CHAPTER ONE

I had the dream again last night. Not that it was an uncommon occurrence over the past year, but three times in one week was excessive. Each night that I awoke drenched in sweat and heart pounding in my chest, my need to find answers only intensified. And today, one of the rare days I was allowed to walk the streets of Rimor, was the perfect opportunity to do just that. Once I was able to evade the King’s guards, I snuck into Rimor Library.

Although the building was public, it was one of the many establishments I was not allowed to go, which is why evading the guards was necessary. I crept through the library, ignoring the strange looks and hushed whispers from the patrons. Shit . Had I been recognized already?

“We’re going to get caught, Aura,” Rose whispered from behind me, as I reached a section of books that looked promising .

“Not if we’re careful,” I whispered back, thumbing through the wall of books. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for. Perhaps a book about interpreting dreams, if such a book existed.

Rose shuffled nervously behind me. She had been my handmaid and best friend since I was a girl. I had asked her in secret to meet me here, and although she didn’t want to be caught aiding in my misconduct against the King’s orders, she agreed anyway – albeit, reluctantly.

“If you’re not going to help me look for a book, at least keep watch,” I said to her in a hushed tone. Well, I thought I was being quiet. When I looked back, it seemed more people had gathered to stare. It seemed I was recognized more quickly than I had hoped, even with the hood of my cloak pulled over my head.

That couldn’t be good. I left the shelf and ventured deeper into the library, pulling my hood up even higher and keeping my head down while Rose trailed behind me.

“I want to help you, Aura,” she said using my nickname again. “But I also think searching for answers is only going to lead to trouble. Who knows what kind of magic could cause such vivid dreams to repeat.”

I rolled my eyes. “There is no such thing as magic, Rose.” I said it like I believed it, and yet having this recurring dream somehow seemed supernatural.

When we reached the back of the library, I silently cursed under my breath. We had hit a dead end, and we had been in the library for too long. A patron or a librarian was bound to give us away soon. I turned to look for a different route to the exit, frustration building. Escaping the guards was never easy, and I truly thought I would have more time in the library before being recognized. Perhaps I should have just asked Rose to search for a book on my behalf since she wasn’t banned from the library, but I wasn’t positive she would know what to look for. Especially since I wasn’t even sure what to look for.

“Let’s just go,” I sighed, feeling defeated. I turned on my heel ready to weave in and out of the aisles to avoid prying eyes, when something caught my eye. Against one of the back walls of the library, I was able to make out what appeared to be a bookshelf that was smaller than the large oak shelves that surrounded it. Instinct told me to step closer, and as I did so, I could see that the wood was stained a different color. Other than the shelf simply appearing out-of-place, something drew me to it.

Knowing my time was running thin, I hastily began trailing my fingers over the hard edges of the books. I pulled out one at a time, quickly reviewing their title then putting them back when they didn’t seem promising. When I pulled on one in particular, I was met with resistance, and heard a small clank .

To my surprise, the entire bookshelf moved forward, the wall moving with it.

“Whoa,” Rose muttered next to me, her eyes as wide as mine.

A secret door. Rimor Library had a secret door . Whatever drew my instinct to it happened for a reason, and I was more than ready to find out why.

“Come on,” I beckoned, but Rose hesitated.

“M…maybe I should keep watch. In case the guards come,” she whispered.

I sighed. “Okay, let me know if anyone’s coming. I’ll just be a minute.”

Rose nodded and I pushed on the bookshelf a little more until there was enough room for me to squeeze through the trap door.

I was met with a dark room, the light from the secret doorway the only thing helping me see inside. In the room there was only one bookshelf. It looked old and worn, and I felt an eerie sensation as I stared at it – like it was calling to me .

Reluctantly, I walked over to it. I could tell the books hadn’t been opened in years, because dust went flying as soon as I picked one up.

A cloud of dust hit my lungs, and I stifled a cough before opening the book I had grabbed. The first thing I noticed was the curious writing. It was in a language I didn’t know, and there were symbols drawn in that I did not recognize.

I flipped through the dusty pages, and my heart stuttered in my chest when I came to a detailed drawing of a large wolf. It looked eerily similar to the one I had been seeing in my dream.

* * *

I’m always standing in the middle of a forest. I’m usually walking barefoot through the woods, often stopping to admire a flower or tree or an interestingly shaped stone. In reality, I hadn’t been to the woods since my mother died, but it somehow felt like home to me in my dream. When a twig snaps behind me, I quickly turn and see a black wolf stalking towards me, and I freeze in my tracks. The wolf is almost the size of a horse, and it has piercing gold eyes that look hungry… like they’ve been craving something for a long time, and I was the only thing that could satisfy that craving.

