Chapter 1

My mother's labor had nearly torn her apart, but before she could even hold me, a servant smuggled me from her side.

When I opened my eyes, night had already fallen.

The grand stone halls of House Theron were gone, replaced by the dense forest at the foot of Mount Olympus. Wind howled through broken crags, and the cries of beasts drew closer.

A man with a pockmarked wreck of a face hurled me into a swamp. The impact nearly shattered my fragile bones.

"Don't blame me, child. Blame Lady Seraphine. She's the one who wants you dead."

Seraphine.

I would remember the name.

The man scrambled away into the darkness.

I was an infant, alone, crying until my throat was raw. The only answer was the howling of wolves, circling ever nearer.

Just as I thought my life was over, a pair of worn leather sandals stopped before me.

A weathered old man bent down, a tarnished bronze amulet hanging from his neck. He grinned at me.

"The gods whispered that I would find her in the mire."

He lifted me, and held me close against the night.

He raised me for fifteen years.

Now, perched high in the branches of a laurel tree at the cliff's edge, I looked down at the ruined sanctuary that had been my home.