Prologue
A princess was running through the castle. Her sage-green ballgown was ripped at the hem. Her bare feet slapped stone and worn wood. Her breath was raspy with exhaustion. She held her crown at her side as she ran and ran, her chest aching.
A roar came from behind her, one of pure rage. She kept going faster and faster before grabbing onto a banister, jerking her body so quickly around that her hip hit the other side of the stairs. She threw herself down the stairs, landing in a crumpled heap on the first landing. She pulled herself up as she looked back and saw a shadow flit across the top of the stairs. A guttural noise echoed through the empty carved stone, and the princess swore even the portraits quivered in their corsets and petticoats.
She hauled herself down the last flight of steps, and a huge claw shredded a piece of marble railing where her arm had been mere seconds ago. She let out a gasp and then tore off down the hall, searching desperately. A searing pain like none other erupted in her leg as blood stained her gown rust. She gritted her teeth and kept going. Her mind was full of worries and wonders. The palace had just been full mere hours before for the Stars festival, but no longer. Where was the Queen, the King?
Her usual swift-footedness was gone, and her grace had left her when the monsters had cut her leg. She was a clumsy tornado with no way of escape.
The princess turned left, right, and left again before her leg gave out. She clamped her teeth and slapped her hand over the open wound, and kept her scream in as a stinging went through her whole leg. She bit her tongue as black ooze dripped from the wound, and she stumbled up, holding onto the wall as she limped at a slow run, not daring to look back. Another screech came from the hall behind her, and she kept her left arm clamped to her wound, breaking into a painful sprint that made her whole body protest in agony.
She made it to the entrance. The princess slammed her right side against the doors, and she screamed until her throat was raw. "Help!"
She kept throwing herself against the door until the skin on her arm broke, and a piece of wood the size of her hand stuck out from the muscle. She felt a whimper burble up and slid down the door, her red curls spilling on the ground beside her in crimson waves. A huge hulking figure swept through the room, and bat-like creatures with ape-like faces crowded her. The beast grabbed her chin and pulled it up.
She was so tired. So, so tired. She gave a feeble jerk from the monster's grasp, but it dug green-brown claws into her flesh. "Mortal will not escape this time," its voice bode of death and anger and sorrow, and its English was poor at best.
"You will never take her." The princess seethed through gritted teeth, her jaw aching as red dribbled down her chin.
"Oh, little soft-skin. I already have."
Princess Rowan felt her whole being sucked into oblivion before it consumed her.
