No one liked her. They tolerated her because Talon had ordered them to. But they didn’t like her.
Her eyes burned, and she hated that she could still care what others thought. Val didn’t need anyone’s affection or permission. Not to live the life she’d been given.
No, the life she’d taken for herself.
She found the bears arguing quietly in her room. They took one look at her and hurried out. She shut the door behind them.
Clean of any magical stains, dust, dirt, or crusted fluids from the previously deceased, the room felt fresh, the bed more than welcome. She grabbed a blanket from her pile of belongings on the floor and tossed it over the mattress.
Then she mentally warned her gargoyle,Grizz, I’m taking a nap. Let me know if anything comes. Aisha, once you finish, go relax in the garage and put yourself in a light stasis.
I will, Val,Grizz sent.
Yes, mistress,Aisha answered.
Content that her protector would protect, she gave herself over to sleep.
And prayed she wouldn’t dream.
It rushedthrough her the way it always did. A murky scent of the Beyond, an otherworldly sensation of comfort and bliss surrounded by the buffered knowledge of pain and loss.
The latest hideaway in a vast number she’d found with her parents, this time in a shapeshifters’ flock. Friends of her parents had taken them in with a promise to keep them safe.
A promise no one could ever seem to keep.
Hiding under her bed, she studied a giant man in a dark robe. He held a staff that glowed so brightly it blinded her. Then the glow settled, and she saw that the bad man held her father by the neck, off his feet. He made her father, always larger-than-life, look puny.
“You disappoint me, Morgan. I offered you a place at my table, and yet you dine with these scavengers instead. I’ll make them suffer. And then you will apologize properly.”
“Never…Vlad…imir. Kill you…first.” Her father struggled, gripping the fingers around his throat that no longer appeared human. Thick and black with gray nails, the digits had more joints than a regular person’s should.
Even at four, Val knew when she saw something alien.
But then, she’d been acquainted with shadows and death from birth, something her family tried to suppress.
“Where is the girl?” Vladimir smiled, his face handsome, though the evil in his eyes warned Val to keep quiet. Even if she hadn’t heeded her father’s warning, the fear coursing through her refused to let her speak.
“Dead,” her father lied.
“Oh, Morgan. Such a disappointment. The stone? Do you have that at least?”
“Wh-what st…one?” Daddy coughed, and blood flecked his lips. His body trembled, and she heard bones snap in his legs and arms.
A flash of understanding—death magic combined with dark magic. Something she’d been told time and time again never to use. But the bad man used it on her daddy, making him cry.
Val teared up, so scared and not sure what to do.
“You know what stone. I want the jewel. Give it to me and I might go away.”
“Don’t…have…”
“Oh well.” The bad man squeezed his hand and smiled. “I’m going to kill them all, you know. Then I’ll pilot them one by one. What fun we’ll have.”
“N-n-n…” Her daddy clawed at the hand around his neck, his movements growing slower until they stopped altogether.
His neck popped, and his head tilted in a weird way.
Mommy howled in grief as Daddy’s body dangled above her, caught in the evil man’s grip. She kneeled on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
