Prologue
The air hummed with frenzied energy, a violent storm thrumming inside Riona's small frame. At just ten years old, she found herself paralyzed in the heart of her once-bustling garden, her fingers quaking with dread as the haunting melody she had labored to perfect on her flute shattered into an alarming, discordant shriek. All around her, the garden—once a vivid tapestry of colors and sweet fragrances—lay in ruin. Petals hung limp like wilted hopes, leaves had darkened to a deep, menacing black, and the elegant stone fountain, once sparkled like diamonds, now lay in shattered disarray, its jagged fragments littering the ground like tokens of despair.
Aiden, her twin brother, stood several feet away, his violet eyes wide with a mixture of fear and disbelief that mirrored the storm churning within her. His tousled hair caught the dim light of dusk, and Riona watched helplessly as his hands trembled around a dying blossom, squeezing it as if to draw strength from its fading beauty. In that harrowing moment, they both understood that their true terror did not lie in the devastation surrounding them, but rather in the dark force roiling from within Riona—a force that clawed mercilessly at her insides, urging her to unleash its chaotic power.
As the night crept in, thick with shadows and encroaching silence, and stars blinked awake like watchful eyes, Riona made a desperate vow. She would learn to tame this chaos, to control the tempest raging inside her before it consumed them both. Yet, even as she clung to that fragile resolve, a gnawing fear took root deep within her; this storm was not simply something to be harnessed—it was a part of her, an untamed spirit thrumming with menace and fury, yearning for release. And that realization sent a shudder of terror through her, whispering an unsettling truth: she might be powerless to stop it.