Harper blinked as the brilliance around her faded. She was sitting on the sand at the beach on a slightly chilly day, observing the ocean. Her head ached dizzily, as though she’d just been on an extended ride on the tilt-a-whirl at the State Fair and her stomach felt queasy.
Where am I? What’s going on?
There was something nagging at the corner of her mind—something important had just happened to her. But what?
I came to the beach to do my New Year’s Resolution thing and get out of Mom’s house for a while and then I…
A chilly breeze whipped over the sandy beach. It struck Harper in the face and chest like a slap, making her shiver as her nipples tightened with cold.
Wait…her nipples?
She looked down at herself and was horrified to see she was wearing some kind of garment that seemed to consist entirely of long, green fringes. Her bare breasts were poking out of it, her nipples hardened by the cold wind.
“Oh my God!” Harper gasped. She tried to pull her cardigan closed around the strange, revealing garment only to find that the fabric she was clutching was a far cry from the short-sleeved sweater she had put on that morning.
Around her shoulders was a cloak made of long, rainbow colored spikes—they kind of looked like they came from a porcupine. Maybe a porcupine participating in a Pride parade…
The cloak of thorns, whispered a voice in her brain. The royal fabric.
Wait…what? Harper shook her head as visions suddenly filled her mind.
We were in the Thieves' Market…I touched it and it imprinted on me…the merchant chased me down the street demanding that I buy it.
What were these memories filling her head, flooding in like water filling a pitcher? Faster and faster they came…she saw a desolate Earth, destroyed and polluted… a huge golden space yacht…a flying snake…
What had happened to her? Where was all this coming from?
Suddenly she heard someone calling her name.
Looking up, she saw a man in a black leather vest and trousers running towards her over the sand. He was still far off but she could make out his coal-black hair and blazing white eyes. He looked so familiar…
Shad, whispered a voice in her head. It’s Shad—you love him.
Suddenly everything fell into place, like pieces of a puzzle finally clicking together. Harper remembered everything.
We were together in the presence of She Who Alters and she…she changed Shad, not me. I’m still a ten’sora. But then why are we back here again? Isn’t this the beginning of the loop, where Shad first found me? But I didn’t forget him—I remember everything. What’s going on?
“Shad!” she exclaimed, standing and turning to him. “Oh my God, Shad! What are we doing back here? What’s going on?”
The big Kindred didn’t answer. He was shouting and pointing…pointing behind her.
“Harper—the mind-slave! Watch out—he’s got the stone! Run—run!”
Abruptly, Harper remembered the nice lifeguard-looking guy and the purple M&M he’d tried to give her on this very same beach at this very same spot where Shad had found her what seemed like a hundred years ago.
She turned her head to see the very same man almost right behind her. He was running at her, just as Shad was, but he was so much closer. His bare feet made no sound on the sand, giving her no warning.
“Don’t let him touch you with it!” Shad shouted and she knew he was talking about the transport stone she could see sparkling like an amethyst between the lifeguard guy’s fingers.
Adrenaline spiked in her and Harper’s heart was suddenly beating right between her teeth.
Oh my God, have to get out of here now!
Belatedly, she started to run but her feet got tangled—either in the long fringes of her gown or the folds of the rainbow cloak, she wasn’t sure which. Either way the result was the same—she tripped and fell face first onto the powdery sand.
“Oof!” she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.
“No!” she heard Shad roaring. “You touch her and you’re fucking dead! Dead!”
Harper tried to scramble to her feet but just then a strong, rough hand caught her by the ankle and pulled off her shoe. Then something that felt like a piece of ice—something so cold it burned—pressed against the sole of her bare foot.
Harper started to scream but the sound never left her lips. For the second time in as many minutes, the world around her faded and she found herself being whirled through nothingness to destinations unknown.