Page 1 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Prologue

Melody

Jump.

Just jump. Then it’s over.

The icy cold wind cuts from below, deep into my bruised and throbbing skin.

Just one more step and it’s over. You’re almost there. Just one more tiny step.

No more Lyrian. No more being locked away for days. No more beatings. No more threats and a life I cannot bear.

I watch the deep, gray waves waltz below. The impact would shatter my body, I think. The cliff I’m standing on is so high I would just die, the water below like concrete from this height. I hope I won’t feel a thing.

Just one more tiny step. My last resort.

Small rocks come loose under my shoes as I stare down into the beckoning depth, feeling its lure in my bones, in my very blood, like a song.

The abyss always knew my name, even when I was still a small child. Always used to call to me. Like the wind.

Just then a gust comes up.

It whispers around me, telling me about foreign lands and creatures. About emerald forests and lilac woods, of milky turquoise streams, of horses with horns and feathery wings, and of dragons,their scaled hides glimmering like rainbows under the sun. I can almost smell the exotic fragrances, the flowers, the sap of the forests, as if those places truly existed.

I stretch out my arms and lean forward, into the wind. For a moment, I imagine myself having wings. That they catch the breeze as I jump and carry me, not down, but away. Somewhere safe. Somewhere good.

It would be so easy to give in. Easier than to go back. To keep going. To keep fighting. I can feel my body reeling forward, my balance tipping.

I feel myself falling.

At the last moment, I startle back, breathing hard.

Not today. I can give up any other day. But not today. First, I will try to find another way. I will fight some more.

I turn and run back the way I came from, through the crooked, moss-covered willows with their bent branches. I swear the ocean’s call is following me back to the mansion as if some ancient sea-good is disappointed to have been once again cheated out of claiming my soul.

1

Blair

Blair Alariclovesthe human world. She loves ice cream, loves the way it tastes, the colors it comes in, like flowers of the elven forest. She loves their clothing too—the neon-hued sneakers she’s wearing with a skintight plastic dress that flatters her lush body. Face it, even the best dressmakers of Palisandre can’t provide a thing like that.

Oh yes,she fucking loves the way that tight, short-as-sin piece of synthetic silver clings to her in all the right places, showing off her ample cleavage, only to end shy of her navel. Setting off the silver piercing there she got from a shady corner parlor.

The young man inside her seems to love it too, nuzzling her neck from behind, one large hand encircling her nipple, the other grabbing at her waist. He’s pounding into her from behind while he keeps whispering all those terribly filthy things in her ear. He’s so good that she almost tears the washbasin from the wall as a wave of release breaks over her. She has to bite the inside of her cheeks so as not to let the whole club know why exactly the door has been locked for almost thirty minutes now.

A tiny moan escapes him at that. She watches him in the battered mirror. The way he tilts his head back, exposing his throat but not stopping his thrusts, spurring her right towards another climax.Good boy.

He’s probably high as hell right now, judging by the smell ofhis sweat and the way his eyelids flutter. But she doesn’t care. Not her problem.

As long as he fucks like this. Let’s face it, this is the best sex she’s had in weeks. The best sex since…

She hates the fact that she still thinks about the fucking angel every time she orgasms. To hell with that vain bastard Caryan.

Too bad he’s going to kill her the next time she sees him.

Too fucking bad.

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