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PROLOGUE

On the shield, one of seven forged in the tile drop of blood

So the shield weakened, and the dark, spider-patient, waited as the decades passed, and the wound spread under the grass and ground

And on the last day of what had been, a good man, in all innocence, broke the shield open The dark rewarded him with deadly infection, one that would pass froer

While the dying world reeled, its fray, laws, transportation, communication—crumbled like bricks of dust

The world ended with bangs and whimpers, with blood and pain, with fear and dread A cashier handing change to a custo hands over a deal—these and so many simple contacts spread death like a poisoned cloud over the world

And billions fell

They called it the Doom—for so it was—a murderously speedy sickness with no cure that killed villains and innocents, statesed and the penniless with equal glee

While billions died, those who survived—the iled to live one ht have, to escape and evade the unchecked violence unleashed For soe, rape, kill for the sheer pleasure of it

Through the poisonous cloud that enveloped the world, light sparked Darkness pulsed Powers, long dorh choices made But they bloomed

Magicks began to hum

Some embraced the wonders while some feared them And some hated

The other, the not-like-me, would always spark hate in some hearts What came to be known as the Uncanny faced the fear and hate of those who hunted theht to sweep them up, imprison them, experiment on them

Magickals hid frood to torture and destroy, frootry like a lover

And froainst those who bloomed dark

On a storht sparked at the ood man’s death drew her first breath She cale, frorief

With that loosed cry of life, ahands of the man who held her, the warrior, the leader, The One took her first step toward destiny

Magicks began to beat

In the years that folloars raged between ht to survive and build and those who sought to destroy and rule the rubble

The child grew, as did her powers With her training, her irl full of faith and wonder reached into the fire and took up the sword and the shield And became The One

Magicks began to rise

CHAPTER ONE

A stored It crashed around her ild, hipped rain, sizzling strikes of lightning, bellowing booer she knew must be suppressed

She would bring death tonight, by her sword, by her power, by her orders Every drop of blood shed would be on her hands—that was the weight of command, and accepted

She was not yet twenty

Fallon Swift touched her fingers to the cuff she wore on her wrist, one she’d conjured from a tree she’d destroyed out of teer

It said: Solas don Saol

Light for Life

She would bring death tonight, she thought again, but she would help others live

Through the storm she studied the compound Mallick, her teacher, had taken her to one sih on her fourteenth birthday But while that one had been deserted, with only the stink of blackcries of the tortured left, this one held hty personnel, and three hundred and thirty-two prisoners

Forty-seven of those prisoners were, according to their intel, under the age of twelve

She had every inch of the compound—the containment center—every room, every hallway, camera, alarm, in her head She’dthis rescue

It would be, in the three years since she’d begun to raise her army, since she and her faest rescue attempt by her resistance forces

If she failed

A hand gripped her shoulder, steadied her as it always had She turned her head, looked at her father

“We’ve got this,” Simon told her

She let out a breath “Bespelling the surveillance cameras,” she murmured, and relayed that to the elves mind to mind so they’d pass the word

Now those at security round

“Take down the alarms”

She and other witches worked the spell, painstakingly, while the storm blew

When the all clear ran through the ranks, she ignored the pang, gave the order “Archers, go”

The guard towers had to be taken out, swift and silent She felt Tonia, lead archer, friend, blood of her blood, nock an arrow, release

With eyes gray and focused, she watched arrows strike, men fall, in the towers on the four corners of the prison walls

Moving in, she took the electronic gates, using power to disar, elves scaled the walls and fences, shifters leaped, tooth and claw, faeries glided with a whisper of wings

Tiht as she spoke to the elf commander Flynn, to Tonia in her mind They would breach the three doors simultaneously, and each team leader would focus their troops on priorities Destroy communications, eliminate security, take the armory, secure the lab Above all, shield all prisoners

After one last glance at her father, seeing the courage and deterave the order

Drawing her sword, she blew the locks on the ed in, blew the secondary doors open

Part of her mind overlaid the noith the prison on Hatteras, the visions she’d stirred there at fourteen So much the same