The sun had not yet risen when the heavy wooden door of our cottage creaked open, and the morning air was so cold that it felt like tiny needles pricking at my skin as I stepped out into the gray light. My father did not come to the door to say goodbye, for his anger was a wall that he had built between us, but my mother followed me into the yard with tears streaming down her face and a small, trembling hand reaching out to me. Before I could walk away, she pressed a small silk pouch into my palm, whispering that it held a lock of her hair and a dried flower from our garden, and she told me to hide it deep in my dress so the elders would not find it. I hugged her one last time, feeling the fragile shake of her shoulders, and then I turned my back on the only home I had ever known to walk toward the Great Hall where the other twenty-nine girls were already gathering.

When I reached the village square, the heavy iron doors of the Hall were wide open like the mouth of a hungry animal, and as soon as the last girl stepped inside, the guards slammed them shut with a loud thud that echoed through my very bones. The sound of the locks clicking into place made several girls burst into fresh tears, but I only gripped my small bag tighter and glared at the high stone walls, for I hated that we were being treated like prisoners in our own village. We were marched into a side room where the air was freezing, and the elders told us to strip off our warm wool clothes and our colorful skirts, replacing them with thin, white dresses that were made of a silky fabric that felt like ice against my skin. These dresses were meant to show our submission to the beast, but as I pulled the flimsy cloth over my head, I felt only a deep, burning shame that our own people were the ones forcing us into this nakedness.

Once we were dressed in white, we were led into the main room where thirty large, polished silver mirrors had been set up in a long row, and Elder Bram stood at the front with a long wooden cane in his hand. "Look at yourselves," he commanded, his voice echoing off the high ceiling. "Look at the girls you used to be and say goodbye to them, for the King of the Beast does not want a village girl with dirt under her nails and a loud mouth, but he wants those who are silent and beautiful. From this moment on, your old lives are dead, and you are only prizes for the treaty that keeps us alive."

I stood in front of my mirror, but I did not look at my face with sadness, and I certainly did not say goodbye to the girl I was, for I stared into my own dark eyes and promised myself that I would never let them wash the fire out of my soul. Elder Bram walked behind us, his cane clicking on the stone floor, and he stopped behind me to tilt my head back with the cold tip of his stick. "Lower your gaze, Kiana," he hissed, his breath smelling like sour wine and old age. "A beast likes a girl who knows her place, and if you keep looking at the world like you want to burn it down, you will not even survive the first night in the forest."

"Then let them try to break me," I spat back, refusing to look down even as the other girls gasped in terror. "If the beasts are so powerful, why are they afraid of a girl who can look them in the eye, and why do you spend so much time trying to make us look like dolls instead of humans?"

His face turned a deep, angry red, and he pointed his cane toward the dirty stone floor at the back of the hall. "Since you have so much energy for talking, you can spend the rest of the morning on your knees," he shouted. "You will scrub every inch of this floor until it shines, and while the other girls eat their morning bread, you will taste only the dust of your own pride."

I didn't argue, for I would rather work until my hands bled than sit and listen to his lies, so I spent the next few hours scrubbing the cold stone while the other girls watched me with pity and fear. My knees ached and my back felt like it was breaking, but every time I dipped the brush into the soapy water, I imagined I was washing away the cowardice of the elders. After the floor was clean, we were all gathered again for the "Blindfold Training," which was the most terrifying thing I had ever experienced in my twenty years of life. They tied thick black cloths over our eyes until we were trapped in total darkness, and then the elders began to move around us, making loud, sudden crashing noises or brushing against our skin with pieces of rough fur and cold leather to act like the speed of the beast.

The girls around me were sobbing and screaming as they felt the invisible touches, but I forced my heart to slow down and I opened my ears as wide as they would go, for I wanted to learn the sound of the air moving. I realized that if I could hear the rustle of a robe or the scuff of a boot, I could predict where the "beast" was coming from, and soon I was the only girl who didn't flinch when a cold piece of fur swiped across my neck. This made the elders even angrier, for they wanted us to be terrified and helpless, but I was using their own training to become a hunter instead of a prey.

