Page 2 of Prince of Blaze and Embers (Emberveil Empire #1)

Her voice shook the last breath of bewilderment from my mind. I needed to get her to safety. This wasn’t about my fascination with dragons anymore. Her life was in danger!

And as if fate heard my thoughts, the great ebony dragon unleashed an unimaginable ghastly plume of devastating dragonfire upon one of the Stormscale dragons, incinerating it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t get my feet under me fast enough.

We rushed back toward town, the shanty beach community of single-story buildings of wood, strong enough to survive hurricanes, but definitely not dragonfire.

My feet dragged through the slick sand, both sets of our ankle shackles clattering as we ran up the hill to Bramblebash, the tropical trees surrounding it whipping in the stormy winds, invigorated by the dragon wings beating in the cloudy sky.

That fuck Garris hadn’t run more than six feet in his miserable life, I bet, except for when the dinner bell rang.

He’d whip me for sure for talking back, but still, as I ran, my gaze was absolutely stuck onto the infamous black dragon that terrorized the sky—Krakos—the one and only.

Sharp ebony scales, huge wings that cut the air like a razor through sheets of papyrus— its eyes as animalistic and demonic as the tales say—an unnatural shade of red that reminded me of somewhere between a spring rose and deep, spilled blood.

The Blaze Prince led the awful, murderous beast through the sky like nothing I’d ever seen.

I dreamed of riding my own dragon, pairing with one for life, but not with that thing in the sky!

I never wanted to be anywhere near it, not after hearing all the tales of its primal, ruthless, insatiable destruction…

As Krakos’ fire eviscerated another dragon and its rider from the sky, it became quickly apparent, and my words couldn’t be any better than Bella’s…

“We need to get the fuck outta here!” She squeezed my hand tighter as we ran. She’d always been faster than me, with those long legs of hers… ones I’d honestly always been jealous of. “We’ve got to get to shelter, now! I don’t want to die out here, not like this!”

Her words gripped me, haunting me instantly. I realized, as I watched the Blaze Prince ravage the Stormscales above, that all those I cared about in my tiny little corner of the world were in the exact same predicament we were…

I ran as fast as my bare feet could carry me, finally hitting cobblestones in our town.

The forge was up ahead, only two hundred yards up and around the bend by the circular town square.

Unlike the cobblestone roads that led to the square, nearly all of the houses of my town were perfect kindling for dragonfire.

That made me all too keenly aware of the danger of the battle erupting in the ominous sky above.

We ran ahead of Garris, panting like a dog, but suddenly found ourselves stuck. He’d keeled over, hunched with his hands on his fat thighs; beads of sweat pouring down his wrinkled, bald brow.

“Hurry!” My gaze drifted back to the sky battle, just in time to see one of the most terrifying sights of my nineteen years in this world…

“The Blaze Prince,” Bella yanked hard on her own chains, trying to pull Garris out of his exasperated stupor. “He’s coming!”

Krakos was in pursuit of the largest of the rebel dragons, a mighty green drake with aqua-marine spikes fanning all the way down its back.

Murder was deep in the mighty Krakos’ eyes.

The pursing dragon was over twice as large as the one it hunted.

The Blaze Prince was ducked low on his dragon’s back.

He wore a dual-horned helm, a blood-red cape whipping hard in the wind behind him, matte-black armor covering every inch of his huge body, and a trident of flames blazing in his hand, eager to find its way into the rider he chased.

My fingers covered my mouth as I felt the gasp escape from between my lips.

Every fiber of my being was stuck in awe and terror, tugging futilely to get Garris to his feet.

Wretched flames and smoke built in Krakos’ maw, and the light of dragonfire glowed in between the black scales of the beast’s chest.

The chains in Bella’s hands slacked as we all glared up at the chase in dread.

Garris perked up; the words, “Great Odiun,” escaped his vile mouth.

The fire built within Krakos, growling like pressurized magma before a great volcano eruption, ready to unleash upon its foe as the two dragons and their riders rode straight at us.

We only had seconds. In moments they’d be on top of us, and I didn’t even have a knife to protect us, not that that would do a damned thing, but shit… I had nothing!

I’m not ready to die yet! And I’m sure as the Infernal Depths not going to let them hurt Bella, or any of the children here. They’ve done nothing to enter the queen’s war, and I’m not going to let them die for nothing!

My fists clenched impossibly tight, and my breath hastened as my chest heaved.

I can’t let them destroy my home. I can’t let them destroy the only thing that offers a shred of comfort in this piss-infested, chain-rattling life of mine. I can’t let them take the only things I truly love in this world.

