“Kindest regards, mother,” I said while holding the seer’s stare.
My sword swung before she could respond, sending the seer’s head sailing against the wall before bouncing across the stone floor. The male behind the tapestry in my room’s hidden alcove stepped out, turning to see the moon rise in the middle of the morning.
Moving to where he stood, I pushed my bloodied blade into the sheath on my hip. Outside, the sun had begun to vanish, and in its place, night slowly spread over the land. I swallowed down unease, dropping my stare to the people in the street watching the shroud of midnight settling on the kingdom. I turned, staring at my best friend, who frowned.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked in confusion, his brows drawing together to crease his forehead.
I glared at the people rushing into their cottages, hiding from the night and the plague of darkness, creeping over the mountains toward the castle. I’d done this. I’d craved the ability to touch, taste, and indulge in everything that I’d missed out on when I’d lost my mate.
I’d pay the price. The first thing I had to do was locate where the Sacred Library was hidden and destroy the Book of Life. Afterward, I’d figure out another way that didn’t include my mate reading from a book that would end her life.
“The endless night has begun.” I smiled, staring out over the darkening skies. “Our kingdom will survive it, but others won’t. It’s a gift from my mother. It’s what she craved when she killed my father and ensured that I would never have my mate. My mother thinks she can prevent me from living a life with my true mate as she unleashes her plague and the creatures that live within her darkness. She has underestimated my determination to get what I want.”
Chapter One
Present Day, Alexandria
Carefully, I studied the quiet town below. My lips curled into an uneasy frown as I watched the spread of darkness. Torches burned brightly, yet no sign of life had appeared. We’d been on the cliff for over an hour, standing silently while watching the town for any proof of life. No sounds of merriment came from the usually jovial tavern in the middle of the tiny village, frequented by travelers making their way through the two kingdoms. We’d been in this town a hundred times before and never had the darkness spread through the passes to bathe it in its murderous grasp.
My eyes zeroed in on something that blew across the street, and my heart sank deep into my stomach, tears swimming in my eyes. What I thought to be paper was the husks of the inhabitants of the village. When darkness consumed the light of the living, it spat out a withered husk that looked like leather. Swallowing past the bile as several husks were strewn across the path leading through town, I exhaled.
My team of moon-touched warriors was tasked with retracing the steps of another group who hadn’t checked in or returned in months. My brother, Landon, had been among the party of warriors who had gone to investigate the clues regarding the Sacred Library’s whereabouts. If they discovered it, they’d failed to send word back or to return to the Kingdom of Light.
The Sacred Library was lost when the darkness had first appeared in the world, consuming everything it touched. Soon after, creatures started evolving and receiving powers. The darker the world got, the stronger the Moon Clan’s powers grew, and we began to age into immortality. But so, too, did the Kingdom of Night and the monsters that crawled out from the shadows of the spreading darkness, feasting on those who held inner light.
The Temple of the Moon Goddess had glowed with energy, beckoning those who held her powers into it, and a new era had begun, forming the Order of the Moon. The Order trained and employed an elite group of warriors with powers fed to them by the moon herself.
Each warrior with me had been plucked from their homes at a young age and trained for battle. Most were happy to be chosen, considering the power they held was a blessing. To be selected and taken from your home, guaranteed your family’s protection from the Kingdom of Night and the plague of darkness. Others, like us, found it a curse to be taken from their families and sent off to fight a battle that we’d neither wanted nor craved.
There wasn’t a choice if the moon called you, and no one fought to end the selection process. Most of us were chosen so young that we didn’t remember our homeland or the families we’d left behind. I’d had Landon, but we were brother and sister; both called to serve the moon. Our family was also one that had always serviced. I’d grown up inside the temple and had begun training before I could fully form sentences.
Lately, the Order was keeping secrets, and with the moon sickness passing through the lands, it was growing harder to trust them. The sickness only seemed to affect the moon-touched creatures. It was spreading like wildfire through the Order, so months ago, they’d sent out a large, handpicked group of warriors to search for the Sacred Library. No one knew if it had survived the plague of darkness or had been consumed by it like everything else.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is alive down there,” Amo stated through the mask she wore, her hair covered by the heavy cloak. Our cloaks concealed our identities and protected against the long winter that had started a decade ago on the Badlands border.
“Someone’s alive down there,” I announced, countering her statement. “The torches burn for only a few hours before depleting the oil. Someone lit them recently.”
A loud squeal cut through the air, piercing the night. Turning, I saw Amo hold out her gloved wrist for Scout, the owl she’d trained from an owlet, to land. He was a beautiful, white snow owl with large wings that flapped, creating a soft wind around us as it settled on her arm. Amo clucked her tongue and held out her other hand as Scout dropped the husk into her hand. Passing his bounty off to me, Amo withdrew his treat before allowing him to crawl onto her shoulder to devour the morsel of meat.
My heart clenched as I brought the husk to my nose, recoiling from the scent before peering out over the town. Amo’s throat bobbed, and she turned, locking her gaze with mine. Her head shook slowly before she tried for words, failing. I handed her back the husk to confirm what I’d smelled on the victim’s dried flesh.
“Days or maybe a week since they lived,” Amo said vehemently, her grief turning to rage. “You won’t find anything living down there. Not anyone from the town, at least. Whoever is down there, they’re either immune to the darkness or one of our people pillaging through the dead’s coffers.”
“We’re going through the village either way.” My spine tingled as if eyes were on us, watching. Unease flitted through me, yet I ignored it. “We can’t spare the time to go around the mountains, not and make it to the next town in time to meet up with the others. We need to know what they found. Once we enter the village, if we encounter anyone, we will dismount and sneak around anything present since the horses won’t be able to move quicker than our blades. Plan for an ambush; hope it isn’t one,” I stated, moving back to mount my horse, Chivalry.
The ride down the cliffside was slow and treacherously steep. We didn’t dare enter through the main entrance into the town, knowing whoever was there, watched it for travelers. Under cover of darkness and the cloaks we wore, no one would be able to discern who or what we were. The sliver of the moon offered little magic to fuel our power, which meant if we faced off against an ambush, our skills and training would be used instead of the moon’s magic.