Daughter of the Stones

Prologue

Darkness. Overwhelming darkness. The wind howled, tormenting her, snatching her words as she cried out, shouting for her father. Each word was a knife in her chest as she struggled to breathe, to force air into her lungs, but all she could do was gasp in desperation.

‘Please, no,’ she whispered, her hands floundering as she called again into the raging chaos of the storm-tossed night. ‘Help me. Somebody.’

Her knees buckled beneath her and she panted, the breath refusing to enter her body, her chest tight as her heart pounded and tears ran down her cheeks.

‘Not like this,’ she said, her voice harsh. ‘Not alone.’

The ground was sodden, cold, and she floundered in its muddy embrace as she fell.

‘No,’ she murmured.

Then a soft hand began stroking her face, wiping away the tears and rain.

‘Breathe,’ the woman said. ‘Breathe.’

‘How?’ she replied.

‘You are the one,’ the woman said, fading into nothingness. ‘Breathe.’

The final word was a whisper on the cold gust of driving rain before the shadows at the edges of her consciousness claimed her and she knew no more.