Chapter 1
“What’s your name?” I ask the cute girl, offering a smile that matches hers.
“Anna,” she gushes. “I love all your books. When will the next part of King come?”
I write her name before signing Ash Penny on the title page.
“I’m working on it. Hopefully, soon,” I say as I sign, then look up.
“Maybe by March,” I add with a grin that makes hers widen.
I’m sure Avi will manage to finish this book by March.
“Oh my God, can’t wait for it.” She almost jumps in place with excitement.
I hand her the book. Avi has such sweet fans, and she’s their beloved author.
I’m certain I could never match her energy, but at least they won’t complain about the author canceling another event.
She gave herself a fever by drenching herself in the rain, which is very unusual behavior for her, because no matter how stubborn she is, Avi never acts to deliberately harm herself or others.
It was meant to piss Zo off, and now she’s the one suffering.
I hope she’s feeling better now. I’d left her in a very bad condition in her bed this morning.
The girl takes her book, beaming, and departs.
I stretch back in my chair. I’ve been here four hours, basking in the affection of Avi’s readers and feeling guilty for lying to them.
Avi and I look very similar; we both inherited our looks from our grandma—her father’s mother and my mother’s mother.
Neither of us has a single confirmed image online.
Even though she is a very famous author, no one is permitted to photograph her or take a selfie.
Zo and Leo enforce that rule. That’s why the swap works.
Avi usually comes to her signing events with Zo—her adopted brother and forbidden love.
I’m here with my brother Leo, who is sitting in the cabin in front of me, doing his own work.
I can’t see him, but he can see me all the time.
Zo makes these arrangements, and I’m sure his reasons extend beyond security.
I’ve been seeing him watch Avi with a different kind of look ever since I was a kid.
He began by watching her with affection, but over the last two years, that look has deepened into one laden with longing.
He watches her as if she might vanish if he blinks.
I sigh. How much I wish for such love to find me.
Everyone I know has someone like this. Avi has Zo, Lyn has Leo, Mom has Dad, Grandma has Grandpa, Autumn has Zander.
And I have no hope of finding one for myself.
It’s not as if a man will fall from the sky into Pa’s courtyard, and I haven’t liked a single one I’ve met at family parties.
A girl with braces and a fishtail braid approaches with a grin, pulling me from my thoughts.
I smile back, but before she can see my smile, the lights die—and the earth opens beneath me.
Literally. The floor gives way, and I plummet, chair and all.
A yelp escapes me; shock stills my heart.
In the utter dark, my eyes widen in horror as I clench the chair’s armrests.
The chair hits the ground. I feel the jolt in my spine as the legs strike, though the cushion absorbs the worst of it.
I doubt there are any broken bones. The shock has yet to register properly in my brain when a lighter flickers beside me, lighting the darkness around me.
I snap my head toward the light, and my eyes meet a pair of stormy gray ones.
My lips part to scream, but a cloth is clamped over my mouth. A pungent smell burns my nostrils and throat, and within seconds, my eyes close.
???
“Water.” I force the word out in a whisper, willing my eyes to open.
My head is heavy, my stomach churns, my throat is parched; even swallowing feels like scraping it raw. My fingers are numb from the cold.
I open my eyes and realize I’m lying on a cold, thin mattress in a dark room, the air suffocating, thick with the smell of damp dust and rust. I push myself up on the mattress. Slowly, the fog in my brain clears, and the grim reality registers.
I’m kidnapped. And I’m not in California. California isn’t this cold.
The cold seeps into my bones. My teeth chatter as I pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around myself.
I don’t know why I’m not dead from this cold.
I’m only wearing a long-sleeved blouse with cotton trousers.
My stomach knots tighter from the physical stress.
I want to throw up, but I can’t see anything in this darkness.
“Is—is someone there?”
Silence answers me.
I’m shaking violently now, and I don’t know how much of it is from the cold and how much is from the fear of being in unknown danger.
Who could have kidnapped me?
My brother’s or father’s enemy.
It’s an easy question with a straight answer, but the question of what they will do to me spirals into terrifying scenarios in my mind.
The best they could do is kill me, and the worst is unimaginable—because I have never seen or heard about the worst things that could happen to a person.
I know there are horrors that can drive a human to beg for death, and I don’t want to experience those.
I shut my eyes tight.
Dad will find me.
But what if he can’t reach here before bad things happen to me?
The sound of a door opening wrenches my eyes open. Light pours in from outside. A tall man stands silhouetted in the doorway, the light behind him too bright for my eyes to make out his face.
“Come.”
His voice is accented. He turns away. I can’t place the accent from a single word. I’m grasping for every detail, anything to make sense of this.
I get off the mattress and follow him, barefoot, into a long corridor. There are many rooms on both sides of it.
I can’t process more; the cold is blocking all my senses. I’m barely managing to keep myself walking, shaking and trembling forward. The cold of the floor steals all feeling from my soles. My fingers and toes are blue. I’m on the verge of blacking out.
He climbs the stairs. I manage two steps before I lose the battle with the cold. It seizes control from my brain, and I fall. A sharp pain rips through my muscles before everything goes blank.