Cinders Ashes Novels & Stories

Hope The light is blinding to my sensitive eyes as we emerge from the depths of the cellar. we are hurried along a wide hallway leading to huge wooden double doors. The sound of men shouting as the prisioners huddle together booms in my ears. Blinking to adust to the change of light i look around taking in my surroundings. We are standing in what looks to be a large cathedral. Its beautiful marbel floors lined with gold and giant floor to celling pillars covered in intricate patterens and vines. Lanters line the walls iluminating the large room. Ive never seen anything so beautiful. A large fireplace cut out into the wall burns the chill of winter away. At the end of the room steps climb to

Then, a soft, localized warmth bloomed in the dark. Ashren held his palm open. A small, concentrated sphere of pure golden heat hovered just above his skin, acting as a makeshift lantern. It was not the blinding, lethal fire he had used to melt the Citadel doors. It was a gentle, steady glow, like the embers of a dying hearth. "We are halfway," Ashren said, looking back at us. His face was caked in dried blood and stone dust, but his eyes were completely clear. "The incline begins in one mile. It will be a steep climb to the Eastern Caves."

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe properly. Couldn’t even scream. Cassian stepped closer slowly while his body continued dissolving into ash around him. Then he whispered softly into my ear, “We both know happy endings don’t exist.”

The call came from a woman named Rosalind Achebe on a Wednesday morning in February, and Zara almost missed it because Esme had been awake since four and Wednesday mornings in the Mitchell-Stone household had the specific chaos of a household with a five-year-old who required considerable logistical support before seven-thirty and a sixteen-month-old who had recently decided that sleep was optional. She took the call in the hallway, stepping over the debris of what appeared to be a block-based engineering project that Lyra had begun at six a.m. and abandoned in favor of breakfast.

He begins pacing, boots scraping softly against the gravel. I want to light one too. My fingers even brush in my empty pocket. I once promised Jenny I would never smoke. So I step a little farther away instead and check my phone for the eighth time. 9:45 p.m. The cold screen light reflects faintly in my eyes. I call David again using my burner phone. The ringtone hums in my ear, over and over into the empty night, but no one answers. Charles drags another long pull from his cigarette before tossing it onto the ground and crushing it under his heel.

With that statement, Aries hisses his agreement. Images begin to project on the wall behind her as she continues to speak. Which is weird considering she hasn't moved an inch. "Ironclad dragons. Phoenixes. Leviathans. Direwolves. Storm Gryphons. Moon Serpents. Flame Hounds. Cerberus'. Unicorns. Frost Lynxes. Kitsune. Ash Ravens. Nemean Lions." She says with confidence as the images change behind her head still without any movement. "And of course the many extinct or the now unwilling bonds that you will learn more about in your history classes." she says as the images flick again and my breath stalls.

I had to be vigilant to ensure she didn't make a rash decision with repercussions that would shatter us both. Asher has found a way to take down the demon, Caspian informed me through the mind-link as I moved toward Kaida’s bed. I paused mid-stride. How? Fire. Unnatural fire. Phoenix fire. I turned to face him, my brow furrowing. And where am I supposed to procure a Phoenix at a moment like this?

“They’ll burn you to ashes... I’m sorry... Really and really sorry...” smirked Virando intensely cynically. Virando swung his hand again. The seven rainbow candles met one another in the center point. They created such a hugely as well as massively blazing flame. The flame soon burnt the soldiers, fighters as well as generals from West Medicine Land to dark grey ashes. “Aaaarrgggghhhkkk!!!” All the soldiers’, generals’ as well as fighters’ tenor eight-octave squealing and squeaking were audible first before all of them were finally burnt to their quietuses, merely leaving their dark grey ashes.

"He's gone. I know I loved someone. I know I lost them. But I can't remember his name. Can't remember his face. It's all just empty now." "The price is paid," Ignatia announced. "Three sacrifices. Three souls burned. Three transformations." The wall of flames vanished instantly, leaving us in the silent, ash-covered valley. The sudden absence of heat was almost as shocking as the heat itself. Ignatia approached, and I saw she was holding something. A crystal vial, small and delicate, filled with ash that glowed with inner light. Phoenix ash. "You have earned this," she said, placing it in my burned hand. "Use it wisely. And remember what you paid for it. Some prices can never be repaid, some

The Beast within bowed too, not to a crown of ash, but to the bond that had carried them through. High above, the last sparks of Ruby’s flames faded into the ashen sky. The Cinder Queen burned herself into nothing.