The Rogue Princess: The King's Hunter (Book 2)

Emerson

The ground rumbled beneath my feet. The world was a chaos of hooves and swords. Of neighs and shrieks. Of blood and confusion. Their faces glared down at us as they targeted those who couldn't defend themselves. The women, the children. Only torchlight showed the evil gleam in their eyes, but even then, I knew I'd never forget those faces. They took most of us. But they left me. Even as I shouted the worst insults I could think of, they rode off and left me, in the rubble and blood of my home. My mother, my father, my sisters. All gone. It was a nightmare I would never wake from.

But I did wake. Every night I awoke and remembered. Their voices still echoing. The visions still lingering. And I couldn't save them.

I couldn't go back to sleep after those. So I dragged myself out of the cot and set to work. I wandered around the forge, stoking fires and preparing metal. This was my home now. My work was my life. What else did I have? The forge had to do. And in the back of my mind a spark of hope lit. A hope that maybe my life as a blacksmith's apprentice would prepare me for the life I dreamt of. A life in which I could protect those like my family. And destroy those who committed such crimes. But I doused that spark. Thousands of young men would be hoping for that position and only five would make it. Only five would become the King's Hunters.