Prologue

" D ON'T DO IT!" a booming voice roared. "Don't leave me!"

Keira tried to make out the voice. Was it male? Female? All she knew was it held great power. Wanted to keep her safe. Away from where she had no choice but to go.

A fiery maelstrom she raced toward year after year. Over and over.

I'll stay this time , she swore. I'll listen to the voice and stay safe.

"Stay with me!" it repeated. "Don't go!"

She would this time. Had to. Otherwise, she would face a fiery death.

"I have to!" she cried, torn between the voice and what she had to do.

Between life and death. The voice and unthinkable pain.

"Yet you must not," the voice rumbled, coming through clearly as masculine for the first time. " For jeg kan ikke redde deg fra dette !"

"I know you cannot save me from this," she gasped, somehow understanding him. Overwhelmed by sudden emotion, she spun, but he wasn't there. "Where are you?"

Even though she knew she had to, she warred against the compulsion to race into the flames billowing through the forest. Did not want to conquer the ring of fire getting ready to swallow her, nor reach the flaming crown at its base and witness the awful embers swirling within. The remnants of a faceless death.

Only now, when she glanced that way again, there was a face. Two faces. Blurry profiles of a man and woman facing one another between the branches and twisting roots of a tree. She blinked and tried to make them out, but they grew harder to see.

"No," he roared from behind her moments before fire streamed over her head at the fiery ring. Not just any fire, either.

His fire because he was a dragon ?

She tried to spin again and finally lay eyes on the person behind the voice, but it was too late. The same urge that always overtook her became too strong, and she raced at the incoming flames, determined to extinguish the destruction.

Determined to face a fight, she always lost.

Close. Closer. Cloying smoke.

Then, whoosh , just like always, she catapulted straight into hell.