The Two Worlds
Book 1: Ice
Prologue
They called her a worthless witch. They called her a pathetic excuse for a power. A disgrace to the Harman name, the ugly duckling of the family. The one without any powers, who had lost them. Weak. Stupid. Foolish. Crazy. Lunatic.
She lay there on the barren cold floor of the basement, awaiting another one of her punishments. In this family, not having any powers was a disgrace. But what was more was that now she had a conscience. Something in that pretty little head of hers that noticed what was wrong and what was right. And they had condemned her. Cyrene Harman was almost burned at the stake by her own family.
If she was still half of what she used to be, they wouldn't dare even speak to her. They would all bow down and admire her power. The entire Night World had once tripped over their own feet to see her, had dropped down and obeyed her every command when Cyrene was only eight years old. The Mother, the Witch Child, and the Maiden had all admired her, not only for her beauty but for her merciless power. A flash of the violet eyes, a turn of the silky black hair would create war between families, induce destruction, and plague humanity. Her two sisters, Thea and Blaise, had dutifully been afraid.
But Cyrene had lost it all. When her love, her soul mate, had died, Cyrene had seen the cruelty of what her people held willingly and used without thought. Her family had killed Brett because he loved her, an innocent passion that had swept over her, disarming her guards, destroying her legendary cool. The Harmans didn't approve, and had decided to get rid of the problem their own ways. But their act of hatred had come with a price. They lost the precious ice power when Cyrene had pulled away from the Night World. She refused to use her powers for a family who destroyed her life.
Cyrene was thrown into the dungeon for causing Thea to fall down the stairs. It wasn't her fault that Thea had been walking down the stairs the instant Cyrene spun the prism that threw blinding flashes of hot color into Thea's eyes. They didn't know about the prism, and Cyrene had almost blown it. It held her power, and one day, when Cyrene's anger burst forth, and the time was right, she would unleash it.
Her tears exploded as her body was racked with heavy sobs. Brett. Beautiful Brett. The Harmans thought this kind of punishment and torture of being alone and hungry would give Cyrene enough strength, enough power and determination to conquer her love of Brett and rejoin the family she had lost.
Bitterness showered into her heart. Never would she join the Harmans again. They weren't her family anymore. She clenched the prism in her fist tightly enough to feel pain. Her violet eyes flashed dangerously. They wanted power? She'll show them power. They wanted strength? They wanted determination? They got it. She had all that in her heart since the beginning, and it was time. This was the last straw, the last chance, the final time they crossed the line.
Every day she had to go through being taunted and shunned for not being the once all powerful child. She used to be a prodigy, a genius. She still was, but they didn't realize. Cyrene unleashed a flash of cold power, and her tears froze on her face. She'd show them. She'd destroy them in the end for the pain and misery they've caused her. Avengeance will be mine, she thought. Cyrene picked herself up, and went towards the two feet thick steel door with ten security locks. They thought it would keep her inside for she hadn't used her powers in five years.
The door flew off the hinges and crashed into the wall. It was time, Cyrene thought. Anger and hysterical bitterness pulsed through her veins as she stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the light. A warrior princess ready for her lifetime battle.
For her. For honor. For Brett. She'll fight to the death.