บททั้งหมดของ Ashes of Six: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

Worthless.Useless.Garbage.Weak.Pathetic.Unlovable. These are words that have been beaten into me, literally sometimes, since I was barely old enough to understand what any of them meant. That last one hurt the most, if I’m being honest. As an orphan who grew up in the system from birth, I know all the statistics. I understand that the older I get, the less my chances of finding a family are, and add to that I’m black, and yeah, cut those odds in half.  Maybe it’s vain of me, but I thought I was a damn cute kid. I was well-behaved and smart. Nothing I did or said during those adoption events changed anything. I was never picked. Even the staff at the orphanage overlooked me. And after I got too old to stay there, I got put into foster homes. And those people, the Beech family, were the monsters.  Justin and Lela Beech were the kind of foster parents that

The second I stepped through the barrier, the air thickened around me like fog. My skin tingled, my lungs tightened, and my stomach flipped like it knew something my brain hadn’t caught up with yet. I turned back on instinct, half-expecting to see one of those guys grabbing for me, ready to drag me back. But they weren’t.They were still at the edge of the alley, just outside whatever invisible line I’d crossed. One was stumbling back, eyes wide with horror. Another looked like he was trying to process what just happened, blinking over and over like I’d vanished mid-step. The third was pointing right at me. No, through me. Like I was a ghost. Like I wasn’t even there anymore.To them, I had disappeared.What the hell?I spun back around, expecting cracked pavement and boarded-up buildings. But instead, I saw green

The creak of the closing door behind me in the soft susurrus of the wind in the trees sounded as the castle had breathed in and sworn not to let me go. I froze, the frozen moment well-nigh holy, reverent. I had been bracing myself for cobwebs and dust, but the air was fresh, electric as storm weather. Lights blazed in the sconces, driving the dark away as I went deeper in.The furniture was odd, with carvings of dragons as well as star constellations I had not noticed before. Dragons in a circle surrounded a broken crown hung above flames, the implication oppressively uncomfortable in my chest. When I went up the second floor, the panel swung open to my room. Warmer, as well as the comfort of the familiar, but shocking in size.The four-postered bed, made of what looked like petrified wood, had bedding in every imaginable shade of ember red to smoky gray. A corner desk had new parchment along with magic quills, and shelves were lined high with ancient, blank tomes to b

Once class had been dismissed, I returned to Aurelian House. The others dispersed in pairs and small groups, their voices fading after them like ribbons I could never reach. But the moment I crossed Aurelian’s threshold, I was met with silence. Silence that wasn’t cold. Silence that wasn’t empty. Intentional. Like the house had been waiting for my return, and only now felt safe enough to breathe.My boots clicked softly on the obsidian floor, and sigils danced to life beneath the stones. Faint emberlight pulsed in their veins, like they were recognizing me. I reached out and ran my fingers across the edge of the wall. Magic beneath my touch hummed. I wasn’t surprised. It calmed something in my chest that I hadn’t realized was clenched. This wasn’t the deafening silence of empty houses and abandoned shelters. This was the silence of memory. And it was waiting for me to know it.The tapestries along the corridor had been dull when I first walked past them, but the colors in them bloomed

Sleep didn’t come. Not really. Instead, I lay there on the giant Aurelian House bed, stiff as a board, the soft sheets pulled up to my chin like some worthless shield I didn’t believe in. Above me, the ceiling shimmered with faded sigils that blinked slowly to the beat of my heart. I ignored them. Tried to breathe slowly. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw teeth. I heard Briar’s snarl. I could feel their presence. The heat of them. Their hate. The tension of a fight I was already losing before it even began.And then he showed up. Caelum. His voice, low and edged with something primal and unshakable, cut through my memory like a knife. “Back Off”. He hadn’t screamed. He hadn’t raised a hand. But the girls had scurried like whipped dogs, and I still didn’t know why. Or maybe I did. Because that dominance. That dominance wasn’t normal. Not really. It wasn’t just pack politics. It was older. It was primal. And it had been directed at them because of me.That should have made me feel