From Flame and Ash

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  His jaw tightened, and I resisted the urge to reach out and press my fingers to it. Why was I acting like this? It made no sense.

  I didn’t even know him, yet I wanted to touch him.

  Maybe I really did need sleep. Because I didn’t like this pull I felt towards him, this connection.

  I didn’t trust connections, not anymore.

  Not when I had felt pulled towards Emory, and that had ended in horror. Not when I had felt that pull towards Rhodes, and that had ended with him leaving after not being able to save me from a mortal wound because we weren’t soulmates.

  And, apparently, that was the be all and end all when it came to Maisons.

  I didn’t want to feel this connection. I thought maybe it was stress. Maybe my mind needed to latch on to those possible bonds rather than fixate on the danger we were facing.

  Yes, that had to be it. There was no actual connection. It was just me stressing out and being stupid.

  “Get some sleep,” he said softly again. “I’m trying not to think about the Negs. Or what happened to you. Unless you want to talk about it. If so, I can bring Wyn over.”

  I snorted, knowing it wasn’t very ladylike, but it didn’t really matter. “Really? You’re going to send over the only other girl if I need to talk about my feelings? Oh, but Easton, what if I really want to talk to you? Bare my soul and tell you everything that’s worrying me.”

  I’d said it in jest, but now I knew it had been a mistake. I could see in his eyes that he shut down. And I pulled away because I didn’t want to talk about anything. I just wanted to be left alone with my thoughts as I tried to work out my Wielding. I needed to unlock the other elements, and worrying about everything else was just making things harder for me.

  “I don’t know what’s with you, Lyric. You act one way, and then you act another. You’re really confusing.”

  “Hi, pot. Meet kettle.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “It’s a human saying.”

  He gave me a weird look. “I know most of the human sayings. It’s not like I’ve been stuck in the Maison realm for my entire existence. But really, you need to sleep.”

  “I really wish you would stop telling me to go to sleep. It’s not going to make tomorrow any easier. Because I know the League is coming. I know that something’s going to happen, I can feel it just like you can. And I know we’re just camping to regroup and make sure that if the League is watching us, they don’t know what we’re doing. I’m still going to be on alert. And I don’t think any amount of naps will help with that.”

  “You may be right. But at least try.”

  “You have to first.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me and gave me a tight nod.

  “We’ll both lay down next to this log of yours and at least try to relax. Because I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not when the League is lurking. Not when I feel like something’s coming.”

  He settled in next to me, and I swallowed hard. I didn’t like when he was so close. It made my thoughts blur, and made everything a little too confusing.

  “I don’t want to fight the Lumière,” I said softly. “I don’t want to fight the Obscurité either. I just want to figure out what I’m supposed to do. But the more I learn about the Maisons, the more I learn about my own elements, the more I feel like there’s more questions than answers.”

  “I had been searching for the Spirit Priestess for years before you were even born,” Easton began, looking off into the distance. “You were always more of a question than an answer. A figment of what could maybe help our realm. But I had to stop searching for you because my kingdom was dying. I didn’t know that it was Lore. I didn’t know that he was killing my people, stripping them of their powers and their dignity. If I had known, maybe I would’ve been able to stop it sooner. But I had thought we were just breaking down because the crystal was breaking. I didn’t know it was being helped along.”

  His shoulders fell a bit, and I almost reached out to touch him, barely holding myself back.

  “There’s no coming back from that. Unless we figure out exactly what your prophecy means and how to fix us, how to glue back together the fragmented pieces that are our realm, I don’t know how we’re going to come back from it all. I left my kingdom in the hands of my uncles because I trust them. As soon as I can, I’m going back. I will protect my people. Just like I’m going to protect you. Because you’re important. But so are my people. I failed them once, even as I failed you by not finding you when I should have. I can’t take that back.”

  He wasn’t looking at me. I wasn’t even sure he was actually speaking to me at all, even though he was directing his conversation towards me.

  It hurt to hear his words. Not that he blamed me for anything, but because he was in pain.

  He was so strong, so defiant, and yet he felt like he had failed everyone.

  I was right there with him, unable to figure out what I needed to do.

  And so, I reached out and gripped his hand for a moment before letting it go.

  “We’ll figure it out. We have to.”

  He didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything to say. We just looked out into the distance, no longer pretending to try and sleep. Because it wasn’t going to be easy. It was never going to be easy. Tomorrow, we would walk into the Water territory and we would take that next step. Easton would be one more step away from his kingdom, from the people he was sworn to protect.

  All because he was here to protect me.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I knew that the Water territory would be vastly different than any other I’d seen before, but even in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think I could have imagined something quite like this.

  It was the morning after Easton and I had spoken next to the log without really looking at each other. We had all eaten a quick breakfast and then made our way towards the border. There hadn’t been much of the camp to pack up since we all wanted to be able to move at a moment’s notice. So, it was easy for us to just walk our way towards the border.

