Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Are you ready?
I met Sandrine two years ago, when she washed upon our shores. I had gone riding without plan or escort. A reckless impulse I cannot explain, and something I hope you never do. But I digress. I told no one of my path, and yet, there she was. Unconscious, bruised, and bloodied. Whispering nonsense through cracked lips. Words she repeated. I’ve never forgotten them because she sometimes still mutters them while sleeping. “Shaburr shwin.”
After finding her, I bundled her up, intending to rush her to a healer. That’s when she awoke. She had no memory of who she was. Still doesn’t. But that’s all right. We know who she is now. Ours.
Memory loss, twice in her life? Like the two cave-ins with Morris, this wasn’t a coincidence but a pattern.
When she’d spoken of the “mental cage,” she’d mentioned memories she couldn’t quite reach. Did they stem from her life pre-Ahav?
Had she gone through a waterway, traveling between worlds? That would explain why Ahav had found her upon a shore.
I loved her the moment she opened those beautiful hazel eyes, peered up at me, and boxed my ears.
A startled laugh escaped me. I could hear him chuckling as he wrote that. Could see the scene as clearly as if I’d been there myself.
My mother. The ear-boxing champion of Hakeldama.
We laugh about our meeting now, though it took me months of patient courting to earn her trust. And her hand. I failed often, but I persisted, anyway. And in the end, I won. Marrying your mother is the finest decision of my life.
And there you have it, our love story. I wish I could tell you I found the Ember, as I found your mother, sparing you the weight of war and the cruelty of choice. But there are forces at work older than our kingdom’s crown. I have begun to suspect the Ember does not wish to be found so much as it needs to be recognized. It’s here, it’s near, and there’s a great chance we’ve overlooked it.
If these words reach you when you are lost or afraid, I pray they steady you, as Queen Elowen believes they will. Above all things, my Moriah, never forget that I love you.
Across kingdoms. Across lifetimes. Across whatever comes next.
Your father,
Ahav
Thoughts tore through me, a cyclone fiercer than the twin storms that had carried me between worlds and through time. Recognized. Not found. Not claimed.
Recognized.
Elowen believed this story could lead me to the Ember. Not the maps or the legends. This. So why hadn’t she told me herself? She’d had plenty of opportunities.
“You look ready to laugh and sob again,” Jasher said quietly, drawing me back to the present.
“My mother lived a life no one knows—” My voice cracked. I pressed the journal to my chest like a shield. A lifeline. “Never mind. My father said the Ember wants to be recognized.”
A knock sounded before he could respond, then the captain opened the door, his eyes once again trained on the wall behind me. “Time’s up.” He motioned to the exit. “This way, Oracle.”
18
TRUTH OR DARE
Ibolted from my seat, blood turning cold. I wasn’t ready for this, but no matter. At least I could give the journal to Ahav and prove—the tome vanished from my grip.
Breath abandoned me. No invisible person was hiding the tome; it was hiding itself.
“Oracle.” the captain prompted.
“One sec.” I marched to the bookshelves, hoping to find the journal but... no. Nowhere.
Fine. No showing it to Ahav. “Before we go,” I told the soldier, “you should know. If there’s one scratch on my monstra when I return, the perpetrator will die in agony.” I tapped my temple. “I’ve foreseen it.” Because I was imagining it right now.
“You should run now,” Kevin announced.
The captain flinched but stood his ground. “Let’s go.”
Doing my best impression of a seer confident in her ability, I picked up the backpack, glided to Jasher, and set it at his feet. Maybe this was foolish. I had no idea what the stones did, but if we were to build any kind of trust, we had to start somewhere. If nothing else, the stones could be used as weapons against any soldiers who dared approach him.
Although, considering the damage he could do with his shadow, he wasn’t exactly helpless.
I wondered… Did the shadow siren employ a similar trick?
“Why?” he asked me, confused.
“I meant what I told you. I care.”
Both he and Kevin watched me with narrowed eyes as I sailed past the pensive captain. I felt the heat of Jasher’s gaze boring holes into my back. I wasn’t sure what Kevin was thinking.
Three other guards waited in the stone corridor outside the room. One kept a hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed sword, leading the charge while the other two remained behind, at the door. Captain Rourke followed me, staying three steps behind.