Dying Embers Novels & Stories

The embers glowed orange. I watched them. I thought about the recording. The way my own voice had filled that room. The way her face had stayed still while mine had cracked. But I still couldn't get the missing document out of my head. The cut-off access. The war had already begun without me. I watched the last ember collapse into ash. A slow smile spread across my face. "Dead women become martyrs." The fire was almost going off. "I want her alive." I crouched in front of the dying flames.

Then I looked at our daughter, who opened her eyes and didn't cry and looked at me like she already knew what I was. From the ashes and the fire, something beautiful was born. "Ember," I say. Jolie's breath catches. She knows immediately—I can see her take the shape of it, hold it up to the light, understand everything in it. The element of transformation: coal that becomes fire that becomes something that outlasts both. The thing that stays lit after everything else has burned. The beginning that looks like an end until it doesn't. "Ember Ash Kane," she whispers.

‎ ‎The garden began to quiet. ‎ ‎Not in peace. ‎ ‎In absence. ‎ ‎The warmth faded. ‎ ‎The scent dulled. ‎ ‎The light dimmed. ‎ ‎The Fade was winning. ‎ ‎Then a child came. ‎ ‎A girl named Ember—descendant of every line, her light flickering but stubborn. ‎ ‎She was twelve, small for her age, her hair silver with streaks of red, her eyes the color of storm clouds before rain. ‎ ‎She came alone.

His life force was a flicker, he didn't have much time. The room was cleared for me. I moved toward him, my hands already lifting, trying to connect to my healing energy in my veins. A movement at the doorway made me pause. Ember stood there, frozen. Her body was rigid, tense like a wire. "Ember?" I asked. "What's wrong?" She didn't look at me. Her eyes were locked on the dying man on the couch. Then, they changed. The warm brown of Ember's eyes melted away, replaced by a radiant blazing, unmistakable gold.

Most of her turned to ash, but one tiny ember remained. It hovered above the ashes, glowing red, pulsing like a heartbeat. The very last spark of her eternal flame. I lunged through the fire and caught it with my bare hands. It burned me—seared my palms until the flesh blistered and blackened. But I didn't let go. I pressed it against my chest, right over my heart, and whispered: "I'll keep you safe. I'll bring you back." That ember—small as a grape, warm as a dying coal—became everything.

She couldn't even form full sentences. " It was dark and cold. We felt like spectators in our own bodies. I called out to you boys, hoping you all would hear me, but I didn't feel you at all. Instead, we felt Ember. Her spirit reached inside of us and pushed War away. Damien cannot kill her. Ember is still in there. Ryder is in there as well", Dad spoke. "Ryder is in there?", I asked him, making sure I heard him correctly, and he nodded.

"I should pretend, after sleeping with my boyfriend on my bed, who gives a rat's ass about you, I wish everyone of you dies." "Hey, stop that,' Jeremy whispered as he got close to me. I shrugged his arm off me and continued. "I don't know what you actually think you are by getting in bed with my boyfriend, but I hate you so much, you disgust me. I wish you would die on a train and be scattered to pieces." "How dare you?" He snarled, wanting to attack me when Noah blocked his path and shook his head. "Don't do this, Aiden."

When Ember finally arrived, she hurriedly parked her car in-between some trees, to keep it away from sight, looking around to make sure, no one was secretly watching, she ran towards the direction of the mansion Her knees felt weak below her, as she saw, the state of her family house. The condition of it was beyond anything she could have imagined. The once-beautiful estate, with its pretty gardens and elegant architecture, was now reduced to an abandoned site, filled with ashes. Ember’s heart ached and her body whimpered, as she took in the scene, the reality of her loss hitting her like a physical blow. ~~~Ember~~~ "Ember" a voice called out, breaking me from my daze. I turned around to se

Aric's arms tightened around me as I wept, my body shaking from the force of it. Soon he released, and Ember and Elara's arms came around me. We went down on the ground and wept with our arms around each other, not caring we were in the middle of the field with half the kingdom staring. "He can't be gone," Ember kept whispering, her voice trembling. "He can't be gone." Gods, I was tired of losing people. I was sick and tired of it. My body, heart and soul were tired of it. "The fire's out," I heard somebody shout.

She gritted her teeth, exerted tremendous force to lift the upper half of my body, and dragged me out of the laboratory step by step. The scorching air roasted our skin. Even a handful of Serena's hair had been seared, the end of those burnt strands glowing faintly. Despite that, Serena didn't seem to be in pain while dragging me ahead. Conflicted emotions stirred in my chest as I peered at her side profile, which had been stained with ash. I struggled to raise my hand and look at my watch. There wasn't much time left. We would die here if we didn't leave now.