Chapter 8

Everyone around her became absolutely silent.

The leaves of the trees were bejeweled with frost, shining yellow, blue, red and gold under the grey skies. Although the mist rolled along the ground, she saw fallen logs damped with moss littered around. And somewhere from deep inside the forest, she heard a buzzing... a call... a powerful energy... it thrummed... Anastasia shivered.

When she was only seven, thin papery wings had unfurled for the first time from her back.

Transparent with silvery mesh of pulse lines, forking along the delicate bone that arched at the top, she had spread them slowly under her nanny's guidance, and as she spread them, the pulse lines had flickered like lightening. Her nanny had squealed in pure delight. But that was the last time it had happened. Raul had slashed the bone of her left wing with his sword, permanently damaging it. The pain had left her unconscious. When she woke up, her nanny was gone... forever.

Three years later, her parents were dethroned