Chapter 1
One Month Later
Stormy clouds clawed away at the retreating daylight and cold rain soaked through my black uniform.
Don’t look back, Tate.
The thought circled my head on repeat as I raced down an alley. Tall brick walls stretched up to the ever-darkening skies, barring an easy escape. Every corner I approached promised light. Safety. But as I turned a corner, the light waned. Behind me, darkness slithered down the walls, threatening to pull me into its depths.
So I ran.
As I fled I dodged murky puddles. My chest burned and my legs begged for a break. I didn’t know what I was running away from or where I was going.
After veering toward a glow to my left, the alley ended and I emerged into a garden full of dead flowers. Daffodils drooped under the heavy rain. Withered blood-red tulips drowned as the water oversaturated the soil. Not far from me, a multi-level home loomed.
I hurried through the garden until I reached a doorway. Not a single light shined through the windows, but that didn’t deter me from knocking. Something sinister chased after me. The wind picked up and screeched through the garden. I banged on the heavy wooden door, refusing to glance over my shoulder.
The door lurched open. A woman’s hand reached out and she grasped my wrist to tug me inside. She wrapped her arms around me and clenched me tight enough to crack my ribs.
Clawing at my sheets, I jolted awake with a raw scream.
There was no rain. No dark alleys or mysterious houses. Whatever pursued me gave up the moment my nightmare ended.
I just couldn’t seem to shake these dreams. Almost every night since I’d buried General Frederick Dagon IV into the darkest recesses of my mind, I woke up in a cold sweat. My heart hammered against my ribs, and no matter how fast I sucked in air, my chest hurt with each ragged breath.
Before I’d fallen asleep, I’d lit every candle in my former jailor’s master suite, and yet, the lingering shadows seemed to close in and wrap around my throat. Almost as if he were still alive and waiting to kill me while I slumbered.
Sweat dampened my white nightgown so I got up. All the while, I calmed myself. Again.
You’re alive, Tate, I reminded myself. There’s no one else in your head but you.
A part of me believed my survival instincts kicked in while I slept instead of the nightmares.
The double doors to the master suite yawned, and a short, dark-haired woman peered into the room. A few of the candles near the door wavered from her arrival. “I heard a scream and came running. Are you all right, Miss Tate?”
I managed a nod. “I’m fine, Des. Just another bad dream.”
The full-figured woman approached me, her footsteps barely making any noise. “I don’t like seeing you like this.” She turned as if to call for help into the hallway.
“Don’t—” I began. “No doctor.”
As my personal nurse and confidante, Des’s job was to see to my needs, even if she needed to make the nightmares disappear. She turned on the lights and all the shadows slinked away. Memories still made this room a dark place, but I’d no choice but to remain here.
“How about some warm tea and biscuits?” she suggested.
“With a huge glass of milk,” I added with a small smile I hoped would make her worry less.
“Of course.” She paused at the door, and I was about to shoo her away, but she eventually left.
A quick glance at the clock revealed I woke up too early. The sun had yet to rise. I rubbed my forehead. If I rubbed there hard enough would the demons go away? Nope. By the time I managed to stand, every limb cried out from a lack of sleep. On the end table, next to my bed, sat two small white pills.
“They’re only to help you sleep,” Des always said. Every night she left them, and every night I didn’t take them.
When the General had lived in my head, I slept enough.
From the sofa at the end of my massive bed, I fetched my robe. The soft, cottony material wrapped around my chilled skin and hugged me close. In two steps, I passed a tall golden mirror covered with a blanket. Out of sight, out of mind. Not too long ago, my reflection revealed my face, but the expressions the General made with my mouth and eyes filled me with revulsion.
So I opened the blood-red curtains instead, revealing a wet landscape trying to shake winter away, but failing. General Dagon’s estate had the most beautiful view in northern Myria, filled with mountains in the distance, but this place was merely a prison. A few months ago, I turned sixteen and went to one of the testing centers with my cousin Zoe. In a way, many families saw it as a rite of passage every kid around that age went through. Except this time, I passed instead of failing as my parents had expected me to do. Zoe had also passed.
One minute I was with my parents and younger brother, Danny, and in the next, I was kidnapped into the Water Bearer program. After my initiation, I was sold in an auction to the General and brought to this house, only to get caught up in the greatest nightmare imaginable. The Water Bearers aren’t servants or assistants. We are meant to be vessels so rich people can live forever. Through technology I didn’t understand, the General transferred his consciousness into my body and expected me to surrender and disappear like all the other kids he bought before me.
But I fought back and buried him instead.
I hoped.
