✧

No way, in all the realms, was it for her own good to be chucked across a bloody Dread Chasm in the dead of night.

As it happened, trust was confusing too.

Eira stretched her fingers towards her brother. “You can’t leave us.”

Ygritte and Aelthys were huddled close at her back. Her mother’s companions had been a precious constant in her life, helping raise Eira for as long as she could remember. They hadn’t hesitated for a moment when asked to come, hadn’t faltered when they found out the extent of their agreement. Even now, with their lives in the balance right alongside hers, they stood unflinching. Loyal.

She’d love them forever, just for that.

Aelthys had a firm hold on her dress collar—probably the only reason she was brave enough to reach out when the chasm’s edge was falling apart beneath her feet.

“We’ll never survive it. We shouldn’t even be over here.”

“It’s not forever, snowflake. Just until I know you’re safe.”

Winnie’s use of her pet name rankled. He said it so sweetly, with that smile on his handsome face, but he was abandoning her in a place known for its hostility.

“The Forgotten Lands are forbidden to the creatures of Bordoroth. How could it possibly be safer than being at home? Please!”

She wasn’t proud of the way her voice cracked, but there was no such thing as decorum in desperation—especially when he backed farther away and joined the others.

Kohamaia was so close she could almost convince herself to attempt the jump. To throw caution and herself to the wind and hope for the best.

“Please,” she cried, the sound so small. “Please, don’t do this. I just want to go home.”

Home to a little, stone cottage and Solyrian’s comforting light. To the peace of her bedroom and bookshelves and the roar of the falls. To the craggy shore where they looked for shells and enjoyed the quiet solitude their mother loved so well.

The moons’ light only struck half of Winnie’s face, leaving the rest buried in shadow—a blaring, ominous sign if ever she saw one.

“I’ll be back before you know it.” He winked and blew her a kiss. “I promise.”

The same thing he always said after a visit, the same action, and yet…

There was something in his tone, a false lightness she’d never heard from him before, and an innocent piece of her heart shattered. The brittle words were a fisted hand around her throat, her skin burning with panic she didn’t understand. It would take her years to realize, but Eira would remember this moment forever as the first time she heard a lie and knew it for what it was.

The first time she understood that trust wasn’t confusing, it was useless.

None of it stopped her from begging, though.