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Chapter 1

Aria

I tumbled down into a cacophony of sound and heat. Lava bubbled from the Genesis Pit I had voluntarily jumped into, spitting up from the depths and searing my skin.

I was determined to unlock the mage within me. While I was driven to take that jump, falling into molten lava with the magma burning every inch of my body suddenly felt like a bad decision as pain seared every nerve. I was buoyed on the sounds of screaming and song.

The wailing came from people who wanted me back among the living, and the songs came from those who were already dead. A vision flashed before me, but it wasn’t my life I saw. It was their memory of the moment Warlord Zonas marched his troops into the Onyx Rah kingdom. People fled their homes in distress as the Crypt Claw soldiers fought Onyx Rah’s Royal Guard. Black wolves battled fiercely to protect their people and their homes, but the Crypt Claw army were too many in number and too ruthless in temperament to defeat.

As my bones cracked and broke and my skin blistered and peeled in the lava pit, the mage within me was slowly awakening and infusing with my wolf. She was timeless and crafted from the ether of all of those who had died. She was me, and I was her, and yet we were of two separate worlds and identities. Like the wolf that laid dormant inside me until she was summoned, my mage was a part of both of us. She wanted to show me how our kingdom fell so that I would know what our people went through.

My mage showed me the death of the Midnight Moon Pack. The alpha king and his beta fought the soldiers capturing their people and ushering them out of the war-torn city. Their ingenuity and brute strength was no match for Warlord Zonas’s brutal Crypt Claw warriors. I watched as they impaled, burned, and annihilated everyone.

The Crypt Claw were trained to kill at all costs because Zonas had proposed a trade agreement with Onyx Rah and the king was reluctant to sign it. My mage showed me the moment when the king and his beta watched as their citizens were struck down and killed.

“You broke your treaty!” the king roared as Warlord Zonas materialized before him out of the blood and ash.

“Treaties are for the weak,” the warlord returned. “No paper will hold me back from claiming what I desire! With your mage gone, what better time to strike?” An ugly smirk crossed Zonas’s face, and though my body was nothing but ash, the remnants of sensation still swirling within me were sickened by his callous disregard for life and the liberty of those he destroyed.

Warlord Zonas took great joy in his devious work as he himself impaled man, woman, and children on his sword before the defeated king. The last image my failing eyes could see was of Warlord Zonas commanding his officers to kill any survivors they could find. Following his orders, soldiers began scouring the city for anyone still left. The soldiers marched all the citizens they found into the Genesis Pit, including the king and his beta. I watched them perish under ash, lava, and flames as a voice whispered, Only a descendant of the lost royals can resurrect a kingdom from the dust.

I continued to burn as my body fell through lava to the air below until I splashed into something cool and soothing. Unable to process my surroundings, I let the waters chill my inflamed skin until I realized that I was floating in an underground spring.

My head dipped under the water, craving its refreshing revival, and the voices around me magnified and echoed, beckoning me to unleash the hidden part of myself. Charred pieces of my flesh fell away as flashes of my childhood danced across my consciousness.

“I bet you can’t,” Lex taunted when I was young, perhaps only eight or nine.

“I know I can.” I squared my jaw and faced him as I looked down at the brook that ran through the forest.

The rains had been high, and the water level had swelled to that point that the tiny creek where we caught frogs and watched trout dart through coursing water was now a raging torrent. Lex was daring me to jump across it, avoiding the logs that had been laid over the divide so we could cross it safely.

“If you fall in, Aria, I’m going to have to come save you,” Lex boasted, as only an arrogant young royal would.

“If you fall in, I’ll let you drown,” I shot back, crossing my arms over my chest.

Without any warning or preparation, I jumped across the rapids. My foot struck the muddy bank, and I unlaced my hands to grip the gritty soil, holding on with all my might.

I hadn’t quite cleared the bank, but I was across the stream. All I had to do was scramble to safety, but the bank was soft and muddy. Rocks and clumps of wet dirt tumbled away from my feet on every step. I did make it across, but my clothes were ruined by the mud.

Laughing, Lex cleared the jump without incident. Not a single thread of his pristine tunic and trousers were soiled by the muddy ground. Yet, despite my state of disarray, I felt triumphant.

“See?” I said with my hands on my hips.

“You are one of a kind, Aria,” Lex said, taking off his shirt. He looked muscular, but lanky and pale. He had yet to start his military training, so he had the physique of a teenage boy who wasn’t yet a man.

“What are you doing?” I asked, incensed as he draped his shirt over my shoulders.

“Saving you from an ass-whooping,” he said, still laughing. “If Lady India sees you in this state, she’ll thoroughly tan your backside.”

And he wasn’t wrong; I’d been beat for much less than sullying the clothes that were generously loaned to me by the Bevata family.

“Thank you.” I bowed my head, grateful for the long shirt to cover the mud and mess I’d made of my clothes.

“You cleared it,” Lex reminded me with a look of adoration in his eyes.

“I told you I would.” I smirked as we took the log bridge back across the creek toward home.

Another memory overlapped with the last. I was in the garden with Cheyenne. He was showing me the herbs and flowers, taking his time to explain what each plant was, having just studied them with his tutor.

“And that is a Lilac Daisy,” he said with a note of authority. “Not only is it beautiful, but it smells good. The stem and petals can be ground up into a medicine that will combat headaches and joint swelling.”

“Fascinating.” I feigned interest to appease him because he was so excited about the most minute things.

“Don’t you think the flower is lovely?” His face melted into a wide smile when he looked at me; I must have been almost sixteen, and he, nearly fifteen.

“I do, Cheyenne.” I gave him an appeasing grin in return.

We were only friends, but he had such a sweet demeanor. I cherished our time together. I’d fallen in love with Lex. He was a bully and a tease, but we were also too similar in our bull-headedness. Having strong opinions, we were often at odds, choosing opposite sides of a fight where no winner could be declared. We tied more times than we won or lost.

Suddenly, the memories I was seeing cascaded forward in fragmented pieces. Kissing Lex for the first time in front of the rose bush topiary. Sparring in training when I pretended to be the Oxclaw Prince of Solbrook. Making love for the first time in his bed, then hiding from Amadeus and the king. I saw Lex killing Ulryk Bevata to save me from being raped during his brutal attack. Lex going over the falls, and the anguish I felt when I thought he was dead. Me diving into the lava pit, defying his gut-wrenching cries.

I stayed under the water, submerged, remembering as my skin had sluiced from my body like a snake in shed. The spring breathed me in and out of its waves while it caressed and held me like a mother cradles her child. The pain pulsed within, but no longer tormented me. I felt like I was in a deep sleep from which I wasn’t sure I would wake, and I rested and recovered from all the trauma I’d endured in my life. The water kept me safe from my own thoughts and memories when my mind finally cleared and calmed.

After what felt like an eternity of rest, my body no longer burned. The pain had fully subsided. I wasn’t sure if I was still alive, but as I lifted myself from the water and gazed down at my reflection on the glassy surface, I saw no injury. Gone was the charred and mangled skin; it was now smooth and soft. My face had the same look, and yet was also very different. It radiated a beauty I’d never seen before. While I was not vain, my features were more refined and regal than they had ever been.

Voices of the souls that had brought me to this place were but a distant hum now. I didn’t need to listen to any more of their cries. I understood them, felt their pain, knew their anguish, and because of it, was tasked with their salvation.