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)
We’d reached a crossroads, the Ember and I.
“I’d only just found her again, and now I’m supposed to say goodbye forever?” My chest caved inward, ribs compressing around a scream with nowhere to go.
Going cold all over, I folded over. Sobbing harder. “Her loss is too much. The price is too high. Give her to me, and I’ll do whatever you want. Anything!”
I heard the answer in my heart. Give me everything, and I’ll give it back.
Give her, get her back? “She’s been given.” I leveled fast, my spine shooting straight. Heat infiltrated the cold, and my tears dried. Light flickered in me, each spark unleashing a fresh tide of determination and strength. Truth. “Now give her back.”
My beloved sister hadn’t died so I could fold in on myself. She hadn’t bled out in my arms so Ian could walk away smiling.
More light. Staying longer. Growing brighter. Brighter still. But not igniting. Not yet.
Understand later. Fight now.
For Elowen? “Yes,” I breathed out. I rose to my feet. “Ignite.”
No response. Not anything I heard. But the world rushed back in—sound, motion, enemies. Royal soldiers were losing ground, falling one after the other, but I wasn’t cowed.
I would save Ahav, get Elowen back, and then we would finish it.
Strong hands gripped my shoulders. “Moriah,” Jasher said, his voice breaking. He pulled me against his chest, shielding me as fire blasted where I’d been kneeling only a split second before. “I found Ian. Come.”
Trust him?
No.
Jasher pulled me forward, the heavy weight fading from my feet with every step. He steered me away from the hill. Away from Ahav.
I wrenched free and darted toward my father. I would take him to Mom. But tell her about Sin and Malkom, as Elowen instructed? No. Mom was pregnant with me. She had no memory of this life. How could I destroy her peace?
But how could I deny my sister her dying wish?
My hands fisted. And what if Malkom was the monster who’d killed Elowen? I did not want my mother facing such a beast.
“It’s too late, Moriah.” Anguish coated Jasher’s words as he followed me, killing anyone who made a play in my direction. “Ahav entered the Ring of Truth with me. Told me he’s seen the end of the monstra, but the price is his life. A royal sacrifice made willingly. There’s no other way to save his family or people.” He beheaded a monstra. “He told me his death is the reason you can develop golden armor. It’s how the Ember sparks. And spreads.”
“No. He’s wrong.” I couldn’t lose two loved ones in a single day. Let me be the sacrifice. If I died, so be it. Maybe I was always supposed to take the monstra down with me.
But though I strained within, the Ember did not ignite. It did, however, speak again. Understand later. Fight now.
My father stood atop the rise now, deliberately drawing more and more monstra uphill, at a point overlooking his kingdom. His armor was scorched, cracked, but he stood tall, defiant as the sun at dusk. The beasts had stopped attacking him, at least. They knew they could kill him at any moment and were content to watch him and discover what he planned.
“Ahav!” I shouted, wrenching free and running for him. “Dad.”
His gaze found me, and something in his expression—peace, apology, love—split me straight down the center. “My Moriah,” he called. He slammed a fist above his breastplate. A salute from one soldier to another. “I love you, my brave girl. Never forget that.”
Blood soaked through his armor, one hand pressed uselessly to his side. He looked smaller like that, bowed, mortal in a way he had never been in my mind.
My vision tunneled, the world blurring at the edges, as if reality itself were fraying. A tug in my chest, like a cord being ripped free, a tide yanked out at sea without warning. My breath hitched, stalled, and refused to return. Not again, not him, not now. “I will be the sacrifice. Me!”
Give me everything, and I’ll give it back.
Jasher caught me by the waist, yanking me back just before I breached the masses. Wings swiping this direction and that, he blocked any fire thrown our way.
Ahav sank to his knees.
“No,” I shouted, throat scraped raw. “No. You don’t get to do this. Not after her.”
But he did.
The monstra unleashed, and I couldn’t stop it. Flames swallowed him in a blink. Ahav threw back his head and spread his arms. In those molten flames, he burned, his body ashing before my eyes.
Something inside me snapped, clean and final. A dam gave way. The Ember wanted my life? My will? Expected me to yield now, before I understood? Give everything?
You want a broken heart shredded beyond repair? It’s yours, I said, making the Ember’s will my own.
And like that, it detonated. Heat ripped through my veins, incandescent and merciless. I’d only had glimpses before. I realized that now. Too hot, so hot. Blazing. Blistering.