Fallen Ashes: Fated & Forbidden

by T. F. Walsh

  Then the metal table rattled, glass vials fell off the shelves and shattered. Candles flickered, a few blew out. And a terrible rumble came from deep in the belly of the soil.

  Saber hadn’t moved, and his mouth morphed into a grim line. “Fuck, no.”

  “What?” She paced to him and back, unable to stand still a second longer. “What the hell’s happening now?”

  “The crawlers are tunneling underground.”

  “They can’t. You said this place was protected.”

  When he looked at Fallen, his eyes widened. “Must only be the entrance that’s secured. Maybe my stepfather activates a protection spell when he’s in here. Fuck, I don’t know.”

  They had to get out and now. “We haven’t found the crystal yet.” She didn’t wait for a response and sprinted around the room, ripping open every bottle and canister, tipping over buckets. Still nothing.

  Part of the wall near the bookshelf crumbled, fine dust drifting to the ground.

  Saber was across the room, tossing aside books in his search.

  A chunk of the wall dropped away, leaving a gaping hole. The room shook. More bits of the wall broke off. A dusting of soil hit her head.

  Her mind filled with the horror of being suffocated by the mud creatures. She shuddered.

  “Saber, hurry. Where would your stepfather hide the crystal?”

  He was shaking his head. “It’s got to be here. He used to play hiding games with his grandchildren. Each time my stepfather played, he—”

  Saber jerked around and vanished behind the open door just as a loud crash sounded behind Fallen. She spun to find a crawler dripping out of a hole as if its bones and skull were liquid. It splattered onto the floor, each piece wriggling and squirming.

  Bile hit the back of her throat, and she scanned the room for a weapon. She grabbed a bottle.

  “My stepfather used to burrow tiny holes all over the house,” Saber called out. “He’d stash enchanted stones and cover them with a framed photo on the wall, furniture. Behind the doors was his favorite.”

  “We have company.” She raised her weapon at the crawler whose body was gelling back together. Then two more oozed out of the holes in the wall.

  Saber snatched her elbow and dragged her out of the room. She tripped over her feet as he drew her toward the stairs. Just a few steps up, part of the ceiling crashed down, along with a crawler.

  She retreated, and Saber led her behind the stairs to a dark corner.

  From within the crypt, a shadow loomed closer. Fallen’s world closed in around her. Breaths refused to come. “We’re stuck.”

  “No, we’re not. We have the portal.”

  A crawler slithered down the steps, and the one from the crypt pushed through the doorway.

  They were trapped. Her mind swung back and forth. Fight and potentially die, or risk losing time to fail the Creators and give Noah time to relocate.

  When the crawlers charged, Saber hauled her backward into a slot the size of a coffin carved out of the wall. His arms snaked around her waist. He whispered unrecognizable words just as a crawler rounded the corner and threw itself at them. A yelp fell from her mouth as magic smothering her senses, prickled her skin. Then her vision blackened.

  18

  Inside the underground room, blackness had shrouded Saber’s vision. Within seconds, light exploded around him, rendering him blind. A crushing pain on one side of his head came and went, and energy slammed into his back, shoving him forward. He landed on hands and knees on a lawn. He squinted in the sunlight as Fallen groaned alongside him. His gut churned with a powerful urge to hurl. Last time he used his stepfather’s portal, he swore he’d vomited out his lungs.

  “Now that’s a crash landing.” Fallen climbed to her feet, dusted her pants while scanning their surroundings. “Didn’t hurt too bad. And not a freaking crawler in sight.”

  He staggered to his feet, noting the forest now lay behind them without a sign of the portal they’d just exited.

  He inhaled long, deep breaths to calm his churning stomach from the transit. Ahead, lay the decayed city. Yep, they were still in Tapestry. He patted his front pocket, touching the bulge from the apium stone and pulled out the purple crystal. Icicle-shaped. The matching twin to Noah’s.

  A smile cracked Fallen’s face. “You got it. Shit yeah.”

