Page 1 of Duskbound (Esprithean Trilogy #2)

PROLOGUE

I had always felt safest in the shadows.

Before the Guard, I clung to them, hiding within their veiled embrace. It hadn’t occurred to me much at the time, but the price of such a life is a stifled sort of existence, like a flower delicately pressed between the pages of a book. Preserved but stagnant. Reduced to the whims of those brave enough to steal a peek inside.

You never really know what you’re missing until it becomes clear, either by chance or fate. In my case, it was by force.

Laryk had all but yanked me from the depths, throwing my flattened petals into water, but not the still pond that simply revived. No, he flung me into a tumbling maelstrom, the type of current meant to transform. The type that stripped away the layers of old, eroding familiar contours and shaping something anew.

Something that could exist in the light.

Yet, to my surprise, it wasn't the annihilation I'd always feared.

It was a revelation.

Being seen, truly seen, wasn't death. It was a spark of life I had never known. A love I had never wanted. It filled me with a power that, from the darkness, had always seemed so much like a curse. Beneath the waves, I’d learned to face it.

So as change typically goes, I abandoned what I once clung to. Darkness became a relic, and I turned my back on shadows in favor of the light.

Never once did I think they’d return to claim me.