From Flame and Ash

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  I let out a shiver, and Easton pressed even closer to me as if reassuring me. Or maybe that was just what I needed, and so I took that as the meaning of his action.

  “There was a city here?”

  “Yes, of course, there was, little one. There were cities here as well as in the lower territory. There were so many people. But it wasn’t all happiness. Though you know that. There wouldn’t be ruins if there hadn’t been heartache. Because we were lost, forgotten, and then remembered when we shouldn’t have been. And because of that memory, they took us. They killed us. They stripped us of our souls and our magic. They used their Wieldings in the worst possible ways. And then we were gone. Not here, nor there. But I remained. Because without a memory, does something even exist? Without someone to tell others of the cities that were born and the children that smiled and laughed, did it exist in any realm?”

  Tears pricked my eyes, and I blinked them away, not knowing why I was crying for people who had been born long before I was even a speck of memory.

  Civilizations in the human realm had been built and had fallen in the time the Spirit territories had been vacated. Yet it felt like it was yesterday. As if I could hear the children dancing in the street and smell the warm bread from the bakery and see people walking around as if they had no cares in the world.

  And it hurt. It hurt so much, but I couldn’t do anything about it. After all, there was nothing to do.

  “But, Lyric, you’re here to save the day, aren’t you?”

  I blinked, looking up at the old man. “What?”

  “Well, you need to save the day. You’re not here just for giggles and to lean into that boy over there.” He winked, and Easton and I separated. I hadn’t even realized that we were leaning into each other until the man pointed it out.

  Heat spread across my cheeks, and Wyn raised a brow at me. Both Teagan and Arwin were looking in the other direction, but I had a feeling their attention was also on me.

  Well, that was weird.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, wondering why he wouldn’t tell me.

  He waved me off. “It doesn’t matter. Names come and go, time comes and goes. That’s what time is, after all, something that passes in the distance as we try to keep up.”

  Okay, so the man was a little insane. And loved to talk in riddles. Apparently, being alone for over five hundred years did that to someone.

  “So, Lyric? The dreams weren’t enough? What more do you need? How many clues do we need to give you so you can fix what happened?”

  I sucked in a breath, but I didn’t lean towards Easton, and he didn’t move towards me. “So, you were in my dreams. I didn’t make that up?”

  The others looked at me, but Easton didn’t. After all, he already knew the answer.

  “Of course, I was. I’m a Dream Walker.”

  This time, Easton sucked in a breath, and I looked over at him. He gave me a sharp look, then leaned close to my ear, his breath warm against my skin. I held back a shiver as I always did when it came to him.

  “Dream Walkers are rare. As the name implies, they can walk in dreams. And legend says they can steal your soul through your dreams.”

  He leaned away, and I blinked, frozen in place. My soul? They could steal my soul?

  My…spirit?

  I didn’t have time to think about this. The Dream Walker studied us curiously before opening his mouth to speak again.

  “The others need me,” the man continued. “They all need me. Oh, fish. I forgot your fish.” He went off to look for fish, even though I didn’t know how there could be fish in a place with no rivers or lakes. I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask.

  I blinked, looking at the others as if hoping they would know what to do because I had no idea.

  “What? What do you mean? What am I supposed to do? Do you know something about the prophecy? Why are we here?”

  I had so many questions, and this man was not giving me any answers. I didn’t even know if he had any. All he was doing was confusing me and, honestly, annoying me just a little.

  “The Spirit Priestess will come of five, yet of none at all.

  She will be strength of light, of darkness, and choice.

  You will lose what you had.

  You will lose what you want.

  You will lose what you will.

  You will lose what you sow.

  Then you will find the will.

  Find the fortune.

  And then you will make a choice.

  A choice above all.

  A sacrifice above will.

  A fate left denied.

  And a loss meant to soothe.”

  I froze once again. Those words…they were what I’d wanted to hear, what I needed to know. Yet I had no idea what any of it meant. I needed to deconstruct it…yet it wasn’t enough. I needed more, and I had no time. There was never any time.

  “Lyric, it will all make sense. Though that’s not all of the prophecy.” The man met my gaze, and I saw such clarity there. I blinked. “I was the sixth, the one behind you to the south. The one in your dreams. The one who was there when it all ended. I know what was, and so I understand what needs to be. If you ever find your way to where I am again, I will show you our history. At least what I can remember of it. The Spirit territories used to be lush and filled with life. And they need to be once more. The Maison realm needs to be abundant once more. The Spirit territories look as they do because there is no one here to give them life. And I’m afraid the rest of the realm will look like this soon if you don’t give life back to the crystals. If you don’t seal the fracture.”

  And then he blinked, and his eyes suddenly went less clear. I wondered what had just happened.

  I looked over at Easton, our gazes connecting, and I saw darkness there mixed with a warmth that told me that I would be okay. That I wouldn’t be alone. That I would have someone by my side no matter what. Then he blinked, and the look was gone in an instant.

  I didn’t know what to say to anyone. I was more confused than ever.

