Page 59 of The Spark that Ignites (Shattered Soul #1)

E mmery’s heart battered her ribs as she yanked on her damp trousers.

They needed to escape. Now .

Singeing his hand on the molten doorknob, Vesper hissed a curse. The fire had spread to the hallway already. She spun to the window and, wasting no time, unsheathed Vesper’s sword and shattered it with the hilt. Emmery blindly handed it back before he vaulted her out.

Explosions saturated the night. Fear powered her trembling legs as they sprinted, their feet sliding in the slick melted snow. Vesper trailed, his hot breath misting.

Fire crackled off log homes, shops, and flames spewed from a tavern’s blown out window. Ash blended with snow, twining decay and purity. Smoke clogged the air, feasting on the oxygen. Emmery shielded her eyes against the too bright yellows melded with incandescent orange and deadly reds.

Chaos. This was utter and complete chaos.

And she’d done this. Unleashed this pandemonium on these people.

Emmery’s head swivelled, searching for the cause, but only roaring flames answered. Her assumption was Arborius had lit up this town, but this wasn’t white flame. It couldn’t be him.

“If we get separated, we meet at the mausoleum!” Vesper shouted over the mayhem.

Emmery nodded, the icy air and opaque smoke stoking her blazing lungs. A wet cough rattled free. She couldn’t catch a damn breath.

Screams shredded the air as a dozen people scrambled for safety. A wide-eyed woman, clasping her baby to her breast, collided with Emmery. Vesper caught her but Emmery helplessly watched after them. This was their home, and she caused this. This was her fault—

“We have to help them!” she yelled, her throat burning.

“ No ,” he barked. “We need to go!”

Her attention divided between the shrieking people to a man pinned beneath a pile of fallen logs.

Vesper gripped her shoulders, his engorged pupils swallowing his pale eyes. “My priority is you . We need to get you out of here. If they get their hands on you—” He shook his head, leaving the words hanging.

Tears gathered as unfathomable guilt gnawed her from the inside. “Help him. Please,” she begged. “We can’t leave these people. I did this.”

Vesper’s gaze roamed over her face for an agonising moment before he groaned, threw his head back, and howled a curse. He kicked up snow as he sprinted for the man.

A young girl stumbled into Emmery’s path, her white nightgown singed, torn, and smeared brown. She clutched a stuffed bear to her chest as her naked feet sank into the snow, her toes turning blue.

“Momma!” she sobbed. The girl’s whiskey eyes were too similar to Maela’s and Emmery’s heart fractured a little.

CRACK!

A beam toppled and Emmery lunged, catching the girl around the waist and sending them careening into the snow.

It barely missed, landing with a dull thud and sizzling hiss.

Emmery’s heart thundered, muffling her thoughts.

Hauling them both to their feet, she gripped the girl by the shoulders, the teddy still strangled in her hold.

Blood cascaded down the girl’s leg. Her dazed expression unfocused as she stared at the crimson blemishing the white powder.

Emmery blanched at the steady stream. “Can I look? I promise I won’t hurt you.”

A nod.

Emmery lifted her hem and swore under her breath. A glass shard must have sliced her leg when she crawled through a window.

Shit. It was deep, but there was no time to heal her now.

Not with the debris raining down. Emmery rifled through her bag until she found a scrap of cloth. Blood quickly soaked the bandage.

“My momma’s in there,” the girl wailed, her voice more panicked with each word. “She’s in there. She’s still in there!”

Emmery blinked at the burning building ready to collapse and the injured man leaning heavily on Vesper’s shoulder hobbling toward her. The man’s leg was horribly twisted.

Ash coated Vesper’s hair, charcoal and sweat smearing his face. “What’s going on?”

“Her mother is in there,” Emmery spluttered, her breath catching. “I need to get her out.”

“Leave me. I’m fine,” the man groaned. “I can walk.”

Vesper nodded, releasing him and doubled over, coughing. His entire body heaved—a rag wrung dry.

“I’ll go,” Emmery said, wheezing as the smoke clouded her lungs. She glanced between the girl’s glassy eyes and the injured man. Blood soaked the girl’s leg.

“No,” Vesper croaked. She stepped forward but he caught her arm. “No, you take them. Get—” A wet rattling gasp “Get them out.” With a limp gesture behind them, he righted himself and sprinted into the burning building, filtering the smoke through his sleeve.

Emmery scooped the girl into her arms, and her world blurred to a red-orange smoky haze as she sprinted. The girl sobbed as she jostled in Emmery’s arms but as debris crashed in their path and the flames grew, she couldn’t slow.

When they reached the outskirts, Emmery’s breaths rasping and face slick with sweat, she set the girl down. Eyes unfocussed and vision blurring, Emmery knelt in the snow. “I’m going to take the pain away. Ready?”

The girl nodded, sniffing back tears. Whether it was the practice with Vesper, or the desperate situation, her magic leapt to attention as Emmery laid her hand on the wound, blood warming her fingers.

She braced herself for the pain.

She should have been prepared.

But it struck like lightning. Stars burst behind her eyes, and a wave of agony slashed her leg, but her silver threads expertly mended the girl’s flesh.

Her lip quivered but no more tears spilled.

Emmery panted, not only from running but from the spent magic.

Stripping off her cloak, she wrapped the girl in it.

