Page 7 of Of Empires and Dust

The voice echoed endlessly. She couldn’t tell if it came from the world around her or from within. All she knew was that she recognised it.

“Come back to me…”

The second time was clearer, the voice stronger, the words resounding.

“Calen?” Ella called out with all the strength in her lungs. It had been her little brother’s voice. She was sure of it. “Calen?”

Ella’s call echoed as though she stood at the foot of a mountain, a great valley opening before her, but no answer came. And still, she fell.

The darkness was a physical weight on her soul. It pressed down into her, flooded over her, choked her. It threatened to swallow her whole, to devour everything that she was.

Something burned deep inside her, something screaming from her core. No, not screaming. Howling. Clawing. Fighting.

Her jaw twitched, blood burning as the wolf rose within her. A part of her fought it. A part of her called it forth. The wolf was as much a piece of her as the soil was of the earth, and it heard Calen calling just as she did – their family. Their pack. They would not go quietly into the darkness.

Ella closed her eyes, drawing in deep breaths, focusing her mind. As she did, the wolf howled in her blood, growing ever louder, a red mist slipping over her eyes. Her muscles tensed, the cry of the wolf rising to a crescendo until it consumed everything she was. Her skin itched and burned, her blood boiled, her lungs choked.

And then, without warning, the world stopped falling, and Ella found purchase beneath her feet.

Her entire body trembled, chest heaving as she dragged in ragged breaths. Slowing her breathing, she opened her eyes.

Before her, Ella’s fingers and hands shimmered with an ethereal white light, wisps of luminescent smoke trailing as she waved her hand back and forth.

“Níthianelle,” she whispered. The Sea of Spirits.The world between worlds.She looked down over her body, seeing it glow with the same light, wrought not from flesh, but spirit itself. But why was she there?Howwas she there?

Ella tried to think back, but everything was a blur. The last thing she remembered was the battle in Aravell. She had shifted with the dragons and flown to help Calen. Memories flitted through her mind: fire, lightning, claws, blood. Everything was jumbled, untethered, unstable. What had happened? Why couldn’t she remember? Was Calen all right?

She tried to reach out and feel her body in the waking world, as she had before. But she felt nothing… nothing at all. Panic flared in her heart. Was she dead? Why couldn’t she feel her body?

Ella’s chest tightened at the thought, her lungs feeling as though her ribs were trying to crush them. Her lungs pulled at the air, but each breath caught in her chest. She had to resist the anxious urge to claw at her skin. She crossed her arms, clasping her shoulders and trying to steady her heartbeat, trying to calm her racing mind.

Ella had only felt like this twice in her life: the day she learned Haem had died, and the day she watched Rhett bleed into the dirt. It was a feeling like no other. Like the world was collapsing and burying her beneath its weight. Like the oceans had risen around her and she kept swallowing water, scrambling to keep her head above the surface.

That was it… She was drowning.

“That’s it, Ella,”she remembered her mother whispering as they sat on the bed all those years ago when Haem had been taken from them. Ella had lain on her side, curled into a ball, her knees tucked to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs. She had cried for so long and so hard that her eyes had burned, and her head had pounded with a fury. Even breathing had hurt.

“Listen to my voice. Focus on my words.”Freis had moved to lie behind Ella in the bed, gently draping her arm across Ella’s shoulder, sheltering her from the world. Ella could still remember the warmth of her mother’s breath on the back of her neck, the tenderness of her voice.“You are strong, my girl. We will get through this, together, as we always have.”

Even just remembering her mother’s voice helped settle Ella’s mind, her breaths slowing.

“But he’s gone… he’s…”Ella’s sobbing had smothered her words.

“He is never gone, Ella. Your brother is too stubborn to ever leave us. We might not see him, but he is there, watching over us from Achyron’s halls.”

Back then, all Ella had seen was her own loss, her own anguish. Her big brother had been ripped from her and she’d never even had the chance to say goodbye. Haem had always protected her and Calen, had always been there whenever they’d needed him. And then, one day, he was gone, and he had left Ella to take his place, to look after Calen. She had been furious, anddistraught, and broken, and empty… and just… numb. So many emotions all at once.

It was only now, as she stood in the void of Níthianelle, her memories the only thing keeping her from being swallowed whole, that she realised how strong her mam had been.

Freis had lost a son that day – her eldest son, her firstborn, life created from her own blood. And she had turned her agony inwards so as to protect Ella and Calen from its touch.

“You are not ready… You will not give up.”

Those words sent a shiver through Ella. They were not a memory. Her mother had never said that.

Shaking, Ella pulled her hands from her shoulders, watching the white light pulse and wisp as her fingers trembled. “Mam?”

“You will not give up.”

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