Ember (The Ember Series)

by Carol Oates

  “Of course, Candra. It goes without saying you need to be there.” His expression softened, and a reassuring smile made crescent lines form at the corner of his lips.

  “Brie will be there, I’m sure. I don’t know about the others,” Candra added, narrowing her eyes and waiting for him to stomp his foot down, but his expression was unwavering.

  “You need to be there. I won’t try to keep you away. You have my word. I’ve told you, Candra: I want us to be friends. What kind of a friend would I be if I kept you away from saying a last goodbye?”

  At least it was something, a small victory, but a victory all the same. Candra sighed sadly and looked away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears stinging her eyes. When she had left Sebastian, she hadn’t said goodbye. No words came to mind that clearly expressed how she felt leaving him, and she wondered if she would get the chance to.

  “I’m sorry. I hope you will one day understand why this is the only way, but I’m not sorry I met you, Candra.”

  “I know.” Candra blinked a few times to clear her eyes. She understood that to Draven this was a way of keeping the covenant intact and knew too that he genuinely cared for her. She didn’t believe he was doing any of this out of maliciousness.

  He stood gracefully, leaving Candra staring down at his shoes, and then held his hand out to her with his fingers curved slightly, waiting. Candra lifted her chin, feeling butterflies building in her stomach. This is real, she told herself as she met his eyes.

  Draven looked down on her kindly, his gaze burning with admiration and triumph.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  Candra raised her hand slowly, never taking her eyes from him, noticing how he held his breath. Her stomach knotted as her hand slipped into his.

  “Ready,” Candra replied.

  His chest deflated with the breath he released, and the warm smile returned to his lips. “Thank you,” Draven murmured, barely above a whisper, before he turned to guide them to the ballroom door.

  After a moment, Candra became aware of a hush growing over the voices on the other side of the door. The constant murmur was quieting, and she realized the music that was coming from the ballroom was familiar. She found herself moving toward the door as if the music was a living being, curling under the door and floating toward her even as it drew her forward to it.

  The door opened inward, held by two Watchers Candra recognized as working with Draven. The gathered crowd in their finery turned to them with rapt attention. The music was playing low in the background, but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The room was lit to a low ambient light, accentuated by the twinkling chandeliers overhead.

  The crowd began to part, shuffling silently toward the sidewalls as they walked forward with Draven’s hand resting softly against Candra’s lower back. There had to have been at least three hundred or more Watchers present in the large room, all with their attention on Candra. They lowered their heads gracefully in acknowledgement as she passed. She couldn’t see Brie, Lofi, or Gabe. Sebastian was nowhere in sight either. But she could see a few familiar faces: the doctor from the hospital, Ananchel, and a girl who had recently worked at the gallery with Brie. Candra realized both light and dark were represented at the gathering, and each step she took was a choice she was making, a choice to keep them all safe. The beautiful piano music seemed to waft through the air and wrap around her as if it was made to do just that. It was the same music she had danced to with Draven. She guessed he chose the familiar tune to help her relax. She felt a tremble in her stomach that was somehow almost natural and a heat that rippled over her body, flowing like liquid silk across her skin.

  Quiet mutterings erupted again, and Candra heard muffled intakes of breath but continued on toward the top of the room. She spotted Brie there, right at the top, standing by Gabe’s side. His arm was wrapped around her tightly, and her small hands were pressed to her mouth that was opened in a small “o.”

  Draven stopped when they reached a small platform at the top of the room and turned toward her with bright glinting eyes. He leaned forward, and his warm breath grazed Candra’s ear.

  “Your light shines for all to see now.” He pulled back smiling, his hand still on her back.

  Candra looked at him in confusion and darted her eyes back to the crowd. Her stomach did a flip-flop when she spotted Sebastian and Lofi at the very back of the crowd, in the corner near where they had come in. Lofi’s head was tilted to the side, observing the scene before her with interest. Her hand was moving over Sebastian’s upper arm, rubbing up and down in a comforting motion. His head was bowed and shaking side to side as if in disbelief.

  “Look, Candra,” Draven told her, lifting her hand up in front of her.

  She gasped in wonder and turned her hand over in front of her face, allowing her gaze to travel up her arm, where her skin gleamed under the twinkling lights with a sort of dim pearlescent glow.

  “What’s going on?” Candra gulped, shocked and breathless as the shimmer faded and disappeared before her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  Draven’s solid arm moved to wrap around her back, pulling her to him as if they were embracing, but really he was holding her steady. “It’s okay; it’s the angel blood inside you. It’s okay, I swear,” he whispered and held her for several long moments until she recovered from the shock.

  Candra realized she should have suspected something like this would happen, that she would have idiosyncrasies that would show themselves over time, or physical attributes that would set her apart from humans. She just didn’t expect it to be that she could be her own light source.

  “I’m okay now,” Candra said in a muted voice.

  “Are you sure?”

  She took another calming breath that was filled with his spicy fragrance. “I’m sure.”

