CHAPTER 1

Gasping, I hold my right arm close to my body to ease the pain from my dislocated shoulder. It hurts like the two burning suns of Uhna, combined with the large sun of Evander.

Exhaustion beyond the physical presses down with unbearable weight. Corruption climbs in my throat. I struggle for air.

This is it. This is how it ends. I thought I had more time to . . .

My knees buckle. I drop into the mud, crying out from the white-hot agony that jabs into my injured shoulder.

Freezing wind tangles my once-dark crimson hair. The white streak swallowed up most of the dark red, leaving a slight hint of the original color. The wind blows long strands across my face, a few getting stuck in the blood seeping from my eyebrow. Cold cuts through my torn and bloody cloak. A shiver racks my body.

Get up! Get up!

But I can’t muster the energy.

Battle and fire rage around me. The smell of smoke burns my lungs, mixed with scents of blood and dirt.

I am outnumbered.

Get up! Get up! Move! But I can’t.

A malicious and victorious laughter echoes in my mind.

The dark and imposing fortress crashes behind me with an ear-shattering boom.

Screams of pain, anger, and desperation add to the cacophony of chaos. Debris shower around me, burying many where they stand. But it doesn’t stop the Turned. They swarm like sandroaches that flock to the carcasses of the fallen.

With my left hand, I dig into the ground, trying to draw strength from the soil, but my reward is an annoying and insistent buzzing that peppers my mind from hundreds of thousands of points originating deep below the surface.

I sway, trying to block that nagging buzzing.

I am so tired.

“Glenna!” Ragnald roars. “Watch out!”