Prologue
The hourglass shattered.
Princess Alyssandra Veyth'ra stared at the fragments of glass at her feet, each one reflecting a different version of her life: a laughing child chasing a kitten, a queen crowned in starlight, a corpse swallowed by sand. Her breath hitched. *This isn't possible.* The hourglass had been a gift from her mother, a simple trinket to measure her magic lessons. But now, its rupture pulsed with a sickly blue light, and the air tasted like burnt sugar.
"Stop," she whispered.
The world didn't listen.
---
The Tower
Alyssandra's scream echoed through the marble tower.
"I just wanted to *save the kitten*!" she shouted at the crumpled form of her tutor, Lady Yelena. The old woman lay motionless, her face frozen in horror. Beyond the tower windows, the village of Thornmere burned. Not with fire—*with time*. Roofs crumbled to dust. Trees withered into skeletal remains. A child's wooden doll aged centuries in seconds, its porcelain face cracking like dried mud.
*What have I done?*
Footsteps thundered up the stairs. Alyssandra turned, her violet gown snagging on a broken chair. Her uncle, Lord Malric, filled the doorway. His shadow stretched unnaturally long, tendrils of black smoke curling around his boots.
"You little fool," he hissed, advancing. "The Chronos Crown cannot be controlled by a *child*."
Alyssandra backed toward the window. The drop was fifty feet, but the ground below writhed with villagers—now aged, now dying, now *gone*. She pressed a hand to her chest, where a faint hourglass-shaped mark glowed beneath her skin. *Mother's gift. Mother's curse.*
Malric lunged. Alyssandra jumped.
---
The Desert
The sandstorm swallowed her whole.
Alyssandra tumbled through the air, her dragon form erupting instinctively. Scales shimmered like molten silver, wings snapping open to catch the wind. She soared above the dunes, her heart pounding. *Alive. Free.*
But freedom lasted seconds.
A figure emerged from the haze—a boy, no older than sixteen, with sun-bronzed skin and a scar across his left eyebrow. He rode a camel saddled with scavenged weapons. His eyes widened as she descended.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice echoing with a dragon's growl.
He grinned, reckless and bright. "Kaelen Moorwind. And you're either the stupidest runaway or the unluckiest prisoner I've ever seen."
Before she could retort, the sand beneath them *shuddered*.
---
The Sandreaver
The dune split like flesh.
A maw lined with obsidian teeth erupted, followed by a body longer than the tower she'd fled. Crystalline scales refracted sunlight into blinding prisms. Alyssandra's dragon form recoiled—the creature reeked of *time*, of decay, of something ancient and hungry.
"Sandreaver!" Kaelen cursed, yanking a dagger from his belt. "Hold on!"
The Sandreaver's tongue lashed out, liquid mercury searing the air. Alyssandra dodged, but the tip grazed her wing. Pain exploded—a thousand needles, a hundred years of rot. She spiraled downward, crashing into Kaelen as the Sandreaver's jaws snapped shut where he'd stood.
"Get *off*—" he grunted, pinned beneath her.
Alyssandra's human form flickered back. She scrambled up, cheeks burning. "I saved you!"
"Saved me?" He shoved to his feet, bleeding from a cut on his temple. "That thing hunts unstable magic. You're lucky I'm here to—"
The ground collapsed.
---
The Abyss
They fell into darkness.
Alyssandra's scream tangled with Kaelen's as the Sandreaver's throat swallowed them. Mercury walls pulsed around them, teeth gnashing. Kaelen's dagger clattered from his grip.
"Your dragon form!" he yelled. "Shift *now*!"
"I can't—"
"Try!"
His hand grabbed hers. Warmth surged—a foreign magic, earthy and wild. Alyssandra's bones cracked. Wings tore from her back. Fire erupted from her jaws, searing the Sandreaver's throat.
They burst free, crashing onto the sand. Alyssandra's human form collapsed, gasping. Kaelen loomed over her, his face streaked with blood and sand.
"You're a mess," he said, breathless.
She glared. "You're welcome."
---
The Bargain
The Sandreaver's corpse twitched.
Kaelen knelt, retrieving his dagger. "That thing's scales are worth a fortune." He paused, studying her. "You're her, aren't you? The princess."
Alyssandra stiffened. "What do you want?"
"A deal." He wiped blood from his cheek, smearing it. "I know what hunts you. I can help… for a price."
She laughed, bitter. "I have nothing."
"You have *time*." He tapped the hourglass mark on her wrist. "Teach me to control it, and I'll keep you alive."
The mark burned. Alyssandra hesitated. His eyes were too sharp, too knowing. *Like he's seen this before.*
"Why?" she whispered.
Kaelen's smile faded. "Because I've seen what happens if I don't."
---
Cliffhanger
The Sandreaver's corpse shuddered.
A thousand crystalline scales burst upward, forming a vortex. Alyssandra's mark flared blue. Kaelen cursed, pulling her close as the world dissolved.
*"Time's broken,"* he muttered. "Hold your breath."
They vanished.