  Although we were all on edge, on alert just in case the League came back, the path towards the entrance to the Water territory had been quite anticlimactic. Considering all the fighting that I had been dealing with since I first found out about the Maison realm, I was just fine with that.

  But now we were standing at the border between the Spirit and Water territories, and I could barely catch my breath.

  Beauty didn’t even begin to describe what I saw. Stunning. Exquisite. Breathtaking. None of those words were quite right either. Nothing combined or separate could ever explain exactly what I saw before me. And I knew this was only the beginning. We were still at the border, no longer in the barren landscape of a territory that had once been full of people and magic. But now, we were entering an area that was unlike anything I’d ever seen or imagined.

  “All I can say is…wow,” I whispered and looked up as Easton tensed next to me. “Just, wow.”

  Easton shrugged and then looked over at the vast expanse in front of us. “It’s the Lumière Kingdom. All Water and Air. That’s their substance.”

  I elbowed him in the side. “Hey, I thought we were supposed to have peace between our kingdoms. We can’t really do that if you’re saying things like that.”

  “It’s not my kingdom. But the Lumière Kingdom does know how to create a border.”

  He wasn’t joking.

  Right past the wards at the entrance to the Lumière Kingdom were cliff faces complete with waterfalls as far as you could see. The sound was overwhelming, and I actually had to shout over it in order to be able to speak to Easton. But it was worth it.

  As the water crashed to the seas and lakes below, the mist rose up, and the sun hit it just right so there were rainbows everywhere you looked.

  I had been to Niagara Falls on both the United States and the Canadian sides when I was younger, yet that had been nothing compared to what I saw now.

  From what I
could see, the entire border was one large set of waterfalls.

  It was as if the land from the Spirit territory were ending and just poured into what would be the Water territory.

  “Where does the water come from to make these waterfalls?” I asked since it seemed that they just came out of nowhere.

  “It’s part of the magic of the Water territory. Just like the other territories. Over time, their geographies changed to supplement the people and their Wielding. Or maybe it was the other way around. No one really knows, and it’s just how it’s always been for me. But the water begins here, though it’s fed from the seas that you see in front of you as well as the crystal salt.”

  “The Lumière crystal.”

  “Of course. But despite the many spies I send, I still don’t know the strength of that crystal compared to the one in the Obscurité Kingdom.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Spies? Are you going to be a spy yourself this time?”

  He just gave me a grin and then looked over to the vast expanse in front of us. “I could. But you’ll never know for sure, will you?”

  I just shook my head and looked in front of me. “It’s just…wow.” I kept repeating that word, but honestly, there wasn’t much more I could say.

  “If you say so,” he said a little grumpily.

  I had read that the Water territory was actually mostly made of seas, oceans, rivers and floating cities. There were a few actual land masses, including a large one far out west where the Water Estate was located. Plus, there was a long island that bisected the territory itself with small tributaries and rivers sliding through it to connect the two largest bodies of water.

  It was insane how beautiful the area was. Everything was lush blues and purples with waves cresting as the wind picked up.

  The waterfalls were reasonably tall, and I had no idea how we were going to get down to sea level, nor did I know how we were actually going to get to the Water Estate.

  I looked at my bracelet and shook my wrist. “So, is this supposed to tell me where to go? Because it’s not like I know if we can just swim over anywhere.”

  Easton snorted. “We’ll find a boat. We always do.”

  “Yeah, remember that time we found that Viking-like vessel,” Teagan said laughing. “I’m pretty sure my shoulders are still sore from all the rowing.”

  “Well, it didn’t help that you were sitting the entire time and we all tried to ignore you.” Wyn just smiled at him, even though we were all still on alert.

  After all, we were now standing at the edge of a new territory.

  I could feel the wards in front of me and knew we were technically still on the Spirit territory side. One step forward, and we’d be in a new kingdom.

  “What we’re going to do is get you to the Water Estate. That’s the best place for you, even though it’s on pretty much the exact opposite side of where we’re standing right now.” I once again turned to Easton as he spoke.

  “And how are we going to do that?”

  “Once we get through the wards, though it’s not going to be easy considering none of us are Lumière, we’re going to find a boat like I said. There are always small fishing vessels available. Though the smaller the boat we have, the harder it will be to actually cross this sea. But we’ll get there.”

  “How are we going to get through the wards?”

  Easton looked at me and shrugged. “The same way you got through my wards. There’s a hole. We’ll slide through, and then we’ll just pray that no one’s on the other side ready to catch us.”

  I held back a wince as my belly clenched at the memory of how we had gotten into the Earth territory. Or at least how I had gotten in with my other friends. It was as if I were running along parallels, yet everything was much different this time. I wasn’t denying who I was anymore, even if I was still unsure of how to proceed. I also knew that there was far more riding on this than just searching for someone. I was looking for something more now.

  Somehow, I also had to unlock my elements along the way, and I still didn’t know how to do that. Hopefully, Rosamond would be able to help once I reached her. Because she was a Seer, and I always felt like she had this sense of knowing, of realizing exactly what I needed to do next…even if she told me she couldn’t See it all.

