Dying Embers Novels & Stories

Then closing my eyes and blocking my sense of smell I lied down doing a one-eighty degree spin getting my body all soaked up. Sitting up I looked around, and a tremble went down my spine. Gradually everything was getting gulped by the raging fire, and the putrid smoke darkened the day like the middle of a night. The hellish appearance the jungle wore incited fright through my veins. We're going to die. "Ember." That's the end. "Ember!" This is going to be a horrible death.

THE EMBER TRIAL The air inside the Emberstone mines shimmered with heat and history. Beneath the jagged teeth of Mount Caldrith, the sacred tunnels twisted deep into the earth, pulsing with residual Alpha flame. Red veins of dormant Emberstone pulsed faintly beneath the rock, glowing like the slowed heartbeat of something ancient and barely breathing.

“Ember…” “But now,” Ember whispered, “so are you.” She pressed her palm to Kaela’s heart. The fire flared — not the soft warmth from before, but a violent surge of red and gold that burned through Kaela’s body. Kaela gasped, her eyes wide, and for a moment, it looked like the flames might consume them both. Then it was over. Kaela’s head fell back, her breath gone. Ember pulled her hand away, her fingers shaking. Her eyes flickered gold again, then black. “She was already dying,” she said quietly. “I only made it fast.”

What did Daniel mean by too late? “Bring her back before it’s too late?” I asked them, apprehension making my muscles stiff and my breath hitch. “Alma went inside Kemy’s soul and she saw that Ember was dying. If her dragon dies before Kemy wakes up, she won’t ever wake up again. We have to either find a way to heal Ember or to wake Kemy up before it’s too late,” Mallory sighed, talking without looking at me. “F*ck!” I cursed under my breath. I had to find a way to help my mate and soon.

“Ember, can I use a memory to spark the fire?” “I guess, but you need to learn properly.” “Great,” I said, rubbing my hands together, before flames burst out of them. Which shocks everyone. I smile at the results. “What are you thinking about?” Ember asks. “That bitch Amber from school.” The heat in my body intensifies and the flames start to get higher. “I am thinking about my mom on the day of her death.”

I didn’t expect her to. Inside, the air was heavy and damp, and the scent of rot clung to every surface. The floor was littered with debris, broken tiles, shattered wood, and fragments of stone. Ember leaned against one of the sturdier walls, her arms crossed, her golden eyes sharp as they tracked my every movement. She was evaluating me, as she always did, weighing her chances of survival against the risk of staying close. “This is your big fucking plan?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Hide in a crumbling shack and hope they just…go the away?”

A fading one already. Like tidal waves, the timelines battle for supremacy. With flames in her hands, a reincarnation of Emery leaps at her. Another uses luminous wings to protect her. Like stars being formed and then dying all at once, sparks of time ignite around them as they clash. Emery is unable to breathe. Across iterations, her voice reverberates, saying things she may have spoken but never did. "Death both of them." "Preserve him." "Leap." "Leave it alone."

When they arrived, the Heartfire flared softly, recognizing the rhythm in their steps. Arianne smiled. “You are the Children of Dawn,” she said. “Not because you were born in the light, but because you chose to walk out of the dark.” --- The Lesson of the Ember She led them to the base of the Heartfire, where its glow pooled like liquid gold on the stone. “Each of you holds an ember,” she said. “It is small, fragile, and eternal.” The apprentices knelt, cupping their lights between trembling hands. Arianne continued:

“If a rat breathed here, I want to know which direction its whiskers pointed.” The soldiers surged forward. Doors were kicked off hinges. Cellars torn apart. Barns reduced to splinters. Tunnels checked. Wells inspected. Every scrap of cloth lifted. Every chimney probed. But Emery’s family had vanished into the world like smoke. Hours later, the fires had risen—first small, then roaring. Damian didn’t stop the torches. Tarron Vale burned in wide, hungry sheets of orange. What Emery abandoned, Damian erased. Still, no trace.