Page 1 of A Kiss of Embers
A terrifying silence ground its knuckles across the forest. Late summer leaves remained motionless in the towering trees overhead. Even the nocturnal animals held their breath, perhaps crouching in the darkness, waiting to spring from their hiding places. Each soft footfall on the foliage beneath her feet sounded like crashing boulders compared to the silence and her heart a pounding drum.
Pain rippled across Pri’s torn wings, which hung limp and tattered against her back. She gritted her teeth when each movement across the forest floor consumed her with agony. Tears blurred her vision, but she quickly swiped them away to keep her eyes clear.
Awareness prickled across the back of her neck. When she turned to glance over her shoulder, only darkness stared back at her.
Shadows crawled from shrub to tree, accompanied by the faintest whistle of wind through the leaves. She blinked several times to dispel the distortion of movement and then continued to creep forward on the tips of her bare toes.
Please, she begged through the agonizing pain.Don’t let them catch me.
Her older sister would never have allowed her to make this perilous journey if she had known her intentions. Not with an entire army at her back. And certainly not on her own. But if she did nothing, she would never fly again. She would rather risk her life than be bound to the ground for the rest of her days.
The sight of the waterfall leading to the top of the mountain spurred her heart into a hopeful frenzy. The Glades. Just across the rope bridge lay the entrance to the pool of healing. A little bit farther. Almost there.
A tingle from the back of her neck to her arms caused her to spin around once again. Darkness. Shadows. And the distant roar of the waterfall.
She stared into the shadows, eyes scanning every inch of the quiet cliffside. Trees. Grass. Leaves. But still, she moved closer to the safety of the darkness just in case. After several long moments of surveying her surroundings, she turned back around.
And yelped.
A man towered over her, wearing all manner of weapons on his person. Knives. A bow. Arrows. And the sight of the chupacabra skull covering his face like a mask melted her heart into a puddle of fear.
He was one ofthem.
A Forest Fae.
Her enemy.
Pri darted away, but the man moved blindingly fast as he grabbed the back of her clothing and threw her to the ground. An involuntary shriek escaped her mouth when she landed on her injured wings. She flinched, squeezing her eyes shut as she held her hands over her face to protect herself.
A second assault never came.
The man inhaled sharply, and she peeked through her fingers to find him pulling the bone mask from his face. White hair tumbled out from beneath the feathery skull, silvery blue eyes the color of a full moon staring down at her. His eyebrows furrowed while he took her in with one sweeping glance.
“You are just a child.”
She whimpered. “Please. Don’t hurt me.” She wasn’t a fighter like her older sister. All she knew how to use as a defense was her fire magic. Even then, it shied away in her terror.
Pri scrambled backward until her back pressed against a tree. She watched his hands. Instead of reaching for a weapon, they remained at his sides. He glanced over his shoulder at the darkness behind them. But even she knew anything might live within the shadows.
Finally, he growled, “Go. Run while you can. If they find you—” A pause, and then he swore under his breath. Seconds later, two other Forest Fae dropped from the boughs above, landing on silent feet.
“Well, well,” one of them laughed, face hidden behind a bear skull mask. He probed her shoulder with the wooden end of his spear. “An Ember Fae. Good job, Bastien.” He clapped the man with the chupacabra mask on the shoulder. “I was beginning to doubt your competence.”
“Gael,” Bastien murmured, his gaze flickering to her. “She’s just a child.”
“And?” The man now prodded her cheek with the blunt end of his weapon. Her pulse jumped in response, followed by frantic breaths. “They all grow up eventually. If we don’t kill her now, she’ll come back when she’s older. It will be our people’s blood on her hands.”
Pri opened her mouth, desperate to beg for her life. But the words froze on her tongue the moment Gael held the sharp blade of his spear to her breast. She squeezed her eyes shut, silent tears trailing down her cheeks.
Seraphina!she screeched in her mind as she held the red stone strung around her neck. It burned hot in her hand at the tether between her and her sister. But her older sister wouldn’t come to her rescue in time. She shouldn’t have done this. She shouldn’t have come here. She would die for her foolishness.
“Stop.”
Her eyes cracked open to find Bastien with his hand closed around the wooden shaft of the spear. The man’s eyes hardened. “Spilling her blood now will prove nothing. Take her to the village to face the council.”
Gael frowned. “She will die there just as she would die here.”
The third man with a snake skull mask, who had remained silent through the interaction, now spoke. “They can use her for information. Ember Fae attacks have recently become more frequent. She might know something.”
