Blood Prophecy

Blood Prophecy - By Alyxandra Harvey



Prologue



Solange


Saturday night


I was a voice inside my own head.

I wasn’t even sure how it had happened. I’d been hearing that strange whisper for weeks. At first I assumed it was my own subconscious. Or it was because I was losing my temper, since it seemed to happen the most when I was upset or annoyed, especially with Mom or Madame Veronique. But at some point I’d stopped recognizing the whispering voice as my own.

And by then it was too late. Frustration, bloodlust, and the need to find Nicholas after he went missing made me push too hard. It made me agree to Constantine’s plan that I become queen instead of my mother, even though I never wanted to be queen. I’d watched my hands reach for the crown, plucking it from her bewildered grasp. I wasn’t sure who was in control, but when the silver circlet touched my head, I definitely knew who wasn’t in control anymore.

Me.

And again, I was too late.

Everything went red, then white. I fell through space. There was no up or down, no gravity, nothing to cling to. I clutched and grasped and found a jagged handhold here, a brittle foothold there, but it wasn’t enough. I was clinging to a cliff that might as well have been made of glass. Everything was too bright. Vertigo tilted through me, and I jerked back into my body, but only for a brief moment.

Just long enough to see Lucy being dragged through the trees, to see Nicholas covered in blood, to see him bite Lucy on my command.

I struggled, but that voice came again, slamming me back to the glass cliff where I couldn’t hold on for a moment longer.

I fell for a long time.