Things had seemed to settle down after the trial was concluded and Vienna was allowed to return home.

  She should have suspected something like this would happen instead.

  Vienna had been on a walk trying to rekindle the friendship between her and Frey and his children.

  They had started doing their walks every time she’d come home from the Academy and it felt like things were almost better again.

  The trees suddenly whispered of incoming dangers.

  “Frey, the children…” He had just blocked them when a dagger sunk into his shoulder.

  Vienna let out a yell trying to rush forward only to be grabbed from behind.

  A strong herb-smelling cloth was placed over her mouth and as she tried to struggle from the hold around her she felt as if her energy was sapped away and she went limp.

  When she woke it was dark, it took her a moment or two to realize her eyes were covered. Then suddenly the cloth was torn away from her eyes. Blinking in the direct light from a torch nearby, Vienna tried to take stock of her surroundings.

  Big blue eyes were the first thing that registered, a sneer upon pouting lips and golden hair fell forward as Adeena Nesrin looked down at Vienna Thorne. Her eyes shone with an eerie light. A knife glinted as Adeena ran it over Vienna’s cheek, a gleeful smile on her lips but her eyes still were just not right. It was as if all sense had left her only leaving behind a madness.

  Vienna began to fear, not just for her life but for others. She could not forget the warnings of the Caretakers.

  To die a violent death would not just mean the end of a Starlight Soul but the timeline they resided. The only one to break the rules was the Starlight Soul that came before her in this timeline. She had martyred herself so that others might live.

  Despite the situation before her Vienna couldn’t quite resolve in her heart to make such a sacrifice yet, not before she tried to reason with her captors. She had to warn them, not just for herself but for everyone.

  She made sounds behind the gag in her mouth and Adeena frowned.

  “I just want you to be silent for once.”

  Perhaps it was the panic in her eyes, or the look of pleading but Adeena hesitated knife at Vienna’s throat.

  “Why are you hesitating?” A voice came from the mouth of the cave.

  Vienna’s eyes narrowed as she saw none other than shadow knight, Killian, step into the light. There wasn’t much she knew about him, except perhaps that he was self-serving. He wouldn’t wish to die. Adeena might be harder to convince but if Vienna could convince Killian perhaps…just perhaps things could work out for the better.

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  “I think I’d like to hear her beg.” Adeena grinned before taking the gag from Vienna’s mouth.

  “Suit yourself.” Killian leaned against the rock wall and watched with an almost bored look, something Vienna knew was dangerous.

  Killian could become lethal when bored.

  Vienna disregarded the knife at her throat and spoke directly to Killian, “You can’t let her do this. Not if you wish to live.”

  His grin was sharp but he laid his head against the wall behind him, “Shouldn’t you be pleading the girl with the blade at your throat?”

  “Have you ever heard of a Starlight Soul?”

  Killian didn’t answer but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

  “A thing of mere legend,” Adeena mumbled.

  “We bleed starlight. When we die violent deaths, the timeline we live in dissolves around us.”

  Vienna watched Killian lean forward his voice in an undertone, “We?”

  “There was another like me, she died long ago but not at the hands of others.”

  Adeena scoffed and the blade dug into Vienna’s neck, “Beg me to live.”

  Vienna turned her gaze toward Adeena, “I told you once I wasn’t the Vienna that you remember. I’m a Starlight Soul and if you kill me now there will be no third chances. This timeline will cease to exist, and you along with it.”

  Adeena was pulled away, along with the blade, a trickle of sparkling red the only thing left behind as evidence on Vienna’s neck.

  Vienna would live, she was alive for now.

  Later as she saw Adeena drift off to sleep, Vienna’s eyes lifted to see Killian step over her before leaning down and yanking Vienna up from her bonds behind her.

  A voice in an undertone spoke, “Any other rules I should know about?”

  “We mustn’t be taken advantage of, in any way. Or…”

  “The timeline will implode?”

  Vienna nodded.

  “That severely limits my options, now doesn’t it.” His gaze narrowed before lifting her into his arms and stepping over the oddly slumbering Adeena. As if he caught her curious gaze, “Just a sprinkle of a herb and she’s fast asleep, not much of a villain.”

  “And you Killian, are you a villain?”

  He chuckled low, “It depends on the day.”

  “What will you tell her?”

  He gazed at her with an arrogant eye, “What do I have to explain she was just a toy to play with…she no longer suits my tastes.”

  A bad feeling rose in Vienna’s gut.

  They hadn’t gone very far through the forest when Vienna sensed her Pop was near.

  She would need to keep Killian distracted.

  It was also then a scream of rage echoed through the forest.

  “It seems she’s awake.” Killian grinned.

  They hadn’t been quick enough through the forest, almost as if Killian had been biding his time. Almost as if he planned for one last showdown, to entertain him.

  Her father came into the clearing, his gaze stormy as he gazed at Killian who held Vienna tightly in his arms. The trees surrounding began to tremble with emotion as Pop spoke, “Give me my daughter, Killian.”

  “I think not.”

  Vienna didn’t have to look at him to know he was grinning.

  Adeena ran into the clearing, her knife at her side. She ran forward with it raised in the air and Killian watched with a grin, obviously a plan in his mind.

  The next moments seemed to happen far too quickly, her Pop shoved Killian out of the way but he had no time to get out of the way of the blade.

  “No! Pop!”

  Still, he stood, not wavering until out of nowhere an arrow shot him in the back.

  Killian dropped Vienna by her father’s side as the trees began to tremble something fierce. Vienna’s tears fell down her cheeks as she saw her father fall to his knees.

  “I’ll be alright, little flower.”

  Vienna couldn’t bear to see him in pain, even as she felt his waves of reassurance as he shifted painfully and undid her binds. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched as none other than Adeena’s father stepped into the clearing the ill-fated bow in his hands.

  “Must I clean up all your messes, daughter?”

  As he notched another arrow he failed to see how the forest had become alive around him.

  Vienna closed her eyes and she wished. She spoke the language of trees in her mind, calling for her companions from a time ago. ‘Please I need you. We need you.’

  The ground shook beneath them and out from the forest shot out creatures seemingly made of foilage and bark, but with wings, teeth, and sharp claws that grasped onto the would-be archer taking him up in the air away from their kin.

  Adeena’s voice barely came through the foilage rustling and the wind, “What are you?”

  Vienna looked up with a face wet with tears, her teeth clenching and a sad smile upon her lips, “You only ask this now? How foolish.”

  Vienna gazed upon her father’s wounds and looked him in the eye, “We’ll get through this, Pop.”

  His gaze was gentle, even as it drifted shut.

  “Always, little flower.”