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“What’s wrong?” I whispered, sensing he was not playing.

There were sticks breaking in the brush up ahead.

Barrett’s face contorted, confused.

A second later, a miniature horse that looked just like Snow’s, only a quarter of the size, walked up to me.

Barrett looked from the pony to me and back to the pony.

“Shit! Get back to the house.” He commanded.

“Snow?” I didn’t wait for his answer before I took off running.

I felt the wind whipping through my hair and stinging my eyes as I raced by tree after tree. I glanced behind me and saw the others running, but falling off quickly.

Over the years, we had discovered I had extraordinary speed, but didn’t know what I was or where I came from.

Barrett found me in one of the towns when I was a teenager, after I had managed to steal a stone from him. I thought it was a satchel of coin when I was lifting it and almost tossed it when I realized it wasn’t, but there was a symbol on the front which I thought was interesting. I thought it to be some sort of talisman, so I held onto it for good luck.

And good luck it brought me. Barrett managed to track me down when no one else had even gotten close. I thought for sure he was going to kill me and perhaps he even tried, but I managed to dodge his several attempts at grabbing or punching me. I felt this tingle move through my body when he got close to me, like something was waking up, even though I’m not quite sure whatitwas. It seemed like he felt it too because a few times he would pause and adjust and after a while I felt like he was no longer trying to hurt me, but rather study me.

I don’t know how much time passed, but he eventually stopped and took a step back, his face perplexed and then offered me a place to stay. I thought it was a joke at first- a ploy to catch me off guard, but we talked for several hours at a pub and I don’t know if it was the ale or the look in his eyes, but that night I went home with him and never looked back.

I was approaching the house and saw Snow laying on the ground by the garden. “Shit.”

I skidded to a stop near her head, throwing dirt up, and fell to my knees.

“Snow! Snow!” I yelled, shaking her gently.

Her face was as white as snow.

I saw the necklace around her throat and pulled it off, tossing it to the side. There was a red line, burned into her skin where it had been pulled across her throat.

Who would do something like this? The force someone would have to use to cause that level of a wound…

I lightly tapped her face. “Snow. Wake up!”

I heard movement behind me and quickly turned to fight, but stopped when I realized it was the others.

Jace ran beside me and dropped to his knees. “Put her head down.” He commanded, and I followed.

His ear dropped to her nose and mouth. “She’s not breathing.” He tilted her chin up and placed his mouth on hers.

“What happened?” Barrett asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. She was on the ground when I got here. There was a chain around her neck, so I took it off and threw it over there.” I nodded.

Barrett looked around. “I’ll be back.” He took off running behind the house.

“Jace.” I begged, hoping for any piece of good news.

He ignored me and started pressing on her chest.

“What can I do?”

“Pinch her nose and blow some breaths into her mouth.”

I followed what he said as he continued to press on her chest.