Dark Ember

by R. D. Vallier

  Home-wrecker.

  Blood trickled down my lips, my chin. My underwear grew moist between my legs. Storm clouds crashed and boomed, swirling with the orange-tinted smoke in a wrestling match of fire and darkness. Frigid squalls rushed and faded through the valley. Rushed and faded. Energies whirled. The night felt schizophrenic, as if the Earth was losing its mind.

  I yanked on the forbidden, frenzied energies. Red ribbons seeped from my nose. My fingers raked my cheeks. My head and joints pounded with the pressure of hurricanes, as if night's magic was trying to shred my body to escape. Everything reeked of ash and gasoline. Flames cackled in a raging wildfire, delighted with the destruction. I hugged myself, craving the comfort of strong arms, a cool kiss, a slow dance in a rickety kitchen. Raina's grin gored my mind. My hands clawed the Earth as I threw back my head and wailed.

  A coyote picked up my cry, carried it to their brothers, their sisters, passed it from beast to beast, until my grief and torment flew on their wails as a harrowing monster lurking through burning mountain valleys. I scrambled to my feet, sped toward the howls, heat on my back, billowing smoke blotting out the moon. Branches scraped my skin. Night's magic ripped my guts. Still I raced, blood and tears streaming. I never tripped. I never faltered. My soles knew this land. My body knew its home. Delano's home. Our home, no more.

  Home-wrecker.

  Twigs snapped. A coyote leapt from the brush, her tail erect and eyes flashing green. I stood, blood dripping, a dark ember smoldering hot enough to wilt the goodness inside me.

  "I fa-failed." I felt shame flush my face. Thunder boomed. I cast my eyes to the ground to avoid the coyote's gaze, my shoulders quaking and fists tight. "I'm sorry. I guess I lose you, too."

  Lightning slashed a blue spider web across the clouds and smoke as if the sky was cracking. The coyote whined … then crawled to me on her belly and rested her chin on my feet.

  I burst into tears. The dark ember burst into flames. I collapsed to my knees, sobbed into the coyote's sooty fur. She licked my face, washed my tears, my blood, my heartache, and my shame. My heart blazed with the intensity of a collapsing star. Gunpowder loaded my core, a short fuse sizzling along every vein.

  I pressed my forehead against the coyote's. Her siblings crept from the brush, encompassed me inside their pack. "Help me." She licked my nose and I smelled the rot and death of a scavenger's breath, breathed in the swallowed blood of a killer. I clenched my teeth. "Find Orin."

  I chased her as she darted toward the consulate, and prayed she wouldn't lead me to a corpse.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  Firelight faded into darkness miles ago. Dozens of paws pounded the forest floor below. A broken heart pounded my chest, raining shards and slicing everything inside me.

  I flew.

  Sweat and tears poured down my face. There had never been a mole, or rebels tinkering with night's magic and scrambling the energies. It was Raina all along, practicing, learning, waiting. My face flushed. I felt cheated and foolish. I had my chance for months. Now a thief with curly, sand dune hair had stolen what was mine. And for what? Delano? Love? A commitment to the world's well-being? No. A desperate attempt to maintain power, with Delano forced to accessorize her intentions. How would instant-love manifest in a sociopath? How would the darkshine manipulate a person incapable of compassion? I swallowed hard. How would Delano suffer?

  I felt nauseated knowing, despite everything, he loved her. I tried swatting the idea away, wanted to deny that nightmare and—

  No! Accept it! He loves her! So what will you do?

  In the past, I flicked on the light to chase away fears and insecurities that haunted me in the darkness. I'd believed light was a protector, but I was mistaken. Light hid those personal truths and demons, covered them, locked them in their own darkshine until daylight faded. But the fears and insecurities remained, present but unseen, hidden in the brightness.

  Helicopters thrummed in the air. The woods thickened and my feet found earth. Surrounded in coyotes, I scrabbled down a hillside, tailing the lead. Water splashed beneath us in a shallow creek bed. My mouth tasted of blood and lavender. The moon glared as a mocking eye, and the night whispered in my bones to go away, go away, you're forbidden, be gone.

  Never.

  I ran.

  I should have embraced the darkness, let it play out my terrors as I cowered beneath the bedsheets. Then maybe I would have faced them—my fears of intimacy, of commitment, of my weaknesses (and even scarier, my power), of love, of failure, of ignorance and uncertainty, of countless worries—faced them so I could've healed and grown and avoided this catastrophe.

  We veered off the creek, my socks squelching inside my boots. Our feet found rock and grasses, pine needles and dirt. A choir of singing glasses rang in my ears.

  I ran.

  Light was a liar, a bringer of blinders. It threw up distractions and false securities, broadcasted the world's outside reality while suffocating our inner one. Light offered no protection, only facades. Light was an opiate, an enabler. Truth was in darkness. Reality existed in the black. Darkness was the caregiver, the bringer of tough-love, divulged what held us back, proclaimed our enemies when light couldn't overpower our senses. Darkness wanted us to face and conquer our self-imposed limitations. I don't fear darkness, I realized. I fear what darkness brings out inside me. By calling that side of me bad, I'd deluded myself into believing I was good to avoid it. I praised myself for ignoring and fighting my truth.