As the wolf stalks closer, I finally come to my senses and take off running. I zigzag through trees and hurdle over rocks, streams, and fallen branches. I always feel the wolf’s breath behind me, like it is inches from reaching me and snapping me in its massive jaw. Then, every time, I reach a cliff. The dead end leaves me in uncontrollable fear, as I slowly turn my body to face the wolf. The wolf stalks closer and closer, until my heels press into the very edge of the cliff, causing small rock debris to trickle down into the raging river below.

Its claws rake the earth. One step closer. Two. I’m done for. When its enormous head is less than an arm’s length from my face, I close my eyes and instinctively put my hand out as if I could stop the beast with just a touch. But instead of feeling fur or even sharp teeth, I feel skin. Human skin.

* * *

The damned dream terrified me. But when I would open my eyes to see where the wolf went and who my supposed savior was, my eyes would always open in real life. My view was never of a person, but of my bedroom ceiling. I was usually drenched in sweat at that point, and more than often incapable of falling back asleep.

“Oh no,” a quiet voice squealed, and my attention snapped back to my presence in the library. I walked towards Rose, book in hand, and her face was paler than normal. I finally noticed the cause of her alarm.

“I thought I saw her head over this way,” said an elderly sounding woman. I heard the clanking of armored footsteps start to head in our direction.

“Shit,” I cursed. There was no question now about whether I had been recognized. “They found us.”

The book made a loud thud as I shut it quickly and shoved it into Rose’s arms. I needed to see what else the book had within its pages, needed to see if there was any clue as to who drew the large wolf and why I was seeing it in my dreams.

“If they find me, they won’t let me keep this. Please take it and hide it, Rose,” I pleaded.

Rose gulped and hid the book under her cloak. “I’ll do my best,” she promised. I trusted her with this just as I trusted her with my life.

I pulled the secret door shut in hopes that the librarians wouldn’t notice the book missing. Then I grabbed Rose’s arm and started half-walking, half-running towards the east side of the library. I prayed to the gods that the main entrance wasn’t also the only exit. I let go of Rose, trusting she would follow my every move and stay close.

“This way!” a loud male voice boomed, as more heavy footsteps sped in our direction.

My pace quickened until I finally started to see daylight. Whether it was a window or a door, I could not tell yet. I said a small prayer again, hoping it was a door. As I got closer to the light, relief hit me hard. It was a large door with a circular window just above it. Thank the gods , I thought. I pushed the door with a bit more strength than I needed to, as I nearly knocked over a townswoman who must have been standing or walking on the other side.

“There!” I heard a man shout.

“I’m so sorry!” I said to the woman as I reached for her arm to help her up. She stared at me with wide eyes as if she’d seen a ghost, before hesitantly accepting my hand. I pulled her up to her feet, then immediately let go and turned to run. “Sorry again!” I shouted back to her. The look on her face didn’t change.

I’m sure I had lost myself some valuable time for that and assumed they were right on my heel. I continued running, not exactly sure of where I was. I wasn’t allowed in the library, clearly, so I wasn’t sure where this exit would lead.

It seemed to lead to a busy street with bustling vendors and shoppers alike. I saw this as my opportunity to use the large crowd as coverage to escape. With Rose presumably trailing behind, I pushed my way through the mass of townspeople and wove in and out of their paths. I kept the hood of my cloak up, but luckily those around us seemed to be too busy to notice me anyway.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I finally reached a vacant side street. As I entered the street, out of breath and full of excitement, I let out a loud laugh. “Phew!” I exclaimed to Rose as I began to catch my breath. “That was close! ”

“Indeed,” came a reply. But it wasn’t Rose. I shifted towards the voice and did not find Rose standing behind me, or anywhere to be seen for that matter. Instead, one of the King’s guards towered over me, and he looked very, very angry. He grabbed my arm before I could get away. “You’re coming with me,” he growled.

I decided not to go kicking and screaming. It would only do more harm than good. The guard – Horus was his name – led me into Rimor Castle along with the rest of his crew. Seven guards in total. Seven . Such an absurd number of men to keep tabs on me. The entire way to the castle, I did not see Rose. I hoped that meant she safely got away with the mysterious book.

As we entered the king’s throne room, Horus gently let go of my arm. Oh, now he wants to be gentle just because we’re around the King , I thought. I rubbed my arm where he had been grabbing me tightly with his heavily scarred hand. The deep scars matched the one he had over his left eye. I didn’t know exactly what caused those scars, but I knew the other guy probably looked worse, if he was even still alive. Horus was a force to be reckoned with.

I gave him a nasty look. He ignored it.

When I looked up, the King sat on his throne with a fierce look in his eyes. I quickly glanced away, his vehement stare making me uncomfortable. He was not a ruthless king by any means, but he was most certainly intimidating. He was Callum, King of Rimor. The Stone King. My father.

