A black-coated man swung something at the woman’s head, turning her face into a red smear. Still she screamed in defiance until the fire devoured her.

“Mama! MAMA!”

She spun around as the other child cried out. Rhyann. So small, so young, and still so fierce. She had to save Rhyann.

She grabbed her sister’s hand, pulling Rhyann with her. “We have to run. We have to reach the Mother’s Hills.”

“Mama! Papa!”

“Come on, Rhyann! Run!”

They ran and ran but couldn’t get beyond the burning fields and the knots of men fighting, bleeding, dying.

When Rhyann stumbled, Selena picked her up, staggering under the weight as she kept walking forward, her eyes on the hills. She had to get Rhyann to a safe place. She had to.

Her legs burned from the effort of carrying her sister. Her arms ached. Her breath came in painful gasps. She heard a distant roll of thunder, but the sky was so smoke-darkened now she couldn’t tell if a storm was coming.

She had to rest, had to find a safe place for them to hide for a little while.

Then she saw them, astride their beautiful, strong horses. The Fae.

“Help me!” she cried. “Please, help me. I have to take my sister someplace safe.”

They stared at her out of cold, cold eyes. They smiled as a shadow fell over her.

A man stood in front of her, blocking the road to the Mother’s Hills. A tall, large man with a lean face that was too deeply shadowed for her to see any details. Around him were dark, winged creatures with needle-sharp teeth.

“Leave her alone,” she said, putting Rhyann down and pushing her sister behind her. “She’s just a little girl.”

He smiled at her.

“Let her go. Take me instead.”

“Oh, I will take you,” he said gently. “But I will punish you for being what you are by making you watch your sister die.”

“No.” She looked at the Fae. “Please, take her,” she begged them. “Please.”

They just watched her out of cold, cold eyes. Then they turned their horses and rode off into the woods, which were suddenly so close and yet so painfully out of reach.

Thunder rumbled again, closer now.

“Yes,” the man said, “you will watch your sister die. My pets will tear her flesh and drink her blood.”

“No.”

“And then they will devour her soul.”

“NOOOOO!”

Someone pounded on the door.

“Huntress? Huntress!”

Shaking, gasping with the effort to breathe, Selena pushed herself halfway to a sitting position.

“What is it?” she said hoarsely.

The door opened and closed. Gwynith rushed to the bed. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

“A dream,” Selena muttered, kicking at the tangled covers to free her legs. “Just a dream.”