From Autumn To Ashes The Fiction We Live Novels & Stories

Ash was thrown backward, his body hitting the ice floor with a heavy thud. "Ash!" Rhea shrieked, struggling against the invisible weight pinning her to the altar. "Are you okay? Talk to me!" Ash scrambled to his feet, his breath coming in ragged, whistling gasps. He held his hands out in front of him. The skin from his fingertips to his wrists was gone, replaced by a raw, blackened char that shimmered with violet embers. The "cold-fire" had eaten through his flesh down to the bone in a matter of seconds.

The morning after the council meeting, Blackwood was a wound trying to heal. Ash still drifted in the air, clinging to the trees, the stones, the wolves who passed with eyes too tired to be sharp. Every breath carried the weight of what we’d lost. Every sound felt heavy with ghosts.

Chapter Thirteen – Ashes on the Road The road stretched endless beneath a bruised sky, dust curling into the air with each faltering step. Adrian’s boots ground against gravel and ash, dragging over ruins that had once been villages, homes, lives. Pain radiated from his ribs, the bullet graze still raw beneath the filthy bandages he had wrapped himself in. Every inhale flared like fire through his lungs.

Later, as I lie awake, the fire crackling low, I think about what it means for us all. The Ash-born were more than wolves. They were a challenge to the status quo. A wild flame the councils tried to smother. Now that flame flickers again, hungry and fierce. The forest is alive in ways I don’t fully understand yet, pulsing with a rhythm that unsettles my bones. I wonder if it’s sympathy or hunger that draws it to us. Or maybe it’s the weight of the injustice, the centuries of silence pressing down like a shroud over this land.

While me, Alex, and Vincent decided to walk. At first I thought Land of Ashes was just a symbolic title because that's where the bodies of werewolves, victims of war, were burned to ashes. But Land of Ashes is really colored ... gray. No trees or grass grew in the area, nothing lived on it. Just a gray-brown expanse of barren land about the size of two football fields. In the new surroundings there are dense trees that surround. And above there the evening sky is orange as a contrast background.

“But this time… I’m the one with the knife.” She folded the report shut and placed it neatly in her drawer, locking it with a quiet click. Then she walked toward the window and pulled back the curtain. The city was alive beneath her, glittering like a thousand fragile lies. She was done being haunted. She wasn’t going to fall again. She would burn him slowly, elegantly, methodically until he had nothing left but regrets and the ruins of a kingdom he thought he built alone. And this time… She wouldn’t stop until the ashes bore her name.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to fuck, Alpha Hugh.” He chuckled. “What happened to the innocent Autumn that I know? Your mouth…” he trailed off and stared at my mouth. Out of habit, I wetted my lips. Wrong move. Alpha Hugh grinned. “Quit being a pervert. Stop looking at my mouth.” “I wondered if they were really soft when I kissed them.” My breath hitched. Damn him! “If you’re looking for the young Autumn, well she died with her family. She died when the people whom she believed would not leave her left. So stop looking out for her. She will no longer return.”

I breathe out, my energy slowly draining away that I could no longer stand still. "There's no network sweetheart" He stops against a tree before leaning back, stuffing his hands in his pocket and throwing his head back as if posing for a photo. "I meant the message through mind-link.I am not a member of this Pack but you are" I explain whilst sitting down on the roots.The sun has begun to set down, taking away the little bit of light that was helpful in the forest.Now it's shadowed and within a while, we will be surrounded with darkness. The thought itself made me anxious.I hate darkness.It only reminds me of the brutal death of my best friend.

We were all worried in our way, dealing with what was going to happen. Rain was already pacing in tight little circles. “It is cursed. It must be cursed. You don’t name a place Ashroot unless something’s going to eat you under a moonbeam.” “Technically,” I muttered, “Ashroot means ‘origin of endings.’” “See?!” Rain wailed. “That is not comforting, Lia!” Then the forest shimmered. I’m talking full ripple-in-the-air, heart-in-your-throat shimmer. Like reality forgot what shape it was supposed to be.

"We read them to ourselves, then toss them into the fire, reminding ourselves that we will not be controlled by the pain or the fear." I nod my head, then grab the first piece of paper. In my head, I begin to read everything I wrote. Once I'm done, I hold the paper over the fire. I say the words Xavier had told me earlier. "I won't let my fears and pain control me." I let the piece of paper drop into the fire. I watch how it instantly bursts into flame, and disappears into ash seconds later. Without realizing it, a smile has formed across my lips. For the first time, in awhile, I actually feel happy. It's as though I'm telling myself that I will never see Craig or Gary again. Even if I do, I