Page 1 of The Duplicity of Thieves

Prologue

The abyss is dark, so dark that it goes on forever in a terrifying manner. If you stare at it long enough you can see tendrils from the darkness reaching out to wrap around your throat. It wasn’t always like this. There used to be a peaceful meadow, but now it’s a void that exudes anguish.

There is movement, and I see a woman yanking on the ends of her tiny braids, willing the darkness to move faster. It’s as if I’m in her mind. Her hope is that it devours her, but the relief never comes. Instead, the dark shadows turn into a shape that walks with purpose in every step. When the man steps into the moonlight, her breath hitches.

She forgot how beautiful he is, but I can never clearly see his face, only two shiny black voids where his eyes should be. He towers over the woman’s small mousy frame with his hands in his pockets and murder in his eyes. That vengeful glare darts around before landing back on her, causing her to shiver. She wasn’t sure this day would ever come.

“Who the fuck are you?” His voice is husky, but not in the sexy way. It’s in the way that makes you want to gouge your own eyes out before he does it for you. The woman takes a big swallow, almost choking, like she has swallowed a rock and it’s stuck in her throat.

Last time she found herself in the presence of this force of a man was when she found out what he was made of. She saw what he was willing to sacrifice. Where there used to be a softness to his eyes there is darkness. If there was ever a question about what a monster is, this man now embodies it.

“I’m an old friend.” Her voice is nervous. She wasn’t supposed to be nervous.

“I don’t remember. It’s all dark.” He’s uncertain. She takes that uncertainty and uses it to bolster her confidence.

“Sometimes we forget things when they are painful.” It’s a half-truth.

A menacing smile crosses his face, and black glassy eyes bore into her soul. “Have I gone mad?”

Yes, he has.

She’s stoic. All her nerves are gone. In front of her is a man who has endured, despite what everyone else thinks. “We all do when we feel grief.”

“What do I grieve?” Even though his voice sounds like shredding velvet, she also hears an innocence. The voice of a boy she once knew before the Universe was stolen from him.

“Everything.”

The man smirks, the stars reflecting in those dark opaque orbs that show his tainted soul, and he reaches toward her, taking a braid and rubbing it between his fingers.

“Who took it?”

Was all of this worth the cost? She isn’t sure. Is this Destiny, or did the man before her mold it into what he wanted it to be? Guilt tightens her chest. This is her fault, isn’t it? All of the suffering and death weighs heavy inside of her stomach.

Her words are carried on the breeze. “Me.”

The man sighs as the wind picks up, turning into a whoosh until my ears are filled with bubbling oxygen. I’m off balance, kicking my feet as I’m lifted into a murky abyss. I’m hearing the man’s reply as if I’m underwater. I am underwater.

The current drags me deeper, and I try to claw my way toward the surface where the woman is with the man. Clumps of mud and sand disintegrate between my fingers. I scream for help, but my lungs fill with water. Not water—blood. The iron taste in my mouth is like nectar. The current tosses me one more time before I splash to the surface.

Deep red blood gushes from a waterfall. Beneath the roar I hear stifled sobs. I swim under the curtain toward a woman openly weeping upon a rock ledge. Above her, carved into the rock, is the face of a woman. Blackened vines are tangled around each other, crawling across the stone like hair, and the flowers that must have once thrived are wilted and sagging. Some of the browned petals have fallen to the ground.

My throat is raw from nearly drowning and I cough, attempting to grip the ledge to pull myself out of the water. I want to speak but I can’t. Her head snaps up, and the salty tears that are leaking from her wide innocent eyes shine on her cheeks. My skin burns and my hair sticks to my face in chunks. I reach up, clawing at the rock, and my arm is covered in fresh wounds.

The woman falls to her knees, the hood of her shimmering white cloak with wet black specks falling to the side, and she crawls toward me.

“Please,” she sobs. “I’m sorry!”

Her fingers desperately graze mine, and our eyes connect. I hear it. The sounds of souls crying out is deafening.

“Save us!” they collectively beg.

My fingers slip out of her loose grasp, and I’m going under, being carried away. I’m tossed through rapids and smashed into boulders. When I think I can’t possibly stay on the surface any longer, I’m deposited onto the same shore, gasping for air. Except there’s no more waterfall. If the rock face is there, it’s draped in thorned vines. There is no onyx-eyed man strutting from the shadows. No nervous or crying women. I’m all alone.

Silence descends upon me.

I’m surrounded by a forest. A snap, like someone stepping on a twig, echoes through the meadow. I chase it. My life depends on it; I just know it. My legs carry me as fast as they can, jumping over brush and tripping through debris on the forest floor.

I run, and run, and run until I can’t breathe, and I think my lungs might explode. My heart is pounding so hard it leaps into my throat, and I can feel my chest burning. Sweat crawls down my spine and pours from my face, stinging my eyes as my peripheral vision goes black.

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