Prologue

FIVE YEARS PREVIOUSLY

D eath comes in many forms.

Death can be the creeping cold of a winter’s night when you have no home to keep you warm. Death can be slow starvation, each day leaving you weaker and weaker until you’re simply too hollow to go on. Death can be a violent monster, a familiar face you once loved that masked something truly evil.

And death can come from a single mistake.

Feet pounding against the pavement, running as fast as she could, Vee knew she was going to die. Her breaths came in ragged gasps as she pushed herself to go even faster, praying to any deity who might be listening for an extra burst of speed. It didn’t matter that her heart felt like it might explode, didn’t matter that her leg muscles burned so much she thought they might give out at any second; they had no choice but to run.

Run or die.

Jayce was slowing down already. Barely nine years old, he was even younger than Vee, and his short legs couldn’t keep up. Maybe if he hadn’t spent so many years surviving off scraps and stolen food, he wouldn’t have been so stunted. Maybe then he could have kept up with her. But there wasn’t ever enough to go around. Even with Vee sharing what she could, it was never enough. It wasn’t his fault…

Even if he was the reason that they got caught.

“Come on, Jayce!” Vee shrieked at him, looking back over her shoulder to see him struggling. The men were coming, closing in behind them. She could hear their shouts, hear their feet heavy on the gravel. They were so close now. Too close. “Hurry up!”

The extra two years she had on him were enough. Still a kid, sure, but Vee’s legs were long and built for running. If she were alone, she could have escaped them easily. If she were alone, they never would have gotten caught stealing.

Behind her, Jayce’s foot hit a rock at the wrong angle, and he stumbled, his ankle twisting as he fell forward with a pained howl.

No, no, no , Vee thought, panicked, skidding to a stop, eyes locked on the entrance of the alley behind them. She rushed back, grabbing Jayce’s arm and hauling him upright, but it was too late.

Three men rounded the corner, looking nowhere near as winded as Vee and Jayce were. Of course not. They were plump, pampered with food and excess while she and Jayce were barely keeping themselves alive. Vee pulled on Jayce’s arm, trying to pull him to his feet, but his ankle twisted again, and he fell back to the ground with a grunt.

“There you are, you little thieves,” one of the men shouted, advancing. Males from the Witch faction weren’t nearly as scary as real Witches, but you didn’t need to have power over the elements to hurt someone. You didn’t need to control Earth or Air or Fire or Water to break someone’s neck.

Her mouth dry with fear, Vee tried one last time to get Jayce to stand, but already knew it was a lost cause. It was too late now, anyway. The men were already here, surrounding them. They’d lost their chance to escape.

She could still run. Should run. She knew the streets of the Eternal City like the back of her hand. She could easily lose them if she ran now. Jayce was the one who’d gotten them caught, Jayce was the one who’d messed up picking a Witch’s pocket, whose hands hadn’t been quick or skilled enough to stop him from getting noticed. She could leave him here to deal with the consequences on his own .

That was the first rule in their little gang of strays: Don’t get caught. But Jayce swore he’d been practicing, swore he was ready. And everything had been going so well until…

Too late. Too late to run now, even if she were to abandon him. Still gasping for air, Vee realized she had waited too long to decide. She and Jayce would take the fall for his mistake together.

One man reached out and grabbed Vee by her hair, pulling her away from Jayce hard enough to hurt. She shrieked, kicking out at them, but he just laughed. Laughed like she was nothing. Laughed as she swung her arms and kicked, her fists and feet hitting nothing but air. Laughed at how small she was, how weak she was.

She was nothing to them. They were nothing. Just two kids no one cared about. And now no one was going to stop these men from exacting whatever punishment they saw fit.

Jayce didn’t look at them as they approached. He looked at Vee, terror in his eyes. Young. He was so young. He knew what would come next. He knew they would hurt him.

Help , his eyes pleaded. Help me, please.

Vee fought and struggled, spitting and cursing as she thrashed, but the man holding her just shook her by the hair, and it hurt so badly she screamed. She was too small and too skinny to do anything to them. Jayce needed her help, needed her to protect him, but she was just as malnourished and helpless as he was.

