A Requiem of Fire and Ice (Reen x Pandora #1)

Prologue

Pandora Hart

A streak of crimson paints a line across the thick snow.

My mother holds the legs of a deceased woman she was once entertaining downstairs before they argued over Fross Hart.

She appears unfazed by my watchful gaze as she drops the corpse to shovel snow into a heap, continuing until the spade of the shovel strikes grass and soil.

Luna jumps onto my lap as I watch. I smile at the furry creature, and she gazes at me with an expression that can only signify desperate hunger. I scratch behind her ear, and the cat tilts her head to the side and closes her eyes.

Once she’s snuggled on my legs, I lift my gaze away from her to admire the lights. They blink in bright red, blue, and green, illuminating life across the snow and the frozen homes that lie still in the silent night.

My shoulder rests against the window, and hot air escapes from my lungs, steaming the frosted glass.

Lost in the darkness of my mind, I trace a circle around Elden Keep when something captures my attention.

Unlike the lights on icy poles, a smoky orange glow appears above the cold houses.

It burns red, but this red deepens, thickening into black smoke.

As I rise, several things happen at once.

Luna hops off my lap, and someone’s frantic footsteps prompt me to turn away from the window.

Typha rushes into my room, the door slamming against the wall in her panic.

Her bright pink eyes widen with utter fright, and her body trembles as she says, “We need to leave, Pandora!”

Looking away from my sister, I see someone appear in the doorway. Fire licks through the gaps in his fingertips, and the flames swirl into a ball in the palm of his raised hand, ready to be thrown at us.

My hands lift, locking onto Typha’s shoulders.

As the flames grow nearer, up the walls and catching alight on the bedsheets, I drag Typha’s body to the side, and we narrowly miss the flames as we fall to the ground.

The window shatters, raining shards of glass down on us.

A gust of wind follows, and the smoke from outside fills my bedroom with a thick haze.

Luna leaps through the opening, fleeing in a panic at the sound of the stranger creeping into the room. His eyes never leave Typha while another flame bursts in the palm of his hand.

My attention shifts from him to the dagger on my nightstand.

Shit…do I have enough time?