Excerpt of Alexander: Vanquish the Night by Lauren Pomeroy

Gazing out of the open window, Alexander stared into the cold blizzard that swarmed across the sun and placed the land into a deep freeze. Frost crested the iron windowpanes and clung to the glass. He held his sword close to his chest and watched as the snow continued to fall. A deep sinking feeling came creeping silently into his heart; an even greater realization that his father was lost in battle, when his black stallion came into the courtyard with no rider.

No. He thought. It cannot be.

Alexander placed his hand flat against the window as he gazed out at the horse, digging its hoof into the snow. He stepped back and paused, letting his hand fall at his side. His eyes glazed over, but there were no tears. They had been stopped. The silent crying of his mother was heard in the next room.

Peering into the open arched doorway, Alexander watched his mother’s shoulder tremble and shake, along with her hands that cradled her sobbing eyes. A scroll lay upon the table in front of her; splattered with blood and sealed with a black wax emblem. The sign of the king. Such a scroll had always meant one thing; Death.