Page 109 of A Kiss of Hammer and Flame

Cahra tried to reach for him, but her hand, too heavy, fell away.

Hael’s lips hardened into a pinched line. ‘Cahra.Cahra!’

She felt so sleepy… It was like she could hear his voice, but he was drifting from her as the cold shock paralysed her limbs. The last thing she saw before her eyes fluttered closed was Hael dissolving into smoke. And that sound…

Roaring. No, she thought.Wailing. Hael was hurting—

Agony wracked Cahra as her stomach wound scorched, burning like glowing coals, before a hot and cold sensation crept from her toes to the tips of her fingers. She was slipping, sinking somewhere lightless. Water…Water?

She was floating. On a gently lapping river of night.

Am I dead? Or just unconscious?

Either way, she should have her wits. Cahra tried to focus, but in this vision-like place, overwhelming exhaustion accompanied her thoughts.

So nearly dead then. Now what?She tried to move, to roll from her back, to swim, but her body wasn’t having it. Frustrated, she exhaled, trying to think.Hael?

She waited, but no answer came from him.

Cahra was alone.

She wasn’t sure what to do as she waited for – what? For Hael’s magick to work, while she floated down a dreamscape river? Cahra glanced to one side, flinching as she saw the river was on fire, black flames licking at the riverbank.

Where were these mystical waters taking her? Why was she here?Wherewas here?What was happening?

Right now, Cahra knew Hael would be doing everything in his powers to save her life. The question was, what wasshedoing?

No.

The voice came to her from nowhere, and even in Cahra’s weakened, weightless state, she jumped, spluttering in the unearthly fire-water.

The question is: what do you want?

Cahra’s thoughts stilled, if only briefly. It was a question she’d never dared to think, never dared to ask herself. Such pondering was for spoilt high-borns, not the likes of her.

But then, she technically wasn’t a low-born any more. She sighed.

Still running, I take it?

Cahra’s face darkened. Okay, yes, she’d avoided the question, she thought, scowling. She didn’t know how to answer, given she’d gone from poor and expendable, to the realm’s Imperial sovereign in a heartbeat when she’d become the Scion. Duty came first now, right?

It was just like she’d said in Luminaux. She’d never had a choice in her life before. Now someone was asking what she wanted?

Then it occurred to her.And who are you?

Still running.The voice lilted with amusement. She’d never heard the voice before, that she knew, so it wasn’t Grauwynn or Thelaema. This was someone –something– new.

Cahra swallowed.Fine. She squinted her eyes shut, forcing herself to concentrate.Want, want… What do I want?

To stop running from my responsibilities, she thought.

The voice chuckled.That is the Oraculine talking, her projection of your duties.

Ugh. Cahra rolled her eyes.Peace in the realm?

This time, the voice laughed outright.Clever. But no.

Cahra was starting to get annoyed.Seers, what then?She racked her brain to come up with something big, something vital. What had she missed out on, in her life?