Page 83 of Fire in Stone

Hugging my knees, I stared into the water as it rushed by. Even shielded from the wind behind the rocks, my body felt numb in the biting cold. After a while, I was beginning to feel like one of these dark, motionless rocks around me. I wished I had no feelings, just like them, too. That I could turn into a rock like the gargoyles did.

But even rocks could feel. Elex did when he was trapped in stone for years.

“How did you do it?”I’d asked him, wondering how he’d made it through that horrible decade without losing his mind.

“You have to love life to survive…”He’d replied.“You have to love it fiercely and unconditionally to overcome even the darkest moments.”

Even after everything that had happened to him, Elex loved life.

I closed my eyes, letting my thoughts sweep me away, back into the time he held me in his arms high above the Atlantic Ocean.

All of that felt like a far-away dream now. Looking back, that had been the happiest time in my entire life. Up there, far away from all the problems that awaited me on the ground, I felt truly free.

I didn’t have much to miss from my old world, but if Elex was here with me, it would make life inthisworld so much more bearable.

“Where are you, Elex?” I whispered into the night.

I wished I could remember when and how we’d separated. Did it happen in the River of Mists? Was he in an entirely different world right now? Did he cross into Dakath later? If so, he could have landed thousands of years into the past or into the future from my current time.

I sighed. Either way, all I had from him now was only a memory, no matter how beautiful that memory was.

The thick, heavy darkness of the night had thinned with the graying light of the approaching sunrise when I finally rose to my feet. Slowly moving my half-frozen limbs, I climbed up the path, going back to the only place I knew in this world. To theSalamandraSanctuary.

By the time I made it back, the first rays of the sun had pierced the low clouds between the mountains.

I knocked on the gate. “It’s me. I’m back.”

The gate creaked open, and Zenada suddenly grabbed me into a hug.

“Oh, we thought you were gone,” she said fervently. “I’ve been searching for you since I woke up. I’m so happy you’re alive.”

The emotional greeting was unexpected, but it felt too nice to refuse. Lifting my arms, I hugged her back.

She smelled like boiled buckwheat and crisp mountain air—the scents of my new life. Fae always smelled nice, even when the water for bathing was scarce. The thought of whatImust smell like, after just a sponge bath in days, made me pull out of her hug sooner than I wished to let go.

Zenada’s dark eyes were rimmed with red. “Ertee… She…”

“I know.” I swallowed around a painful lump in my throat. “I saw when she did it.”

“So, she did it herself?”

I nodded.

She drew in a shuddering breath. “I hope she’s happy, wherever she is. I hope MotherSalamandratakes care of her.”

“She will,” I said with confidence, remembering Ertee’s kindness and soft-spoken manner. “She’ll love her. Ertee was so easy to love.”

She looked at me closely. “Is that why you left? Because you saw it?”

I glanced away, unable to deny or confirm it, not even with a nod.

“Come in.” Wrapping her arm around my shoulders, Zenada led me into the courtyard. “Come home, little human.”

I stopped at the door to the Sanctuary and turned to face her.

“My name is Amber,” I said. “I live here as one of you. You may as well know my name.”

“Amber,” she tried the sound of it. “It’s a beautiful name. Let’s go, Amber. I’ll warm you up and get your breakfast ready.”

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