Prologue
As a four-year-old child, I never expected to be banished from my kingdom. I had been living in King Henry and Queen Vanessa’s kingdom since my birth. My father had long been gone shortly after my mother found out she was pregnant, but we never knew what became of him, nor did we know that I wasn’t exactly what I was supposed to be.
“She’s a curse, an abomination!” the king said to my mother, and she bowed her head, unable to speak. “Did you know that he wasn’t human?”
“No, Your Majesty,” my mother had said, tears in her eyes. “But it isn’t the child’s fault that she is what she is.”
“Kathleen will not be allowed to live within the kingdom!” the king roared, and the queen had winced, knowing there was nothing she could do to withhold his fury from an innocent maid and her daughter.
I was on my knees in front of them, my red hair in a tight braid. My emerald green eyes sparkled in light, and I had looked up at the queen. Her own green eyes stared back into mine, and I could tell she was sympathetic.
“Henry,” she said, putting her hand on her husband’s. “Don’t do this.”
“Vanessa,” he said, heaving with anger, “don’t touch me right now.”
“Henry, she’s but a child!” the queen said, her voice raising. My mother went back to her knees before the royal people, unable to do anything for her own daughter. She pulled me close to her.
“She knows what she is,” the king thundered. “I don’t need another reminder of what I’m stuck with.”
The queen’s mouth opened, closed, then she looked down. She got up and fled from the throne room, leaving her husband decide my mother and I’s fate.
“Get your stuff and leave the kingdom,” the king said to my mother. “Unless you’d rather stay here and ship your daughter off.”
“I’d rather die than leave the child I wasn’t supposed to have,” my mother stands up, takes me by my shoulders and begins to leave the room.
“No,” the king said, a small smile on his face. “You are my maid, and you’re staying put.”
My mother whirled around, apparently not caring anymore that she was speaking to someone of higher position than her.
“She is my child!” she yelled at the king. “I don’t care what blood he put into her; she cares my blood. Whatever she is, she’s only half of it!”
“And has the ability to become full!” the king snapped back. “And for your disrespect of my title, you will be imprisoned for a month!”
I walked towards the king, unaware of what I was going to say or do.
A soldier threw me backwards and held a spear over my head.
The queen came rushing out and pushed the soldier to the side. The king stood up, astonished.
“Don’t you touch the child!” Queen Vanessa yelled, pointing a finger at the soldier. The queen helped me to my feet, unclasped her necklace and placed it around my neck.
She lowered her lips to my ears and spoke.
“Let all your dreams come true sweetheart, and don’t mind what you are. Just remember who you are.”
She stood up, fixed her gown and haughtily walked out of the room.
The king had soldiers escort me away, but I turned around and ran back to my mother.
“Momma,” I said, clutching her dress. “Don’t let them take me, please.”
My mother held me tight, ignoring the king’s orders to release me. When a soldier went to grab me, my mother stabbed him.
And that was the last time my mother saw the light of day, because the soldier behind her shot her.
I screamed and dropped to my knees, but I was drug away, thrown out of the kingdom’s gates, and was never allowed to return.
I wandered through the woods for the longest time, seeking someone to help me. I was afraid, and I was alone. I didn’t know how to access my sylph abilities, so I was just a little human child, as far as I was concerned.
An older man took me in his cabin when I beat on the door long enough. When I asked him why he was banished, he said it was because he was a trained assassin from another country.
“What’s an assassin?” I asked him, sitting on the floor in front of the fire with my green dress, eating the bread he offered me.
“It’s someone who’s trained to kill others expertly,” he explained. “And only bad people. What’s your name?”
“Kathleen,” I said, and the man smiled.
“Would you like to be an assassin, Kathleen?”
I thought about it.
I stuffed the rest of the bread in my mouth, stood up and placed my hand in his.
“Yes sir.”