  Draven pulled back, scrutinizing her expression closely, clearly watching for signs she was about to freak out. He needn’t have worried. If she hadn’t freaked out by now with everything that had happened, a little shimmer was not going to be the piece of straw that broke the camel’s back. Candra could handle it, or at least she could keep her freaking out for later when she was alone. Even then, she wasn’t sure she would; it just didn’t seem unnatural to her. It felt like something unexpected but still something she was made to do, like being thrown into the water and realizing floating comes naturally.

  Draven nodded once and turned to face the crowd. Silence engulfed the room.

  “If you are here tonight,” he began loudly and with a determined air of authority, “it is because you’ve heard the stories of the Nephil born to the Nuhra”

  The murmurs began again, some angry and raised. Candra took a small step closer to Draven, noting that Sebastian still refused to look up. He was here, as he said he would be, but also just as he said, he wouldn’t watch.

  “It’s time for the truth,” Draven went on, raising his arms to hush the crowd. “As you can see, Candra is no ordinary Nephil; Candra was born with a soul. She is good and kind and loving. You have seen with your own eyes the light that shines within her. While it is true that she carries the blood of Payne and that she was raised by Ambriel, Payne came to me personally before her birth and asked for my help…”

  Again the mutterings erupted, but this time Candra didn’t look. She kept her eyes firmly on Draven’s profile as he spoke. His body was relaxed and held straight with his shoulders rolled back. He lied convincingly. She watched his jaw tighten and flex and his throat work with each swallow. Candra then turned her attention to her toes peeking out from under her dress while he gave the crowd a chance to absorb the information before he spoke again.

  “After she was born, Payne came to me again, telling me her mother had died in childbirth and asking for protection for his child—protection which I freely offered. Payne fell while under my asylum as such, and Candra has also been offered sanctuary with me.” He paused and sucked in a breath. “But she is not one of us. The covenant has been broken.�
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  Shocked voices echoed through the room, and Candra’s eyes flashed first to Draven whose expression was calm and unreadable, then to Brie who looked horrified and was speaking to Gabe, but Candra couldn’t hear what she was saying. Sebastian and Lofi were still in the same spot. Lofi’s expression hadn’t faltered, and her hand was still touching Sebastian’s arm. Ananchel was at the door where they came in. She looked to be guarding it to prevent people from leaving. Candra made to step away from Draven, but his strong arm locked around her waist preventing it, and she saw all the doors were blocked by Watchers she had seen around this very building.

  “What are you doing, Draven? We had an agreement,” she demanded in a low voice, fighting the building fear inside her that this was all an elaborate trick to get all the Nuhra here for some kind of end-of-movie final bloodbath scene.

  “Trust me,” he pressed.

  That was going to be difficult, since he seemed to be about to feed her to the baying crowd. The din was rising, and Candra suspected any moment the sound of whooshing wings would erupt. After that, there would be no stopping it.

  “Wait!” Draven commanded. “I said wait.”

  Just as Candra expected, she heard the sound of ripping fabric, but it was Draven that was the first to show his true self. His wings extended, black as midnight and twice as frightening. There was immediate silence, and she very quickly realized something she had missed from the very beginning: no one was prepared to challenge Draven except for Sebastian, and he was hanging his head in the back of the room as if all the fight had seeped out of him.

  “It is time to put the past behind us. Payne understood this. I understand it, and so does Candra. She is willing to give up her entire life; she’s willing to sacrifice her future and her family to keep the covenant in place.” His words were impassioned and charismatic.

  They faded into the background as Candra watched the back of the room where Sebastian was making his way to the door. She saw him exchange words with Ananchel, Lofi by his side. Lofi appeared to be pleading with him, her hand cupped Sebastian’s face forcing him to look at her. Some of the crowd near the back were beginning to look.

  “But I don’t want her to,” Draven finished.

  Candra jerked her entire body in an attempt to get away from him. He had betrayed her; he was selling her out. At the very same time, Sebastian froze. A second later his head snapped up to face them. He was too far away, and Candra was too confused to read his expression with any accuracy.

  “Please don’t do this,” Candra pleaded to Draven in a strained whisper. She could feel the hairs rising on the back of her neck, and her heart drummed loudly, hard and fast in her ribcage. She pressed her hand to it out of instinct, trying in vain to reduce the pressure in her chest.

  Draven completely ignored her, holding her still with little effort. “I have a proposal to make…”

  A proposal? Candra thought. Could he possibly be serious? Had he decided to up the ante here and now? It would have been laughable if she hadn’t already promised him everything. What more could she possibly give?

  “We were once one, and my proposal to all of you is that we be that again.”

  Candra stopped struggling and looked up to him. “What are you saying, Draven?”

  He turned his head to look as her and released his arm from around her waist. The small vein on his temple stood out, giving away that he wasn’t as calm and assured as his words and actions would make it seem. The back of his index finger ghosted down the length of her forearm before he turned back to the crowd.

  “All of you, in one way or another, look to Sebastian and me for guidance, and it has been no secret over the centuries that we have never seen eye to eye. Earlier today we came to an understanding.”

  All eyes in the room were glancing between Draven and Sebastian with trepidation and bewilderment about what was going on. Sebastian was standing with his back to the door, facing them full-on as if he was waiting for Draven to make his next move. Candra was sure he was about to leave, which meant he had no idea what Draven was up to. She wondered if the conversation he was referring to ever happened at all.

