• PROLOGUE

    The air was so thick with the scent of blood it made my head spin. Although I’d been in so many situations like this, this was so much more different than anything I’d ever been in. The sky was dim and dark but I knew that it wasn’t even noon yet. The Gods did not shine on us today.

    This war was different. Bright Splendia’s own allies, Gleaming Coast, had double-crossed us and there was no hope that we could win. I stood alongside my brother, Sham, hoping that he had a plan like he always did but he stood coldly and bitterly, knowing that this was certain defeat. I looked at the sky.

    “This is it. This is the end for Bright Splendia,” Sham said quietly under his breath. He turned and looked at me in pure hatred. I shuddered at the look in his eyes. Sham, my loving, caring, kind and warm-hearted brother hated me.

    “I hope you said a proper goodbye to that damn Princess, Lucas,” Sham whispered to me as he pulled his sword out from his belt. His blue eyes were cold as he looked at me that I didn’t even recognize him anymore.

    Sham raised his sword to the sky and our whole army armed themselves, ready for what was coming, ready for death.

    “For Queen Lucia, for Princess Lorien, for Bright Splendia!” Sham yelled, thrusting his sword into the sky as the whole army behind us ran forward with pride.

    “For father,” I whispered under my breath and ran forward with the rest of my fellow soldiers. While the wind flew through my light brown hair, I lost all sense of fear. The only thing on my mind was death. Not my death, the death of those who fight us now, the death of Gleaming Coast.

    Through every second of the fight, there was an enemy on my back. With every slash of the sword in my hand, with every body that fell dead before me, I grew stronger, I felt stronger, I was stronger.

    The last minute of that fight that I remember was my brother calling my name and a sharp and unbearable pain pulsing through my back, like someone had pierced a sword through me.