The deep rumble of the voice continued, but I didn’t dare look away from my brother. I didn’t think I could if I tried. In that one moment, I saw my brother for what I had always known him to be, for what everyone else in this room saw him as.
More than king.
More than ruler.
More than brother.
He was their guide.
I accepted that as they did.
As one, everyone in the large space raised their hands above their heads, one loud clap smashing through the revered silence as the sign for acceptance rang loud.
“It has been accepted,” the voice came, followed by a silence that, given the situation—given the way everyone stood, staring at the man before us—should have been awkward. It should have been driven with an impregnated anticipation. Regardless, it was only calm. It was only still as the power in the room trembled into a calm.
“Speak, our lord,” the voice echoed loudly in Czech as Ilyan shifted, his eyes moving over everyone—over the last of his people, over the confused child who stood beside me—before finally resting on his mate. It was an acknowledgement that didn’t smother me for the first time.
He as I waited alongside everyone else, waited for him to speak, as the dim, red light of day became nothing more than shadows.
“My people,” Ilyan began after a moment, the power in his voice carrying over us, “we have been scattered, but now, we have been found. While our numbers are few, they are still strong. We are still strong. And now we gather not only to cement the rule of my people, but to strengthen our numbers and to move toward our goal, our birthright, and our heritage. We have been graced with magic for a reason. For this reason, we will take back the wells of Imdalind. We will defeat Edmund Krul, first of the Chosen, and take back the magic of the world.”
It was a powerful speech, and I could feel my magic boil in excitement and anticipation. I fought the need to scream, yell, and stomp my feet as was always done in the councils my father held. Instead, I raised my hands above my head, clapping once as everyone else did, sealing the words with a calm agreement, a powerful bind falling over me as I did so.
I could feel the weight of the ancient magic shift over me like a warm blanket, the calm looks on everyone else’s faces making it clear that they felt the same things I did. The magic was affecting them the same way.
“Edmund has taken control of not only the wells of Imdalind, but also the city. He has plagued the calm creatures, the Vilỳ, with a poison that infects not only the precious magic they hold, but also the magic that is awakened in the ones they bite.
“Joclyn, daughter of Sain, first of the Drak, has found a way to reverse the poison in these souls, making their awakened magic as safe as the magic that was awakened in her and in all the other Chosen Children to date. This can be shown in Jaromir, the child we pulled from the streets. Not only is his magic pure, but he awakened much faster than is usual, his power a strong force within him.”
Ilyan’s voice was strong yet still not enough to drown out the excited babble that filled the space. The urgent whispers grew into a fountain of sound, the noises growing as they bounced off the old, stone walls.
I looked around as the sound continued to swell, my own excitement lost as the small boy in question took a step into me, his tiny frame almost trying to blend into mine.
“Hey, there,” I said in Czech, my voice soft as I bent over to him. “It’s okay.”
“They are scared of me.” His voice was so small.
“No,” I said, my voice a little louder as he looked at me with scared eyes. “They are excited that you exist.”
I didn’t expect him to understand right away, and judging by the wide eyes that looked up at me, he didn’t.
I smiled softly as my focus left the scared, little boy and went to the strong woman who stood beside him. The parallels between them were so funny I couldn’t help laughing.
“What?” He was obviously upset at my laughter.
I stopped right away and looked at him, jutting my chin toward Joclyn so he would know what I was talking about.
“She was the same way. She hid her mark for years. She hid herself for years. Now look at her. She will be queen today.”
She should still be your mate.
No. Not anymore.
Don’t forget what Ilyan has stolen from you.
You need to make them pay.
His eyes grew wider with each word I spoke, the large saucers full of so much disbelief. He looked at me before turning toward her tall, sure frame, the mark on her neck proudly displayed for all to see.
“Silence.” The command in Ilyan’s voice rumbled through us, silencing the room on command as Ilyan’s magic sealed it, and everyone was forced to follow orders.
While the use of his magic in such a way boiled under me a bit, it was short-lived. After all, I could see the same irritation in Ilyan’s face. He didn’t like using it, either. Everyone else, however, now stood in a humbled silence, their heads bowed low as they waited for him to continue.
“It is the suggestion that we gather as many of the injured as we can, bring them here to be healed and trained, and then give them the option to move forward with us. To help us fight for the freedom that is not only ours, but will be theirs, as well.”
Ilyan had barely finished before the resounding clap echoed through the room. His face broke out into a wide smile at what I quickly understood to be a simple task. If I had to guess, I would say the simplicity was often anything but.
It’s a good plan.
Too bad…
“Thank you, my friends,” he whispered, the heartfelt words rumbling over me. “Now, for the true purpose that we have gathered in this council.”
