Preface - Kallisto Grace's POV
I had never thought about dying when I had a normal life. It seemed like a nightmare far away, never to happen. Ridiculous, in fact.
I'd never thought about afterlife either. If I ended up with my heart heavier than the feather of truth in the Egyptian afterlife, or celebrating with Hel in the Norse myths. All of this was too far away when I was blissfully ignorant.
When change came, death was around every corner. I managed to escape countless times. I was lucky I guess. But as a knife raised high above me, gleaming bright silver, stained with the crimson blood of someone I loved, I had this sharp feeling - a mix of regret and frustration. Regret because it was there the entire time, I just was too stupid to understand what the prophecy meant. Frustration because the sorceress had been right, I knew the true meaning all along.
People often say, as death comes closer, you get a flashback of your life. Mine, sadly would be pitifully short.
The knife holder was a boy, his face expressionless but eyes filled with dewy tears.
"You don't have to do this," I croak weakly.
"I do," He murmurs as if under some chant: "You betrayed me when I could have let you have anything you wanted." Tears pour down his pale skin.
I put my finger to his lips: "Not everything."
"Everything in my power, everything that wouldn't have affected the order of the universe," He sighs, raising the knife higher. My vision blurs, the knife's power causing me to swoon. I see my best friend and I running across the green grasses of my home. The picture snaps, gone. The image of my family, my brother grinning at me, my dad waggling his fingers and my mom running her fingers through my hair vanishes, ceasing to exist.
The boy grimaces and brings the knife down.
I'm going to die.
A flash of red tinges my sight, and a single rush of warmth and pain spreads through my body. I feel my stomach gingerly. I lift my fingers. They're stained red, blood. I take quick unsteady breaths, breathing becoming a hardship.
As the boy turns to my friend, looking horrified and clutching severely damaged limbs, I manage to utter a single word. "Please."
He turns to me and touches my cheek gently as my world goes black.