Chapter 1
I’d never broken the rules before.
They’d been drummed into me since birth. Reinforced at school. Yet now the Blood Moon bore witness as I broke all three.
My heart hammered in my chest. I swallowed. Tried to. The hot coal wedged in my throat made it difficult to breathe. I pushed on anyway. There wasn’t much time left for me to find Vicis.
Where the hell had he gone tonight of all nights?
I flung myself over a fallen stump. Dodged a ditch. Then some roots. My intimate knowledge of these trees helped me now, but it meant nothing in the face of what was coming.
All I prayed was that they hadn’t gotten to my brother yet.
A flash of movement to my right sent me careening in the opposite direction. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and, against my better judgment, I cast a glance over my shoulder.
Nothing.
Or rather, nothing I could see.
I propelled myself forward, unwilling to face whatever—or whoever—followed me.
Sweat layered my brow. My back. The fog hugging the trunks and undergrowth turned the air muggy. Obscured my vision. Offered me no relief from the fire building under my skin.
Gods, I was going to kill that rat of a kid when I found him.
A snapping twig threw my head around in time to catch the shadow darting from tree to tree. Then another. And another. Until there were four of them fanning out behind me.
They’d come.
All thoughts of my brother dissipated as I threw myself into a ditch. My pursuers remained hot on my heels, flitting alongside me with the ease of nocturnal predators. I pushed harder, willing my legs to carry me to the old creek I knew was just up ahead.
If I could just get across, get into town, I’d be safe.
I hoped.
They must’ve read my mind; one veered away from its partner and leaped into the ditch behind me. From there, if I squinted, I could sort of make out its form.
Humanoid.
In fact, a bit too humanoid.
Sending a silent prayer to Sirondara that I wasn’t making a mistake, I dug my heels into the mulch. My pursuer clearly hadn’t been expecting that, a very human cry erupting from his lips before he slammed into my swinging fist.
My bones jarred, a dull ache blossoming in my knuckles. I stood my ground, boots finding purchase on the otherwise shifting dirt.
“She hit me!” My brother’s all too familiar voice shattered the night.
The other three shadows burst into riotous laughter, one going so far as to bend double. I ignored them, far more interested in the teenager writhing in the mulch. He clasped a hand to his nose, the wildness in his blue eyes apparent even in the dark.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I half-spat, yanking him up by the collar of his tunic. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in? How much trouble you’ve gotten us in?”
“Relax.” Vicis slapped me off him. “We’ve been out since moonrise and nothing has happened. Like I said. It’s all some paranoid myth to keep us off the streets at night.”
“You came out here to prove a point?” I was caught between the desire to throttle him and to laugh.
I opted for neither, not wanting to end up in the Institution like one of the Plagued.
My brother lifted a shoulder, turning to one of the shadows—whom I now recognized as his best friend Silas—to get him out of the ditch. His blond hair glowed almost white in the moonlight.
I followed him up, not bothering with his other friend’s hand. If it bothered Atticus, he kept it to himself. Wisely so.
“I warned you not to.” His friend was still grinning. “I told you she has fists of iron.”
“My fists are the least of his concerns.” The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and it was all I could do not to throw another glance over my shoulder. “Wait until Mother and Father hear about this.”
“You’re not going to tell them, are you?” Vicis stopped pulling mulch from his hair. “This was a harmless bit of fun. They don’t need to know, Ren. Please.”
“Oh no, I think they do. Maybe they can get it through your stubborn head that this—” I gestured to the trees and Blood Moon—“isn’t something to joke about.”
“Fine. Tell them then. Whatever they do won’t last long, anyway.” His response to everything he’d done wrong over the past year. Each time the guards dragged him home after another broken law.
I bit back my retort, my desire to get out of the forest overruling the temptation to beat my brother back into the ditch.
Tomorrow was another day.
“Come along.” I turned on my heel, not giving the boys any choice but to follow me.
Each step toward the creek raised another hair on my arms. I inched my head to the side, eyes roaming the dark in search of whoever or whatever was watching us. Because I had no doubt something was. Even on normal nights, there was always something in the trees. Observing. Waiting for the gods knew what.
What concerned me more was why it was letting us go. On other nights, the Oath protected us. Tonight, it had every right to take us.
My brain, lovely as it was, provided me with ample imaginations of what being taken might entail. Of the creative devices they’d come up with to break the minds of those who broke the rules.
If what the Plagued rambled about was anything to go by…
“Sorry for chasing you.” Atticus' warm breath on my ear sent me right out of my skin. His hands flew up, a sheepish grin curling up the corners of his mouth.
The trickling creek saved him from the unladylike torrent of curses I’d been about to throw at him. Each successful crossing eased another knot out of my shoulders. My brother and his friends continued into town while I remained at the edge of the water and studied the trees for a heartbeat longer.
When I found nothing, I took off after the boys, unable to shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