“Aurelia.” He used my full name in his brooding tone. I still refused to make eye contact, and I did not respond. “Leave us,” I heard him say to his guards. Or rather, my guards. I watched as the armored men made their way down the large exiting hall, Horus in the lead as always.

I waited in silence for my father to speak again, but he didn’t. A full minute went by, maybe two, and I could feel his intense stare deep in my bones although I didn’t dare look at him. Instead, I scanned the wall of the throne room as if the small cracks in the stone held my attention. It wasn’t until he cleared his throat that I finally turned in his direction.

“ Seven guards, Father?” I spat. “That’s a record.”

“Next time it will be eight,” he replied. His tone was still angry, but less aggressive than it was minutes ago. “If there is a next time.”

My eyes widened. “You mean to keep me trapped in this castle indefinitely?”

“If you keep evading your guards when I let you into the city, yes,” he replied harshly. “They are there for your safety, and I will not have you running off on your own without their security. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you this.”

“I rarely get to go into the city as it is,” I hissed. “I just want to explore my kingdom. See my people. Not be surrounded by so many guards that I can barely even see one foot in front of me.”

My father’s eyes narrowed, and I met his glare with my own. My annoyance was growing larger, and my patience thinner. It was just over ten years ago that my mother, Queen Adelaide, was murdered. Ever since then, my father’s protectiveness had become overbearing.

I didn’t remember much about the event. In fact, even memories of my mother before her death remain hazy. There was so much about her I could recall – the way she looked, the way she smelled, the sound of her voice. But whenever I tried to focus on a single moment I had with her, it was like trying to stare through a fog. I could never figure out why, and my father refused to talk about her with me. I was nine when she was taken from us. That is old enough to have a solid foundation of memories of her, and yet each memory felt like a puzzle with missing pieces. It could have driven a person mad.

What I did remember is how much I loved her. She was loved and cherished by her kingdom, and anyone who had the fortune of meeting her. She had long, honey-gold hair much like my own. Her eyes were an icy blue. Her beauty was unmatched, although many called me her spitting image. I disagreed. No one was nearly as beautiful as my mother.

The day they found her body in the woods between Rimor and Chatus, my father’s life turned upside down. It took another three days for them to find me. It was not the search party but my father himself who found me, unconscious and hidden under intense brush. I was starving, dehydrated, and barely alive. It was a miracle my body didn’t surrender to the elements or that a predator didn’t find me and use me as its next meal.

Those three days were another missing piece of the puzzle I called my childhood. When I awoke the day after being found, I was safe within the stone walls of our castle, and my mother was dead.

Not only did I lose my mother and lose my memories, but I lost a piece of myself. Like something in my soul was supposed to be there, but it was ripped from me. And I couldn’t get it back.

Just before my mother’s death, she and I were on our way to Chatus, our closest neighboring kingdom, for an event. It was a dinner event…I think. All the kings and queens of the Four Kingdoms were to attend. My mother wanted to go a day early to spend time with Queen Lenora, a close friend of hers. I happily tagged along. My father was to meet us there the next morning, so he could attend to a kingly matter at home first. There was a territorial dispute between the Duke of Caelstone and the Duke of Terran, two of our cities. My father was to settle their dispute before a civil war broke out in our own kingdom.

They say our carriage was ambushed by bandits. Our poor driver and the two guards with us also lost their lives. It must have been one hell of a group of bandits. All I remember is my mother grabbing my arm and us sprinting into the woods. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the castle infirmary – weak and hungry, but alive. Unlike my mother.

“What were you doing in the library?” My father’s voice broke through my thoughts. One of the guards must have arrived just before us and told him where I had snuck off to.

“I just wanted to see what books they had,” I lied. I could never tell my father about my recurring dream. He was a straightforward, no-nonsense man. Knowing him, he’d tell me it was a coincidence and to move on, and to not bring it up a second time. I could practically hear him saying those very words.

“We have a library in the castle,” was his blunt reply.

“Our library has nothing but books on history,” I retorted. That wasn’t true either. There were books on gardening, architecture, and other material I found boring. “I wanted something that was actually fun to read,” the lie continued.

I saw my father’s shoulders relax. I walked up towards his throne. A small pillar topped with a bowl of apples stood between his throne and my own chair. I grabbed an apple and sat in my chair, a smaller version of my father’s throne. I often sat here during the King’s meetings, learning the ins and outs of nobility. I was the sole heir of Rimor, after all. I propped my feet up on the side of my throne and my father’s expression deepened. Clearly the elegance and class of being royalty escaped me as soon as no one was around, and it displeased him.

I didn’t care.

