A Fate Drawn to Flame (Realm of The Halo #1)

Prologue

Arax

First Dream

It was the still of night. I didn’t know where I was, but whatever this place, it was cold and black as death.

Something ran past me, a shadow in the darkness.

A faint scream trailed after it, telling me to run.

I caught a golden hue coming from behind some kind of structure, and it took me a mere second to discover it was not the rising sun. Everything around me was on fire. Screams broke the silence, and the terror behind them permeated into my soul.

I couldn’t move as a battle took form in front of me.

Ghostly shapes of warriors in armor shouted orders, every single one a faceless body.

It was suddenly bedlam. Other figures came into view, and I let out a soundless gasp.

They stalked forward, bigger… more horrifying.

They swallowed the warriors whole, leaving behind nothing but ash and dust in their wake.

They passed through me, depriving me of hope and filling me with nothing but despair.

The screaming grew louder, more desperate.

I coughed, the air filling with smoke. I looked around, realizing I was surrounded by a ring of fire, trapped in a burning cage.

The figures advanced from behind the flames, closing in…

looming taller. One kicked at a pile of wood, sending the burning mass in my direction.

The smell of scorched flesh took over my senses, and against my will, I looked down.

At my feet lay the twisted remains of a charred body.

I looked up, drowning in fear, and it was a circle of funeral pyres in which I was imprisoned.

I locked eyes with one of the forms and saw it was still moving, its mouth opening and closing, letting out a silent scream as it burned.

The figures were upon me, and I had nowhere to run.

I cowered, certain that here, in the center of this wheel of death, was where I, too, would meet my doom.