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Prologue

Greer - age 9

I got sick ondown, the harsh ss The bite onit as I listened for sounds Socouldn’t find ain

Oh, God Oh, God Please

Move as I eased a look behind the tree that hidhad chased, I was up, running again as fast as I could I found another tree and I hugged it

It was all quiet

Too quiet, I closed ht after shooting a harsh sense of fear inside , the yelp the same

More rustling and movement in the leaves beneathits security to find two local boys They were hunkered over so, and both were faht-colored eyes liked to play with the master of the house my mom cleaned and cooked for His na, his hands white and knuckled over fur

They no longer knuckled as I got closer, no longer needed The thing below hi up at the other boy there He was the randfather, only a couple years older than me and the boss of my e until I met him, moved into his house with my mom

A twig snapped under azed up at h I knew them to be brown I stared at hiry, always angry A sweep of dark hair breezed across his forehead, shielding eyes that bored into er descended my way, dark eyebrows above like storm clouds

Knight Reed wet his lips, a rock raised above his head Frozen, he stared at round below hi away, Royal put space between hiht hadn’tme, and closer now, I sahat he hovered over Before I hadat the anied, and I had alanted to free him

That was until he’d started chasing me

Black and crea lay dead now, its head s out of its scull like soup I’d never seen real insides before that, not even on TV, and Knight Reed hovered over it all, raging and breathy with a rock I kneas covered in blood It leaked froht only dropped it when I slaain