Page 113 of Of Blooming Embers
Reverently, his thumbs brushed over the hollows of my cheeks. My soul pulled taut on the thread.
Why did it feel like he was saying goodbye?
Footfalls rushed toward us.
“To the Nether Void and beyond?—”
His mouth crashed into mine, and then he spun, pushing my body back toward the wall. The breath was knocked from me, and I choked on his name.
Gavrel hooked his arm around Melina’s waist as she lunged for me. His biceps bulged as he caged her flailing body against his torso.
Stunned, Kaden watched, a look of horror and realization contorting his face. Elders Guust and Strom stumbled onto the landing, shock and disorientation twisting their features.
Shifting stones crackled as the being shifted under the rubble at the center of the pool.
Pure, unconcealed love shone from Gavrel’s eyes as they met mine.
As if time stilled, the image of him from my dreams flashed before me.
Of him falling backward into the dark abyss.
“It’s the only way,” he’d said in our dream.
And as Melina flung her weight backward, Gavrel’s boots slipped on crushed stone and then tipped over the edge of the pool.
I reached for him, desperation tearing at my chest. “No!”
Greedily, the metallic-lined blackness gobbled them up, coiling around them and dragging them into its depths.
45
A GOLDEN THREAD
SERYN
With a sob, I lunged toward the pit on my hands and knees, not caring if I was about to meet my end. Flashes of all the times Gavrel had saved me from drowning flooded my mind, and I choked on hiccupping breaths.
My eyes were fixed on the twisting metal and smoke, the tiny spark of hope that he would break the surface extinguished. In that moment, all my fears fell away. I no longer cared if the lava-like shadows filled my lungs and consumed every space within me. I would gladly drown if it meant saving the man I loved. If it meant joining him in the aether.
How cruel were the Fates to give me my heart, and then tear it away? The thread that bound us sliced into my rib, and tears flowed freely down my cheeks. My ember thrashed against my vertebrae.
Before I could throw myself over the edge, Kaden’s arms clamped around me, pulling me to his side as I struggled against him.
“Take c-care, girl!” Endurst cried, Marah’s fingers covering her mouth.
“Where were you?” I screamed at the Elders. An irrational sense of condemnation boiled within me. “Why didn’t you stop her?” My nails scraped against the stone as I tried to drag myself into the molten pit.
Marah’s brows fell. “We tried, my dear. Our ember was lacking, and she stunned us for a moment.”
I barely heard the female; my heartbeat was thrashing about my skull so violently. “Let me go!” I raged, pushing and slapping at my friend.
“Seryn!” He shook my shoulders. “Ser, look!”
Distraught, I whipped my attention toward the being as he unearthed himself from the pile. His chin lifted as he stood to his full height, wide shoulders rolling back under the pale gold wrapped around him, the fabric draping down to his feet. Frosty blue eyes flashed as he looked down at us over his strong nose, the bridge slightly curved.
The two Elders fell to their knees, foreheads touching the stone. My chin lifted, tears flowing freely over my cheeks.
I knew that face. All its robust angles. The face from my favorite painting in the palace. My favorite book in the palace library.
