Prologue

Pain.

It came hot and sharp, like a shockwave to the body. 

The little girl screamed as she fell to the ground, her face stinging from the claw attack on her face. Then she turned, true fear licking at her insides as she sighted the scary man fast advancing on her. 

Quickly, she scrambled back on shaky hands and feet, her vision blurring with the blood gushing over it. In that moment she wished she had stayed in hiding like her parents warned her to. 

At first, she had obeyed, but then her friend got in trouble and she couldn’t watch The Fae Fox kill him. 

Not when she liked him so much. 

The Fae Fox was a scary man and it wasn’t because he was unusally tall, with long slender arms that ended in sharp talons. Neither was it because of the sharp fangs gleaming in the moonlight. 

No. It was because of his one eye. 

Red like a blazing ember, there was something truly sinister in the way he looked at her. 

There had been rumors that as a were-fox, he liked to eat children and as her back reached a wall, with nowhere else for her to turn, the little girl quaked with sobs at the thought of being eaten.

Suddenly, something blocked her vision or rather…someone. 

It was a tall woman, dressed in black leather with a long sword protruding from her talon-like hands. 

“How dare you touch my daughter?!” She snarled, earning a chuckle in return from the Fae Fox. 

It was a sound that would haunt the little girl for years to come. 

Raising the bloody hand which he used to claw the little girl’s face, he brought a talon to his mouth and licked it clean. Then he closed his eyes and hummed in satisfaction.

“Why shouldn't I when she tastes so sweet?” His nasal voice drawled, then he took a whiff of the air before humming satisfactorily. “I can smell her fear.” He said with vigor, his tone carrying a sharp edge. “I bet her flesh is tender with it!”

The girl’s mother was swift, swinging her sword with expertise. At first, a glimmer of hope had settled in the little girl, like a light making her fear scurry into dark corners. Her mother was said to have never lost a fight but the Fae Fox was fast, dodging her deadly arcs with fluid grace.

When the girl heard him laugh, like he was having fun, fear once again settled, snuffing out the hope she once had. Monsters weren’t supposed to laugh when her mother dealt with them. They usually feared her and ran away from her. 

With rapt attention, the little girl watched as her mother fought with all her strength and when things got intense, she channeled her wolf, sending it out of her like a spirit. Her wolf, golden in aura, lunged for the Fae Fox, biting and wounding him while he engaged in combat with her. 

Now the Fae Fox wasn’t laughing anymore. He looked extremely annoyed and when the girl’s mother sliced his side, creating a huge gash, the little girl got to her feet, hope once again rising. 

Of course, she knew her mother would never lose….

Or so she thought. 

The Fae Fox fell to his knees clutching his side and just when the wolf lunged for the kill, The Fae Fox brought out a knife from nowhere, lunging it into the spirit-like animal. 

Instantly, it vanished into smoke and the girl’s mother screamed in agony. 

The little girl had been taught in school that when your spirit animal dies, you feel inexplicable pain, like your spirit had been ripped in half.  

In anger, the little girl’s mother raised her sword to finish him off, but he moved with lightning speed, clawing her stomach. 

The little girl’s heart pounded painfully as she watched her mother stumble forward with a groan, her sword falling from her hand. She wanted to run to her mother but the latter raised a bloody hand to stop her.

With terror running hot in her veins, the little girl watched the Fae Fox grab her mother’s long auburn hair, and pull her head back.

“Look away, River!” Her mother yelled, her voice on the edge of tears, but the girl was paralyzed, her body stuck in time. 

The Fae Fox’s eye narrowed with a smirk, swiftly clawing her throat and that’s when River flinched. 

The impossible had happened.

Her mother had lost. 

Blood sputtered from her mother’s mouth and throat as she raised a finger and pointed at River. Then she whispered, "Må min sjel beskytte deg" and before River could understand, a blinding light emanated from her finger and shot straight into River’s chest, sending her flying backwards into the wall. 

By the time she blinked her eyes open, it was raining, and the Fae Fox was lowered on his haunches, watching her while her mother laid lifeless in the distance. 

Too tired to move, she watched him, her fear morphing into hatred. Then someone familiar and far away began to call her name. Someone who sounded like her father.

The Fae Fox smiled and leaned forward. “You’re different now and I hate that I can’t touch you.” He said, his voice barely audible in the rain. “One day, you will find me, to avenge your mother. I can see it in your eyes and I will be waiting for you.” He rose to his feet, his frame blocking out the moonlight. “But you better be tougher than your mother or I swear by the cursed gods, I will surely give you a fate worse than hers.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving behind a girl with a permanent scar and a changed destiny.