Prologue

Once upon a time, Prince Aleksei was a hero, and that’s how Annlynn often started her stories as a child. It was often the same stories, and she told them over and over again, to her best friend, Tarvos. She had found comfort in the tales. Prince Aleksei had been born a girl, but went into the elven world, seeking out their magic in order to become a boy, while also slaying several mythical monsters.

At eight years old, when she and Tarvos played pretend, she often liked to imagine she was Prince Aleksei, slaying old heroes. When they were in the barn by themselves, and she could pretend she was a boy, Annlynn felt most alive.

At thirteen years old, when the pressure of being a girl about to celebrate ceremonies around turning into a woman had become a dull weight. The stories of Prince Aleksei lingered, forgotten on most accounts. Meanwhile, her stepmother and her village pushed herself to undergo the first rites of passage into womanhood, all the way up until the thirteenth birthday, which marked the first of three major milestones in that transition.

Once upon a time, thirteen-year-old Annlynn DiGrace found herself face-to-face with memories of nostalgia, all while finding herself thinking about the old hero and what the story could actually mean.

Because it turns out there are always truths to the myths, as Annlynn was about to discover. Although the methods of that journey would be rather complicated.