  Well, no more.

  The lead coyote jolted to a stop, pointing her nose toward a clump of trees. I followed, panting, as she trotted ahead, and heard Orin and Lyell before I saw them. Only Orin and Lyell. Did anyone else escape alive?

  "—care, you bastard? I kept my promise!" Orin was saying. "I executed Gisela and Tybalt, and broadcasted the speech!"

  "You weren't supposed to blow your brains out on camera afterwards!"

  "You weren't supposed to stop me!" Orin shouted. "I could've protected everyone! Now my family will be executed because of you!"

  "They're dead anyway," Lyell snarled. "They've probably been dead for months, and your selfish candy-ass almost made it in vain. Now hold still!"

  What? I thumbed the broken reflector inside my pocket. It wasn't a lucky charm. I'd inherited Orin's only valued possession before he committed suicide. His frankness in the culvert was him tying up loose-ends and saying goodbye.

  My teeth gritted and my insides burned. I'm surrounded by assholes.

  "It's probably—ow!—in vain, anyway," Orin said with a pathetic whine. "We don't know if the speech transmitted. Or what if—ow!—the people don't revolt?"

  "Then we'll march into the Realm and start one ourselves," Lyell said.

  "Why? We don't even—Miriam." Orin's eyes widened when I stepped from the brush, my chest heaving. He sat against a young tree, pale from blood loss. The right side of his scalp was split from temple to top, exposing his skull. Blood soaked his I'm a Pepper tee to black. Lyell knelt beside Orin with an open daypack, suturing his head. Glowing flashlights hung off shoelaces from overhead branches, and two dead sentries lay in a semicircle near their feet. Jeanie bared her teeth and initiated a growling-match with the coyotes.

  I wanted to smack Orin, and curse and scream about his stupidity. But I couldn't. Not here and not yet. He'd been mixed up in his own falsities, too terrified to turn off the light to hear what his darkness whispered.

  Our darkness is what we hide from our light. It is the truth about ourselves we are afraid to see. What is Orin afraid to see? What am I?

  Orin's eyes darted from the coyote pack to me. "You-You're supposed to be with Delano."

  "Raina took the darkshine."

  Lyell dropped the suture; the curved needle dangled from Orin's scalp. "What? Now?"

  His words punched my heart. My insides seethed. "You knew her plan?"

  "She wasn't supposed to take the darkshine here."

  Orin's lower lip trembled. "Bu-But you're su
pposed to take it, Miriam! You're supposed to be with Delano! You're supposed to be protected and happy! And—!" When our eyes locked he froze, and if I'd been anyone else I would've sworn he feared me.

  The lead coyote's fur bristled; a bloody handprint marked her crown. My insides blazed, desperate to cremate Raina and pluck Delano from the cinders. I saw sparks catch in Orin's eyes, watched another dark flame ignite and spread. Orin's jaw hardened. He shoved Lyell away, then pressed a bundled cloth from the daypack to his temple and staggered to his feet. Lyell stood with him, fists clenched.

  "What do you need?" Orin asked.

  What do I need? I repeated inside my head, blood soaking my jeans. I thought of fairytales, of how love conquered all, of rescuers on white horses, and how true-love's kiss cured any hex.

  A dark ember scalded my heart. Fuck. That.

  I yanked an AR-15 from a dead sentry's hands and flung the strap over my shoulder. A devil's claw crept across the sniffer's face.

  "Teach me how to kill a darkling."

  Miriam's story concludes in Dark Cinders, Book 3 of the Darkshine Series. Coming soon!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The highlight of R.D. Vallier's multi award-winning career was when her 6th grade teacher threatened to call CPS over a story about a runaway and a magical wolf. She avoided government capture, but continued creating dark tales in secret. Now she's living the cliché as a storyteller in the remote wilderness, handcrafting an off-grid homestead with straw and mud and whatever she scrounges from the landfill. She holds degrees in wildlife management and hard knocks, only feels at home on the road, and believes humanity illuminates the most brilliantly during darkness.

  You can peek into her life at: www.rdvallier.com

  Or join her on Goodreads and Twitter

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to Anastasia, Catherine, Kristen, Nikki, Nora, and Timy, for all of your time, advice, insights, and support throughout Dark Ember's creation. A special thank you to super-mom, Amy, who provided the cover's awesome photography; Jessica, who turned that photography into something magical; and Charla for your editorial help. Also, an enormous amount of gratitude to You, lovely reader. I write the words, but your imagination breathes life into the characters again and again. That is such an honor. Thank you so much for sharing in my world.

  And last but not least, a special acknowledgement to my husband, Joshua. I would have quit a thousand times without you. Thank you for being my cheerleader, for supporting me through the darkest times, and for convincing me I have a voice worth sharing. My stories would have never been told without you.

  Dark Ember by R.D. Vallier

  Published by Free Fire Press

  www.freefirepress.com

  © 2017 R.D. Vallier

  www.rdvallier.com

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Cover photography by Amy Velasco

  www.nfinityphoto.com

  Cover design by Jessica Allain

  www.enchantedwhispersart.com

  Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9974619-4-7

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.