An Ember of Chaos (Fireheart #2)
Prologue
ARIEL
S creams rent the air, warning us all of the evil that had come.
The wooden door to our simple home flew open, and my mother rushed in with terror-filled eyes. Without a word, she whisked me away to a corner in the kitchen, where she tucked me behind her cutting block and crouched down before me. “Ariel, my love, you must listen to me very carefully,” she whispered as the tortured cries outside grew louder still. “You have to stay back here, and whatever you hear, you mustn’t move. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mama ? —”
“It’s very important that you don’t come out, no matter what.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
She forced a smile and smoothed my unruly curls from my face. “I love you, Ariel—more than anything in this world. I need you to remember that.”
“I love you too, Mama.”
Tears ran down her pale face, and she quickly wiped them away. “Stay down low and quiet as a field mouse, my love. I will come get you once it’s safe…” She hovered for a moment as something like pain flashed in her emerald eyes, then darted back through the front door, slamming it as she rushed into the village.
“Siora!” a booming voice shouted over the din. “You cannot hide from me any longer ? —”
“I’m not hiding,” she replied. “I knew this day would come.” The steel in her voice was unlike anything I’d ever heard from her, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had evoked it. Unable to stave off my curiosity, I edged toward the window and peeked through the slotted shutters.
Bodies peppered the dirt road outside, their blood staining it the same shade as my wings. My mother stood among them, her back to me as she faced an enemy I could not see.
“If you give it to me willingly, I will be merciful,” the faceless male called out to her. I couldn’t help but wonder what ‘it’ was.
“You lie,” my mother countered, the words like venom on her tongue.
“That I do,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke, “but it changes nothing. I will have what I came for—with or without your acquiescence.”
Flames sparked around my mother, surrounding her in an amber glow. “Let us see if you’re powerful enough to take it,” she snapped. Even at such a young age, I could clearly recognize the challenge in her tone.
Thunder ripped through the valley, shaking the ground, and I covered my head as pieces of the ceiling rained down upon me. A large copper pot fell from the cupboard and smashed into my head. Though I tried to hold it in, a cry of pain escaped me.
My mother looked over her shoulder reflexively to the window I peered through. Terror filled her eyes once again as she realized what she’d done.
Maniacal laughter filled the air as the clouds above snuffed out the sun. “A child, Siora? I thought you were smarter than that ? —”
“You will never have her,” my mother responded as her scales fell into place. Without warning, she charged the unknown being, flames igniting the way. They obscured my vision, the smoke and ash creating a hazy screen around them, but I could hear my mother’s woeful cries as he hurt her.
Fury sparked somewhere deep inside of me.
I pressed to the window only to see my mother crawl out of the smokescreen, her face bloodied and battered, her wings destroyed. A hand emerged from the ashy haze behind her and ripped her off the ground, holding her high above it. Long fingers wrapped around her throat, choking her, and she struggled against his hold, kicking and flailing, but she looked like a child too weak to fight the adult that held her captive.
Those wide green eyes full of fear locked on mine as he strangled the life from her. “Run, Ariel,” she mouthed. “Run…”
I shot to my feet and crashed through the front door just in time to see my mother’s back arch awkwardly to the sky as her anguished scream tore through the air.
“Mama!” I screamed just as flames erupted and a torrent of fire swallowed everything around us.
Including me.