Prologue

'Lucy! You better be in your room!'

The fifteen year old quivered against the wall, pushing her fragile body against it as hard as she could, desperately trying to remain invisible for as long as she could muster. But she could already feel her gift slipping, and the shield she kept around herself slipping away. Drained from the abuse and lack of sleep, she was never strong enough to use her gifts for a long time – her Master used to taunt her during training to hold it longer, hold it stronger and when she gave up or collapsed she became the bobo doll – a toy for him to beat up and get his anger out of. He was a powerful man, she knew that, but it was too late.

She knew if she got caught trying to escape His powerful grasp she would end up dead. He was angry enough to start with, and if He finds out she wanted to leave His kingdom, the anger would be enough to kill her. The girl – small for her age, skinny too – whimpered as she heard His guards running down the stairs into the long corridor where she hid in an alcove. It had been weeks since she was allowed a proper meal. She'd only get fed like her brother when she did well in training. She never did well in training, only holding the invisible barrier for a minute or two maximum. Whilst she was impressed, He wasn't. That was never long enough for His great plans of bank heists or armed robberies. The girl was no good for his crude plans, but she never wanted to be good enough. She wanted to escape. She never wanted to look back. Honestly, the girl didn't even care if she would be homeless or not, it was better than living under His power, His abuse.

She edged back into the corner of the alcove even further as the guards ran down the long concrete hallway which led to her tiny living quarters. No electricity or running water, no sanitation or even a bed. For the last thirteen years, since her Mother passed away after years of abuse, she had been living in a twenty five foot concrete cell in the basement of His Kingdom in London, a small window only twenty centimetres high and only opening a centimetre best being the only source of light. Every morning she would open the door to find a worn cardboard box with some supplies in; a change of clothes, two litres of water, some bread from a day or two ago and maybe some room temperature butter and a list of daily jobs. Her jobs included cleaning out the rooms of all the others living in the Kingdom, and an hour of Savant training by His Highness himself. If she did well on her training, she would get a rich and nourishing meal. If she didn't, which she rarely did, she would get beaten up and thrown back into her cell for the night, with the leftovers from the Kingdom. This wasn't what every fifteen year old life like, she thought to herself when planning her escape. It can't be. There has got to be something out there. That hope was worth escaping and even dying for.

Two, four, six, eight, ten. The guards ran down the corridor and into her room, the door jammed opened with the sheets she hoarded for four months when she was planning with this. They flipped the sheets over as she edged out of the alcove, hoping her shield would last she edged towards the staircase.

'Sir! She's not here!' One guard shouted.

'Fuck! Find her now – call a lockdown and we're not lifting it until she's found dead or alive!' He called across the radios clipped to His Guards chests, and she knew it was time to run.

She turned and sprinted towards the stairs, making up the first three floors in record time but her wary bones could not carry on for much longer. She looked down the window on the side of His Kingdom and knew she had only one option. She had to break it and jump. She had no idea where his Kingdom even was; she had grown up within its grasps and didn't know anything about the real world or even how she would function if she escaped but it was worth everything if it meant she was free from His grasps. Lucy edged back up the stairs, checking up and down to make sure the North stairwell was completely clear before breathing slightly, and dropping her shield. She was now visable to everyone who would enter the stairwell so she had to act quickly. And with that thought, she ran full force to the window, smashing it and falling out.

Wounded, winded, she laid of the grass outside his Kingdom – a tall grey concrete building in a shape of a hexagon. Outside, there was grass stretching for miles and a small playground that was completely derelict. There were no signs of human life. There was nowhere to hide. There was no one to contact. Her plan was going up in smoke quickly, as she got up quickly and started to run. Lucy had hurt her leg badly in the fall, the bone poking out of her almost translucent skin, which was already covered in bruises and cuts from His authority. She tried to limp but was crying heavily, unable to focus on holding a shield. She could hear the shouts of people still in the Kingdom, but noticed a large car was speeding towards the building as she continued to limp away, trying to keep her invisibility shield up.

'Get in the car!' A man shouted towards the limping, injured feeble girl but she ignored him, turning to run away but didn't want to head back to Kingdom. She wanted to run away. She didn't know whose these people were. They never held patrols outside of Kingdom; all the patrols were in the building. The girl who was driving to the car turned around, keeping the driver's side of the car towards the building, the passenger side towards me.

'We're not with them; we're here to help you. Come on, get in,' The girl shouted towards me, and the door opened magically. The small girl stood with her mouth wide open utterly baffled by the witchcraft that was used to open the door. People in Kingdom could do the same, but He always told her they all stayed within Kingdom to be safe. Anyone who was a Savant lived in Kingdom, and people who were Savant's would flee to Kingdom's safety. No Savant survived the outside world.

'We promise we're going to help you but we need you to get in the car,' The man said towards me but the injured girl looked at him like a rabbit caught in headlights. The man in the car looked towards the driver, and got out the car and quickly picked up the injured girl, putting her in the back of the car and doing her belt up.

'You're safe now, hun, try and rest,' The girl driving the car said. Lucy stared at her for a moment – the girls blonde hair was let loose around her shoulders, green eyes sparkling and freckles making her already young face look deceivingly young. The man who picked her up got back into passenger's seat and Lucy changed her direction of her glance, taking in the slightly older man's muscles, but they had the same eyes and the same freckles, but the man had casual brown hair. The second the buckle for the passenger was done up, the car sped away, leaving Kingdom – and Lucy's abusive father and brother – behind forever.