Page 85 of Of Blooming Embers
My eyebrows scrunched as the liquescent metal pulled into the haze.
At my sides, I took Kaden and Gavrel’s hands. The others did the same, grabbing their neighbors until we formed a chain around the spinning mist.
I willed my gift to drink in everyone’s aura. Their bodies flinched, but their focus stayed true. Their energies pulsed through me, filtered and condensed until I pushed my palms forward. Not disconnecting, Gavrel and Kaden’s grips shifted, wrapping around my wrists.
I pushed my ember into the whirlwind. The silver within snapped angrily, spitting and clawing, trying to escape as it weaved together.
A chilled breeze ruffled my hair. Ice slithered up my spine.
“Enough!” Melina snarled behind me suddenly. My gaze snapped to the Elder as her hair settled around her shoulders, cape fluttering. The shadowy remnants of reapers dissolved on either side of her. Clearly, her ember wasn’t as weakened as ours.
I’d let her know when it wasenough.
Her aura slithered around her, and I whipped my attention back, imagining the vibrant hues of the Reverie Weald, pulse threatening to smash out of my veins.
Her claws sank into my shoulder, black smoke coiling around my jaw. Acid and rage boiled in my stomach, the touch of her ember and skin enraging me.
With a furious scream, I ripped my wrist from Gavrel’s hold and raked my nails over her flesh. Shrieking and yanking her hand away, the ring on her thumb gave way. Gavrel’s fingers locked around my wrist once more while I clutched the carved tourmaline in my palm.
“Jump!” I roared.
With Gavrel and Kaden’s holds tightening, we all leaped into the twisting portal. The whirlwind following us upward, fizzling as Melina’s screams and billowing darkness scratched uselessly at the vanishing wisps behind us.
33
AION
SERYN
Exhausted, my eyes blinked open as I looked up at the violet-tinged sky, sunrise already hooking into the clouds. My breath twirled above me in a glittering eddy. The corners of my lips curled.
Surrelia.
A bright glint prodded at my peripheral, demanding my attention. With effort, I sat up, squinting toward the blinding reflection.
My heart fluttered at the sight, the others strewn around me. As we stood, our breaths stirred the air, curling and sparkling around us, and the glow beneath the moss rippled under our feet.
A gleaming city lay ahead of us on the other side of a curving, obsidian coastal cliff.
An ocean of colossal towers climbed up the side of a gently sloping mountain. At the summit, the largest citadel perched. It was entirely gold with a halo of twinkling clouds revolving around the zenith. White opal covered the rest of the semi-translucent edifices, mixing with shimmering, shifting spectral hues as the early lightshifted over them. Gold melted over the tip of each tapered spire as if they’d been dipped into the looming fortress at the heart of the city.
A curtain of gushing water spilled over the coastline, hugging the edge of the city and into the ocean far below.
Like the hands of a clock, gilded statues of the Horai circled the perimeter. I’d read about these females. They were the Ancients of Hours who guarded Aion, Surrelia’s capital.
I recalled an ink drawing of the beautiful celestials dancing in a circle around a globe, laughing and holding hands. They were the keepers of time. Of the passing seasons.
Kaden shuffled over to me, gently pushing on my chin until my gaping mouth closed. He chuckled and stared off into the distance.
“What have you got there?” His head bobbed to the black stone my fingers fidgeted with.
My eyebrows wiggled. “Melina’s ring. It might take her a while to find her way out of the Murk now.”
Breena smacked a kiss on my cheek. “You beautiful, devious wench.”
Shrugging, I smirked and tucked the ring into my belt satchel.
“Well played, Seryn.” Rhaegar came to Breena’s other side. “Incredible, isn’t it?” He shifted his battle axe on his back. “The first time I saw Aion, I nearly fainted.”
