I stirred awake to a sharp, cold, and familiar pain—like ice sinking into my flesh. I thought they had come. The shadows. Perhaps tonight was the night they take everything back and make me realize it was an illusion. Nonetheless, when my eyes snapped open, I was still in my crib, still in the body of a child. Everything was the same save for the open windows, the silver light from the stars reaching into the nursery…and the amber eyes staring at me where my mother always stood.

I knew who it was.

“I know you’re in there,” said the man before me in a language I could recognize. A small part of me felt relief upon hearing words I could understand, but dread won over delight.

He covered my mouth as he took me from the cradle. His actions lacked consideration and thoughtfulness. Where he held me, pain went. I squirmed and sobbed instinctively—even my innate baby instincts weren’t very keen on the dude either, it seemed. Whatever noise that left me, however, was muffled by his hands. And though I tried to fight him, I stood no chance in my current state.

“Don’t blame me for this. I did my best, but I failed. I have to take you away from here. This place will be overrun very soon.”

He took the pale gold blanket that kept me warm and haphazardly bound me with it.

As he turned to take me away, a loud bark followed by the subsequent breaking down of the door startled both me and my amber-eyed guide. I managed to catch sight of the hulking wolf posed by the doorway, teeth bared as it regarded the man who held me. In his full height, tail high and alert as he growled, only then did I truly realize how massive it was. The wolf perhaps dwarfed the average, full-grown man.

Had the beast been there this entire time?

My amber-eyed guide said nothing more and made a dash for the window with me in his arms. He jumped. The momentary weightlessness had me choking in fear.

The window to my room shrank from my perspective, leaving me wondering what floor they had me in—or how big the whole building was.

Judging by the sheer size of it, it could be considered a mansion at the very least.

The giant wolf leaped out of the windows after us, barks thundering from its throat. In the dead of night, where silence reigned alongside the singing crickets, his barks were as good as any cannon firing by the ears. I saw the wolf from my peripheral vision landing on the trimmed lawn, but broad shoulders blocked my line of sight. Still, I could hear the beast in his pursuit, the fall of his paws on the grassy terrain softer than my kidnapper’s heavy pace.

Windows flared with lights. Calls of alert roused those in slumber.

Though I felt delighted, a small part of me feared being mauled to death along with my amber-eyed guide. Irritated, I wiggled out of my bind and grabbed a fistful of my kidnapper’s hair. I tugged on it angrily before deciding to scratch his face next.

He clicked his tongue in pain, brushing aside my hands to focus on running away.

“Stop it, you little aberrant!” His amber eyes drifted down to meet mine. “I have no time to argue or explain. We’re in serious trouble!”

I stubbornly poked his eye. Of course, we would be in trouble! He was basically committing a crime. Why wouldn’t this be trouble?

“Fu—” he took a sharp breath. “How dare you, you…”

He tripped.

I saw the cuff of his pants caught between sharp teeth. I lost my breath when we hit the ground. Thankfully, the impact wasn’t that hard to break anything, though it inflicted considerable pain. I was out of breath one second and was wailing the next.

“Shut it!” Amber Eyes yelled at me. He then rolled onto his back and kicked the snout of the wolf. The strength in the counter caused the beast to cower back, whimpering, though it quickly recovered and pounced on my kidnapper.

Claws struck at my guide’s shoulder, tackling him and pinning him to the ground. Sharp teeth clamped on the blankets that bound me. The wolf then hopped back after plucking me off from my kidnapper’s arms, gently setting me down to take shelter between the strong, furry legs.

The binds in the blanket loosened as a result. I rolled free to sit up, tears and snot soaking my face. The wolf, though a ferocious beast, had far more sensitivity and consideration than the amber-eyed man. Even if I was a reincarnated soul with the mind of an adult, my body was still fragile and susceptible to pain. My current shell was also defined much more by instincts rather than rationality.

A cold nose lightly bumped me on the forehead and sniffed the tuft of hair on my head. I stared into the eyes of the wolf and unconsciously patted the furry face. Up close, while it was much larger and intimidating, it bore no ill-will. If anything, the size made me feel more secure.

