PROLOGUE
The darkness pressed close.
Eerie and damp, with the scent of cobwebs and dusty rooms, the darkness enveloped her. It felt like mist, but more insidious – it listened, as a predator does, lurking in forested lands. Alina, trapped on the edges of that dark, wanted to scream. She could not though. She also could not shut her eyes. She wished she could: she did not want to see what happened as the darkness slowly engulfed them. First herself, then Amabel, then Chrissie, bright hair turned to ash. Broderick went next, then a little girl she did not know, and then Aili – even she was not spared. Then Duncan as well. Her beloved.
Alina did scream then. The sound that came from her was high and thin, like an animal, keening its pain. As she screamed, the picture shattered.
She was sitting up in bed, in her own bedchamber.
She leaned forward to hug her knees, heart thudding, feeling dizzy with relief. Sweat poured off her. The fire had burned down in the grate, leaving the room in chalk gray and charcoal black. Suddenly, a lamp flame shone in the room.
“My lady?”
Blaire, her maid, appeared at her bedside. She was holding a lamp. Wearing a long cotton night shift, eyes red from sleep, she looked wild with fear, dark curls disarrayed beneath a nightcap.
“Blaire,” Alina said gently, though she still shook with her own remembered terror. “Did I wake you?”
“I heard a noise, milady,” Blaire shuddered. “It did nae sound as if it came from this world. A scream of horror such as I never did hear.” She shivered again.
Alina hung her head, her curtain of black hair swinging in the reddish firelight. “I am sorry, Blaire. It was me. I screamed. I was dreaming.”
“Oh, mercy!” Blaire smiled with sudden relief, her soft face lighting up. “My lady. I'm right glad ye were nae harmed. But it must have been a terrible dream.”
Alina looked at her hands, the pale skin shining in the gloom. “I cannot say,” she said softly.
“Oh, of course, milady,” Blaire agreed swiftly. “Can I get ye something? A drink tae help ye sleep?”
“No, thank you, Blaire. I will be well. You can leave me to try and sleep,” she said. She laughed a little shakily at the unlikelihood of her returning to sleep. However, Alina never used sleeping drafts. They filled the mind with hectic visions – especially the drafts made with essence of poppy. One thing everyone knew about Alina's dreams, was that they were not hectic visions.
Alina's dreams were correct.
That was what terrified her.
Alina waited until she heard Blaire draw the curtain that divided her sleeping place from Alina's own, and then she lay back on the comfortable pillows and tried to think.
What was the meaning of that?
She sighed. The dream had been terrifying. It had filled her with a fear such as she had only felt once or twice in her life before. The most recent time was before Duncan, her beloved, had rescued her. She shuddered when she thought of her capture by Thomas MacDonnell. She had nightmares for months afterward. However, this was not one of those dreams. This was different.
This was a true dream. A premonition.
“But what did it mean?” Alina asked herself as she lay in the friendly dark of her own bedchamber. It was the one she had shared with Amabel, her sister, before the latter had wed Broderick and moved away. The room still held the echoes of their laughter, the warm, loving presence of her sister. It was comforting. Alina sighed. Calmer now, she tried to recall what her mentor, Aunt Aili, had taught her about her dreaming gift. “What do the symbols mean to you, lass? It is your dream, so the meanings also must be yours.”
Darkness. Darkness meant danger to Alina. An unrecognizable darkness was an unrecognizable danger, lurking in the shadows, waiting to devour them.
“Oh!” she covered her mouth in horror. She had just remembered the earlier part of the dream. The darkness had come when Duncan, her beloved, had asked Uncle Brien for her hand in marriage.
He must not ask him. If he asks, we will all face our own death.
She shivered. If they wished to wed, she needed Uncle's permission. That could only be gotten by Duncan asking him.
But he cannot ask. He must not ask. To do so was to court death.
What will I do? Alina closed her black eyes, too sad for tears. If Duncan could not ask him, then she could never wed him, her heart's desire. However, there seemed no other way.