Page 53 of Dragons Of Shadow and Sea

The metal is hot against my skin. My vision blurred with tears, I yank at it, trying to remove it myself--which is stupid. The bracer is my only bargaining chip. It might be the only reason I'm even still alive, but in this moment, it feels like a trap.

Where would I be right now if the bracer had never come into my life? If I'd never heard its call; if it had never had the chance to leap onto my arm?

Would I be mated to the three incredible men fate chose for me?

Would I be here? Doomed and alone and friendless in a Shadow Dragon prison?

No matter how hard I tug at it, the bracer refuses to budge, and forget decorum or keeping my rage to myself. I stagger to my feet and bang the bracer against the bars of my cell, over and over and over, making an unholy racket that the whole citadel can probably hear. My arm aches with the impact, and my ears ring. But neither the metal of my bracer nor the metal of the bars shows so much as a scratch, and I collapse to my knees.

And I know it's no use, but I call to the stone beneath me. To the fire in the earth and in the hearths of the rooms above. To the water that must be running through pipes; the water in my own blood.

I call to my mates. But all I hear is silence.

For just a minute, I let despair swallow me. No one is coming to save me. I'm going to die here. The sorceress will cut off my arm and throw me back in this cell to rot.

Unless I can save myself. Unless I can find my own way out.

With a hiccup, I force myself to lift my head. Swabbing at my eyes, I look around.

Only to lock gazes with the old woman in the cell across from mine.

I start, my heart jack-rabbiting in my chest. How did I forget that she was there?

"Feeling better, dearie?" she asks. "A good cry helps sometimes."

And she's...not wrong. My little tantrum was definitely cathartic.

"Yeah," I admit, sniffing back the last of my tears. "Maybe a little."

"Leave her alone, Gran," the younger woman in the cell with her admonishes.

Her grandmother waves her off. "Don't mind her. This place has got her down a bit, too."

I laugh despite myself. "I can't imagine why."

The old woman smiles and taps her chest. "I'm Mariutza." She points toward her granddaughter. "That's Delaynie."

"Nice to meet you. Well." I shrug. "As nice as anything can be in a Shadow Dragon prison." I hesitate for a second, unsure how freely I should be speaking. If these two are spies, they're really, really well disguised. In the end, I decide there's no harm in giving them my real name. "I'm Ember."

That seems to take the woman aback. She falters, shaking her head, and there's a fogginess to her eyes. "Don't be silly, Faltine."

My head snaps up, and my heart pounds. "What did you just call me?"

Mariutza waves a hand at me before sitting down and curling into a ball. She starts singing quietly to herself.

Delaynie rubs her grandmother's back. With what seems like real reluctance, she casts a glance in my direction. "Sorry, she gets confused sometimes."

"But she called me--" My throat tightens, and my stomach clenches into a ball. I exhale slowly, trying my best to stay calm. Looking past Delaynie, I address her grandmother directly. "Mariutza, you called me Faltine."

She mumbles something under her breath, but I can't hear it.

Desperation is rising inside of me, but so is a conviction I can't name. My voice cracking, I curl my hands around the bars. "Faltine is--" I swallow hard, my eyes squeezing shut for a brief moment before I force myself to open them. "Faltine was my mother."

My vision mists over, images of my mother bombarding me out of nowhere. Her long dark hair that was just like mine--or at least it was, before the Shadow Bracer streaked mine through with violet. Her eyes that were like mine and her chin and her nose.

I remember her tucking me in, that last night. After my father disappeared and we retreated to the Air Kingdom. Her voice floats back to me, the memory both healing and painful. We're going to be okay, pumpkin. I'm going to make this right.

Only she didn't. She disappeared, and--

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