  “Go. You must go. You can’t be late.”

  “Will you be safe here?” I asked, feeling more unnerved than ever. He’d spoken of the prophecy. It was the first I’d heard of it, in any detail at any rate. And yet…yet I was so confused. What did it all mean?

  The Spirit Wielder cupped my face, and I sucked in a breath, the power beneath his hands scaring me with its strength.

  “Go, Lyric. You will find what you need, though it might not be what you want. The world is changing, as are you. Find your path. And once you do, you will find your power. Go. You know what you must do. Or you will soon.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say.

  Easton tugged on my hand, and his touch pulled me from whatever trance I felt like I had fallen into.

  “Thank you for your kindness,” Easton said solemnly to the old man.

  “Thank you for protecting the Priestess, Your Highness.”

  I froze, wondering how the old man knew. Easton was under glamour, and from the way he leaned into me just a bit, I knew he had been startled by the address, as well.

  “You know more than you’re saying.” Easton’s voice was so low that I could feel the danger in my veins.

  “Of course, I do. I’m an old man. I know more than most. Now, go. The sun will set soon, and you don’t want to be out after dark. Protect her with everything you have, Your Highness. With everything.”

  Easton pulled me away then, not saying a word, and I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant. I wondered what everything meant now. There was a reason we had seen this man, if only for a moment. Maybe the reason was just to reassure me that we were on the right path.

  I didn’t know what that look had meant earlier, or if it’d meant anything at all.

  But I knew we needed to get to the Lumiére Kingdom. I needed to know why I was being pulled there. And I needed to see Rhodes. I needed him to understand who I was and learn what could happen in t
he future. I needed to know why we weren’t soulmates and discover what our connection had been. I needed to make sure that Rhodes knew that we had a chance even without that bond.

  But, above all else, I needed to know my history, and I needed to determine what would happen next.

  Any connection I felt with Rhodes, or even Easton for that matter, would have to be put aside. Because first, I had to figure out who I was.

  And decipher what that old man had meant.

  Because this was only the beginning. Or perhaps it was the middle. The end was coming, and I was worried.

  Chapter Twelve

  “We need to get going,” Teagan said, looking off into the distance. “That was weird, man, but we need to get going.”

  He repeated the words, and I looked over at Easton, wondering what we were going to do next. This was all just so surreal. But then again, my life was a bit surreal these days.

  “I don’t know what a Dream Walker is,” Arwin said, his voice soft. “And I didn’t want to ask him since I felt like if any of us talked other than Lyric, he wasn’t going to answer, or maybe just stop talking altogether and push us out.”

  I looked over at the youngest member of our guard and studied his face. I knew he had to be at least a hundred years old because I had overheard them talking about his last century, but he looked younger than me, even though I was only eighteen. The way the Maisons aged and lived was so different than how I had been raised, but sometimes I forgot that they could have a century under their belt and still not know everything.

  “I don’t really know what that is either,” I said. “I mean, he was in my dreams, I know that much.” I winced, not really wanting to mention that. “He, um, was in my nightmares, but not like he was evil or anything. I just remember having a vision of him. I figured that was maybe what Dream Walkers do? I don’t really know.”

  I hated sounding weak and uninformed .

  “Dream Walkers are a subset of the Spirit Wielders,” Easton answered for all of us. “Much like how each set of Wielding has its own versions. How Earth Wielders can trigger earthquakes or create large domes of earth to come at you. Or some are Earth shakers. How Water Wielders can sometimes move oceans or just creeks. And how some can actually boil the water within your body or pull it from you completely, desiccating you.”

  My eyes widened at that. I hadn’t known Water Wielders could do that, but from the looks on the others’ faces, they had. Having Wielding was dangerous, yet it protected you at the same time. It was just so odd to be able to talk about magic and death as if it were an everyday occurrence. As if these powers weren’t something that was new and shiny. But they were for me.

  “Dream Walkers are the rarest of the Spirit Wielders, at least that’s what I remember reading when I was in school. Not much is known about the Spirit Wielders, but the Dream Walkers can walk in your dreams and can bring others with them. I don’t know why they would do that, but that’s what I know, all I know other than…other than they can…they say they can steal your soul within your dreams. I wish people had written down more about the Spirit Wielders, or that whatever had been written down about them had been kept. But after the Fall, everything changed. And I only got the scraps that my mom could find.”

  Wyn cleared her throat. “I remember learning right alongside you, Easton. There isn’t much at all.” She looked at me, a sad expression coming over her face. “There’s a reason we can only help you with some of your Wielding, and why I hope the Lumiére will be able to help you with your others. But as for the Spirit Wielders? We don’t know their magic. We weren’t allowed to learn when we were younger, and any myths and stories that might have been passed down have long since been forgotten. But we will find a way, Lyric.”

  She said it as a promise, and I wanted to believe her, but it was hard when she was voicing some of my own fears. That I wouldn’t be able to learn everything that I needed to in time, and that whatever I was supposed to do wouldn’t be enough.

