Thread of Darkness

prologue

Some years ago...

The carriage was stuck in the mud.

Rain lashed down around them, cold as icy whips, and Anna clenched her teeth as they pushed. Her feet sunk into the soft dirt. Next to her, Kane's teeth were gritted; he was a lanky fourteen-year-old, both taller and stronger than her, but he was also scared.

She was angry.

And anger made better fuel.

"Push!" Sophie's words were snatched by the wind. "Push, Anna!"

Anna slammed her shoulder into the carriage, ignoring the throbbing pain. She could hear Henry and Dorian's grunts, hear Celeste's frightened sobbing in the carriage. A whole lifetime worth of memories had been packed into that carriage: a worn baby-blanket; a wedding dress; a golden ring stamped with the family crest...

They took nothing of Rourke's.

Whether that was because Celeste couldn't bear to look at it or because they were worried someone would catch them in the Gongo Islands, Anna didn't know. All of it had been burnt in the back garden.

Just as Rourke would be burnt at a stake tomorrow.

Kane cried out. He went down in the mud, hands scrambling for purchase, brown splattering his cheeks. A broken whimper escaped him.

"Stop it," Anna hissed. "For gods' sake, Flint, you can't afford to fall apart." She hauled him roughly to his feet. "If you want to survive this — if you want your parents to survive this — then you need to get it together."

"I can't." His voice was raw. "I'm scared."

"Good." Anna's heart was thundering. "Use it."

Kane's face hardened. He rammed his shoulder into the carriage, and she gave an almighty push. The wheel popped up. Hands tugged it forward, and then the carriage was sliding to safety, pitching drunkenly down the dirt path.

"We did it," Kane said. "This is it."

He was pale and frightened, his blond hair plastered to his forehead. When Kane looked at her, the cornflower blue of his eyes pierced her heart. Rourke's eyes. Eyes that she would see for the last time tomorrow.

Kane swallowed. "Annie..."

"Don't." Her voice was sharp. "Don't say goodbye."

Her traitorous eyes were stinging, and those words would push her over the edge. She prayed that Kane couldn't see it in the rain.

"Find me," Anna whispered. "When all of this is over, come find me." She touched his cheek lightly. "We'll take back the kingdom for us. For him."

He gripped her hand. "Stay safe, Annie."

"I always do," she said.

Kane jumped into the carriage. She could see a sliver of his face, pale as a waxing moon, staring out the window as the barouche lurched away. She shivered, soaked to the skin, but she didn't go back inside. Not until that pale moon was swallowed up by darkness. Not until the wind stopped howling, the skeleton trees stopped rattling; not until only a thunderous silence remained.