  She reached over and ran a finger across its smooth surface. The purple color seemed to shift within the crystal as if containing a miniature sea in a storm. “So, how much time do you think passed?”

  He shrugged. Worrying didn’t solve their problems. “Does it matter? We’re out of the forest now. Let’s move.” He pushed into a fast walk with Fallen by his side, closing in on the city. Fifteen minutes later, they hurried along barren streets without another soul in sight.

  Had Noah moved locations? That possibility nagged him. With the crawlers breaking into the crypt, they had no other choice but to use the portal. Better to lose some time than their lives.

  “Hey, give me a sec.” Fallen’s voice sliced his concentration as they trudged through the city “I have to know.” She seized his hand and led him into an alley between two storefronts with gaping holes for doors and windows.

  Within seconds of her saying, “Lumi cruce,” a crack of electricity zapped outward, drawing them into the human world. The trill of voices and cars surrounded them, along with the aroma of pizza. Despite his hunger, his attention honed in on the ground vibrating with intensity beneath his boots. The sensation traveled through him.

  He stumbled into the wall and Fallen released his hand.

  “Give me two seconds. I’ll be right back.” She sprinted away and careened around the corner.

  Muscles tight, Saber held back the curses lining the front of his mind. Fuck, he loathed the human world for a simple reason—noise. For Fallen, he’d do anything. Something about her made his heartbeat quicken. He broke out in a sweat, and his body thrummed in her presence. Sex in her apartment had been intoxicating, her laughter addictive, and her smile insanely beautiful. She fought to protect others and didn’t take his bullshit. For the past few months, he’d told himself he had no right to this existence. But since meeting Fallen, those old thoughts melted away. She was a craving that healed him.

  She reappeared, her steps slow and her gaze caught on the newspaper in her hands. When she looked up, her face had paled three shades, and her chin trembled.

  Her discomfort slithered across Saber’s arms. Panic set deep in his mind, and he shook as if he’d just finished ten cups of coffee.

  In the grip of stillness, her eyes grew wild, pupils dilated.

  “W-what a-are…?” Fuck, now he was stammering.

  Fallen whispered, “Lumi cruce,” and the human world vanished, replaced by Tapestry, along with a peaceful silence. She then stomped closer, her gaze accusatory and fierce. “We lost over two fuckin’ weeks using the portal.” Her voice strained, and the paper trembled in her hands. “We only have a week left to fulfill the Creators’ mission and find a soul mate. How are we meant to do this?”

  Her chest rose and fell in quick succession, and she paced across the narrow lane and back. “If we don’t, we’ll be responsible for killing all life on Tapestry and Earth. Oh, and let’s not forget, every other race in different worlds.” Her brow glistened with perspiration as her arms remained stiff by her sides.

  He lifted his hand, staring at the dragon tattoo. Back in the crypt, a stinging pain laced around the pattern, but he’d blamed the heavy magic in the air. And now, outside the workshop, not a tingle. Part of him had hoped that Fallen was his soul mate and magic would activate the mark or something.

  Fallen wholeheartedly believed the mark came from the Creators. Except, Ashes didn’t have souls, yet he couldn’t deny he experienced the same dream as Fallen. The kingdom worshiped Creators, and after living in the realm for twenty-five years, that belief had rubbed off on Saber. Growing up as a normal drae, he’d embraced the Creators, but he wasn’t
so sure after he nearly assassinated the queen and realized he was a soulless Ash.

  “You need to calm down,” he said. A niggling doubt wormed its way through his mind, reminding him that most Ash he’d read about were mindless, robotic in their actions. He had his own thoughts, felt regret, anger, and even attraction.

  “No fuckin’ way. A week left.” Fallen’s voice rose as she swiped a hand under her eyes that reddened with terror. “We should have fought the crawlers.”

  He closed the distance between them and took her into his embrace, holding her tight against him. “Listen, we’ll work this out. Don’t freak out.”

  No matter how much he told himself the Creators’ dream was bullshit, he and Fallen were days away from the deadline. And a prickling panic shifted within him. What if he was wrong about not being the chosen one? What if he should have taken the mark more seriously?

