Page 1 of Blade

Prologue

Run.

This is her only thought as she bursts through the front door. Outside, into frigid air, into darkness. Eyes trained on the base of the mountain, where there is a field, and through the field a highway. Lights shine from cars and semis. They move together like they’re on a string and the string is being pulled at a steady speed as they pass by the edge of town.

She knows this mountain, the thick forest of evergreens, the switchback carved into them that winds from the highway to The Palace, Avery Hall, and then Dawn’s house—all behind her now.

As she runs.

Over the snowy brush with its dried needles, broken branches, shards of ice tearing into her bare feet.

Through the trees. Limbs catching on her nylon tights, cutting into her thighs, whose strength propels her body like a machine, sweeping forward with each stride. Pushing through the branches.

She hears him now, behind her, chasing her, calling out from winded lungs.

“Come back . . .”

The fear spirals, but her legs keep moving and her feet absorb the pain and her arms sweep into the branches before they can cut her face. She keeps her eyes fixed on the moving lights from the cars and trucks that might carry her away.

She runs.

And when she reaches the field, the lights from the road break the darkness and she can see flashes of baby blue from her dress, the yellow butterflies that dance on its skirt as it moves with her legs, her arms, her hands that clutch the blades.

Faster and faster as she breathes in and out. In and out. Arms swinging, close by her side. A glint of metal catching another passing light.

“There’s no way out,” he calls to her.

But there is.

The highway with the cars and trucks, and in them people who might save her from this place.

The fear catches up, immobilizes her. It slows her pace as her chest heaves. For the first time, it occurs to her that she’s crying. So she says the words in her head.Fight the fear.

She spins around as his words echo.

There’s nowhere to go.

She releases a skate, and it drops to the ground by her feet. She slides her hand inside the boot of the other, like she knows how to do this, then wipes the loose hair from her wet face, her shaking body, out of control. She repeats the words from her training.

Fight the fear.

When the man reaches her, extending his arms, thinking she might fold into them, the words scream inside her head.Fight.

As he takes the last steps to stand before her and she lets him see what he’s always seen. A girl, barely five feet tall, with glimpses of innocence that have survived this place.

“Come here,” he says, and she does, holding his eyes with her own.

It’s the innocence that will save her now. It’s all he’ll see as she raises her arm into the night sky, the blade shining in the headlights. The blade now a weapon.

The voice in her head. Telling her to fight.

Chapter One

Ana

Now

I see Grace when I turn from the window. I don’t know how long she’s been there. Silently watching me.