And as the flames poured out of Krakos’ maw, exploding into the green drake and its rider, I felt something stir inside of me. It was so deep it felt buried, like an egg inside I never knew about that was hatching, breaking free of its hard exterior shell.

The unworldly hot dragonfire incinerated the Stormscale dragon but kept pouring out, and it was still heading straight at us.

The colossal dragon flew down toward the city as the smell of the smoldering green dragon and rider filled my nostrils with its unbearable stench—like hot iron and burnt flesh.

The flames were so enormous, they were going to blow down onto us and all of Bramblebash. So many lives were going to be ended forever…

Something shifted inside me. It wasn’t fear—not exactly.

It was deeper than that. Like a thread being pulled in my chest, tight and hot, like it might snap.

Krakos’s roar cracked the sky, but what rattled me wasn’t the dragon.

It was the pulse rising in my ribs—steady, ancient, wrong and right all at once.

My legs kept moving, dragging Bella behind me, but my skin prickled like the wind was whispering secrets against it. The ocean surged louder behind us, crashing like it wanted me to turn around .

There was something in me.

Not mine.

But also… mine.

I could feel it humming beneath my breastbone, like water boiling just under the surface. My throat closed, and for a second, I thought I might scream—or burst into flame.

I swallowed it down.

Not now.

Not yet.

But it was there. Awake.

A light surged inside me, welling from deep within, like lightning electrifying my soul, filling a well that I didn’t even know was dry. And as the light escaped me, pouring out of my mouth and eyes, sizzling out of my fingertips, Krakos’ deathly eyes widened beyond his evil flames.

The golden light erupted from me like an unstoppable hurricane.

Violent winds ripped out of me with a fury I’d never felt.

I got angry, oh by the god, I got angry!

My teeth gritted, grinding as I glared up at the horned Blaze Prince and his genocidal dragon.

I felt like I could move a mountain, change the tides, summon the moon!

And as the golden orb of light exploded out from me, the dragonfire collided with it, erupting in an explosion that rocked the ground beneath my bare feet.

I felt the impact in my chest, stomach, and knees, buckling me down to a knee.

The weight of the dragonfire was crushing me like an ant under a boot heel, but I was holding it at bay, keeping us from its unbearable weight.

Krakos roared like nothing I’d ever heard—like the Infernal Depths tore a hole in the earth, letting out every demon imaginable—his flames evaporating into the air. His roar was of sheer frustration, rage, and discontent.

My hands would have covered my ears from such a hellish roar, but they were all that was keeping us alive as the magic poured out from my hands to the gigantic golden orb that repelled his devouring, fiery breath.

Though the battling destructive dragonfire and shielding, dazzling golden magic, something grabbed my gaze like a magnet. Through the eye slits in the horned helm of the Blaze Prince, his deadly gaze locked with mine. I was stuck, glued to them like cold water to hard ice.

Krakos roared again, ending his furious flames. I dropped to my knees, severing the addictive gaze of the evil prince as the dragonfire receded.

My golden light faded too, evaporating like mist under the bright afternoon sun.

The Stormscales took their chance, unleashing a devastating, coordinated attack upon the Blaze Prince, sending him and his huge dragon scurrying into evasive maneuvers as it rolled and dove away from the rebel dragonfires.

As the dragon battle moved back out over the South Cape Sea, I heard Bella and Garris both gasp in unison. I looked at both of them as their eyes went wide, peering in shock at the side of my neck.

“Ash…” Bella muttered, “your neck… it’s… glowing…”

“Huh?”

Bella dug her hand into her bag, fumbling for something, and pulled her small mirror free with shaking fingers.

I grasped it immediately, angling it toward my neck, and what I saw made my stomach drop. I felt both eyebrows raise, and a wind gusted through, blowing my long hair off my neck and behind my back, revealing to me what the two were awing over.

Upon my neck was a mark I’d never seen before, glowing in brilliant gold, in the shape of a curving crescent moon, streaks cast through it like rolling waves.

In the reflection, my free hand shot to cover my mouth.

My jaw dropped, and my mind raced to figure out what the hell was going on with my body.

I took a staggering step backward, nearly toppling over as my knees wobbled.

As the light glowed on my neck, I forgot all about the danger we were in, running my quivering fingers from my mouth to the golden light.

And as my fingers glided over the light, a terrible pain shot through my mind like a pickaxe entering my ear, and a voice I’d never heard before spoke to me.

The voice was grim, hollow, commanding.

Its words took me, cutting through my defenses like a hot iron pike through a bar of velvety soap. The words were hallowed in my mind—deep like bedrock in an ancient cave.

“It is time. You must free me. You’ve awoken to your true self, and so you must awaken me…”