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The rocks opened up almost immediately into a cave. Ocon was pressed against the side wall, watching out the crack with wide eyes.

Sofia turned, raising her bow in time to see a large russet wolf jump at the opening they had just slipped through. With practiced movements she shot two arrows directly into its neck. It gave a yelp and a small whimper before it collapsed back, still.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Ocon chanted behind her, looking out over her shoulder. “Is it dead? Are there others? Should we keep running?”

Sofia turned, opening her mouth in an attempt to answer, but all that came out was a wheeze and a gasp. The band around her chest tightened and her knees gave out. She fell forward, Ocon’s arms coming out to catch her before she hit the stone floor of the cave.

SOFIA

AGE 13

The day the prince saw the village girl for the first time, he didn’t fall in love with her. Because although her eyes were the color of the sky and her hair shone like honey, she was covered in mud and dressed in rags. He barely glanced at her even as she brought him water to slake his thirst from his walk and offered him bread. And when he left the village an hour later, he didn’t think of her again. At least not until much later.

-The Raven Prince by Emilio Laurn

Sofia ran into Gabriel the first time quite literally. She’d been running late for work, having taken the long way from the slums to the chief commander’s manor. There had been a raid going on at one of the houses a block from her own. It seemed that someone had been using forbidden magic to heal the locals under the king’s nose. Sofia paused at the end of the street long enough to see a woman she vaguely recognized being dragged from her home, already in cuffs, blood leaking from a wound on her head. The soldiers carried out the boy she’d been trying to heal next. They wrapped him in a blanket to avoid touching him, but the blue tint of his skin made it clear he had scalepox and he wouldn’t last for much longer.

The king in all his wisdom had proclaimed there was no cure for the horrendous disease because it was a punishment to those disloyal to the crown. While Dragonborn healers claimed they could cure the disease, suchmagicwas forbidden as treason against the crown.

The moment they dragged out a second woman, Sofia turned away. Her face had been streaked with tears, and she was screaming into the street that they would kill her son. Sofia didn’t want to see the rest. The two women would be sent to the farms and the boy left to rot in the prison until the scalepox took him.

Even still, she had to walk three blocks out of her way before turning back to avoid passing by the prison wagon. When she came running into the chief commander’s courtyard, she was focused on her toes, sore in her too-small shoes, and the sharp pain in her chest from running too fast. Her mother had said she had weak lungs. All she knew is that if she ran too fast, it felt like she was breathing in a shard of ice.

So she was distracted and breathing heavily and she smacked directly into the boy, falling on her behind with a growl of annoyance.

“Watch where you’re going!” she snapped, looking up at him. She coughed, ruining any attempt to look intimidating.

His hair was a shade of black that challenged the night sky and his eyes were a warm honey brown. They were opened wide as he looked down at her before he finally blinked.

“I was just standing here.”

She gave a short huff of annoyance, but couldn’t argue the fact. Ignoring his proffered hand, she pushed herself up and brushed off her clothes as best she could.

He was smiling at her, the corner of his cheek dimpling in a way that made her stomach flutter uncomfortably.

“I’m Gabriel,” he said, smoothly moving his arm back to his side as if he’d expected her to snub him. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

Sofia narrowed her eyes, but gave him her name. Before she could make her way around him, he gave a small bow.

“I can’t wait to see you again, Sofia.”

He sauntered away, leaving her to stare after him, wondering why the way he’d said her name had made her stomach flutter.

* * *

“Sofia Suarez,”Gabriel spoke her name in the same honeyed tone the next week. She’d just come out of the manor after a ten hour shift in the chief commander’s office and she didn’t quite register the words until he was standing in front of her.

“How do you know my name?”

“I’ve been asking about you.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to know about the beautiful girl that barreled me over last week.”

Her face tinged pink without her permission and she tried to push past him before he noticed.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” he called out as she walked away. She tried to ignore him, but she couldn’t resist one glimpse back.