Page 21 of Prince of Blaze and Embers (Emberveil Empire #1)

I didn’t sleep a wink that night.

Tossing and turning, I felt the deep pit in my stomach of taking those lives. The twisted faces of the two, the life leaving their eyes like a sheen that would never return. Logic didn’t help either. Not the prince’s words, not the knowing that I did what I had to do.

I was no killer.

But, then, actually, yes, I was.

My feelings about the prince doubled down, welling in a mixed pool of swishing anxiety and nerves that were impossible to shake. I was stuck—in all the ways. I couldn’t leave my thoughts, the feeling that I’d done something terrible, and hell—I couldn’t even leave the house I was in.

That wasn’t anything new to me, though.

Being trapped was normal.

The feeling of being free, though, wasn’t.

There was a presence in the room then, in the middle of the night. Flopping over, I saw the huge tortoise with his wide, old eyes glaring at me from the side of the bed.

My legs kicked off the covers, and I sat on the edge of the bed. Excitement shot up in me like a flurry of arrows piercing through my gloom.

“Cornelius!” I said it like he was an old friend, and perhaps he was. “You’re back. I heard you in the woods, but I couldn’t find you!” My voice crumbled at the words that escaped my mouth before my brain was able to usher them out. “Where… where were you?”

“Ash,” his old voice said in a wise, croaky tone. “I’m here to guide you. I’m the wind that blows the leaves off the tree, stirs the waves of the sea, helps the clouds stroll through the sky. But I cannot become a part of this world. This is your world. Not mine.”

“You’re not from this world? Are you… dead?”

“Ha!” The old tortoise belted out an unusual laugh I didn’t expect, and one that caused me to sit up straight. He didn’t seem to notice and continued to laugh. “No, no, child. I’m not dead. However, I have been alive a long, long time.”

“So that’s why I didn’t see you? You couldn’t help me when that Rone and the ogre came after me?”

“I’m unable to aid in such a capacity. I will teach you what I can so that in the future—you wouldn’t need me to. In that respect, you didn’t need me then either, it appears.”

“I almost died!” My butt scooted forward, and I hunched over him. “I could’ve been murdered, or sent to the queen!”

“But you weren’t…” His tone lifted to a high note. “And I think I know why.”

“Huh? You do?”

He nodded with a smirk at the corner of his old, green beak.

“You couldn’t find your magic when I used my illusion to create the snake that attacked you, but you were able to when you were really in trouble. Think. What was different that time?”

“I—I was frightened by the snakes. For real, I was. But maybe part of me knew it was fake. When I was really in trouble, I… ”

“No. Not that. What did you feel? What was your body doing? What changed in you?”

“I—I didn’t know what to do. Rone was chasing me on that monster, and I was trapped.”

“What felt different?” The tip of his beak rose and crept forward. His incredibly old and wise eyes stared deep into mine.

“I was… weak. I think. When the snakes came, I felt depleted, kinda. But when the ogre came, I fell, and I felt, kinda… strong.”

He didn’t press me, but there was a sparkle in his eye as he nodded slowly.

“I fell into the water.” A sharp realization hit like a hammer striking an anvil. “The water…”

A proud expression grew on his face, cocking his head to the side with his eyes closed. “Ash… I believe there’s more to you than you realize.”

“The water…” I muttered the words, feeling the weight of them on my shoulders as they slunk. “I felt refreshed. Like I was rejuvenated, and then the magic came to me when I needed it. So what does that mean?”

“This is your first time away from the sea, is it not?”

My jaw dropped. “Yes.”

“Do you know how the Blaze Prince and the Blaze Queen are fire wielders? They are Cinderyn. They command flames and are bound to them. That’s why they live in Emberveil mainly. The capital is built upon the mountain that harbors the eternal fires of Allovan. And you, Ash…”

“I’m… like them? But… the opposite?” My world whirled as my head fogged. My fingers gripped the sheets as I tried to ground myself, find where I was, and remember who I was. But who I thought I was had changed so much in the last few hours; I wondered if this was all a dream.

“You, Ash… are an Aquafae. One of the Aqualorians. Or, to be more specific, part Aquafae. You wouldn’t be full-bred Aqualorian an d this far out of the water. Either your father or mother was an Aquafae, while the other was human.”

What? Not only do I have magic… but I’m part… water-person? I—I don’t know what to think. Everything is so different… I don’t even know who I am anymore… but I can’t deny… it’s absolutely fucking thrilling!

I didn’t think my day could have possibly gotten any stranger, but that revelation shot into me like a surging lightning strike right through my temples.

The electricity ran through every bone, muscle, artery; sending every single hair on my body tingling.

My nails dug into the sheets at my side as sweat beaded down my brow, trickling off my eyebrow and onto my cheek.

“This has to be a dream…” It was the only explanation for how this could have all been around me.

I assumed I was asleep in my bunk in Bramblebash, fantasizing away about riding a dragon with the Prince of Emberveil, taking me away to some sort of freedom.

The thought of being some sort of part water god was enchanting, but a little much, I thought.

It was pulling me out of the dream next to this imaginary talking turtle… er, tortoise.

