Royalty Fantasy Boxset: Ember Dragon Daughter & Hasley Fateless (Fated Tales Series 1 & 1.5) (The Fated Tales Series: YA Royalty Fantasy)
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So keep being an adorable loser. Don’t worry, you aren’t a loser on your own. I’m losing too. But when we meet? That will be a win we will never let down, because our win will help the world. How many people can say that?
And to answer your first question - I plan to kiss you, if you’ll permit me. We’ll work on the rest of the romantic parts and conversations when we meet.
There are a lot of men and women like James where I am from. Maybe it’s the unicorn influence? They don’t have sex often as a species. I’m curious how our ruling beasts influence our kingdoms. I don’t know. I just realized we haven’t spoken much about the Fateless. I knew what you meant when you described your symptoms to me, but that’s not what we call them on Faeinto and Grydagia. Since we were separate from you, I guess you created your own vocabulary outside of us.
It’s not too different though, as we also noted they don’t have a fated pair. Our Fateless population is called the Pairless. Their names work either way, right? We have wings in our hospital dedicated to them, with volunteers helping to care for them.
My best friend though, my own version of Ember I guess, is named Niandra. She is another trader. Traders don’t have many friends that aren’t traders or people we trade with. We don’t make many connections outside of that.
And as for my kingdom’s First Fating, it was quite romantic as well. I’ll save their story for when we are together.
I can’t wait to talk to you in person, with no delays like this. There is so much I want to know, but only so long I can write without getting a hand cramp.
Yours,
A
Seventeen
Broken and in Love
In no time at all, the carefully transported and packaged dragon blood was sent to the other resistors. Not that Hasley saw any of that, but James and Maroon gave her updates as the days passed. She still hadn’t left the forest. She was like an animal, dirty, cleaning herself with cloth and little buckets of water brought by Amic. She didn’t have any visitors now but the three of them. Enough support had been drummed up before Ember’s appearance, so Hasley gladly took her privacy back.
Maroon brought a brush on one of his visits and helped her comb her hair. He didn’t know anything else to do with it, but he brought a ribbon from his sister to tie it up in the back. She grew to like Maroon, even though she envied the companionship between him and James. The nights were a little colder now. They brought clothes and blankets to swap out too. Hasley changed into pants and a long shirt. Both items drowned her, but it was comfortable, and Amic said he’d have her other clothes cleaned.
She was close to meeting him, her pair, and it frightened her. Hasley knew that he was already her pair, but having it officially snap into place as it should scared her. What if he decided he didn’t like her and the fating had been wrong? What if something happened to him before then? Hasley and Amic had already told him to stay away from the wall that night, but she still worried.
Hasley pet Amalthea and sent her on her way, a new letter and a new dawn.
“It’s today,” Amic said as he walked into the camp. She knew that she, Amic, and a handful of people would change the world today. It was always that way, wasn’t it? A few people, a cause, and love. She took a deep breath.
He sat on one of the logs they drew around the fire, right outside where her canopy had been. It was like a makeshift living room, this strange pile of dirt near the wall that she lived on. She had awoken early to remove that canopy. After tonight, she wouldn’t need it anymore.
Amic ate porridge by the fire in silence. Hasley’s voice was sore, afraid to say her fears aloud, but she forced herself to do so.
“What if I’m too broken…” her voice croaked, “for him to love me?”
Amic’s eyes swam with tears, putting down his bowl and spoon.
“I’ve wondered the same thing. Arsenio lived his whole life with his mother, a life without me. Do I fit into it?”
He shook his head and pushed up from the log. Amic walked around the fire and sat beside her. She mutely handed him a corner of her blanket.
“We’ll meet him together. We’ll be together a lot I think. Whether you and him leave Ashkadance or settle here, I’ll come too. I’ve been alone for too long now… With my pair gone… I want to spend every moment I can with the son that the wall took from me for so long.”
He smiled at her and added, “Despite our fears, we are not too broken to love.”
Tears shed from her eyes and a laugh shook from her. “I used to think that about everyone, but myself. It’s time I give myself that same respect, I think.”
“Good plan,” he said, “now before this show gets on the road, there is one thing we should do.”
“And what’s that?” She asked curiously.
“We should tell your parents that you are okay. With all that will happen tonight, they should know that,” Amic said, thinking of the years he knew nothing about his son’s well being.
After a moment's hesitation, she nodded and took out a piece from her large stock of paper.
Mom, Dad, I don’t know how to start this letter other than to say that I am okay. I have been fated and I hope to introduce him to you soon. I’m sorry for the way that I left and I’m sorry for the pain I caused you both. I love you and will see you soon.
I have one request. Stay home tonight, okay? You will know why soon, but for now I need you to trust me when I say that it will be unsafe to celebrate Mutrien’s festival outdoors today.
