We Will Not Burn (The Celestial Queens Book 1)

Prologue

The dawn broke over the horizon in a wave of oranges, reds, and yellows that morning. My mother said it was an omen from the Goddess.

My mother was never wrong.

They came that night. When the sun had finally fallen into its deep slumber and the moon had risen like a phoenix from its ashes. The sky was quiet, and the world paused. It seemed, in that moment, that the entire Earth held its breath.

I heard the screaming before I saw the slaughter.

Tall, faceless, genderless figures cloaked in black, ransacked our village. My mother clamped her hand around my wrist, heaving me away from the massacre. My friends lay beneath my feet, blood dripping from their ever-paling lips. My entire world seemed to slow down. They were too young. Too gentle for such a horrid end.

Why were they doing this?

Fire burned the cottages of our small village and the sound of steel on flesh surrounded us. My mother wept as we ran towards the woods.

And then they took her too.

The sword protruded from her stomach as the cloaked figure ran her through with steel. My mind stilled and I watched my only mother fall to the floor as though she never even existed. I stared at her, willing my own mind to undo the horror that had taken place only moments ago.

A rough hand grabbed my upper arm and dragged me away from her, weakening the ever-present tether that connected every mother to her child.

I was shoved into the back of a carriage like luggage, left to wonder what would become of me as I sat alone. The sound of chaos surrounding me finally began to die out and I thought of my mother, her glassy eyes burned into my memory. Then, I thought of the hundreds of people that were slaughtered that evening and the entire bloodlines lost forever.

They took everything from us.

My heart ached in my chest, breaking softly.

I would never be the same again.