The Midnight King

Before you read:

The Midnight King is a reimagining of several kidnapping fairytales. It is a narrative filled with intense male domination, violence, and a deliberately passive female character. As a result, some content in this book may be triggering for certain readers.

For any readers seeking a warrior type, save yourself character, this is not the tale for you. But for those who crave a different kind of heroine, one who finds liberation in surrender and obedience, shut your mouth and be a good girl. There’s no turning back from The Lands Once Lost.

***REIYNA***

The Midnight King arrives with the shadows of the night. We were warned of his coming–warned that the ruler of the Lands Once Lost would arrive in incomprehensible fright.

We sense him before he arrives.

A shiver crawls down my spine, a silent herald of his presence. Cool, calming shadows, drench the crumbling walls of my mother's white castle in dark, wicked delight. I’ve trained my entire life to know that he revels in this–in terrorizing his victims before the kill. That the Midnight King feels no mercy, and bathes his hands in blood.

But so do I.

My sisters won’t stop screaming, Remi, Rose--not even the eldest, Rebecca. Remi, the youngest, is the only one who stands apart. Barely eighteen, her pale blue eyes are as wide as the full moon above. She and Rose are weak, untrained, and free. They are untainted by the curse that rules over Rebecca and I.

Every hundred years the Solis Family is to offer the Lost Lands their eldest daughter. For what reason, we do not know. Not a member of our human village has known for centuries why he comes, why he takes, nor why the bodies of our beloved eldest never return.

But this year we are fighting back.

The curse will die with our action tonight.

The glittering walls of my decaying home stand as foolish sentinels in the magnificence of his power. Beyond the castle doors, we hear him cut through dozens of guards sworn to protect us–to protect Rebecca–in swift, calm, shadows, dark as the summer night.

The guards' desperate cries are cut short, their lives extinguished before they can draw breath to defend themselves. They are killed before they can run. Killed before they can fight.

Remi’s cries turn to chokes. Perhaps we should have heeded our little sister’s plea to remain in their towers tonight. But the Midnight King demands every Solis daughter present, even the helpless ones.

Rebecca clings to me, her grip drawing blood from my white dress. "Promise me, Reiyna," her voice barely audible amidst the chaos, "promise me you'll fight to escape."

Strategize. Fight. Escape.

Such words have been ingrained in me since the age of five. My mission is clear: deceive the Midnight King at all costs, convince him that I am the firstborn–the key to ending his people's suffering. Then strike when the time is right.

I am going to kill or be killed tonight.

Rebecca’s grip on my arm tightens, drawing me back to the present. I rove over her silent plea for salvation, the fear in her bright blue eyes which in a different life may have mirrored mine. But I've been raised to endure. Fear is a feeling I can no longer find.

My mother's nod is a silent command, a recognition of my fate as her chosen assassin, her sacrificial lamb. From the moment she carried me in her womb, I was destined to be the savior. The assassin.

I can almost hear the words on her tongue from the sidelines of my training. “The sacrifice of one will save the many,” she would remind me as I fought, over and over again until my knuckles bloodied, “Family is the only thing worth sacrificing for.”