DAWN

DAWN | Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Like foxes, they slink through the trees, swiftly and noiselessly. The setting sun peeks through the gaps in the canopy leaves, casting a golden glow across their faces as it begins its slow descent below the horizon.

The end of another day, and yet again Kale feels as though he's achieved nothing. Again.

How had everything changed so quickly?

Once, Kale Anderson had been an unwavering heir of the Kingdom of Shadows, a pinnacle of loyalty and strength to his people and his birthright.

Now, he was an outcast, his loyalty thrown aside and his bloodline the only thing that still binds him to his old life.

Almost two weeks on from the Dark War, he was already frustrated with the seemingly little progress he'd made. The War had seen Harper, the Saviour, persuade the Rebellion out of hiding — the first time the group had ever launched an offensive in living memory. With Harper at the head, the Rebellion had risen up against Kale's father, Lord Ash, the man that had single-handedly murdered Harper's parents and henceforth destroyed her childhood.

Along with the lives of so many others.

Kale picks up his pace, darting through the trees with near unnatural agility. His heart thumps in his chest, breaths becoming deeper - but no less steady. To his right, his brother, Blake, matches his pace.

They travel almost noiselessly over the damp forest floor, both of them having trained endlessly in the Shadow castle for majority of their lives. It's that training that permits them to keep pushing, to move faster, to pick each footfall with a measured precision that prevents them from tripping or stumbling.

They'd been moving for days, determined to track down their father, Lord Ashleigh. Determined to find him. To locate his forces.

The Shadows had fled following their utter defeat, uncannily disappearing almost without a trace. The Shadow castle had remained mostly abandoned since, the Rebellion monitoring it in the event the Lord of Darkness should return.

Kale doubted his father would be back so quickly.

Ashleigh would likely return only if he had some form of surprise counter-offensive.

Which Kale also doubted.

So that leaves only one remaining option: Kale would have to chase the Shadows down.

Wherever they may be.

If he and Blake are to succeed, to find the Shadows and their father, Kale was still unsure as to what they would ultimately do.

Would he really be able to end it? Would he be able to kill his own father?

Would Harper have wished him to?

He knew the answer to the last question, at least, deep down buried inside him. As much as he tried to rage against the truth, Kale knows in his heart that Harper wouldn't have wished death upon anyone. Even with her justified loathing for his father, he knows she would've preferred to see Ashleigh's downfall — not his death.

She would never have asked it of Kale to take the life of the man responsible for his birth.

But she wouldn't have had to ask. Kale would have done it, if it meant she'd be saved.

He would've killed his own father.

Grief hits him like a tonne of bricks. He should've been there to save her. He should've prevented it, should've stopped it. He should never have let her go into battle.