He paused, his lips breaking into a wide smile as he walked toward where I stood, his look thankfully not reserved for me, but for that same powerful woman the little boy still stared at.
Ilyan extended his hand gently, his long fingers reaching toward her for only a moment before her delicate hand was placed in his, the touch soft as he pulled her onto the platform and into the middle of the space.
“As many of you know, I have found my mate, and the ceremony has already been performed. It is for that reason I bring before you Joclyn DeSpain, daughter of Sain, the first of the Drak; bearer of the kiss of the Vilỳ; and a child chosen by them as my mate, my companion, and your Queen.”
He spoke to those around him, but his eyes never left hers, a deep, desperate longing in his gaze so deep that it moved through me with such an emotional wash I was having trouble breathing.
“Do you accept?”
You are a fool, son.
And here I was, beginning to accept you as my child.
You are no better than the rest of them.
I clapped my hands above my head as all the others did, letting the voice wash over me as if it was nothing.
It was nothing.
The sound of my clap was one booming noise adding to all the others, one simple movement sealing my agreement of Joclyn and placing her as my queen.
For one brief moment, the joy in her face blanched, her skin paling as she took a step closer to Ilyan, her hand wrapping tightly around his.
I smiled at the movement, that same warm balloon swelling within me.
I turned toward Risha without thinking, my stomach twisting at what I had done, but more at what I was now seeing.
Standing behind Risha in the shadows against the wall was Sain, his dark hair falling over his eyes as he mumbled to himself.
Mumbled.
The same way I had as my father’s voice had tormented and dragged me down into insanity.
Now, there stood Sain, his hands writhing one over the other, his head pressing into the cool stone as he mumbled to himself. As he fought the same demons I had.
He had mentioned before that he knew what I was going through. That he knew what I had battled, but it was in the past. It was something he had already defeated. Yet, seeing him there, the way he
moved, the way he mumbled…
He was battling them now.
He always has been.
My father was fighting for control of him, too.
Who’s to say I don’t already have that?
I might have won, but I was seeing another fight right in front of me.
And seeing it from this angle, I wasn’t sure how I had won.
Or if he would.
He won’t.
SAIN
Twenty-Three
I shouldn’t be here.
Not after everything I had heard. Not after everything I had been present for. I knew what they wanted of me. It was the same thing they always wanted, the same thing I had given them for years.
My mind was full of it.
Of information.
Information I knew they could take with only a few words.
I should leave, focus on my own agenda. On the plans I had spent thousands of years carefully weaving together, manipulating the sights and magic of my progeny in order to accomplish.
This choice could upset all of that.
Yet, I stood, shrouded by the dark of night, the moon a blood red orb as it glimmered through the powerful shield that shrouded the city.
The golden gate.
The archaic arches that were built in the 1300s as religious zealots created towers to their gods. The popular tourist attraction was now smeared in blood, the bodies of tourists littering the ground around us, forgotten souls who had passed before their magic, their true ability, had taken hold.
It was pathetic in a way.
It had been less than a month since I had walked through the gilded archway, since I had guided Wynifred away from the massacre, from Edmund and his ridiculous plan of control.
I had told him years ago that his goals would only lead to ruin. As much as he relied on the manipulated sights I handed him, however, he hadn’t listened.
It was better for me, for what I wanted.
Now, I only needed to find a way to continue to use Ovailia and her father for my benefit while they thought they were getting what they needed.
I had done it for years. I would do it again.
I would do it for those I love, to protect them from the future I saw, the one I would change in order to control the magic in a way that would only benefit them. They would see what I had done soon enough.
They would be grateful for it.
This choice was another step on my path. I wouldn’t deny the pull I felt deep inside.
It had awakened when I had held Ovailia as an infant in my arms and again when the bond with her had been completed.
It was a need that I was sure I had forgotten, that I hadn’t needed.
Not since Angela.
But now…?
I can see you, Sain.
The voice came, the same as it had for centuries before I had tricked Thom into providing my escape, the sacrifice of his child necessary to use his abilities to break me out of Edmund’s control. I had heard the sound all through my imprisonment and for decades after until it had finally faded into nothing. Until my memories returned and the bastard daughter I had seen hundreds of years before put my entire plan in jeopardy.
It had started to return when Edmund had found me, days after delivering the birth stone to the Silnỳ. Then, when my memories hadn’t fully returned, the whispers had begun, piecing together my past before my mind could put everything together on its own.
It was nothing like it was now, the consistency only increasing with the first step I took back into the city.
Instructions, commands, orders.
All delivered straight into my mind.
Just as they had been for so long.
As I now knew they would until the end.
Even Edmund was playing into my plan in a way.
