Prologue - The Night Everything Broke
Lyssa — Age 11
The Night Everything Broke
I remember the sound before anything else.
Boots on tile. Too many. Too loud. And the way the floor vibrated beneath me as they came closer.
I was curled on my mattress—if you could call it that. Thin. Filthy. Torn at the edges. I had learned to stay still when I heard footsteps, but something about these felt different. Like they didn’t belong to monsters. Like they were coming for something, not just to hurt.
I sat up, my arms trembling under my weight, my breath caught in my throat. My leg ached, old bruises throbbing like reminders I didn’t need. Then I heard his voice.
Lucien.
He was shouting. Fighting. Panicking.
I ran to the hallway, bare feet stinging from the cold tile. I didn’t even care. I had to get to him—I had to see him.
And I did.
Hands were on him. Strong ones. A man I knew—Damien. And behind him, two others. Isabella. Antonio.
I knew them.
I trusted them.
But they were taking him.
“Lucien!” I screamed, my voice cracking like glass. “Lucien!”
He saw me. I saw the moment his heart broke across his face. His arms reached for me, but Damien pulled him back, whispering something urgent—something I couldn’t hear over my own screams.
“No! No! Please!”
I stumbled forward, tears blinding me, my legs collapsing beneath me. I felt hands—gentle, trembling. Isabella.
She knelt down, cupped my face. Her cheeks were soaked.
“Oh, piccola luce,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Her voice was shaking.
“I want to take you with us. I do. But we can’t—not now. You’re too young, they’d come after you. They’d hurt you even worse.” She brushed hair from my face, and I wanted so badly to fall into her arms. But I was frozen.
“I promise you, sweetheart. We’ll come back for you. When you're older. When it’s safe. I swear it. We’ll find a way.”
I couldn’t speak. I just cried. My throat was raw. My heart was screaming. I reached out to Lucien one last time.
“Don’t leave me!”
He was shouting too. Fighting Damien now. Damien held him back with everything he had.
“I’ll come back!” Lucien swore, his voice ragged. “I swear, Lyssa—I’ll come back for you!”
And then they were gone.
And I fell into silence.
The hallway stayed dark for hours after that.
But something deeper had gone missing.
And it didn’t come back for five years.