I stared at the small cracks in the stone pillar as I bit into my apple. The gray stone matched the color of my father’s beard. Losing the love of his life did not help him gracefully age this last decade. I turned my gaze towards him, finally making eye contact. His deep green eyes mirrored my own, the only thing I seemingly didn’t inherit from my mother. “You know the Rimor library is off limits,” he said in a deep, authoritative voice.

“And you won’t tell me why,” I countered. Another one of my father’s many secrets.

He stood up, which took me by surprise. His tall frame now towered over my not-so-lady-like position. “I have given you enough warnings, Aurelia,” he said, his domineering tone echoing in the large throne room. “You have been caught too many times escaping your escorts in the city.” If only he knew I also snuck out at night on occasion. I would be castle-bound for eternity. “If it happens again,” he continued, “I will be your escort myself.” The thought made my heart stop for a moment.

I quickly stood up to match his energy. “I don’t need seven guards, father.” I wanted him to understand the ridiculousness of it. “And I don’t need to be banned from the library, from the pubs, or from anywhere else. This is my kingdom too!” My voice got sharper and more exasperated. I could never get him to understand.

He paused, and I could recognize the emotion that reached his face. Sorrow. “There are forces out there that you will never understand, daughter. There are terrible people in this world. Some may be within the walls of our own kingdom. I cannot risk losing you.”

We have had this conversation many times before. The guilt would hit me like a punch in the gut every time. He lost his wife. His queen. His soulmate. I was all he had left. But I couldn’t take this way of life much longer. I had felt like a prisoner in my own home for far too long.

I didn’t know what to say. I never do. “I could learn how to protect myself,” I muttered the thought. “Uncle Balor tried to teach me.”

The atmosphere instantly shifted. I quickly became uncomfortable again as my father’s features turned angry. I haven’t mentioned my uncle in quite some time. He was my father’s younger brother, and the only person who understood me after my mother’s death.

Balor was a master swordsman, and General of our armies. At the age of twelve, I begged my uncle to teach me how to fight. I wanted to learn how to protect myself. How to protect others. I did not want to end up like my mother.

When we asked my father, he became outraged. “Under no circumstances are you to teach her a damn thing,” my father barked at his only brother. I had never seen him so angry. “ You know why ,” he added. Those words had stuck with me, but my uncle Balor simply told me he could not elaborate.

After he cooled down, and with a lot of convincing, he agreed to let Balor give me history lessons once a month, and lessons on commanding Rimor’s armies. In reality, Balor was teaching me how to fight. Once a month he would give me an hour lesson in secret. He taught me how to use a sword, a dagger, and to fight hand-to-hand combat. I would spend the following weeks practicing alone in my room at night, eager for the next month’s lesson.

This went on for nearly three years. I became highly proficient, but nowhere near a master like my uncle. With the limited time he had to train me, it would probably take another three years to get to his mastery level.

Then, one awful day, my father barged into one of our lessons. And just like that, we were caught. In a rage, the King banished Balor from Rimor without a second thought. As an exile, my uncle was to never step foot in Rimor again, or face the punishment of death. The sentencing was so harsh, I didn’t speak to my father for six months.

“With the proper training,” I continued, “you wouldn’t have to worry about losing me. I could protect myself.” I didn’t think my father realized how long my lessons with Balor went on for. For all he knew, I only knew the basics.

He took a breath, as though he was trying to choose his next words wisely. “The answer is no,” he said tersely. Before I could form my rebuttal, he turned and walked down the stone steps beneath his throne. “I have business to attend to,” he spoke without looking back at me. “You are not to leave the castle for the rest of the week.”

I stood there in silence. I knew there was no point in arguing. I watched as he exited the main doors, passing the two guards posted just outside of them. I sat back down in my chair, dropped my partially eaten apple on the floor, and put my face in my hands. Minutes went by as I let the conversation replay in my mind. I then heard the creak of the large wooden doors again and looked up to see if my father had returned.

A petite, pale handmaiden shyly walked through the double doors. It was Rose. Her cloak was gone, and her dark brown hair was up in a braid. She did a good job of disguising herself when she met me at the library. Now, she most definitely looked the part of a handmaid. The guards watched her enter and kept the doors open. “Your majesty,” she spoke timidly. I smiled. She would never call me that if it weren’t for the guards watching us.

Excitement flushed through me. I had almost forgotten about the book. “Hello Rose,” I answered in my best regal voice. “Do you happen to still have my favorite comb? I can’t seem to remember where I placed it. I think you had it last.” No such comb existed.

“Of course, Princess,” Rose answered sweetly. “I can show you where I left it.” With her back to the guards, she gave me a wink. I held back a grin and descended the large stone steps towards her. So, she was able to sneak the book in after all. Time to look for some answers.