  He rubbed Fallen’s back and kissed her brow. Finding some other soul mate was out of the question when every fiber in his body screamed for Fallen. He’d been with countless women while in the Her Majesty’s service and none had affected him this way. A surge of heat stormed through his veins at the notion of the Creators insisting he had to find someone else. Then why the fuck would they dangle Fallen in front of him?

  His brain didn’t understand what to believe anymore. Yet, he wanted to be there for Fallen, to comfort her, to tell her everything would be all right.

  Her head pressed against his chest, and the constricting sensation grew inside him.

  Who were the Creators to tell him who he could or couldn’t love?

  Damn, had he just thought the L word?

  “Fallen?”

  She lifted her chin, staring up at him, her eyes glassy.

  “If this whole mate thing is true, then I choose you.” His breaths wedged in his lungs, refusing to work as he waited for a response. Hope was a star in her eyes amid his dark world, and he had enough of being lost. Fallen felt right, her warmth, her touch, her fragrance.

  She didn’t move at first, then untangled herself from his embrace. Her eyes carried pain.

  “That’s not how the marks work.” Her undertone crammed with despair. She pointed to her inner wrist.

  The silence that followed cut at his insides and the world stood still for those few moments. Confusion trapped him. For months, rescuing his stepfather had been his only purpose for existence. Otherwise, he might as well be dead, buried, and forgotten. Fallen had jolted something awake inside him. For the first time, he was no longer abandoned, so giving up on her wasn’t a choice.

  Closing the space between them, he sailed his arms around her back, and he brought her against him. His lips claimed hers, kissing hard, inhaling her sweetness, never wanting to resurface.

  She returned the passion three-fold, her hand clasped around his neck, pressing him closer. The kiss was desperate and feeding the emptiness growing inside him.

  When he broke away, he laid his brow against hers, their noses touching. Each time he looked into Fallen’s eyes, he lost himself. Every mistake he’d made in life was erased. She cleansed his hatred for being an Ash.

  “The Creators can go fuck themselves. You’re mine.”

  Her soft stare didn’t judge him. She accepted his flaws and the real him. “What if…” Hurt seeped into her words.

  “You can’t tell me I should ignore those emotions because a stupid mark on my wrist.”

  She curled herself into his chest, shutting her eyes. He held her tight. Despite the heaviness in his stomach, her company made him ready to take on the world.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “Prove the Creators wrong. I’ll give my life for you, but rather live for you. And if the Creators are such bastards, then I need to rescue my stepfather and the other prisoners so they might see their families one last time before our worlds are obliterated.”

  19

  Fallen struggled to find a word to describe the pain shredding her insides, thought devastated would come close. She and Saber had complicated their lives a trillion times worse. Not only had they lost two weeks by using the portal out of the Baciu woods, but the Blood Moon was a mere week away. And instead of finding a life mate to save Tapestry and Earth, she’d given herself to Saber.

  Was he destined to be with someone else? Her heart ached relentlessly. It couldn’t be any more broken than the dozen shattered pieces that filled the space in her chest.

  She untangled herself from his arms and wiped her cheeks dry. “If we’re wrong about this…” Her breaths hitched.

  The dark circles lining Saber’s eyes confirmed his concern. “Ashes aren’t meant to feel this degree of passion. I do. And if the Creators selected me for this mission, how could they deny my emotions for you?”

  Saber had kept his feelings hidden. Now he showed his underbelly, his vulnerability. And she respected him for that. She glanced at her wrist and rubbed a thumb across the mark. No reaction once again.

  She sighed. “What if the Creators don’t approve our decision?”

  He lifted his chin to the sky, his voice booming upward. “You wanted to see if we could love. Well, here I am, declaring that I love Fallen.”

  Her heart thumped so loud beneath her breastbone that it weakened her knees. In a perfect world, she’d laugh and jump Saber’s bones.

  When he lowered his head, his dark eyes smiled.

  Her stomach churned. “I’m terrified we’re making a mistake.”