  “I guess we just need to get there.”

  “You’ll be safe, Lyric. We’ll get you to your friends. And then you can train.”

  I looked at him. Worry filled me as I tried to formulate words. “What about you? What about the rest of you? I knew you were going to get me to the Lumière Kingdom, but for some reason, I hoped someone would be here to meet us.”

  I had hoped that Rhodes would be here.

  But he wasn’t.

  He wasn’t ever going to be here for me in the way I hoped.

  And I was oddly okay with that. At least in the sense that I wasn’t pining for Rhodes like some lovesick schoolgirl. But that wasn’t important now. What was important was the safety of my friends, and the path I needed to take.

  “It would’ve been nice if loverboy would’ve been here for you, but he’s not,” Easton said, and I glared at him.

  “Stop it. Just stop for a second.”

  “I really don’t want to. We’ll make it through these wards and get you to the estate. Then the others can figure out what that symbol lighting up on your bracelet means. And why you’re here.”

  “And then you’ll leave? You’ll go back to the other kingdom and just leave me behind?” I knew the others were watching, and I wondered why I was pushing.

  “I’ll leave because I have a kingdom to run. But I’ll make sure you’re safe first.”

  I swallowed hard, trying to see exactly what was wrong with Easton. I could never read him, and it was worrying. We had come here because the Seer magic in my bracelet had told me I needed to go to the Spirit and Water territories, but that didn’t mean we would be safe.

  “We need to go before we lose the light.”

  Then Easton turned on his heel, and I followed him, wondering if I was once again making a mistake.

  This time, the hole in the wards was far more visible to me than it had been when I first looked into the Earth territory. Maybe it was because I actually had two of my five elements now, or perhaps it was because I knew what to look for this time.

  It was like a little seam, a tear in the wards themselves. You couldn’t sense them, though, unlike the ones at the Earth territory. And these were opaque. I couldn’t see through them at all into the Water territory itself.

  But as we slid through the hole in the wards—Easton first and then Arwin, and then me—as if we were sliding through a hole in a chain-link fence, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I bumped right into Arwin.

  Easton was in front of me in a flash, gripping my wrist.

  As Wyn slid in behind me with Teagan following her, I knew we weren’t alone.

  The League stood there waiting for us, their faces shadowed in blue hoods, the water behind them churning as if they were using their Water Wielding.

  None of us held that element.

  I was the only one with a Lumière element at all. And I didn’t know if it was going to help.

  “You shouldn’t have come here, Spirit Priestess,” the man who I assumed was their leader sneered.

  I stiffened and tried to pull myself from Easton’s hold, but he didn’t let go.

  “You shouldn’t be here. You should have stayed in your precious little human realm away from all of this. This doesn’t concern you. It’s far bigger than you could ever know, little girl.”

  I remembered when Easton had called me little girl once upon a time, and I had hated it. This time, it felt like bile was rising up my throat until my skin crawled.

  Because these people weren’t just teasing, and they weren’t going to help me.

  No, they clearly wanted me dead. And I didn’t know why.

  “Who do you work for?” Easton asked, his voice low.
From the way the others were looking at him, the League didn’t know that they were actually talking to the King of Obscurité. And for that, I was grateful. The glamour seemed to be holding.

  While these warriors obviously didn’t want me here as the Spirit Priestess, even though they had walked right past us before without hurting me, they would likely be up in arms if they found out that the King of Obscurité was in their midst.

  This was a dangerous game. Easton shouldn’t have come.

  If he got hurt because of me, I would never forgive myself.

  But as I looked at the thirty or so men and possibly women in cloaks in front of me, I worried that I wouldn’t make it through this to be sorry at all.

  “The King of Lumière sends his regards,” the first man said and then lifted his arms. A wall of seawater lifted behind him.

  I knew these were all Water Wielders, but I hadn’t really seen Water Wielding in action as much as the others. Rhodes might have used it before, but he used Air more than Water, at least in front of me. The magic was smooth, a dance of beauty. Each of the Wielders lifted their hands, and more parts of the sea behind them rose, swirling into a vortex before dancing in the air.

  They were waiting for us, and I didn’t know what to say.

  What to do.

  The King of Lumière wanted me dead?

  Or maybe this was all just a ruse.

  After all, the knight of the Obscurité had framed the queen, Easton’s mother, so the world had thought she wanted me dead. He had made it appear that she had been the one to kidnap Rosamond and orchestrate everything.

  But Queen Cameo had wanted me alive. She’d wanted me to help save her kingdom and then the realm.

  And she had died for that wish.

  So, maybe it wasn’t the king at all. Perhaps it wasn’t Rhodes’ uncle. Maybe it was just these men or another puppet master at work.

  I didn’t know, but I didn’t have any time to think about it either.

  Because the first man moved.

  And I screamed.

  Chapter Fifteen