A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

“He’ll…be okay, right?” I asked as Rhain came to my side, his reddish-gold hair windblown. “Going out there with just three gods? Will they be okay?”

“Do you really think I believe you are concerned?”

I looked over at him. “Will he be okay?”

“He’s the Primal,” the god answered. “What do you think?”

What I thought was that he lived and breathed. Therefore, he could be harmed. And gods could be killed.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Ector stated.

“But I am.” I turned to the steps and started forward, affixing that mental veil once more. “What could be in the water?”

Ector brushed past me, reaching the steps first. He looked over his shoulder. “Do you believe in monsters?”

My stomach dipped. “Depends.”

He smirked before he faced forward. I glanced back at Rhain, but he stared ahead. I followed at a quick clip, not allowing myself to think about exactly how high the steps were carrying us.

“Whatever you do,” Rhain said as we neared the top, “please don’t get yourself killed. I’m sure Nyktos wants the honor for himself.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I told him.

“He’s not going to kill her,” Ector said from ahead. “Not when she carries the ember.”

Rhain sighed behind me, and it struck me then that Ector was right. Nyktos wouldn’t. Not until he figured out what it meant for me to carry the ember besides returning life to the dead. And if that were it? Would he kill me? Possibly sentence the mortal realm to a quicker death if Aios was right? Or keep me locked away, safe from those who meant me harm and those he believed I could harm?

My stomach took another tumble as I walked along the wide roof. In the distance, there was nothing but rocky hills and flat ground. I didn’t see Nyktos or any of the guards. I followed the curve of the wall, my pace picking up as I looked both ways, seeing that we were now entering some part of the city—a district of low, squat buildings that reminded me of the warehouses in Carsodonia. I kept on, my gaze tracking the nondescript buildings until I finally saw the city within the Shadowlands for the first time.

My breath caught as I stared out. It was larger than I expected.

As far as the eye could see, starlight glistened off tiled roofs, most homes and businesses stacked one upon another with tight, winding alleys between them, reminding me very much of Croft’s Cross. Specks of illumination from either candles or gas lamps shone along the streets and from windows. There were no Temples in the sprawling city, none that I could see, anyway, and there was a rather large portion that had been cut into the slope of a hill where buildings were staggered all the way down.

“How many people live here?” I asked as Ector strode ahead.

“Hundred thousand.” Rhain edged around me. “Or close to it.”

Good gods, I had no idea. Were they mostly gods or mortals? How many of them were Chosen—?

A sound like thunder came from the ground below. From the streets, shouts grew louder, mingling with screams. Pressure clamped down on my chest, and I moved to the nearest parapet, just as Rhain and Ector had. Placing my hands on the rough stone, I leaned out, squinting into the murky gloom.

A mass of people barreled through the narrow streets, some on foot and others on horseback or in carriages. Horror seized me as they pressed forward, pushing and falling, clamoring overtop one another as they ran—

“They’re running from the area of the harbor,” Ector shouted, peeling out of the parapet. “Shit. I thought the area was emptied.”

“They were in the process of doing that.” Rhain hurried along the wall, looking ahead. “What the fuck is in the water?”

I heard guards shouting orders, trying to calm the people and restore some semblance of order, but their yells were swallowed in the panic. The cries of pain were sharp, and I flinched as I backed away from the disaster unfolding below. People were getting hurt in that crush. They would die in their desperation to reach the safety of the castle grounds.

I forced myself to turn away and leave the parapet, the skirt of my gown whipping around my legs. I couldn’t afford for this ember to seize control again. Guards scrambled along the eastern wall as I hurried behind Ector and Rhain, reaching the section that overlooked the bay. None of the other guards paid me any attention, either completely unaware or simply not caring, too fixated on what was happening down below. I walked out onto another parapet, passing unused shields, quivers, and curved bows. The stale wind reached inside the hood, lifting the strands of my hair and tossing them over my face as the glistening surface of the bay loomed ahead.

What I saw brought forth a decade-old memory of the day a ship carrying oil had run abroad, hitting another. Ezra and I had climbed out onto the bluffs to watch the men King Ernald had sent out to stop the spill. The ship sank, and the oil spilled into the waters, enraging Phanos, the Primal God of the Skies and Seas. He had erupted from the sea in a terrifying cyclone, his roar of fury creating a shockwave that caused our ears to bleed. Within seconds, he’d obliterated every ship in the port. Hundreds had died, either drowned, flung into the buildings below, or they simply ceased to exist, along with the dozens of ships.