For now my cousin lived with me at the estate and I had a new life. A new way of doing things. The morning stretched along, like it always did, but I had a schedule to maintain. First I bathed, and then I followed Des into the suite’s closet. When I first saw this room, I was in awe. The closet was half the size of the suite with women’s and men’s clothing of every shape and size. In one corner there sat row after row of glamorous shoes. On the other side, black suits hung on hangers, freshly pressed and ready to be worn.
Des helped me get dressed in a standard Myrian military uniform. All black and imposing with golden stitches and perfect creases. By the time I was ready to handle any business for the General, my cousin bounded in to check on me.
“Ugh! Are you wearing those clothes again?” Zoe plopped onto my sofa. “Seeing you wear those things is beyond painful.”
As usual, Zoe made looking beautiful effortless. Ever since she was sold to another member of the ruling class like I was, she’d been dressed in finery neither of us could afford when we’d lived back home in our small coastal town. Her soft amber-colored dress trailed over the floor and made her skin glow. She gave me that radiant smile of hers, with those dimples I adored. She was much happier compared to the days of her imprisonment under Guild member Justina Helmquest. It was good to see the old Zoe.
I replied, “As much as I’d like to wear pajamas all day, I have appearances to keep up.”
She played with one of her black braids. “I’d change right before I met people, to be honest. Why keep up the disguise all the time?”
She did have a point there, but my time with General Dagon had taught me the value of being prepared. He who is on the battlefield first will always be ready to fight.
Flicking Zoe’s braid from her hand, I slipped into my plain, yet comfortable low-heel shoes. It was rather creepy to think my former captor had good taste in women’s shoes.
“What do you have to do today?” she asked, offhand. “I was hoping we could sneak out for a drive with Quinn.”
Hearing his name brought a smile to my face. My protector, the boy who’d helped me fight the General, was one of Dagon’s personal guards. His Master of Blades, as he’d called him. Ever since I’d arrived at the estate, we had a strange history, but in the end, we joined forces and brought down Dagon. In the process, Quinn was horribly wounded, but he pulled through.
“He’s fully recovered now, so last night I sent him on an errand to the capital,” I said. “He should be back tomorrow.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Why not spend the day with Tyson?” I threw back at her.
A flush of pink touched her rich almond colored skin. “I can’t do that all time.”
“I would,” I blurted. Envy dug at me every time I saw Zoe walking hand in hand with Tyson around the house. Just like Quinn and me, what they’d gone through had brought them closer and now they could express it.
I, on the other hand, had to make people believe Dagon lived inside of me.
At first Zoe, as well as Des, encouraged me to be free.
“Do you want me to burn Dagon’s clothes?” Des had asked me on the tumultuous day that had changed everything. “We can have the greatest bonfire you’ve ever seen!”
At the time, if I could have, I would’ve burned down the whole estate, torched the cars, as well as anything General Dagon valued. But such a move would have been rash, and I didn’t make rash decisions anymore.
I planned ahead. Like today’s schedule.
I sighed and Zoe grinned. “I have a meeting this morning about an excursion to the north to push back rebel forces. After that, my troops must go through their training exercises.”
“So boring! How do you say all this without falling over?” Zoe asked.
A chuckle escaped between my lips. Before I’d arrived, the General’s life was as dry as the toast the kitchen fed me—but now this was my new life. “I’ll message you later…after I die from boredom.”
The moment I opened the door to leave the suite, my back straightened and my stride widened. Instead of casting my gaze to the floor, I took in everyone who passed me as I strode down the hallways.
“Good morning, Master,” one maid whispered as she dusted.
These hallways, with the beautiful Dagon family paintings, held secrets. From behind the expensive vases to the draperies of made of exotic linens, the dark secrets of what Frederick Dagon did lingered here. I passed a painting of him every day. His beady eyes, hawk-like nose, and imposing smirk followed me everywhere, but I didn’t dare look at him. It’s a painting, Tate, I told myself again and again. But the painting was a stark reminder of the old decrepit man who tied me up and crammed his mind into mine.
I blinked quickly to focus on the present. Another maid bowed her head. “Good morning, Master Dagon.”
My trusted staff knew I was Tate now, but under strict orders from me, no one called me Tate, except Des who took pleasure in knowing the General was gone. This place was my new home, even if it was a prison. None of the new hires knew my secret, and I paid well to insure loyalty.
The trip to the transport vehicle and the subsequent drive to the nearest Myrian army base was a standard affair for me at this point. Hours of prep were the key. Enforcers saluted me as I passed, and once I reached the meeting room, the flutters in my stomach had subsided to a mere quiver.
This was another day for the fake heir he created after he transferred himself into me. I was now Elise Dagon, Guild member and high-ranking military officer. Instead of finding General Ashford and his staff in the meeting room, two people waited at the far end of the table.
Lieutenant Alphonese Kelping and Rebecca Featherstone greeted me with stiff smiles.
