Chapter 1
The Beginning
It was the kind of morning that makes promises it cannot keep. The light came through the window at an angle that turned everything gold, and for a moment the whole room seemed to be on fire — or about to become something else entirely.
The Road Before Dawn
The horses were already awake when she came down to the barn. They shifted in their stalls and breathed long slow breaths that hung in the cold air like small clouds of intention.
“You’re late,” said the older one.
“I’m always late,” she replied. “That’s how you know it’s me.”
She checked the water, checked the feed, and stood for a moment in the doorway watching the sky go from black to the particular shade of blue that exists only in the minutes before sunrise.