When evening finally came, we were exhausted and hungry, and the elders brought out a large silver pot filled with a dark, bitter-smelling tea. "Drink this," Elder Bram ordered, handing a cup to each girl. "It is a special drink that will calm your hearts and stop your trembling, for it is better to be a quiet lamb when the beast reaches for you than a struggling rabbit that might get its neck snapped."

I took my cup and brought it to my lips, but as soon as the bitter steam hit my nose, I knew it was a drug meant to make us sleepy and weak so we wouldn't have the strength to fight back. I watched as the other girls began to drink, their eyes growing heavy and their movements becoming slow and clumsy like they were walking through deep water, and my heart filled with a fresh wave of rage. I waited until the elders were busy helping a girl who had fainted, and then I quickly dumped my tea into a large potted plant near the wall, pretending to wipe my mouth as if I had finished it. I had to stay sharp, and I had to stay awake, because I refused to be a sleepy doll for the beasts.

Late that night, as we lay on thin mats on the hard floor, the Hall was filled with the sound of the other girls' deep, drugged breathing, but I remained wide awake with my eyes fixed on the high, barred windows. Suddenly, a heavy silence fell over the village, a silence so deep that even the crickets seemed to stop chirping, and I felt a strange, heavy weight in the air that made the hair on my arms stand up. I heard a soft thud on the roof above us, followed by the sound of something heavy dragging across the shingles, and then I saw a pair of glowing red eyes flash for a split second behind the iron bars of the window.

The beasts were already here. The King of the Beast was not waiting for the Blood Moon to watch us, for his legion was already circling the Hall like wolves around a sheepfold, and I could feel their predatory gaze pressing against the stone walls. My heart hammered against my ribs, not with the drugged peace the elders wanted, but with a fierce, hot anger that made me want to grab my hidden knife. I realized then that the elders were no longer the ones in charge of our lives, for we were already in the shadow of the forest, and as I stared back at the window where the red eyes had been, I whispered a silent promise to the dark. You can watch me all you want, I thought, but you will find that I am the only girl in this room who is still awake, and I am the only one who is ready to fight for her soul.

The final night had arrived, and the sky was no longer blue or purple, but it was a dark, bruised gray that felt like it was pressing down on the roofs of our houses. The elders opened the heavy iron doors of the Great Hall and led the thirty of us out into the village square, but we were not the same girls who had entered a week ago, for most were walking with their heads down and their eyes looking at nothing. The village had built a massive bonfire in the center of the square, and the flames were leaping so high that they licked at the dark air, creating a circle of orange light that was meant to be a celebration of our sacrifice. This was the "Thank You" party, a night where the villagers were told to dance and eat and be merry, but as I looked at the faces of the people I had known my whole life, I saw only the reflection of their own guilt and fear.

"Eat, dance, and hold your loved ones close," Elder Bram shouted over the roar of the fire, and he gestured toward the long tables filled with roasted meats and sweet cakes that the village had spent days preparing. "Tonight, we thank these thirty brave daughters of Ariath, for they are the wall that keeps us safe, and we must send them off with joy so the treaty remains strong. Enjoy your last hours with your families, for the beasts are already circling the village walls, and the wind tells me that it will soon be time for the final walk to the Edge."

The words "last hours" hit me like a physical blow to the stomach, and I felt a cold shiver run down my spine because I knew how final this was. As I stood near the flames, I thought about Elara, my best friend who had been taken in the ceremony five years ago. Elara was the one who had taught me how to be rebellious and how to ask the questions that made the elders angry, for she never believed that we should just be sheep for the wolves. We had met in the woods a month before her own ceremony, and we had sat by a hidden stream, promising each other that we would never bow down to the beasts. We had made a secret plan that if she was taken, she would find a way to return to the village and tell us the truth about the forest, but five years had passed, and no one had heard even a whisper from her.

