Prologue
“Catch me if you can,” Nespera giggled, sprinting through the forest. “I bet I can,” Nyra replied, following her into a darker, unfamiliar part of the woods. Nyra slowed as the forest grew ominously dark. “Nes, STOP! We shouldn’t be here.” “Not a chance, Nyra; that’s how you got me last time.” “NO, I’m serious. This place feels wrong.” Nespera ran ahead, ignoring her sister’s warning. Suddenly, everything fell silent around Nyra. “Nes?” she called, but there was no answer. As she walked along the broken path, she felt unseen eyes watching her. The echoing wind and snapping branches made her uneasy.
A piercing scream rang out, prompting Nyra to run. The forest came alive with screeching birds and creatures. Her heart pounded. The wind whipped the trees wildly. No matter how hard she ran, the forest stretched endlessly. A shadow with yellow eyes kept pace in the trees. A raspy, gurgled voice spoke: ”Save her, Nyra.” Nyra spotted her sister’s back, frozen in a clearing’s light—a pitch-black hole barred escape. With aching legs and bloody feet, Nyra tried to leap over the hole to the path ahead. Just as she reached the edge, it widened.
Nyra’s hands caught the edge of the widening hole as she fell, fingers straining to hold on.
The sky turned red as the forest roared wilder. Panicking, Nyra struggled desperately to pull herself up from the hole’s edge, but the shadow blocked her view, and her sister’s silhouette faded into the distance. Dark mist leaked from the shadow and reached out for her. Losing hope, her grip failed, and she slipped backward into darkness. The mist thickened, cloaking her skin in suffocating blackness. Fighting back, Nyra clawed at the tendrils of darkness, but they enveloped her fully. “It’s all your fault,” a familiar muffled voice echoed in her mind. “Is it my fault?”