Meanwhile, my kidnapper jumped back to his feet as he cradled his wounded shoulder…which, instead of bleeding, started crumbling away.

Holy crap, I thought.

Amber Eyes did not let it hold him back, nonetheless. He pulled out a blade from nowhere and violently slashed it in the wolf’s direction. In doing so, he nearly threw himself forward and off-balance. The teeth of his weapon were nowhere near where it should be.

How come he could jump out of a window nearly four stories high and not know how to swing a blade properly?

I blubbered in dissatisfaction at the anticlimactic turn of events. If he dared kidnap—shouldn’t he be able to see it through, at least?

People eventually rounded the corners. Soldiers came pouring from all directions. I saw my father among the faces—my mother as well.

I felt relief. Gnawing on my baby fist, I reached out a hand to my father, forcing myself to speak, “Di…di…” Saying the full word was still challenging. In the end, I could only say the first syllable after much difficulty.

Konnyr’s eyes widened. “Kon maliya,” he said.

My guide to the afterlife let out a long breath, the amber eyes fraught with helplessness. “I didn’t want to do this…but it seems I have no choice.” He dumped the blade to the side and threw his hand forward. A strange force burst from him, though a little familiar.

A song shimmied around him like a ringing bell—the same one I had heard from that place. I froze. Literally. Time seemed to have stopped for the briefest of moments, and his amber eyes glowed like torches in the night. He took a full sweep forward and snatched me from under the wolf—the speed startling everyone.

“Evyionne!” Elleria screamed.

“Evyionne,” my captor echoed, gazing down at me. “That’s your name now?”

I didn’t have time to wrap my mind around what occurred. My mother fell to her knees, screaming my name repeatedly at the top of her lungs. Konnyr ran forward, his sword drawn and his face tight with rage, desperate to catch up.

He couldn’t.

The wolf, as well, sped ahead. Konnyr jumped on the beast’s back to chase after us, and though he managed to tail close to Amber Eyes, he was not able to close that distance.

Just how fast was this guy running? It was simply unnatural.

“Dammit all,” Amber said. He snapped his finger once more. Darkness closed in around us, and the space fractured into many pieces, swallowing us into a void.

My heart sank when my father’s face disappeared.

“Evy!”

The sensation of perpetual falling assaulted me from every direction. My senses had already betrayed me at this point. The only thing constant was the arms around me and the weary breaths that beat like a rhythm in cacophony to my heart.

Whatever this guy was doing was draining him of his strength. The more he exerted himself, the more he faded away into ashes.

As I waded through my confusion and questions, the never-ending darkness finally broke. We appeared in a busy yet thriving marketplace. Huts of straws and bamboo bathed under the rising sun, groggy faces positioning themselves behind stalls of fresh produce. People in strange clothes walked down dirt paths with woven bags slung in their arms. Chatters and yells in a language vastly different from the one I had been acquainted with flitted about.

It was morning, a stark contrast to the late hours of my birthplace.

“No. Not here. Too near,” he muttered.

Space warped once more. Both me and the man jumped in, then jumped out to a different place entirely. Here, the sun was high. Buildings towered, and people suffocated the wide streets.

Amber retreated from the harsh daylight sun and into the shadows of a secluded alleyway. He seemed to feel better away from the light, but his crumbling to ashes did not stop. By the time he had sunk to the uneven pavement, he had lost a good chunk of his torso. He struggled to hold me with his remaining arm.

“Listen to me, time is not with me,” he said. “The curtains have fallen. The veils will come.” He swallowed and tipped his head back, gasping rapidly—trying to catch some air. “I will use…the last bit of what I have to impart something to you. Think of it as me doing you a favor, because to survive this world…to survive this era, you will need it.” His amber eyes drilled into Evyionne’s amaranthine ones. He leaned forward. “It doesn’t come for free, though. I will begin billing you…in time.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead. What should have had the warmth of a living being was unbearably cold and icy. The kiss carried a painful yet eerie sensation; something that sank into my skin and pierced into my skull.

I blanched. A moment of nausea made the world around me turn. My ears rang. My brain felt as though it had been squashed and turned inside out.