Page 52 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

P ure peace washed over Ambrose as all the pain in her body vanished and she opened her eyes.

A small gasp escaped her lips as a beautiful landscape of every color washed the hills around her.

Plants and flowers of every kind as the light of the sun and moon mixed into rays of silver and gold over what was no longer a garden, but vast hills extending for as far as she could see.

Her pulse raced as she followed the pulsing that led her back to a tree bathed in golden light.

She didn’t understand how she was standing there, being so far away from the palace.

This place felt as though it existed nowhere and everywhere all at once. It felt like home.

She gasped as she reached the tree and fell to her knees at the base. Running her hands over the bark, her fingers tingled slightly as she touched it. The vibration inside of it a perfect crescendo with the one inside of her.

“I’m back…” she whispered in awe.

“Yes,” the spirit soothed.

“How is this possible?” she asked, looking around to see everything the same as the last time she’d been there, but so much bigger. An entire forest stretched out before her as beautiful as the tree. She focused on committing as much of it to memory as she could.

“Many things are possible, young mage,” the tree hummed with a magickal tune Ambrose could’ve let herself get completely lost in.

“Did I save him? Is the dragon okay?” Tears stung the back of her eyes.

“The dragon lives to see another day,” they said with something that resembled pride.

“Thank the gods,” she sobbed. She did it.

“Your gods had no hand in it,” they assured her. “You saved him.”

“Am I dead?” she asked, prepared for the answer. Maybe even welcome it.

“Would you like to be?” Their voices blended together in a perfect melody.

Ambrose thought about it. This place was everything.

She ran her hands over the grass, like strands of silk between her fingers.

Here she felt no fear. No pain. There seemed to be no suffering at all.

She could let herself stay here forever with this spirit.

Something about it felt like a home she’d always known, but somehow forgot long ago.

She didn’t want to forget again. Though, she was sure she’d never been here—it was a world of its own—a longing deep in her chest missed everything about it.

She couldn’t explain the overwhelming love and grief that gripped her in this place.

Ocean blue eyes flashed across her mind and her hands stained with blood.

The sight of Artie on top of his wife’s body.

Children without a mother. Adym and Ernaline.

The bodies in the woods. Felius. Antony.

Her hand traced the servant mark that she knew tens of thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—bore in the empire.

She wasn’t the only one suffering.

“No,” she finally said, lifting her body from the ground. “I don’t think I do. I think I have to do something first.”

“Then, the choice has been made. You will not be dying today.”

“How long can I stay here?”

“You’re already on your way back…” The voices trailed off with a flash of blinding golden light.

* * *

Warmth spread across Ambrose’s body, filling her from head to toe as she was pulled back into consciousness.

The young mage she’d seen hiding in the trees stared down at her from brown eyes, brow furrowed as sweat dripped from his nose.

His pointed ears stuck out under his dark hair and his tanned face was covered in the freckles of youth.

His hands shook as they moved carefully over her body while Akadian bent behind him whispering furiously into his ear.

When he noticed her eyes were open, he released his grip on the back of the mage’s neck and dropped to her side, grabbing her hand in his.

The healing mage glanced nervously from her to Akadian out of the side of his eye while his hands focused on their work.

Akadian looked at her with worry, his icy blue eyes reflecting the silver in them on the moonlight, making them appear more silver than blue. His features studied her as though she might break at any moment, lips pressed into a tight line.

Gods, he was beautiful.

“Are you okay?”

He must be furious that she ran away. It would be a miracle from the gods if she managed not to get punished for this.

Tears welled in her eyes. Akadian had put himself in danger for her.

He was probably just doing his duty to Divine Law but that was twice in one night he’d saved her life.

Whether he did it to satisfy some magickal law or not, she was eternally grateful.

“I-I think so…” She tried to sit up, but when she lifted her head it pounded against her skull as her vision faded. Laying back down she let the mage do his work.

When the pain dissipated and she could feel her limbs want to move freely, she came back to her senses. Scanning the woods, she frantically looked at the tree tops. “Where’s the dragon?”

Her breathing picked up and Akadian placed a hand on her shoulder almost like it was instinct as his thumb traced light circles. She leaned into his hand as though it were the only thing keeping her from passing out again.