  The idea that I had the weight of a realm on my shoulders even though I didn’t quite believe in it was something hard to comprehend.

  But the others were looking at me as if they trusted me to save their realm, though none of us knew exactly how that was going to happen. “We’re going to find a way,” Easton said, his voice sure. “I haven’t been going through all of this training and getting you into the Obscurité Kingdom and now the Lumiére Kingdom only for you to fail because we don’t know how to Wield the fifth. So, we’ll figure it out. I’m not wasting my time.”

  I glared at him. “Really? So, we’re going to make this all about you.”

  “Of course. I am the king.” He laughed as he said it, but it didn’t feel real. As if he were just trying to lighten the mood because the tension surrounding all of us was a little too much to bear. We had gone from training to traveling to fighting to confusion. And now we’d be traveling again.

  “And Teagan is right, we need to go. Because I don’t want to spend another night in this area. Something feels…off.”

  “Something always feels off,” I said, agreeing with him. “But that could be the fact that I’m like a fish out of water.”

  “Considering we’re headed to the Water territory, that’s probably an apt description,” he said, and I knew there was a joke there. But I just shook my head, falling into step at his side as the five of us continued our journey.

  Everything felt the same as we walked, making our way to the Water territory. There were no real discernible landmarks, so I had no idea where we were going, but the others seemed to know, and I trusted them. After all, I had been with them for long enough that I could. They had helped me, tried to make sure that I was ready for whatever might come at us.

  And Easton had saved me once before. Even though he annoyed me sometimes, and was arrogant as hell, he was still on this mission with us, still going where he shouldn’t to make sure I was safe. I couldn’t forget that.

  We had walked for another day, well out of the way of where the Dream Walker had been, when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I tripped over my feet.

  “Negs,” Easton said softly, holding out his hands. His Fire Wielding was ready to go, so I mirrored his actions, using my Air Wielding. Everyone got into position, and then the monsters came at us.

  The Negs were creatures that looked like demons straight from hell. They had long fangs covered in drool, red eyes, and dark bodies. They growled menacingly, their teeth sharp enough that I knew I wouldn’t make it if they bit into me.

  “You stay by my side,” Easton barked at me. “You’ve fought these before, and you’re even more trained now, but do not leave my side. Do you get me?”

  I looked up at him for a bare instant before I looked back at the Negs. “Okay, but you don’t get to die for me. Do you get me?”

  “No one’s going to be dying today other than the Negs.”

  And then the monsters were upon us.

  Two of them came at Teagan, who used his Fire Wielding to burn them. They screamed, a menacing sound that practically burst my eardrums, but then they rolled to the ground, still not dead, just slightly charred.

  Wyn and Arwin worked as one, building their Earth Wielding and combining it as they pushed the closest Neg violently into another, rolling them under mounds and mounds of dirt.

  I had my Earth Wielding as well, lifting one Neg up with as much power as I could and then tossing it towards another.

  Easton looked over his shoulder, winking at me with a menacing grin on his face.

  It was as if he were having fun with this, even though I knew that his eyes didn’t hold laughter. No, he understood the danger, but the fact that I was working with him? Using my Wielding just as he was? Maybe that was worth a grin. Because I could feel the power within my body. I could feel myself working alongside him—Easton using his Fire and Earth, me using my Air and Earth. We took out two Negs, and then another. He burned one as I buried the other. And then I used my Air
Wielding to lift his Fire Wielding even higher, directly into the face of another Neg.

  We hadn’t trained for this, and I hadn’t known that I could even do it, but it was as if it were natural, something inherent in my abilities.

  Easton’s arm brushed mine, and I could feel the heat of him while I sucked in a breath. The intensity of his Fire Wielding was high, but it didn’t burn. Instead, it was almost as if I knew that no matter what happened, we could work together and destroy the monsters.

  I didn’t know why they were here, but we must be close to a border. That was the only reason the Negs would be here. Right?

  Unless they had been sent by someone else. I remembered Rhodes saying that the Negs liked to stay in the border territories. Because with so much magic intermingling, so much Wielding intensified, the absence of magic itself tended to congregate. That they were coming out more and more said something about the lack of stability when it came to the realm.

  These Negs were the absence of light, yet still the absence of the darkness of the Obscurité.

  They were the monsters that filled the night, but they weren’t the only monsters out here. Just look at Lore, the knight who had tried to kill us all.

  And I knew there were more monsters, ones without sharp teeth and claws.

  Ones that would kill anyone in their path to try and take their power and their Wielding.

  But Lore was dead, and though we all knew that there had to be something greater out there, something or someone that was orchestrating all of this, it didn’t matter just then.

  It was just me and the others against the Negs.

  And so, we fought. I pulled in my arms and then pushed them out. My palms widespread and my fingers splayed as I used my Air Wielding to blow another Neg out of the way and into the Fire tunnel that Easton had created.

  The smell of burnt flesh and crisped hair filled my nose, but I ignored it, trying not to think about exactly what we were doing.