1. Vix

Chapter 1

Vix

I t was a dream she forgot but it hadn't forgotten her. Every time she closed her eyes, it played on repeat. There was no end to the film drenched in blood, and the click-clack of the reel turning was the sweetest melody in the silence of winter.

She opened her eyes and saw a sea of evergreens above her as fluffy snowflakes swirled down lazily, dancing in the wind until they kissed her skin, melting before she could taste it on her tongue.

Beyond the endless sea of those sad trees were dark clouds defiantly covering the sky as if they didn't want her staring at it like she found herself doing so often.

Every single living, breathing thing pulsed in time with the blood in her veins as she watched those clouds roil above her, furious. Breathing in the frigid air burned her lungs, but it reminded her she was real – alive.

Maybe.

Lifting one arm up, she studied the back of her hand and the black claws at the tips of her fingers before bringing it to her mouth to lick the blood from her skin until it was clean.

Brutal vitality filled her, and runes lit up across her skin like stars.

She was the whisper of winter – a splinter of heaven.

Turning her head, she stared at the vacant expression of the dead man beside her, studying the burnt cavities that were all that remained of his eyes.

"It's been a while since I felt this way," she whispered, rolling onto her side to face him like they were lying in bed together. "Eyes that were greener than the trees…is this a nightmare or a dream?"

He didn't respond, how could he when she'd cut his tongue from his head?

"Did you know I still dream of it?" Pushing the blond hair back from his forehead, she traced the glyph she'd painted onto it in blood. "Bet your precious brother didn't expect that."

Blood seeped into her clothes, melting the snow underneath her, but it was still hot enough to ward against the chill that would settle into her bones soon enough.

Pulling herself closer, she put her hand up to shield their mouths like someone might hear this secret—someone was always listening.

"He took me, did you know? Then when he was done with me, he left me among the snow and evergreens as nothing but a whisper of winter. Stole everything from me. Bet you didn't know that." Settling her hand on his arm, she brushed the loose feathers off him, ignoring the way they sliced into her mortal—immortal skin. "All he gave me was a single piece of knowledge and a name."

Sliding her hand down his arm, she wrapped her fingers around the hilt of his blade made of stars, the blood covering his skin becoming tacky. Gently she pulled it from his hand and grinned like he'd just given her a gift.

"Would you like to know what name he gave me, or perhaps…perhaps the piece of knowledge I was allowed after he stole from me?" Still no response. "You don't have to be so rude, you know."

She extricated herself from the cooling limbs of the body and stood in the center of the desecrate sea of evergreen, head tilting up as it always did to stare at the sky even if she knew the physics of heaven didn't work that way, if not why she knew that.

Snowflakes swirled around her in strange flurries, reacting to the unnatural currents that plagued this clearing.

Chaos and pain seeped into every atom and molecule of this place and she breathed it in deep, feeling it pumping through her bloodstream— thumping through her heart.

"A name has value…doesn't it, Gabriel?" Those dark clouds seemed to churn above her even more violently than before.

Dropping her gaze to the creature with her blade deep in his heart, she imagined that ice-cold metal in her own, forcing the pumping—thumping to finally stop.

It could stop anything, which meant it could stop her.

Maybe.

"Gabriel left me here," she murmured, closing her eyes when snow kissed her cheek as if apologizing for the pain that suffused every cell of her body, but it wasn't nature's fault she'd been born this way. "Even though he gave me a name."

Her clothes were soaked in blood, and it was starting to cool in the freezing howl of winter all around her.

Moving faster than she had any right to, she brought this poor, unfortunate creature's blade down on his throat, severing the head from the body in one clean strike.

Only a trickle of blood this time since she'd already burned his soul to ash.

"Just in case," she whispered, grabbing his hair and pulling his head up so it was level with hers. "Can't have him putting you back together now, can I?"

Still nothing.

He was really gone, just like everything else.

"Your blade and wings are mine now." She tilted her head as she stared into those burnt cavities, curious why they'd been so green…like the eyes that haunted the dreams she forgot but never forgot her. "You didn't deserve them anyway, did you?"

Tossing the head away from her, she swooped down and yanked her blade made of stars out of his chest, one in each hand now.

Minutes passed before the sounds of winter pushed through the blood pumping so loudly in her head that she couldn't hear anything else.

Then there was nothing but insulated silence that always made her remember why she stayed here in this cursed place. The melody of the universe was unlike anything she could ever describe, but it was soothing and sweet and vicious and chaotic—all at once.

It reminded her of the music she heard sometimes, off in the distance, when humans visited her evergreen sea to writhe in giant masses to a melody like they were one step away from death at all times.

They were like fire and blood – visceral.

Vanishing both the blades, she pressed her foot to his back and grabbed the base of the wings protruding out of his shoulders before ripping .

The sound was like pulling her foot out of mud. So oddly satisfying to hear that suction finally release.

Blood poured from her hands as the feathers cut into them, but she didn't let go, watching as it seeped into the soil to curse this place all the way down to the depths of hell.

"Finders keepers," she whispered, giving the head a wink.

She was heading for her den before she remembered—she'd always been bad at remembering things.

"Oh, he gave me the name of a warrior." Glancing back over her shoulder at the ravaged body and blood-red snow, she wondered. Was this enough to get his attention? Probably not. "He named me Tauriel. Interesting choice, isn't it?"

Angel of the forest.

Then she was walking through the endless wilderness, full of the saddest trees to ever exist, wailing as she passed like they wanted to echo her own pain back to her over and over and over so she couldn't forget.

She was used to it by now and she hummed along with the melody of their lamenting as those wings dragged along the ground behind her, slicing through the snow and soil like the weapons they were.

A ghost was what she was – one hell bound and bent on blood.

But not even hell would claim her.

So, she would tend her gardens of death until someone finally did.

Until then, she was nothing but a wraith of chaos and pain.