All my love,
Hasley
Hasley savored the last few moments she had of her old life. While so much had changed in the past few weeks, she knew there were still small pieces of her ready to shed away. She was nervous, but hopeful, to let it all go.
Eighteen
Saving Each Other
The ground beneath Hasley shook as a dozen other spots along the kingdom’s wall were hit with blood fire. Amic pulled her back from the wall for her safety. She struggled at first, but then relented. He held a torch in his hand, lighting his face. His eyes were wide, hopeful, as he stared into its heat. James and Maroon stood behind them, sweaty and leaning on their shovels. Only a few feet from where Hasley usually slept was a fine crack in the wall, one they hoped to split open.
“It’s time,” Amic whispered.
Hasley felt the outline of Lane’s letter in her pocket. Arsenio and her would get to open it soon enough. She smiled at Amic and whispered back, “I’m ready.”
“I don’t know if I am,” he confessed in the dark, taking a shaky breath.
“It’s okay to be scared,” she said in reply, “but this is where we are meant to be.”
He took another deep breath and nodded. “Get behind me.”
She repositioned herself behind him and he threw the torch. The fire arched as it landed in the trench they filled with dragon blood. It swallowed up the fire hungrily, boiling up into a rising column of blood fire. Around her the booms of other resistors doing the same along the wall echoed. Other resistors who were hungry for change, willing to risk anything with their own torches fueled by dragon’s blood.
Hasley hadn’t had the same motivations. A few months ago she would never have done something as dangerous as this, but maybe that’s why she needed to. There was so much that she hadn’t been able to control these past weeks.
With Aaleia guiding her way, that must be one of the reasons why she was fated to Arsenio, so that she could break that mold. Her and Arsenio needed to be fated for the wall to fall. It was a responsibility larger than she had ever imagined for her life. She was a Jeweler. She had wanted nothing but a calm life with a clear path. It seemed so far away from her now.
As the wall that surrounded her for her whole life crumbled down, Hasley held her breath. Her heartbeat quickened and her life started again renewed. Piece by piece rock and debris fell around them with each boom of blood fire. James and Maroon pulled Amic and Hasley farther back away from the explosion.
“Let’s give them some privacy,” Maroon said to James. He nodded in agreement and they watched their two friends disappear. They sat on the log they often had dinner on with Hasley and waited for them to return.
“Arsenio!” Amic called into the dark.
Light from the moon and still burning blood fires lit their way dimly, reflecting back from the water. Hasley was amazed, the ocean was more dazzling than even her visions saw. Such a huge body of water startled her, sending her senses into overdrive.
“Arsenio!” Amic called again. They ran a few feet together on the sand. Hasley almost tripped, unused to the way sand felt beneath her feet.
“I’m here!” A voice called to their right.
Hasley turned and was immediately overcome with emotion. Arsenio locked his grey eyes with hers from ten feet away. The gold sparks of their fating finally came together. It latched onto their skin and the space between them began to glow. They ran into each other's arms so swiftly it looked as if the sparks that trailed behind them were wings. Magnetized, their lips locked in passion. The golden sparks between them bounced and expanded until they were surrounded.
“Finally,” he whispered against her lips. Her small nose bumped against his wider one and they laughed.
“Finally,” she mirrored and moved her face back to see him fully.
His hair was long enough to reach his shoulders, black, and flopping in waves from the sea salt. It was partially contained in a ponytail. His eyes were shining with mischief as he took in her blue hair. His skin stood out brightly in the dark for how light it was, similar to the shine of the moon. He stared at her as intently as she did to him.
“What are you thinking?” Hasley asked him, worried she wasn’t what he expected after all this time. Her old perfectionistic habits momentarily filtered back to the surface, something she would always need to fight.
“You're even more perfect than I imagined, soot on your face and all,” Arsenio said as he wiped a finger over the offending spot. She flushed, but smiled.
“I’m glad we didn’t describe ourselves. I’m glad I get to have this moment, seeing you as if we were strangers.”
His hand caressed her cheek and she basked in the warmth of their true fating. They were whole, together at last.
“My hero,” Arsenio called her before dipping down for another kiss.
When he pulled away, they heard a distant voice. His voice grew louder and when she looked, Hasley saw Amic was only a few feet away holding his torch stock-still in the moonlight. She had forgotten she was with him only moments ago. His voice had seemed so far, as if it couldn’t filter through their golden sparks. When her eyes refocused, she could see more into the night around her as the sparks bounced high around them. Amic inched closer.
“Son?” he asked.