“Where’s my coin purse, you little shit?” the man asked, advancing toward where Jayce lay on the ground. Jayce tried to scramble away but was quickly pushed back down to the pavement.

They wouldn’t find the coin purse, not on Jayce anyway. Vee had dropped everything they’d managed to pickpocket that day as soon as they’d been caught. She’d abandoned it all in an alley trashcan where another one of their gang could find it. Jayce’s brother had taught them that little trick. That way, if you ever get caught, you don’t have the evidence on you. But more importantly, the gang still gets the money. Even if you don’t come back alive, at least they’ll get to eat.

Jayce’s brother had been clever like that. But clever wasn’t enough to keep you alive in their world. Clever didn’t stop Jayce’s brother from getting caught one too many times. Didn’t stop him from being beaten to death in an alley just like this one after he broke their first, most important rule.

Don’t get caught.

“He doesn’t have it!” Vee shouted at them, knowing it was futile. They wouldn’t listen, not to her.

Jayce screamed when the first kick landed. It caught him in the chest, right against his ribs. He screamed again when the next kick hit the small of his back.

These men would kill him, just like the men who killed Jayce’s brother, Vee knew. Kill him and get away with it because no one cared about kids like them. No one cared about poor scavengers just trying to steal enough to stay alive in this city. No one cared about the forgotten strays. These men were rich. They wore high-quality clothes of the upper-class, of the Witch nobility. The Queen didn’t care what men like them did, so long as they kept paying their tithes to the crown.

It wasn’t fair. The few silver coins they’d get from all their work today meant nothing to men like this. But that money could keep their whole gang of strays alive for a few more weeks. It wasn’t fair that they wouldn’t share it.

Jayce tried to block the third kick, his arms coming up to defend himself, and there was a sickening crack as a bone broke. Jayce screamed so loud it sounded like his throat might break.

The entire world came to a stop when Vee heard that sound.

Jayce was like a little brother to her. She’d promised to protect him and keep him safe. She snuck him extra food for years. She’d held him when he cried over his brother’s death. He looked to her for protection, and she was failing him. Vee was letting these men beat him to death right in front of her.

Something was roiling inside her, something bright and hot, like a fever. It pulsed and grew, and grew, and grew, until Vee couldn’t feel anything but this glowing energy inside herself.

“ STOP !” she yelled, as loud as she could, louder even than Jayce’s screaming. Loud enough that it echoed all around her.

And they did. All three men stopped in an instant. Frozen in place, like statues.

Ba bump .

Ba bump.

Ba bump.

How strange. Vee noticed a new sound all around her. A sound inside of her. No… not just one sound. Four sounds, four distinct heartbeats, entangled with her own. She cocked her head to the side and listened to it, marveling at how interweaved it was with that light suddenly burning inside her.

Ba bump.

Ba bump.

The hand that held her hair was limp now and Vee scrambled out of that grip, looking at the surrounding men in shock. Her scalp throbbed where he’d held her.

They were all completely still, as though stuck in that singular moment of time. Only their eyes moved, wide and full of terror.

Terrified… of her.

Ba bump.

Ba bump.

“Jayce,” Vee whispered, scared that if she were too loud, she might break this spell, might shatter whatever magic was causing this. “Jayce, come here.”

He did, scrambling to his feet and retreating behind her, away from the men. She could feel him, too, could feel the beat of his heart, the pulse of his blood in his veins. She could feel his thoughts, distant and foreign. Fear, yes, but now something else. Relief. Hope.

I wonder…

Vee reached her hand out, closer to that pulse, the energy coming from these men. Reached and pulled , drawing that energy to her.

“It’s okay, Jayce,” she told him as the men screamed. “It’s okay. They can’t hurt you anymore.”

Bones cracked and shattered as the men contorted, and Vee watched in fascination as their bodies twisted and bent. That pulse inside them responded to her whims, as pliable as a hot wire.

“We’re safe, Jayce,” she said, a smile twisting across her face as power surged inside of her. “No one can hurt us anymore.”