The courtyard glimmered with the shadows of red and black, the hot breeze moving through the open space and pulling at the tree’s trash and forgotten belongings from the massacre rolling and moving through the wide-open space.
My sight pulled at me as it tried to show me visions of future and past and things I didn’t really care about right then. I pushed it away as the bell from the high tower of the cathedral rang loud and clear, the sound awakening the ravenous Vilỳs that were left wanting, the nasty things taking flight and zooming around the open space.
I cringed at their existence, the sound of their illness grating in my ears and on the memory of what they used to be. They had once been so beautiful, so treasured. Now they were destroyed.
I stood still as one of the vile things flew at me, my body not so much as tensing as it continued on its path, ready to devour me.
“Zdechnout.” I spoke the word aloud as it rattled in my head, and the Vilỳ dropped to the ground with the thunk of stone on stone.
“One down, ten million to go.” Her voice was as smooth and sweet as it had always been, the sweet tones sending my heart into a rage and my magic into a frenzy.
I looked up to her as she approached me with her hair swinging behind her, the tap of her high heeled shoes loud and hypnotic. My heart rate accelerated at the sound, the deep need for her growing out of nowhere.
“Ovi,” I sighed, fully aware of the longing that had seeped into the word.
She smiled at the nickname that had always been hers, her face lighting up with a joy I had missed from her.
The clicking of her shoes stopped as she came right up to meet me, her eyes a white hot heat as she stared into me.
“Hello, Sain.”
My magic boiled at the honey in her voice, her body bending toward mine as her arm trapped me against the gold inlaid stone of the archway.
We stood, staring at each other as the Vilỳs began to calm down, my magic moving in a desperate attempt to reach hers.
“So, Sain,” she began, the whispers of the voice picking up in my ears, “tell me what Ilyan has decided.”
I knew I shouldn’t have come here, but I didn’t have a choice, just as I didn’t have a choice about whether or not I was going to tell her.
Although, not for the reasons she would assume.
With one gentle press of her lips against mine, all the secrets that Ilyan had trusted me with came free.
He had trusted the wrong person from the very beginning.
Both Edmund and Ilyan. I had learned from the moment Dramin crawled out of the mud that this world was mine for the taking, mine to mold, mine to create.
And I would.
THE NEXT, BOOK IN THE IMDALIND SERIES . . .
Dawn of Ash
Expected Release Mid 2015
OTHER BOOKS BY REBECCA ETHINGTON
KISS OF FIRE, IMDALIND #1
EYES OF EMBER, IMDALIND #2
SCORCHED TREACHERY, IMDALIND #3
SOUL OF FLAME, IMDALIND #4
BURNT DEVOTION, IMDALIND #5
DAWN OF ASH, IMDALIND #6
THE THROUGH GLASS NOVELLA SERIES
Episode One: The Beginning
Episode Two: The Darkness
Episode Three: The Blue
SUPPORT THE KISS OF FIRE MOVIE PROJECT
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was written in one of the darkest times in my life – and without the loving support of my dearest of friends, and the understanding from the most amazing fans – it may not have happened. So I thank you. I thank you for holding my hand, for cheering me on, for watching my videos, for crying with me, and for understanding as my life fell apart, that the story could still live on.
This book would not be without the amazing support of each of you.
So I thank you.
And a very special thanks to those who were there through it all.
Jen, Lila, Ricky, Spencer, Shaina, and Kris
You have saved me.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Ethington is an internationally bestselling author with almost 700,000 books sold. Her breakout debut, The Imdalind Series, has been featured on bestseller lists since its debut in 2012, reaching thousands of adoring fans worldwide and cited as “Interesting and Intense” by USA Today’s Happily Ever After Blog.
From writing horror to romance and creating every sort of magical creature in between, Rebecca’s imagination weaves vibrant worlds that transport readers into the pages of her books. Her writing has been described as fresh, original, and groundbreaking with stories that bend genres and create fantastical worlds.
Born and raised under the lights of a stage, Rebecca has written stories by the ghost light, told them in whispers in dark corridors and never stopped creating within the pages of a notebook.
Coming Soon From Rebecca Ethington
Of River and Raynn – The Catalyst
Of River and Raynn – The Sypher
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Dawn of Ash, Book Six in The Imdalind Series
Through Glass Novella Series – Episodes 4-12
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Please enjoy an excerpt from Shelly Crane’s SIGNIFICANCE, which is FREE on all sites where books are sold. The new book in the series, UNDENIABLY CHOSEN, comes out March 31st, 2015! Follow Maggie and Caleb as she pulls him back from being hit by a truck, saving his life. They realize they are soulmates and live happily ever after…after a few snags. Quite a few…
Burnt Devotion Page 28