Arsenio turned his eyes away from Hasley and saw his father. His eyes seemed to glaze over when he saw his father and a subtler purple light mixed with the gold. Amic and Arsenio had never met, as separated from each other as Hasley had been. This was their blessing bond snapping into place, a father and son reunited at last.
“I’m happy to finally meet you,” Arsenio whispered. Amic came towards them and the three of them hugged each other tightly.
In that moment Hasley could see their whole lives stretched out before them in one sweeping wave. This new world would be messy, birthed by blood fire, but they could handle it together.
Because together, their love glowed in the dark of night.
Ember and Hasley
will return in
Ember Dragon Savior
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Ember Dragon Daughter Acknowledgments
Written on April 7, 2018
It is with these words that I take a deep breath. It is with these words that I shout and cry. It is with this soul that I breathe the fire that will become Ember Dragon Daughter.
While there are so many people that I’m sure my future self will want to thank, there is only one person on my mind as I write Ember’s story.
Chris, I wrote this book during the worst period of our lives. Cancer. The C-word that is whispered and screamed. The scariest monster we’ve ever faced. If we can do that together, nothing can stop us.
Thank you for believing in me and for believing in this book. It would never have come to be without you.
Written on June 19, 2019
I wrote the above and told myself I would not open that file until I was ready to publish. I’m so glad I was able to record those emotions for me to explore now.
This novel was written over the next year in waiting rooms, on the floor of the ER, in uncomfortable hospital chairs that double as twin beds, and on the floor of our spare bedroom because getting in and out of bed was difficult for my husband. For a year, we slept on the floor.
Ember Dragon Daughter helped me escape and feel empowered at the same time. Now, my husband is safe and clear. We are cancer-free! But neither of our journeys are over.
I hope as you read this book you enjoyed learning about Ember and her world, there are a lot of influences from my personal life. Like my need to protect. The amount of pressure I put on myself to solve everyone’s problems. My inability to hide even when I want and need too. My hope that things can get better. My husband’s heart, beating in Noor’s and mirrored in his laughter. The importance of friendship and community.
Tragedy helped me put this into words, but it doesn’t have to be that way for you.
So, dear reader, whether you are a writer or not - I hope you know that you CAN make your dreams come true. Just take it one decision at a time.
Thank you to my toddler son for saying, “Mommy book,” because that made my heart melt. Thank you to the other authors that helped me bring this to life. As an indie author, choosing who I get to invest in means a lot to me. Thank you to Mandi Lynn for creating the cover for Ember Dragon Daughter, to Kim Chance for your help, and to PS Malcolm for your guidance and support. Thank you to my critique partner and fellow indie author, Emilia S. Morrow, for talking to me about plot and revisions at all hours. Thank you Kate Weiler for helping me learn how to give and take feedback, I hope we can work together again soon.
Thank you to everyone that supported my business and projects on RebeccaKSampson.com. It helps me cover publishing costs!
I cannot wait to share with you more in the Fated Tales Series.
As younger me expected, there are too many people to thank. I’m sure I’ll forget somebody and be very embarrassed, but as of this first printing here is a list of wonderful people that have helped support me and have grown with me during this process of writing and publishing my first novel. I am forever grateful.
Thank you to my middle school crush for inspiring my first attempts at poetry, thank you to my mother for continuing to encourage my creativity all throughout my childhood. Thank you to my husband for inspiring only romantic poetry and for being the first keeper of my secrets, novels,
and heart.
Thank you to my sisters, brother, dad, my in-laws, and extended family for encouraging my big ideas all these years. A response of “why not?” instead of “why?” makes a big difference in a dreamer. Thank you!
Thank you to my beta readers, and the expansive writing community on Instagram, YouTube, and through NaNoWriMo for giving me a home away from home. It was you and this book that distracted me while I was in chemo-center waiting rooms. I know it took me a little while to share that part of my life with you, so thank you for the warm welcome when I was finally ready for more support.
In particular, thank you to writing friends and inspirations Brittany Wang, Bethany Atazadeh, E.C. Woodham, Peggy Spencer, Jessi Elliot, Bruna Reis, and J.M. Buckler. I have learned so much and connected with all of you. There is so many more people I can mention! If you’ve thought of me, I guarantee I have also thought of you.
Thank you to my coworkers Erin, Danae, Matthews, Molly, and Melissa for the encouragement these past two years as Ember came together. This big dream of mine kept me away from lunches, happy hours, and events and you still invited me anyway. Thank you!
Now for some famous people. Thank you to my author influences and “Mac & Cheese” comfort books! Thank you Lynne Ewing for creating the first YA series I devoured, The Daughters of the Moon, and to Stephenie Meyer for my young obsession with Twilight. An extra special thank you to Marissa Meyer for The Lunar Chronicles and Keira Cass for The Selection Series. Those two are my most re-read series!