Page 2 of A Kiss of Embers
No!Pri silently screamed.I would rather die. I would rather die. I would rather die.
In their distraction of conversation, Pri scrambled out from beneath the sharp end of the spear. Magic flung out of her fingertips, messy and uncontrolled. Flames burned the forest floor, lighting up sacred ground. Her bare feet sprinted across lush grass, patches of dirt, and rough branches. Fire trailed in her wake.
Desperate.
Frantic.
Terrified.
And then, as the Attleglade river came into sight, a large branch swung toward her. She turned her head just fast enough to catch a glimpse of a fourth man before her world turned dark.
Bastien Dalena crossed his arms, surveying his burnt home. In the space of a few months, it had caught fire.Three times.First, when his older sister, Nyana, had stayed in Attleglade Forest with her family when they’d been attacked by Ember Fae. Second, when his best friend, Ashryn, had started the fire with a neat card trick.
Fine, fine. It didn’t really count. But for being in the patrol guard like himself, she could often be a bit accident-prone.
And third, when that young girl’s fire magic had traveled a bit too far…
Ashryn dropped down from the tree overhead in a flurry of brown pants and shirt, white hair like his, and warm brown eyes. She took off her saber-toothed cat skull mask and placed her hands on her hips to mimic his stance. Her voice deepened to further mock him. “You know, if I only made my home deeper within the safety of the settlement, it wouldn’t be brown and crispy right now.”
With a snort, he shoved her shoulder. “My house is fine. It just needs…” He opened the door, only for it to snap off its hinges. He grimaced when he found himself holding the door made of tree bark, almost his height. He often had to duck through people’s doorways. Including his own. “A little work.”
“It has always needed ‘a little work.’”
Bastien gave his friend a mock frown, and when he attempted to flick her nose, she ducked out of reach. “I did a fine job hollowing out my own tree home. It looked great.”
“Sure, it did.Beforeyou got your hands on it.”
Her laughter evaded him as he attempted to kick her in the back of the knee, but she ducked into the charred home. A laugh accompanied the roll of his eyes, and he followed after. And…autumns.
What a disaster.
Black soot stained nearly every inch of the dying tree. Tables were piles of ash. The stairs were unrecognizable, now fallen through like the fragile remains of a firepit. The acrid stench of soot stung his nostrils with every inhale, and he barely held back a cough. His eyes watered, but no amount of open windows could possibly save what was left of his home.
He scanned what used to be a kitchen connected to the front room within the enormous tree, now unrecognizable. And when he turned toward the stairs, he ran smack into Ashryn.
“Oof!” she said, her sooty hands on his chest. She grimaced after leaving two black prints behind and began dusting his shirt off.
He raised an eyebrow high. “So, are we on again or still off?”
She stopped her fussing to stare up at him. The woman was taller and stronger than most other females in Attleglade. He didn’t know anyone who could swing a battle hammer as fast as she couldandmaintain a deadly accuracy. “Do you want to be on again?”
He shrugged and stepped away, kicking a charred piece of wood that he thought might resemble a chair leg. The tree groaned a weary sigh around him, slowly dying with little reprieve from its internal injuries. He shouldn’t feel bad for a tree. He really shouldn’t. But it hadn’t deserved this.
Three times!
Ugh. He was the worst caretaker of trees. His father, on the other hand… Bastien was a great caretaker when it came to him.
Putting his worries at the back of his mind, he smirked as he ran a hand over his long, white hair he usually wore back in a bun. “I wouldn’t mind a quick tumble in the woods.”
She moved far too fast as she snatched the shoe from her foot and threw it at him. He barely managed to dodge its trajectory and watched as it smashed into what used to be a bookcase. The ashy structure crumbled to pieces at the impact.
“Watch it! That was my favorite bookcase.”
“And now it’s your favorite ash pile.”
“Ha!” He grabbed her hand and pulled her close until she bumped into him again. She met his smirk with one of her own. “I take that as a ‘no’ then.”
His friend’s smile softened. “Someday, we have to stop this.”
