Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I frowned. “Ian claims Sin blames our mother for the loops.”
She shook her head. “Sin isn’t all powerful. She sees outcomes, not origins, and she often mistakes influence for authorship. But none of us know everything. I didn’t become aware of the loops until I had visions of a future that had already taken place. But every time we started over, realization came sooner, allowing me to prepare new visions with instructions for myself. Ways to intervene and plan for the next go-round.”
Always living for the next life.
“You contain the Ember at birth,” Elowen explained, tracing a fingertip along a scar on her arm, as if remembering the blow responsible, “but it remains dormant until the stones provide kindling. Now, you alone can unleash the blaze.”
By giving it my life.
I looked at my sister, this woman forged in tragedy, who had loved me fiercely from afar, choosing restraint when every instinct must have screamed to warn me. “Do you know what happens to Mom when she disappears from Kansas?”
“I do not. I believe Sin is responsible. She’s obsessed with our mother, and therefore us.”
Sin needed to be taken down. Malkom too. Ian, yes. “I don’t know how to give the Ember my life,” I admitted. “But I’m certain of this.” I reached for Elowen’s hand again, gripping it tight, grounding us both. “I won’t run from what I am anymore. I won’t let your sacrifices or theirs be for nothing. And I won’t let you carry this alone.”
Elowen’s breath hitched. Her fingers tightened around mine.
For the first time since I’d met her, the burden in her eyes eased. Not because it was gone, but because we shared it.
Deep inside me, the Ember stirred. Not as a threat. As a promise. As if it wasn’t just smeared over my skin but branded in bone.
In my mind, portions of Ahav’s journal stood at attention. I muttered, “Shabur shwin.” The words Sandrine—Andrea—spoke while unconscious, before meeting Ahav. Then I couldn’t stop repeating the words, faster with every echo. “Shabur shwin. Shabur shwin, shabur shewins. She burns—” My eyes widened, and it hit me all at once. “She burns, she wins.”
Elowen smiled again, this one steeped in pride. “Before I hid her memory, Andrea chanted those words often.” All grace and elegance, she stood. “I know you intend to enter the Ring of Truth to learn the mistakes and triumphs from your other lives. When you do…I hope you’ll forgive me. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for the good of us all.” One step, two toward the water.
I stood too, my wounds immediately protesting. “I don’t want you to go.” We’d spent too much time apart.
“Sin and Malkom must be neutralized. They have stolen you in the past, and I won’t let them do so now. You focus on Ian. Consider him practice for the big bad. He and the clones are infected with Sin’s darkness,” she said, not masking her regret. She entered the tub and sank into the water, as if there was no foundation under her feet. “Burn and win, sister.”
Her statement hung in the air as she disappeared beneath the water’s surface.
No time to react to her loss. Jasher strode into the hut without warning, already scowling. He’d bathed, his hair damp and his clothes clean. The breaks in his wings had healed. In fact, he looked more powerful than ever, despite his partial shift.
The sight of him acted as both acid and soothing balm to the array of wounds within me.
He stopped and extended his hand in my direction. “Swallow this.”
Argh! Compulsion kicked in, and my hand shot out, claiming the item, whatever it was. I popped it in my mouth before I could steal a glance at it, guzzling it down before my brain caught up to my actions.
Oooh. A serpens-rosa, I realized seconds later. The miracle cure-all for physical ailments.
“I hid it here as a boy,” he said.
My veins fizzed, unleashing a tide of warmth and strength. Muscle and skin knitted back together, and the newly formed scabs dissolved. An exhale of relief seeped from my lips as the pain faded. So much better.
And yet… “You use your shell to make serpens-rosa.” That shell had first housed the Ember. Life itself.
“Yes. What remains of it, anyway.” Jasher notched his chin. “You may hate that, but I won’t apologize for helping you.”
Hadn’t I once said the same to him? “I’m grateful for your kindness.” I stretched with the languid elegance of water finding its level. Like I’d accepted my new nature and decided to wear it as a crown.
Towering over me, Jasher stared, hard, not attempting to avoid eye contact but willingly getting trapped by it. A bolt of heat zinged me as we continued to stare, bringing a whisper of far more power.
This man might be infected with darkness, but he had light in him, too.