Her vision swayed, head heavy, as she braced herself against the frozen ground, her hands red with blood and burning cold.

But she could do this. She had to.

Slinging off her heavy pack, Emmery passed it to the girl. “Hold on to this for me?”

The girl wiped her snotty nose and squeaked, “Okay.” Behind her, the hobbling man Vesper had saved collapsed with a heavy grunt.

Emmery crashed to her knees as the man’s confused blue eyes met hers.

He sucked air as she laid a hand on his injured leg.

Her head snapped back, the twisting of her bones almost real as his pain bled into her.

Unable to contain it, Emmery cried out, her voice breaking.

But the man’s bone snapped, warping under her touch as it righted itself.

Time blurred. The world tilted. And when the pain finally ebbed after an eternity, she stumbled to her feet, her legs trembling.

“Look after her,” she ordered, jerking her chin at the girl.

He gave a shocked nod.

There was no time for niceties. She was too damn tired anyway.

Disoriented, Emmery barrelled into the smoke, ears ringing in her heavy head as if it were waterlogged. “Vesper!” she yelled, searching the flames. He was nowhere to be seen.

She whipped her head; her curses lost into the night. Maybe they had unknowingly passed each other. Worse, maybe he collapsed somewhere.

A sob rose in her throat she had no capacity to deal with. Surrounded by fiery debris, sweat stung her eyes and smoke strangled her lungs. She doubled over.

Oh gods, she couldn’t breathe.

Her world swayed and she stumbled into the street, seeking clean air.

That’s when she heard it.

Distant and obscured in the thick smog, someone called her name, and it floated to her as if it could follow no other path. She strained her ears, her name following a second time in the same deep timbre.

And she knew that voice from somewhere. It tugged at a memory deep within her.

Emmery searched for the voice, and lost her breath, ice flooding her veins.

Black as a starless sky, Hollow hounds—all spindly limbs, patchy flesh, and sinewy bones—prowled through the village.

They emitted the same rumbling growl and chill from the Waking Wood.

Those things had shredded Callias. And now they would do the same to her.

A dozen of them drooled blood from their lipless mouths and exposed teeth.

Trailing them, two terrifying women stalked through the flames.

One, taller than Vesper, her eyes wholly black to match her lips, smiled but it was hardly friendly.

Her hair in contrast mirrored the snow. A hound nuzzled her blackened fingertips and Emmery blanched as the woman licked the blood from her fingers like a rare delicacy.

She was undoubtedly the sixth sister from the stained glass.

Serafelle.

The other woman was a head shorter, her stick straight brown hair floating on a breeze, and skin a deep, luscious tan. Beautiful and deadly. Darkness cloaked her in its embrace, her shadowy wings wisping as she strolled through the fiery night.

Emmery knew her but not like this. Not as this thing .

This was Melantha—the once human queen.

But like Emmery, she hadn’t aged a day.

And now, she was a monster.

Her sapphire eyes met Emmery’s, and the world slowed. Stopped. Careened off course.

Emmery’s heart leapt into her throat at the malicious intent in the woman’s eyes. She turned and fled, not caring where as long as it was far away.

Her gut clenched as her hands caught her fall and thrusted her back to her feet. Her frantic breath clouded her face, her lungs threatening to collapse. A vast expanse of snow and flat land replaced the sheltering trees. Exposed her.

There was nowhere to hide.

Footsteps chased her but she didn’t dare turn around.

So, she ran.

Until her lungs burned.

Until her legs numbed.

Until the ground cracked.

Until it collapsed.

Emmery crashed through the ice. Her chest spasmed, bubbles cascading from her mouth as the frigid water punched the air from her chest. She stretched for the surface, kicking and flailing, but there was only solid ice. She pounded on it, scraping her fingers until they bled.

A silent scream clawed from her throat as she searched the dark for any cracks or openings—for a way out. Shock locked her limbs, and her eyes burned. She was blind, lost in the blackness. And suddenly impossibly tired.

This wasn’t like drowning in that river. This was colder. Darker.

And Fionn wasn’t here to save her.

Her eyes fell closed. It didn’t make a difference.

She couldn’t see anyway. Agony in her chest spurred the need to scream but the connection to her body severed.

If she could rip open her chest, release some pain, some of this terrible, unbearable pressure that inflated her like some sick, twisted carnival balloon—

There was too much. She sank into the darkness.

Her body was so damn cold.

Her last thoughts were of Maela as the abyss swallowed her.

And Death stretched for her.

She reached back.

Their hands brushed.

She let Death cradle her. And in His embrace, she finally found peace.

THE brUISING HANDS on her chest hurt. The soft lips on hers tingled. A kiss of life. Air inflated her lungs. Another push on her chest. Her ribs would surely crack.

“Breathe. Come on , breathe! ”

That voice. She knew that voice from somewhere.

Her eyes wouldn’t open. Too heavy. Pressure on her lips again—gentle or maybe they were numb. Her heart leapt. Water thrust from her lungs.

She coughed, water bubbling up and spilling out of her mouth.

Emmery leaned. Retched into the snow.

Gasped. Pulled in blazing, sweet air like burnt sugar.

“Wake up, Emmery.”

She tried. Gods, did she try but her eyes wouldn’t open. She choked once more, as she tumbled back into darkness.

Heated voices argued. She couldn’t decipher who as she slipped away.