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Prologue: Alice
I stare at the pale-green crystal surface of the cave floor. The darkness hangs around me, drowning out the color until all that’s left are outlines of shapes and a scale of grays. The only light casts down onto the stone altar, coming from the triplet moons twisting together directly above me. Like a beacon, it shines through the gap where the tops of the nine original trees fuse.
It wasn’t that long ago that I sat in this very cavern and glimpsed a premonition of Kai fighting Pan, one of the old gods. Hopefully now, it’ll still offer me insight. After three random nights, waking up in the middle of fucking nowhere, I need to know I’m not going crazy.
The first time was right after Kai left. We barely got to enjoy being home from the realm of monsters a week before Lucifer shipped him off to only God knows where. He made a fuss about how his prince needed to pick up where he left off, visiting the lords scattered about the seven realms. Apparently, when I arrived, he was in the midst of having them re-pledge their loyalty to the crown. Which in truth is just a fancy way of saying he was getting them to agree to fight against Heaven when the time comes.
I woke up on the outskirts of Hell Hold, standing near the forest of lost souls. My feet were caked in mud and muck… My hands were bloodied. If it weren’t for Luri, my cat, following after me, I might never have known how I made it there.
Supposedly, I teleported out of the castle, and she watched me venture into the woods. She followed along and killed me a deer, thinking I was hungry.I was not, but I was in the unconscious mood to stroke her fur in my sleep. Being that the girl doesn’t do anything murderous and stay clean… I looked like a horrorfreak show.
The second time was a few days after that. I woke up in the library with books in my lap I didn’t remember grabbing. And the last, I was pacing in the hallway on my floor of the castle. Finn found me and guided my nearly naked ass back to my humble abode.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Finn’s boots click against the stone as he walks up behind me. “I’m almost certain the sleepwalking will stop. Kai did it too when his power initially surged. After a week or so, it never happened again.”
“I’m positive. I’d rather know and it be nothing, than avoid it and have it bite me in the ass.”
“Okay,” he says, shrugging his shoulders and holding out a closed fist. I offer my palm and he drops a handful of sand into it. “I couldn’t find an angelite stone, but I did find some sand containing it. It’ll do the trick.”
I dip my hands into the water flowing down the large pillars making up the walls of the cavern, careful not to lose the sand. Closing my eyes, I steady my soul, pulling at my power and muttering the spell for intuition. My head falls back as magic surges through me, igniting every nerve and humming through my blood.
My vision floods white behind my eyelids and the wind gusts around me, flipping my hair in all directions. Images flicker until I’m no longer in the cave, but somewhere else.
It’s quiet. The silence is deafening as I launch myself through unforgiving woods. Twigs slap against my body, searing marks and leaving bloodied welts in their wake as I press harder through the brush. Running toward something, I’m just unsure of what.
A ghostly hand lurches from nowhere, wrapping around my arm and curling long nails into my flesh. I flinch, swatting it away as I speed forth. My heart pounds into my ribs, threatening to crack bone as my pulse rages through my veins.
“Careful, little girl. They already think you’re a monster,” a haunting voice calls after me. “Stay on this course and they’ll be sure of it.”
Small hands grab at my clothes as their inky, dark aura slips across my skin like oil. “They’ll doom her just as they did the first prince.” It’s a young, innocent sounding voice this time, and the chuckle the child makes sends fear clawing through my middle.
Something latches on to my ankle, sending me toppling forward. My hands collide with the dirt as stone and debris slice into my palms. A stinging pain ripples up my arm as I yelp.
“She’ll never be good enough. Look at her crawl,” another voice says.
“It’s true! I’ve already seen two hordes of armed men searching the woods. They’re coming for her,” a male ghost snickers. It’s as if I’m their entertainment for the evening.
I lift, pushing back to my feet as translucent figures move closer. Pan’s children. The lost souls that roam the forest at night. A thread snaps inside of me as my body ignites in flames. Power pulsing out of my form, leveling the ghosts near me to ash.
It only took a second to shred their souls from existence. I ripped them from the veil between the living and the dead. There should be a pang of remorse in my bones, squeezing my heart, but there isn’t. There’s nothing but relief. I wanted them gone… And I don’t know what that says about me.
Before I can dwell anymore, blue hued silhouettes appear in the woods around me, floating closer… creeping toward me. I take off at a breakneck pace. My chest heaves as air burns in and out of my lungs, demanding them to stretch and hold more with every exasperated breath. I don’t stop until I break through the wood line and burst into a clearing.
Fluttering my eyes open, the wind dies down around me. That premonition was anything but helpful. My power has been surging—spikinguntil it feels like I’ll explode with it. I’ve barely been able to control myself when it does.
I have to find a way to contain my magic,my power.I’m not sure why I’m running from them, or what I did to make them hunt me, but my best guess is it has something to do with my sleepwalking, or my surges. I must’ve lost it… It’s not a stretch to believe. I can feel my grasp on my magic slipping, and it grows stronger every day. I wouldn’t be the first nephilim to do so, either.
The question is, can I change my fate?
Scrunching my eyebrows together, I look at the sand in my hands.Maybe another glimpse…Surely that will help. Closing my eyes, I let the light swallow me up, except this vision is different.
Blood soaks my leather armor, dripping from the silver blade of my sword. I take slow, measured steps down a hallway I don’t recognize, eyeing the large arched windows that look out upon a black beach. Waves crash against the shore in ruthless beats, sending droplets soaring over the rocky sea border.
Voices float through the air as I round a corner, coming to an open room full of humanoid guards. They likely aren’t human, seeing as this is Hell. Everyone here is a little ‘something,’ but they still wear our armor, and sport our crests. Twin snakes spiraling around a rose.
“Hello boys,” I say, creeping inside the room. “It would appear as though Hell has fallen under new management.”
The men surge from their seats, grasping for their swords and shields, readying to attack. Meanwhile, I unclip a glass bottle from my belt and toss it, sending it toppling through the air until it smashes to the floor. The smell of raw alcohol burns my nose as I use my magic to quickly spread the liquid around, making sure it’ll reach everyone should it be set aflame.
