Prologue
Kou didn’t look for spies like he was supposed to when he returned to the treehouse. He’d never seen a need to. He was a pretty normal-looking guy—short brown hair, earthen eyes. What’s to be suspicious of? He whistled a tune as he slipped through the trees, oblivious to the long shadow hidden only a few yards behind his footprints. Leaves rustled around the tracker, but Kou assumed it was just an animal and didn’t bother to investigate.
Kisa met him at the base of the huge oak that hid the East Branch’s base of operations. Her red hair made her a bit of a sore thumb in this area of green and brown, which meant that Kou did a lot of the scouting, much to her displeasure. She thought him much too loose and trusting to work in such a high level of a rebel organization like the Fallen.
“Were you followed?” she hissed, annoyed by his smiling face.
“Nope,” he said happily. “Quiet night as usual.”
Kisa narrowed her eyes and squinted into the darkness. But the shadow hid herself well, the shining point of her spear covered in green cloth and her leather armor camouflage within itself.
“Alright…” the girl said slowly, signaling for the ladder to be lowered by their other companion, Aidou. His dark gold eyes shimmered in the twilight, his dark blue curls falling around his face.
“Hurry,” he said urgently. “I don’t feel like we’re alone here…”
“You worry too much, Aidou,” Kou laughed, climbing up to the trapdoor that led to their current home.
But Kisa took him a little more seriously. “Who do you think’s out there?” she hissed.
Aidou shook his head, coiling the rope ladder up again. “I don’t know… But I don’t like it.”
Kisa’s red eyes flickered under her knit eyebrows, half glaring at Kou, half glaring at the floor. Aidou chewed his lip, eyes flickering nervously around. He’d been a runaway before Shin had found him living half-dead under a bridge. People called him a heathen for his strange senses—his ability to feel a person nearby and to feel the gist of their intentions. He knew someone was out there and that someone wasn’t going to just want a little chat. No, there was bloodlust in this feeling.
Even as Kisa spoke to Shin, their leader and captain, about Aidou’s sense, he snuck out of the trapdoor and hit the ground running; praying to whatever deity existed that he would not be stabbed in the back as he ran.
Someone was watching over him that night, because he escaped safely. Sadly, that same protector was not watching his former companions.

Later that night, Shin was on his watch duty, white eyes luminous in the darkness. They’d extinguished all fires, hoping that Kou’s tail wouldn’t be able to find their hideout in the murky twilight. He heard rustles below. He jumped silently to his feet, sliding around the base of the tree so he was hidden from the front view.
He wasn’t expecting to be surrounded. Two women leapt from the darkness, one locking her arms around his, preventing him from drawing his sword and the other pressing a knife to his throat.
“Scream,” she whispered, relish easily heard in her voice. “Call your little friends down from the tree.”
Shin remained silent and wrapped his leg around the inside of his captors’, knocking her off balance and escaping both women. He leapt up, trying to grab a low branch, but the woman with the knife caught his ankle and sliced through his hamstring. He yelled in pain and crumpled to the ground as his hands grasped at the empty air.
“Shin!” Kisa shouted, jumped down from the treehouse. “What’s going—?” Arms locked around her. “Who are you, people?!” she hissed angrily, struggling violently. “What have you done with Aidou?!”
Kou shot out of the leaves with a grunt, swinging his axe into the woman holding Kisa. “Are you alright?!”
“You idiot!” Kisa screeched. “Help Shin! Not me!!”
But before he could swing the axe again, something solid hit the back of his head and he fell forward, unconscious.
“KOU!” Kisa snarled and bit the woman holding her. She shrieked and let go, watching with horror as her arm bled.
Kisa kicked aside anyone who approached her as she ran toward Kou. But the tallest woman, her stomach and arms bare of any of the usual chainmail worn by the Holy Guard, stood in her path.
Kisa jumped, spun, aiming for the woman’s head, but she was easily intercepted by a single hand. The force of the grip made the smaller woman gasp in pain. She swore the bones in her foot cracked.
Thwarted, she fell unceremoniously to the ground, hitting her head on a rock as she landed. Blood danced before her eyes as she too succumbed to nothingness.
The Captain smiled and cracked her knuckles, turning once again to Shin. “You must be the leader,” she drawled, licking her lips like she’d just enjoyed a large meal. Shin glared at her with such hate that, for a brief moment, she was taken aback. But only a moment. She continued toward him. “Such a shame. You were fun prey.” The regret in her voice was real, but somehow tainted by the smile on her face. “Now, come.” She pulled him to his feet.
As soon as gravity forced his heel down, he gasped in sudden agony and fell again. The Captain laughed. “Come on, girls. Do you have the other two? Good. Saiko, go see if you can find their other friend. The blue-haired one.” Saiko bowed and disappeared into the woods. She then looked back at Shin. “I suppose I’m carrying you.” With deliberate roughness, she scooped him up and threw him over her back. The blood loss already had him teetering on the edge of consciousness. “We’ll take you back to the Shrine and see if one of the Holy can bring your mind back to the realm of sanity.”
“Sanity…?” Shin whispered with a bitter laugh. “Those damned Holy don’t know a thing. It’s you who are insane; trusting the voices in your head.” He laughed again.
“It’s not we who hear the Gods,” the Captain said vaguely. “The Holy do. They are our connection to the Gods; they are to be treated with respect.” She squeezed his back, smiling at the sharp crack and the gasp that slide from his lips in pain.
“But we’re giving them all the respect they deserve.”
The Captain only smiled and dug her nails into the soft flesh of his face, drawing blood. “You will speak to the Gods’ mouths and be reborn if they so desire. I would suggest you stop talking.”
Shin groaned and felt himself lose control of his body as his lifeblood drained onto the dead leaves below, shining red and sickly black against the brown. His eyes fluttered as he tried to stay conscious. “…go… Aidou…” he whispered. “Tell… him… we’ve failed…” His will faded and he finally joined his subordinates in oblivion.