Description
16-year-old Ranya Kirkwood has always wanted to be a Guardian. So when the five of them come and say her sister Isabelle is chosen instead, Ranya is crushed. But more than that, she received a message from Isabelle's Guardian Angel shortly before his death at Pitch's hands-if Ranya doesn't take Isabelle's Guardianship for herself, Isabelle will die. It's more than Ranya's desire, lonely and struggling with self-hatred, to be beloved. 10-year-old Isabelle Kirkwood suffers from anxiety. Her greatest fear? Being killed by dangerous supernatural beings-like Pitch. She wants to protect people from his terrible fears, but struggles to push herself past her own. Yet this war has more pieces to play than either sister could imagine. Ranya is targeted by a woman of mysterious origins, and as Pitch's other allies stack up, including a being who has stalked the Kirkwoods since Ranya was eight, Isabelle may one day be the only thing that stands between her sister and death. Isabelle must do everything she can to stop her destiny of dying herself. And if Ranya is to save her own skin, she must find a way to defeat the villains-when she has no powers. *Updated every Friday. *Trigger/content warnings: self-hatred, bullying, someone tells a character to kill herself, one fatphobic comment, family member reacting negatively to anxiety, one POV character has anxiety, the other has a depression-like thing, children in peril, Ranya is very mean at times, people pressuring child to get over anxiety, school shooter-esk situation toward end, the word "queer" in the reclaimed sense, mentions of discrimination against Black people. *The trigger/content warnings for each specific chapter will be listed at the top of said chapter. *I also upload this story on Quotev, DeviantArt, FanFiction.net, and ArchiveofOurOwn under the same username.
Prologue: Six Years Before
