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Prologue

"Get it back!" The king grew frustrated, shouting at the prisoner The king had forgotten his poise; he had forgotten the rest of the kingdoan to sweat and a purplish, blue vein bulged froerous spike in the teic swirled around the prisoner, choking off his supply of oxygen

"No," the boy, just seventeen, replied sinition and his ar aardly lower than the other The s the king beyond what his stubborn disobedience could have ever hoped to acco yelled into the face of the defiant prisoner

The boy was exhausted, both physically and mentally He had been tortured, beaten and abused repeatedly, but always just to the brink of death, never beyond He longed for death, that sweet relief, the peaceful afterlife, the great beyond that would end his suffering and finally offer silent rest

He stayed silent now, even as his king yelled at hiuards beat him He did not speak He did not cry out His bloodied body and broken bones the only friends he had left, the only reed beyond this cell, this four-walled prison of insanity And of why he would never give up

"Enough," the king ordered quietly, and the guard took a step back, dropping the strong arain "This is dangerous, this ga child, hundreds of years his inferior The boy did not look at hi down to his chest, lolling with the effort to keep fro into unconsciousness

"But worth it," the boy spat in a hoarse and pained whisper

"Is it?" The king couldn’t help but laugh, the child reant, confident, sure of his cause But that old man had perished at his own hands and this child would follow the same fate "Will it be worth it e find her? When we take the runted his conteled to hold his head higher, to sit up straighter How dare this evil tyrant refer to her

"Ah, now I have your attention" The king’s lips turned upwards in the snarl of an evil man His eyes darkened and narrowed to oht words, the right incentive "She is being hunted as we speak; it will not be long before we find her Get the ic back from her and ill leave her alone She can live out her life; she can be free fro, I will pursue her no longer Just get it back"

The sound that pierced the da The deep, authentic laughteraround The small prison cell reverberated in the sound of a child not fooled by empty threats or wasted efforts

And then suddenly, the laughter stopped, the boys head raised and he stared into the eyes of his king with the passion of aout eternity in the splendor of a victory already won "You are the ones being hunted!" He screah the stone walls of his prison cell, reaching beyond the depths of the pit they had thrown hi the truth in every ear that could hear "She will be the one to find you, not the other way around Your reign is over, the countdown clock has begun You are the hunted," he finished quietly, with stone cold resolve

"Reuards with cruel intention "Reic, that his life has been left to my will and that I will treat it as

such" He took off his black, leather, work-gloves with an air of disgust and dropped theet what he wanted; it was only a matter of tinificant child that had been abandoned and left withoutNo, the child’s resolve would weaken, his courage would dissipate and his faith in the lost girl would diminish It was only athe door to the horrified screa No, it would not be long Not long at all

----

The girl woke screa into the darkness, her body drenched in cold sweat and her hands treht pain that would not quit

And the ive up He would not stop

But already the drearay void between consciousness and the sleep state She tried to grasp on to it, tried to keep the es were not even memories anymore, just a fuzzy idea that reminded her she was alone

Completely alone

Chapter One

"Where will you go?" Angelica asked quietly froic as she approached, but refused to turn around and greet her

I focused on ht I would need and trying to keep the bag as light as possible I had a long journey ahead of s that weren’t absolute necessities

But that wasn’t why I refused to turn around and greet the old worandfather had been murdered, my brother stolen for evil intentions and my friends captured in the name of a depraved justice After innocent blood was shed and my life ripped into hopeless shreds of ive me a place to stay and helpinhale of oxygen, closing ether to steady thehts had become my constant coerous, the burning passion to find justice for those that I loved teetered too closely to the depths of despair that threatened to shole