CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) by Laney McMann Page A

would understand , know what she was going through. The kind of life she'd been living. Hiding from everything all the time, lying, pretending, having no real friends, no real life.
    Cole gazed at her, and there was such a strong intimacy behind it her cheeks warmed. "I'm a Primori. Like you. We guard the Planes from Daemoneum threats." He found her hand and squeezed. "You can trust me."
    She gazed at him in star-struck awe. He was one of the Celestial Children. Born of the ancient gods. Not of this world, but another Plane entirely. Dracon had told her the truth. That alone shocked her into complete silence.
    Cole squeezed her hand again and raced from the bushes, nothing more than a red blur through the trees.
    No, wait. Wait! She wanted to scream it. No...that's...that's not what I am. You just...can't see it.
    Another reverberation of energy rushed through the trees forcing her to grip the bush at her back. Fingers clawed freezing branches, but the wind was too strong. It picked her up, and slammed her on the ground. Her head hit rock. Snow and pine needles blew over her, burying her in frigid powder. Tree tops merged overhead, only a slice of the dark, star speckled sky shining through the slits in her eyelids, and everything silenced to a dim, faint hum.
    In a daze, she remembered her dad standing in front of her when she was five years old. Kade had knocked Scott Nelson off his bike without even touching him after he'd tried to run over her cat. An odd current had flowed through her body that day, as though she'd stuck her finger into an electrical socket, and the next thing she knew, Scott had been blown backward through the air, and his bike was on top of him when he landed in the driveway. She'd had no idea how it happened.
    Her dad had run out the front door and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her inside the house. "You can't ever do that again. You're very special, Kadey. You have a gift. But no one can know. Just you and me. It's very important. Can you do that?"
    "Okay, I won't do it again. I'm sorry."
    "That's my big girl." He'd smiled but it hadn’t reach his eyes. "Now, go help Scott up and tell him you're sorry, too."
    "I'm not telling him sorry." Kade had run out of the house. Scott stood, glaring at her from the sidewalk, but she didn't care. "Don't you dare get near my cat again, or next time, I'll send you and your bike up into a tree." She'd stomped back inside and slammed the door.
    Two days later, Kade's face morphed into the monster. She remembered screaming as her dad tried to calm her down.
    The Draconis made his first appearance soon afterward.
    “My name is Dracon," he'd told her, but he hadn't spoken out loud. His voice had been inside her head. "You mustn't be afraid. I am one of the Devil's Children."
    Kade had thought she was having a nightmare. Until he came back.
    They'd moved days later and had barely stopped since.
    Kade's eyelids opened in a haze of white and green. A wash of pure, vibrant red followed. It was an angry color, she thought. On another groggy blink, she was unsure why she was lying in the snow. It felt nice underneath her body, though. The cold was peaceful. Calming. A slight throb thudded at the base of her skull, and Kade thought she should touch it, but her arm didn't want to move. A soft swoosh touched her ears. Footsteps crunched through ice. Probably Dracon coming to finish her off, she thought with a deranged chuckle.
    She knew she should try to move, to get up, fight, or see clearly, but it didn't seem too important. She liked the snow. The cold blanket snuggling around her body, holding her tight.
    “Kadence?" someone yelled. “What the hell..." A face blurred above her, but she couldn't make out the details, and words wouldn't reach her lips. "Are you hurt?" A warm hand touched her cheek, her forehead. “Danny!"
    The crunch of feet running through snow touched her ears, and snow being scooped and thrown.
    "What the—I knew this was a bad idea."
    "I didn't