As I was lost in my thoughts, two people pushed through the crowd toward me, and I recognized them as Elara's parents, their faces looking older and more tired than they did when their daughter was still home. Her mother reached out and grabbed my hand, and she pressed a small, heavy silver pendant into my palm, her eyes filled with a desperate kind of hope that made my heart ache. "Kiana, please," she whispered, her voice shaking with a sob she was trying to hide. "If you see our Elara in that dark place, give her this family pendant, for we want her to always remember who she is and that her family still loves her. We haven't heard from her since the night she was snatched, but if anyone can find her and survive, it is you."

"I will find her," I promised, closing my fingers tightly over the cold silver, and I felt a new fire of determination burning inside me. "Elara and I promised we would not be silent, and if she is still out there, I will give her this, and we will find a way to honor the promise we made by the stream."

I saw my own mother and Mara standing near the edge of the crowd, and I pushed away from Elara's parents until I could wrap my arms around my family, feeling the way Mara was shaking against my side. My father was there too, standing a few feet away with his arms crossed, and though he did not speak, I could see the way his jaw was working as he stared at the dark forest that was waiting for us.

"They are already out there, Kiana," my mother whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of a fiddle player who was trying to play a happy tune that no one wanted to hear. "The elders say the Beast Legion is so close that they can hear our laughter, and they are just waiting for the moon to turn red so they can claim their debt. Please, my daughter, do not fight them tonight, for I want to remember you as you are now, and I do not want the last thing you see to be a claw or a tooth because you were too stubborn to stay silent."

"I cannot promise you that, Mother," I said, and I reached into my thin white dress to touch the family pendant and the small silk pouch she had given me. "I will say my goodbyes, and I will walk to the Edge because I have no choice, but I will not pretend that I am happy to be a sacrifice for a village that is too afraid to stand on its own two feet. Look at them, Mother, they are dancing while they prepare to give us away, and they are eating while they know we will never be seen or heard from again after the sun goes down."

My father finally stepped closer, and for a moment, the anger in his eyes softened into something that looked like real pain, but his voice was still stiff and hard when he spoke. "You have always been a difficult girl, Kiana, but you are my daughter, and I hope the forest is kinder to you than you think it will be. Do not look back when you reach the grass, for the beasts do not like it when their prizes try to cling to the world of men, and it is better for everyone if you just let go and disappear into the dark without a struggle."

"I am not a prize, Father, and I will never let go of who I am," I told him, looking him straight in the eyes until he was the one who had to turn away. "You may be okay with me disappearing, but I am going to make sure that whatever beast takes me knows exactly who I am, and I will not be a nameless ghost that you can forget."

The mood of the party shifted suddenly when the moon began to rise higher in the sky, and we all watched as a thin sliver of red began to bleed across its silver surface. The laughter died down, the music stopped, and a terrible, heavy silence fell over the square as the bonfire began to burn low into glowing red coals. The Village Head stepped forward, his face pale in the red moonlight, and he held up a silver bell that he rang only once.

"The time has come," he announced, and his voice was full of a fear that he could no longer hide. "The Blood Moon is full, and the treaty must be paid, so we must lead these thirty daughters to the Edge where the watchers are waiting. Do not follow us, and do not look toward the trees, for the snatching will be fast, and once they cross the boundary, they belong to the King of the Beast forever."

I felt Mara's fingers slip from mine as my mother pulled her back, and the sound of families sobbing at once was the most terrible thing I had ever heard. I stood with the other girls, our white dresses glowing like bone in the red moonlight, and I felt a strange, cold calm settle over my heart. I didn't cry, but I reached down to feel the small, sharp blade in my dress and the silver pendant in my hand. The elders thought this was the end of our lives, and my father thought I should be silent, but as we began to walk toward the dark wall of trees, I knew that this was the start of a fight that Elara had prepared me for. The beasts were waiting, but I was not going to disappear without a trace.

The red moon was now high and heavy in the sky, and it cast a bloody glow over the entire village that made everything look like it was soaked in rust, but the silence that followed the bell was suddenly shattered by a sound that made my heart stop. From the deep, dark shadows of the forest, a howl erupted that was so mighty and so full of power that the ground beneath my feet seemed to shake, and it was followed by dozens of other howls that sounded like a chorus of thunder. The sound was not like a normal beast , but it was deep and vibrating, and it carried a hunger that made the air feel thick and hard to breathe. All at once, the "party" was over, for the villagers who had been dancing only minutes ago began to scream and run toward their huts, and the sound of children crying for their mothers filled the air as everyone scrambled to hide behind locked doors and silver-bolted windows.

