Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)
Sequel

Abandoned (Born Form Shadows #2)

“They are right. You are weak, and if you want to survive the coming years your stomach needs to be of steel and your heart as stone. There’s a war coming. And the way you are going, you won’t survive five seconds of it.”

Tatianna Fiducia is left at the Queen’s mercy, alone and defenceless as her mind struggles to stay in control. Throughout her imprisonment she develops a strange relationship with her guard, making a deal that would change her life. She would do anything for freedom as no one was born with chains around their hands.

Riley and Freya desperately search for a way to free their friend, and in a distant land the darkness is unravelling, stretching out it’s claws and spreading like a disease.

Prologue

Darkness was all the little girl could see for miles. Darkness over and over again. A never-ending black hole. The girl was so sick of it. She knew of a land of light, had seen it with her own eyes. She had lived and breathed in it. Yet here she was always trapped.

“Sister you have to stop thinking about it,” the black-haired beauty said beside her.

“How did you know what I was thinking about?” she asked.

“I’m your twin, I know you,” her twin said with a smile. The brown-haired girl looked at the black ground. Soulless like everything else in that place, but she refused to be soulless. She wanted to shine. To take a deep breath and not feel as if she was choking. Was that so much to ask for?

“I just…I want to be able to live,” she said. “Truly live.”

“And you will. Father promised us the whole kingdom to explore one day,” her twin replied with a glimmer of hope in her eyes that made her seem naive.

“In like centuries. Father spends half of his time asleep, and I am getting bored.” She bit her mouth whilst debating with her mind. Was she ready to do this? Then she thought of his face and knew that this was what she wanted. “I snuck out.”

“What?!” her twin exclaimed. “Father will kill you! how could you be so reckless?”

“I needed to escape. To feel the wind, and it’s beautiful. Nothing like you could ever imagine. You should come with me, escape with me. Leave and never look back.”

“Father would not only hunt us down, but he would be alone. I can’t do that to him.”

“You need to wake up, explore the world,” she said filled with ambition. Then she thought about her journey out. To the people she met. To him and his golden figure filled with light and bliss. Everything she wanted to have. “I am going to leave. I met someone and that life…it’s everything I ever wanted.”

“You’re going to leave me here?” her twin said, voice heartbroken and empty like everything else around them. A few tears were trying to escape the young child’s eyes, but she desperately held them in.

They weren’t allowed to be weak.

“You could come with me, be by my side.”

“You’re making me choose between you and father. I can’t do this, don’t make me do this. Just stay here with me,” the dark-haired girl pleaded with her sister. She could not give in, she had to be vigorous.

“I love him, and as much as I love you I won’t let you tie me down to this darkness,” she said with confidence. “I am going to be in the world of light, a princess by his side. Marry him and rule.”

“You are fourteen. You need a family, not boyfriends who will leave you. I will never leave you if you stay here with me,” her sister begged.

“I have already made my decision, I just came here to ask if you would join me,” she told her sister.

“You’re cruel, you know that? Father may praise you, but you are wicked, Ellyn,” her sister snarled. She hated how much she was hurting her sister, but it was necessary. Ellyn loved her twin, but she hated the darkness more.

“Father likes me because I can be cruel. You have a pure heart, Bel. It is why you need to come with me before father taints it like he ruined mine. To a place where we can both be better,” Ellyn said in one last desperate plea. She didn’t want to run away alone but knew that she would do whatever it took to leave her home.

“No, I won’t leave here. I’m sorry,” Bel spoke her last word to the sister she cherished for her entire life, that was now splitting her apart.

“I am sorry,” Ellyn said back to her. She was sorry Bel did not have the strength to follow her. That they had to part, but she knew that she tried her best. Ellyn left her sister standing there alone in the darkness and ran towards the light. She was desperate to escape, her decision to leave not thoroughly thought through. Had she only stopped and listened to logic and not let her heart rule her mind. Then maybe their lives wouldn’t have crumbled beneath their feet.

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