  “Candra promised herself to me as part of a deal to protect the covenant and prevent war. I propose—” Draven turned to Candra again and took her hand, raising it to his lips and softly pressing his lips to her heated skin keeping his eyes locked on hers. He winked before he let her hand go. “—as a gesture of goodwill between us, to politely back out of the bargain we made, in an effort to move on from the past, to a future where we can once again stand together and call ourselves one family.”

  “I don’t understand,” Candra murmured under her breath, looking to see a relieved, hopeful smile on Brie’s face.

  There was a stunned silence throughout the room, and many eyes were on Sebastian, trying to gauge his reaction to Draven’s declaration. She held her breath, waiting for what felt like an eternity. The room seemed to slow, and the crowd disappeared into a hazy mist. The only thing she could focus on was the hesitation Sebastian displayed when his head lowered and his fists curled in by his side. The loud metronome thrumming in Candra’s ears measured time that continued to stretch out before her. Draven’s wing brushed against her bare back, sending shivers down her spine. Without looking, she knew he was pulling them in flush to his body before they would disappear to nothing.

  Candra had no idea what would happen next if whatever plan Draven was acting out went wrong. She swallowed thickly against the escalating ache in her lungs begging for air, and her hand bunched the fabric of her dress by her side.

  Suddenly Sebastian’s head shot up. Simultaneously his eyes locked on Candra’s, and he took the first of his indomitable strides through the crowd toward them. She released the breath she was holding in a long slow exhale, not wanting to alert anyone to the fact she really had no idea what was going on between these two. She had no idea what had happened to change things so drastically from the time she left Sebastian until the ball. Sebastian’s fierce gaze didn’t waver as he approached and stopped beside her so that she found herself once again wedged between them.

  “Draven is right,” Sebastian said resolutely, shocking Candra.

  The world appeared to have shifted on its axis—or she had slipped into an alternate universe of opposites where these two could actually agree on anything other than hating each other. A tremor shot up her arm when the back of Sebastian’s hand grazed hers in what would look completely accidently to the observing eye, but Candra knew better.

  “It is time to let history rest. We’ve all lost, and if we refuse to learn from our mistakes, we will continue to lose. I, for one, have lost enough.” With that Sebastian turned his body toward Draven and reached his outstretched hand in front of Candra.

  There was a long moment’s pause, in which she felt like her stomach might turn itself inside out with nerves. She watched Sebastian’s hand hold steady and sure until Draven also reached in front of her, taking it firmly in his, and an immediate chatter broke out in front of them.

  “Thank you, brother, for trusting me,” Draven said earnestly.

  “Thank you, brother, for still having faith in me to do the right thing,” Sebastian responded.

  Candra left them there, holding hands in their little mutual admiration society. Her relief was palpable. She hadn’t realized until that moment what an incredible weight had been on her shoulders, and tears began to blur her vision. She was practically giddy as she charged toward Brie and was engulfed in her arms.

  “What happened?” Brie asked in a tear-choked voice against Candra’s hair.

  “I have no idea, but if you haven’t already decided to redesign my room as an art studio or gym, I think I’d like to come home tonight.”

  Brie’s light laughter was muffled by a quiet sob. Over her shoulder, Candra could see blurred images of Gabe and Lofi speaking to Ananchel, of all people, and for once Ananchel and Lofi didn’t look like they were about to kill each other. They
didn’t look like they were suddenly best buddies and still stood with their bodies angled awkwardly away from each other, but it was a beginning. All around them Watchers from both sides mingled, some observing with a guarded hesitance and other reaching out to each other, perhaps speaking for the first time since the Watchers had come here to earth. It seemed, after all this time, all it took was for someone to make the first move.

  Candra saw Ananchel approach wearing the same non-threatening expression she wore at the Philip’s party, and she pulled away from Brie, letting her go to Gabe. Candra finally realized one of the things that made her uneasy about Ananchel was spot on: she did know things Candra didn’t all along.

  “You know, I wasn’t lying when I said your father and I were once friends,” Ananchel said with a grin. “I knew him during the time before your birth until Brie came into your life. He was a good man.”

  Candra tilted her head, waiting for Ananchel to finish. She still couldn’t see a time when Ananchel and she would be friends. Ananchel’s particular gift didn’t sit well with her.

  “Perhaps one day I will tell you about Payne as I knew him.” Ananchel shrugged noncommittally, and with a last smile turned and walked away.

  Candra felt a hand on the base of her back and twisted around to meet Draven’s sheepish half-smile. “I understand if you would prefer not to, but I think it would be a good idea to get this evening underway to its intended purpose. I would be greatly honored if you would consent to the first dance with me.”

  Candra looked around to find Sebastian. He was in the middle of being ambushed by Lofi and Brie while Gabe looked on with amused concern. She felt butterflies of excitement break out as it dawned on her that their situation had suddenly, drastically changed, and a fraction of a second later hot blood began to flood her cheeks and mild panic gripped her for the same reason. What if Sebastian didn’t want her now that he could actually have her? He didn’t come to say goodbye despite promising he would. He was planning to leave, to give up on her.