“It’s okay,” he soothed, his eyes moving over her face as though he wanted to take in every piece of it, like he didn’t fully believe what he was saying.

“You’re okay. You saved it. It went back home, I assume to the mountains, though, it’s not like it could actually tell me where it was going.

” He tried to keep his tone light. “Its wing took some damage and it’ll have some pretty nasty scars, but it survived. Because of you. ”

Her shoulders relaxed and she took a deep breath. “Thank the gods.”

Akadian smiled down at her— was that pride? —“You acted incredibly.”

He rubbed her back as her breathing evened out and she took some deep breaths to calm her nerves and the current raging inside of her. She told the Magick within her to rest. She didn’t need it now.

“I almost died.” Her eyes went wide as the full realization hit her. So much blood. Her hands ran over her stomach where a new scar was still healing.

“I’m sorry I didn’t arrive sooner.” Akadian’s eyes darkened and ran the length of her newly healed body, stopping where the wound in her stomach had been.

Her leathers were torn to shreds in so many places, but she managed to escape that encounter without a single burn mark on her.

Dragon fire burns were notoriously hard to heal.

She likely would’ve worn those scars for the rest of her life. Healing Magick or not.

Ambrose turned her attention to the young freckled mage who sat in silence, too terrified to make a sound. He couldn’t have been a day older than seventeen. “Who are you?”

Akadian’s eyes shot daggers. “I found him cowering in the woods, watching.”

The boy’s face flushed red as his hands trembled and he squeezed them together to try and keep them from noticing.

“I-I-I’m just a sail-sailor ma’am.” He tipped his chin at her.

“I signed up to be a healer for a party that said they were gonna hunt boar. N-No one ever said anything about dragons.” His brown eyes darted across her face.

“Or a bounty. I swear ma’am, I didn’t know what they were gon-gonna do.

” He looked at Akadian, his eyes wide with fear.

“Please don’t hurt me ma’am. I just needed money for my little sister.

She’s ill, you see? Our parents are long gone, so I’m all she has.

” The boy’s shoulders shook as he wrapped his arms around himself.

“What’s your name?” She put a hand on his arm to show him she meant him no harm.

“Jack. Jack R-Rifthold.” His arm trembled under her touch as his warm, brown eyes darted to Akadian .

“Where are you from?” Ambrose asked gently.

“N-Nethyr.”

“Can you get yourself home?” she asked, standing to make sure everything worked again.

“Y-Yes ma’am.”

“Then do it.”

The boy didn’t wait for more permission. He ran directly into the woods and within moments the sounds of him running dissipated into the night.

“You let him go,” Akadian remarked as he helped her stand straight, holding her arm steady as though he were terrified she’d collapse. “Are you sure that was wise?”

Ambrose bent down to look at the metal mage’s torn body.

His braid now lay open and a tangled mess.

His cropped beard now a dark red from the blood that had soaked into the fibers.

She reached into the belt on his side and pulled one of the daggers from its sheathe.

A beautiful blade the color of onyx with a carved black iron handle in the shape of a dragon.

“He didn’t participate in the fight.” She grabbed another one and tucked both of them into the torn leg of her fighting leathers as a make-shift sheathe. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Dizziness swept over her and she rocked on her feet, head swimming as blood and heat rushed up her face.

Akadian steadied her as she reared her head forward and vomited what was left of the contents of her stomach.

She wondered how much blood she’d lost. Healers could do a lot, but if she lost too much, it could be days before she regained the amount she was supposed to have.

“Whoa there.” Akadian grabbed her as she stumbled. “Careful.”

She gave him a smile that was meant to reassure him but her body defied her and if he hadn’t been holding onto her, she likely would’ve collapsed again.

Sleep and exhaustion tore at her mind as her muscles and body begged for relief.

He looked at her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher—as though he were weighing two options against each other and didn’t like either result.

“We need to get you back to the palace,” he whispered softly but sternly, his grip on her tightening as he pulled her to his chest.

Her heart pounded so hard it hurt as fear rushed through her veins like acid.

She couldn’t go back.