PROLOGUE
Ash fell from the sky like snow.
It drifted endlessly from the gray heavens, coating the ruined world in a blanket of white and black. The sun hung overhead, dim and lifeless behind the thick cloud of soot.
Nothing moved.
Nothing lived.
The silence was so complete it felt wrong.
Then the ashes stirred.
A breeze swept through the devastation, catching the falling ash and drawing it together. The particles swirled in deliberate patterns, spinning faster and faster until a glowing sphere formed in the air.
With a sharp whoosh, the shape collapsed inward.
A woman appeared.
She landed hard, knees bent and braced against the ground. For a moment she remained crouched, breathing heavily. Then she rose and pushed a strand of red hair from her face, careful not to touch the deep gash running from her forehead to her chin.
Her eyes swept across the destruction.
“No.”
The word was barely a whisper.
“No, no, no.”
Her voice grew louder with every step she took.
“It was here. The house was right here.”
Panic sharpened her words.
“It has to be here.”
She stumbled forward through drifts of ash, searching desperately for anything familiar.
A wall.
A fence.
A tree.
Anything.
There was nothing.
Only ruin.
The woman dropped to her knees.
Her hands disappeared into the ash as sobs tore from her chest. Blood streaked her face. Dirt stained her clothes. Her shoulders shook beneath the weight of grief.
Then she threw back her head and screamed.
The sound echoed across the wasteland.
A raw, broken sound.
The cry of someone who had arrived too late.
Silence returned.
Then—
A faint sound.
The woman froze.
Her head snapped up.
For a moment she wondered if grief was playing tricks on her.
Then she heard it again.
A muffled cry.
Her heart lurched.
“I’m here!” she shouted.
The cry came again.
Without hesitation she lunged forward and began digging through the wreckage.
Charred beams.
Broken stone.
Splintered wood.
She threw them aside with frantic strength.
“I hear you!”
Her fingers scraped against jagged debris. Her nails cracked. Blood dripped from her knuckles.
She didn’t stop.
The crying grew louder.
Closer.
With a desperate cry of her own, she gripped a massive section of collapsed roof and heaved.
The beam rolled aside.
Ash exploded upward around her.
Then she froze.
A table stood beneath the wreckage.
Scarred.
Blackened.
Damaged.
But standing.
The same hand-carved table she had sat around countless times with her dearest friend.
She could almost hear the laughter that had once filled this room.
See the warm meals.
The shared stories.
The life that had existed here.
Gone.
All gone.
A small movement caught her eye.
Beneath the table, two glowing eyes stared back at her.
The woman sucked in a breath.
Cadence.
The little girl she’d held as a newborn.
The child whose birthdays she’d celebrated.
The daughter of the friend she had just lost.
For one impossible moment neither moved.
Cadence stared up at her with wide eyes.
Changed eyes. Glowing eyes.
But unharmed.
Not a scratch marked her skin.
Not a burn.
Not a bruise.
Nothing.
In the center of this devastation, the child sat untouched.
The woman’s stomach twisted.
Something was wrong.
Something had changed.
Slowly, she reached beneath the table.
“It’s all right, little one.”
Cadence crawled into her arms.
The instant their skin touched, warmth spread through the woman’s body.
She gasped.
The cuts on her hands closed.
The pain vanished.
The gash across her face knitted together.
Fresh skin replaced torn flesh.
Within moments every wound was gone.
The woman stared down at the child in shock.
Cadence’s eyes still glowed faintly.
Almost violet.
Magic pulsed beneath the surface.
Ancient.
Impossible.
“What happened to you?” she whispered.
The child only blinked.
The glow slowly faded from her eyes, leaving behind a strange gray-violet ring around the iris.
The woman tightened her hold.
Questions crowded her mind.
Questions she had no answers for.
But one truth settled heavily in her chest.
This child would be hunted.
If anyone discovered what she had become, they would come for her.
And she would not allow that.
Not while she still breathed.
Pressing a kiss against Cadence’s soot-covered hair, she closed her eyes.
“I’ll protect you.”
The promise felt as binding as an oath.
No matter the cost.
No matter who came looking.
She would keep her safe.
Cadence’s small hand curled into the fabric of her shirt.
Then the little girl tilted her head back and looked up at her.
Those enormous eyes filled with confusion.
Trust.
Loss.
“Where Mama?”