  He took her hand. Their fingers laced, his touch a shield against the world. “You can’t let worry dictate your life. Sometimes hope is all we have left. Now, let’s kick Noah’s ass.”

  She nodded, not trusting her voice, and strode through the deserted city alongside Saber. She wasn’t sure what worried her more. Trolls charging out from shadows, the end of the world, or the trembling fear she was about to lose Saber.

  By the time they reached the edge of the plaza, her adrenaline was a raging river. The Gothic church cast its ominous shadow across the other end of the cobblestone square. Barren storefronts and apartments surrounded them. Even the flower bed next to the cathedral was now a hole with dried soil.

  “There.” Saber pointed at the church. “I see movement.”

  She followed his pointed finger to the edge of the building and yep, a troll was back there, carrying an empty cage. Was he cleaning after Noah’s move, or was this their lucky day and Noah hadn’t left?

  “Let’s go around the other side,” Saber whispered.

  “Agreed.” She backed away and circled the plaza with Saber by her side. Her attention fastened on every corner, every sound, the unsettling sensation pinching up her spine the closer they got to the church.

  “No one’s around,” she said.

  Saber surveyed the open plaza and kept going. When they reached the side of the church, they plastered themselves to a wall.

  Fallen signaled with a flick of her hand, and they rounded the rear of the building.

  The inferno in her chest roiled and burned with the sensation of being renewed. Two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye, but the lost time had served one purpose—it had healed her fiery ability.

  Saber turned to her, his words softer than a whisper. “The moment you see Noah, burn him. Don’t hesitate. I’ll get the crystal close to him for that moment. Okay? I think that might activate the stones.”

  Her mouth dried. After their last try, any delayed reaction would kill them quickly. Doing this properly meant taking Noah’s life. What if panic froze her when the time came?

  Saber leaned in closer, and his lips brushed hers. She melted against him as if she were snow on a summer day, and neither moved for a short few moments. When he broke away, she wouldn’t release him from her embrace. Not yet, because letting him go meant facing a slew of dangers she’d rather avoid.

  “It’s time.” His whisper caressed her ear, and her arms fell away.

  He opened the church door and vanished inside.


  She took a deep breath. “I can do this.”

  Drawing on her calmness, she imagined the energy cloaking her, keeping her grounded. Without another thought, she pushed inside.

  Electricity in the air pinched her nostrils. Magic always left an after effect, long after the spell had worn out, but this rippled across her flesh. Was Noah still around?

  Creators, keep us safe.

  She hurried through a corridor, barren of furniture and filled with cobwebs that caught on her face and hair. Saber’s figure bounced around a corner, and she chased after him. His form disappeared through a set of doors.

  “Saber, wait.” Charging into the church was their mistake last time. He obviously hadn’t learned that lesson because he wasn’t waiting for her.

  When she caught up to him, she’d wring his neck. He was doing the hero thing. Being the hero, protecting her. Noah had magic. Saber didn’t.

  In haste, she snuck through the next set of doors and emerged into another hallway. Shit. Farther ahead, Saber’s footsteps called. She darted after him around the corner, but he wasn’t there.

  A cacophony of grunts and dull thuds emitted from behind the wall to her left.

  Her stomach sunk. She sprinted toward the last door and emerged in the back end of the main cathedral. Sun streamed through the dirty windows, and a thin draft tossed dust into the air. No caged prisoners, just a broken floor, and concrete pillars with black fire wounds.

  No Noah!

  Several paces away, Saber laid punches into a monster of a troll with dreadlocks cut to stubs. Another creature crashed into his back, his fist smashing into Saber’s head. A tangle of arms and legs ensued.

  She dashed toward them, drawing on her fire, anger flaring through her veins. Interrogating a troll on Noah’s whereabouts was the next best thing then… if Saber left any alive.

  On her next step, a shadow swooped overhead, and she ducked, covering her head. A loud thud shook the ground beneath her boots. When she looked up, she stood inside a cage twice her height, complete with iron bars.