Prologue
RAVENA
I always found comfort in the stars. On nights like this, when everything felt too heavy, when the world felt too close, the sky above was a reminder that there was more beyond it all. My eyes traced the familiar constellations, watching the silver dots flicker like distant memories. I couldn’t help but wonder, as I stood there at the window, what it would be like to slip away into the night, to leave everything behind and drift through the stars.
The air outside was thick with the scent of rain; however, no storm arrived. Trees rustled softly, whispering to one another as if something was wrong. The wind stirred the branches and tangled the leaves, making them dance in time with a rhythm I couldn’t understand. But for all the peace in the night, I couldn’t shake the unease in my chest, a tightening that kept me rooted at the window. My gaze stayed fixed on the stars as if they could offer me some kind of comfort.
A knock at the door shattered the stillness like a sudden crack in the sky, cutting through the calm of the night. My breath caught in my throat. It was too late for visitors; not like we ever had them. Moments later, the knocks came again, louder this time.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I moved away from the window. My heart pounded as the sudden urge of panic flooded through me. The stars no longerheld their beauty; their distant light was now just a reminder of how far away safety felt.
The door swung open behind me without warning, and my mother stumbled inside, her pale face stricken with terror.
“Ravena,” She gasped for breath, her voice thin with fear, eyes frantic as she spotted me standing there, frozen, like I hadn’t heard the warning in her voice, “Hide, now.”
I barely had time to register her words before she grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the trapdoor on the floor. She was shaking, her breath quick and shallow, and her usually steady hands trembled with an urgency I had never seen before.
“Mum, what’s happening?” My voice cracked, barely above a whisper, but she didn’t even flinch.
“Don’t argue, Ravena, hide. They’ve found us.”
Her words struck me like ice. The panic that had been building in my chest coiled tighter. I knew what she meant, but hearing her say it out loud made the reality of it too real.
“Please, mum, what’s going on?” I begged, my eyes searching her for something, anything that would tell me it wasn’t what I knew it to be.
She didn’t give me the answers I sought. Instead, she pressed her hand to my cheek with an intensity I had never felt before, her gaze steady. “You have to survive. Do you hear me? You’re stronger than you think, Ravena. You need to hide. They will come for you, but you cannot let them find you. Promise me you will stay hidden.”
I opened my mouth to protest, to say that I couldn’t leave her, but the words were gone, lost in the haze of panic. She was already pulling the floorboard up, revealing the hollow space beneath.
“Mum,” I choked out again, but the look she gave me silenced me.
“Promise me.” Her voice was raw, desperate.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at her, the woman who had been my only light in the darkness.
“I promise,” I whispered, my voice barely a breath. She nodded once, as if that promise meant everything to her.
With trembling hands, she shoved me into the darkness beneath the floor. The cold wood scraped against my skin, and I curled into myself, fighting the tears that threatened to spill.
Before she closed the trapdoor, she whispered to me, “I love you, my darling girl, more than the stars above, and I am so sorry I couldn’t protect you more.”
The trapdoor slammed shut, and the heavy thud of it echoed in my ears. A muffled mutter above me filtered through the floor and wrapped around me like one last lingering hug. My mother’s concealment spell settled beneath my skin, and something else that was painful. Along with a sudden burning sensation that raced along my spine, taking my breath away, I closed my eyes, doing my best to focus on what was going on around me. I barely had time to cherish the touch of her or take a breath before the world exploded around me. The door splintered with a deafening crash.
“The witch! Where is she?” A man’s voice thundered through the room.
“I won’t tell you,” My mother spat, her voice shaky but defiant. “I will never tell you where my daughter is.”
The silence that followed was chilling, and then came the sound of a blade slicing through the air. My chest tightened with fear. I wanted to scream. And begged them to leave my mother alone; they wanted her, not me.
“Think carefully, witch,” a voice sneered, low and venomous. “Give us the girl and live, or you can die, and we will still find her and bring her back to where she belongs.”
My mother’s breath hitched, but she didn’t break. “I’d rather die than give her to that bastard.” She whispered harshly, her words an ultimate act of defiance. “You’ll never find her.”
Another blade strike, closer this time, my mother gasped but didn’t cry out. “You’ll break eventually,” the voice taunted, a cruel chuckle following, “All of you do.”
“Not for her.” My mother's voice rang out like a prayer.