“You are very much awake. And you need to learn to use the magic inside you, and quickly. You need to learn to harness the Gilded Radiance at the snap of your fingers. And time is running out. We need to get back out into the forest and keep practicing. The water is your source, and a cup of it won’t do here.

You need a stream, a river, an ocean to channel. ”

I shot to my feet. Cornelius didn’t move back, but angled his long neck up to watch me.

“I—I can’t. Not yet. I literally just told Cade I wouldn’t. I can’t lie again. Not this soon.”

“What do you care what…?” The magical tortoise’s eyes pulled wide. “Oh… you have feelings for the Blaze Prince. That is something I did not expect. And it will complicate things greatly.”

“I do not!” My hands balled into fists, waving them at my sides. If I fought it hard enough, then even I might believe myself, I thought. But there was no hiding it as Cornelius snickered.

“He is an instrument of your rebirth as what you’re becoming,” he said. “But he is not salvation. You must become your own source of strength.”

My hands relaxed. I knew he was right. But damn if every fiber of my being didn’t tell me otherwise.

“We cannot continue to discover your Gilded Radiance within these walls. You need the crisp air in your nostrils, the touch of sacred dirt under your feet, the splashing of cool water at your ankles.”

“Can’t you just give me some instruction here? I really don’t want to run into another hunter in the woods all alone.”

Cornelius cocked his head down and to the left. “I did not sense the presence of those hunters. Peculiar. I normally would have no trouble sensing that kind of danger coming, especially as close as they were. That is a mystery I need to research.”

“I’ll go tomorrow night. I need to learn, but I’ve got a lot on my mind and could use some rest. Actually…” My hand fell onto his ancient shell, feeling the knobs, cracks, and scars under my callused fingers. “Just you being here is helping me calm down. You have a soothing presence.”

He bowed proudly.

“We could just talk here. And then I’ll go with you into the Faewood.”

“We do not know what tomorrow holds,” he warned. “Anything could happen with so many coming now. The Blaze Queen will not be pleased with one of her own dying. And the Sythers the prince and his soldier slayed. She will want revenge for killing her creations.”

“Sythers?” My brow furrowed, and my mouth flattened.

“The things that came with Rone and his ogre. After you killed him and his oaf, they came for you. They must’ve fallen behind or been searching elsewhere.

They are one of the queen’s favorite hunters.

She uses dragon riders for initial attacks.

They destroy with fire, and the Sythers invade and murder whatever is left. ”

“I only saw them for a second before I blacked out.” The blurry images of the monsters that stood taller than a man with long pale arms down to their ankles rushed through my mind. “She made them?”

Cornelius nodded. “Queen Mortriana Vissex has grown very powerful over her time as queen, since the king passed. There is something unnatural about her abilities, beyond being a Cinderyn.”

A grim thought stormed like dark clouds in my mind.

If the prince owned me and was taking me to such an evil-sounding monster, then I truly was in danger.

Bella too. “Why does Cade fight for her? I’ve heard stories of the things he’s done, but he doesn’t seem evil to me.

Why would he fight for her? Doesn’t he see what she is? ”

“The world isn’t always as simple as just doing what you believe is right.

It’s not black and white. Allovan is the worst sort of gray.

” His beak leaned in toward my face until I could smell his breath from his nostrils.

It smelled like seaweed. “What do you think would happen if the prince abandoned his post as prince or tried to usurp the throne?”

“Nothing good. He’d probably be hunted like me if he failed.”

“Aye, yes. The Blaze Queen holds the throne with an iron grasp. She rules with terror as her weapon. Her power is unmatched, even to the prince.”

I swallowed hard at another thought. A thought that made my bones shiver.

“My magic. The Gilded Radiance. Why are you teaching me to use it, Cornelius?” I gulped, my throat as dry as it was back in the forest. It felt like nails going down a tube of hard, scratchy stone.

“Am I… am I supposed to match the magic of the queen? Why do I have this rune on my neck? Why are you here?”

“I told you. You’re special. Very, very special.

And yes, you are the one who’s destined to have the power to stop this mad rule of our tyrant queen.

Whether you would match her prowess, I cannot say.

But what I can say is that given time, you’ll be able to do things you could never even dream of.

Others may look to you as their savior, their protector, a god even. ”

My gaze slid to the side, looking down at the back of my hand as it rubbed the soft sheets. Hours prior, magic poured out of my fingers like water flinging from a bucket. My arms felt as if weighed down by lead, and my vision fogged.

“You must have the wrong person. I can’t be the one you’re talking about.

I can’t do those things. I can’t fight the queen.

I couldn’t even protect myself from my masters in Bramblebash.

How could I ever do anything like that? Sure, I killed a man.

But just barely. I could’ve died there in the Faewood. ”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Fine. Rest up this eve,” he said in a hollow voice as I watched him slowly vanish into the air, half-translucent. “Tomorrow night we will continue your training. Until then… just try to stay alive. And here in the Faewood, as far away from Emberveil as possible.”

With that last word, the tortoise disappeared completely, leaving me in the room with a head full of worry and anxiety. The thing that calmed my nerves was the memory of that wonderful, exhilarating, wild kiss.