Page 1 of Broken Fate
Chapter One
Fourteen Years Earlier
“Jada, that’s far enough!” Lanna called, her words tugged and pulled apart by the wind as it swirled across the icy landscape. “Come back now. The river isn’t fully frozen yet.”
“Calli-Catch. Calli-Catch.”
“Jada!”
“Can’t. See. Me.”
“I mean it. Come back here. You can’t go too far onto the ice, Jada!”
“Calli-Catch. Calli-Catch.”
Jada skipped across the ice, silver hair flowing wild, blending with the snow as she sang the ancient rhyme.
“Now. I’m. Free!”
Watching as her sister hit the end and turned around—the game ensured it happened on a bounce—Lanna crossed her arms and glared, trying to hold in her frustration at being put in charge of her kid sister. She was eleven now. She wanted to do her own thing!
“Jada. Now. Off the ice.”
“I can’t stop,” Jada called back. “If I do, I’ll be a Calli!”
Lanna rolled her eyes. How could her sister still believe such childish nonsense at seven years old?She’dbeen over it by that age. She was sure of it.
“The Callis aren’t real! They’re just bogeymen. A silly, made-up story that isn’t real.”
“Are, too!” Jada called back as she started her way back, bouncing on one leg or two, depending on what was called.
“Calli-Catch. Calli-Catch.”
“Come.On!”
“Watch. Them. Flee!”
Jada landed triumphantly with two feet back where she had started, just as the game called for. She looked up at her sister for approval.
CRACK!
“Jada!”Lanna screamed as the ice started to buckle under her little sister.
“Lanna?” Jada called nervously, not moving.
“Get down,” Lanna ordered from the shore, searching her memory for what to do. She had to be the big sister. Jada was looking to her for guidance. However, that didn’t stop her stomach from churning like the river in springtime. “On your stomach. Spread your arms and legs out, and don’t move, okay?”
“O-Okay,” Jada said, her tiny hands shaking as she did as she was told, the ice continuing to creak and groan under her tiny frame.
Lanna looked around frantically for something she could use to get her sister. A rope. A branch. Something to stick out onto the icy waters of the Arcad River. But there was nothing.
CRRAACKKK.
“Lanna!” Jada shrieked. She started to get up.
“Stay down!”
Jada lay back down, doing exactly as her sister told her.
