AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Gunnar
I’m six years old and I’m running across the lawn on the property of none other than Ronan Solace.
Grass crunches under my feet, I can smell the scent of blooming flowers from the bushes around us. Sunlight warms my skin.
I get these dreams a lot—with Ronan’s face melding with Vance’s, looking down at me like some kind of god. He was the first archangel, lived through the Great Mutation, raised the city from smoking rubble to something that looked like civilization.
We run past the pool, through the winding hedge maze, across the garden. Vance’s mom laughs and shouts at us, beckoning the two of us over. We rush to her, giggling and exhausted. She leans over to press a kiss to my forehead, shaking her head.
“Silly boys made a mess of yourselves,” she murmurs. “Vance, I thought I told you to keep an eye on little Gunnar.”
“Whatever, mom,” Vance says, tossing his hair. Even at sixteen, he’s tall like his dad, dressed nicely—but with all the attitude that comes with late puberty. He’s just coming into his own as an alpha, learning the dirty business of organized crime in Celestial Hills.
“Dinner’s ready,” she says, gesturing up the hill. “Go on and get yourself some food.”
This is where I see Huxley—a man I never remembered I knew until I was an adult. After about this age, I never went back to the Solace mansion until I was there with Ais. I was kept away from the operation…mostly by Vance, who held me at arm’s length.
“Here for dinner, boys?” Huxley says. “Your fathers are waiting.”
I know they’re just around the corner, in the dining room. I can hear Logan and Ronan laughing, best friends since before the Great Mutation.
Brothers in arms.
But Vance glares down at me as we step across the threshold to the dining room, stopping me in my tracks.
“I can’t trust you,” he says, his voice lower than before. He looks the same, but something feels different about him. My heart drops to my stomach, but I’m more confused than afraid.
“What?” I ask, and I’m a man again, melding with past and present…and maybe the future.
“I can’t trust you,” he says again, this time not towering over me. Vance is shorter than me now that we’re fully grown—and he looks so, so old. “You walked away from the Angels…and now you have to die.”
He reaches for my throat and I stumble back, the dream pivoting suddenly into a nightmare. Someone’s there to catch me, thank god—but as I turn around, my eyes go wide with terror.
It’s Vance’s mom, bruised and bloody…just like she was after the Eclipse took her in the dead of night fifteen years ago.
“Look at the mess you made, Gunnar,” she says, her hands on my throat. “Look at the mess—”
I jerk awake, staring at the white plaster ceiling, trembling. There’s a hand on my shoulder, gently holding me, and then she comes into view.
Not the creature from my nightmares…Star.
“Hey,” Ais whispers, brushing my hair back from my temple. I’m drenched in sweat, only just now calming down. “You were having a nightmare. Are you okay?”
I gaze into her grey eyes, inhale the scent of her–cotton candy and smoke–as I try to ground myself. I can hear Oberon puttering around in the kitchen, the sound of the coffee machine…and it reminds me that I’m here, not there.
Not in that twisted version of the Solace mansion.
There’s no grass under me, only the comfort of a slightly worn mattress. I can’t smell blood, only coffee and dirt and Star’s ever-lingering scent.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I nod, my throat dry.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“Yeah,” I swallow hard, blinking away the memories. “But it’s fine…it’s fine.”
She cups my face with her soft hand, a tight smile on her face. “Okay,” she says. “So it’s fine.”
