Page 112 of Of Blooming Embers
“Breathe, Little Star. You’ve done it,” he murmured.
“Well, at least it’s not some beast that’ll bite our faces off,” Kaden joked. The color in his cheeks was returning gradually, overtaking the paleness.
I squinted my eyes at the bronzed mass. “Not yet.”
Its skin had an aurous sheen and almost blended into the resplendentgravel scattered around it. It breathed, the side of its chiseled flank rising with each inhalation.
With unsteady limbs, Kaden stood. He reached down to give me his hand. I let him and Gavrel help me rise. My muscles were loose, unattached, and floating in a haze of fatigue.
Too late, the eerie silence registered in my awareness. There weren’t any flashes of the Elders’ ember above. No infuriated shouts.
“What have you done?” Melina’s outrage sliced at my back. I tried to turn, but my legs buckled beneath me. Gavrel and Kaden bracketed me, holding me steady as we faced her together.
Melina’s platinum hair was a mess; her usually porcelain skin was florid, and her diaphragm heaved against her dark sheath dress. I’d never seen her so deliciously disheveled.
Without her tourmaline ring, she hadn’t been able to transport herself quickly, and she was delightfully breathless.
Balor Drent stumbled behind her, missing a couple of teeth from Kaden’s assault and looking quite put out.
Lifting my chin, a grin spread across my enamel as my thumb rubbed the faceted pommel at my hip. “Looks like you’re having a bad day.”
Her palms whipped up, talons spread wide. “I’ve had enough of you, pet,” she hissed, her voice sharp with annoyance and her smoggy halo billowing around her.
“Like you had enough of your fated?” Kaden chided.
I glanced at him. The corner of his eye creased slightly. He was stalling.
“Shut your pretty mouth, or I’ll shut it for you,” she snapped, cracking her neck to the side.
Kaden smirked, goading her further, “But I hear that you so enjoyed your time with him.”
She bared her teeth. “I think I’ll keep you after I rid Gavie of hiskhorda. Show you what I learned from mine. The commander can attest that I was an apt pupil. Besides, you must be pleased that they won’t complete the ceremony. At least you’ll still have your brother.”Her tone was scathing, her neck muscles looked as if they were going to burst, and one eye twitched.
Balor sniveled, inching closer to Melina. It was either the bravest or the dumbest thing the male had ever done. “Mistress, you thought Maya was?—”
“Silence!” Melina barked.
He recoiled. “Yes, of course, but what if this one is?—”
She whipped a smoky tendril of energy toward him, his body flinging to the stone. “Enough! I’ll deal with Phobetor’s wrath. It’ll be worth it to watch the light in her eyes dim.” She licked her bottom lip, flicking a half-lidded gaze to Gavrel. “And for Gavie to watch as I drain her mind completely.”
All at once, her ember swooped toward my face. My gift reared back, weakened and thrumming below the surface, but my hand was steady as I flung my dagger toward her heart.
With a garbled yell, Balor dove in front of his mistress, my blade sinking between his ribs with a satisfying thunk.
He crumpled at her feet as I beckoned my weapon to my hand, and Melina’s face twisted into an ugly mask of fury. Stalking closer, she pushed more power toward me, and my vision clouded with shadows.
Gavrel roared, twisting his body in front of mine and wrapping me in his embrace. The brunt of her attack pummeled into his back. His name tumbled from my throat as a billowing wall of blackened mist swept over him.
With a frantic look, Kaden charged Melina, clamping his arms around her middle, their bodies crashing to the stone. Her aura seeped into her skin, but the residual haze still clung to Gavrel, its shadows slinking into his ears and nose.
His jaw was taut as he resisted the intrusion, muscles straining.
His rune blinked on as he cupped my face, the ten-pointed star reflecting in his pupils. “She can’t take them, Asteria. Our memories are ours. I won’t let her take them. I won’t let her take you.”
“Gavrel.” The breathless whisper was like a knife dragging up my throat. Trepidation slithered up my spine while my fingers clung to the front of his tunic.
My aura sputtered. An embered thread twined tightly to the bone hovering over my aching heart, and I knew, with soul-deep certainty, that the other end fastened securely to my fated khorda’s corresponding rib.