"Gather now!" Elder Bram shouted, his voice cracking with a terror that he could no longer hide, and he waved his wooden cane at the thirty of us who stood in our white dresses. "The Beast Legion is at the walls, and the King is waiting for his tribute, so you must form a line and walk to the Edge right now, or they will come into the village and take what they want by force."

My mother tried to hold onto me one last time, but the village guards pushed her away, and I saw my little sister Mara being dragged into our house while she reached out for me with tiny, trembling hands. I felt a cold, sharp pain in my chest as I watched my family disappear behind a heavy wooden door, but I didn't have time to cry, for the elders were already pushing us toward the gate that led to the dark woods. We walked in a long, shivering line, and the only sound was the soft scuff of our slippers on the dirt and the distant, terrifying growls that seemed to be coming from every direction at once.

When we reached the Edge, the elders stopped at the very last row of houses and refused to go a single step further, for there was a line of white stones that marked the boundary between the world of men and the world of the beasts. "Go on," the Village Head whispered, his face as white as a ghost in the red moonlight, "walk into the tall grass and wait, and remember the rules if you wish to live through the night." We stepped over the stones and into the long, wild grass that felt like cold fingers brushing against our legs, and we stood there in a row, thirty girls in white dresses waiting to be taken by the shadows.

The snatching began without any warning at all, and it was so fast that it felt like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. One second, a girl named Sarah was standing two feet away from me, and the next second, there was a sudden gust of wind and a blur of gray fur, and she was simply gone. There was no sound of footsteps and no sight of a face, but only a sharp, short scream that was cut off as she was pulled into the trees at a speed that no human eye could follow. Then it happened again, and again, as the beasts moved like lightning through the grass, snatching girls one by one and disappearing back into the dark before I could even blink.

I stood my ground, my hands clenching the silver pendant and the small blade hidden in my skirt, but my heart was drumming against my ribs like a trapped bird. The air was full of the scent of wet fur and old pine, and I could hear the terrified sobs of the girls remaining, but their voices were disappearing fast as the Legion claimed them. I watched as Mara's friend, a sweet girl who had been trembling all night, was suddenly lifted into the air by an invisible force and whisked away into the shadows, and soon, the long grass was empty of everyone but me. The silence that returned was even scarier than the screams, for it meant that I was the only one left, and I realized that the beasts had stopped their frantic, fast movements.

I looked around, my eyes wide and searching the tree line, but I didn't see a blur or a flash of fur this time. Instead, the bushes directly in front of me parted slowly, and a creature stepped out that was far larger and more terrifying than anything the elders had ever described in their stories. This beast did not move fast, and he did not snatch me like a piece of meat, but he walked toward me with a slow, heavy grace that made the very earth groan under his weight. He was taller than any man I had ever seen, and his body was covered in thick, midnight-black fur that seemed to swallow the red moonlight, but it was his eyes that truly paralyzed me. They were not just red, but they glowed like two burning coals in the dark, and they were fixed on my face with an intelligence that was cold and ancient.

This was not a common soldier of the Legion, but this was the King of the Beast in his most primal form, and as he stepped closer, I could feel the heat radiating off his massive body. He was so large that his shoulders reached the height of the lower tree branches, and his claws were like long, curved daggers made of obsidian that dug into the dirt with every step. I wanted to run, and I wanted to pull out my knife and fight, but my legs felt like they were made of stone, and my breath caught in my throat as he stopped just a few feet away from me. He lowered his massive head, his hot breath smelling of woodsmoke and wild things hitting my face, and he let out a low, vibrating growl that I could feel in my very bones. I was alone at the Edge, staring into the eyes of a monster that could crush me with a single paw, and for the first time in my life, my stubbornness was replaced by a pure, shivering fear that I was finally face-to-face with death itself.