Ashes (The Firebird Trilogy Book 1)

by Stephanie Harbon

  That’s how I knew; his eyes, Kieran’s eyes, they never changed. Every part of him was this vicious monster with the cold calculating expression and merciless claws, except those eyes; they were undoubtedly human; full of hate, anger and emotion.

  I cautiously edged closer, noticing the mostly concealed leather bands wrapped around both his wings so that a bag was perched at the top of his spine. I wondered idly where that had appeared from. Then I remembered the complicated strap thing that had been in the bag inside the car; it must be whatever that had been. A golden chain glinted around his neck.

  “Kieran?” I asked. To my embarrassment my voice shook.

  His eyes danced, like he was laughing silently. I took that as confirmation.

  Remembering what he wanted me to do, I stepped back, clutching the remains of his clothes like I was protecting them. Suddenly he swept forwards, ducking his head and somehow, miraculously, I was on his back.

  My stomach lurched as he leapt into the air. My scream was lost in the rush of wind. I grabbed Kieran’s neck, thrusting my face into his dark feathers and squashing my eyes tightly shut. The folds of material, his clothes and trainers, pressed awkwardly against me. In a hysterically petrified and angry moment I contemplated throwing them, letting them plummet to the earth.

  My heart pounded more erratically the higher Kieran ventured, adrenalin surged in my veins. The blasting air blew my hair back, gnawing at my flesh. In a weird way it made me feel better. It sharpened my hazy numbness, the biting chill drawing out the pain. Finally I opened my eyes.

  And I was flying.

  My fear evaporated immediately; this was spectacular. Honestly it wasn’t that different to being on a motorbike, it was the same feeling of going incredibly fast, incredibly dangerously. I still had to rotate my body as Kieran jerked around invisible corners, clenching my thighs against the sides of his enormous body that I barely reached with my stubby legs. I listened to the beat of his wings, so steady like a sleeping heart. It was a very sedative sound.

  The wind stung my eyes, filling them with brimming tears. I sunk down onto Kieran as he levelled out, pressing my head against the strange texture of his feathers. They weren’t soft like I expected, they were as solid and impenetrable as plates of steel, more like armour than insulation. I closed my eyes exhaustedly, my head still throbbed; it was becoming worse. The cold crept underneath my skin like a virus, filling me with its malicious dose and I shivered; the quakes progressively becoming more violent as time ticked by. It was accompanied by a sweat that drenched my clothes. I glanced at my arms and they were so pale, snow white, my freckles had vanished, as if frostbitten by the cold.

  My eyes closed to consciousness.

  My body was losing the battle.

  Chapter Seven

  I could hear something through the deep water of unconsciousness. I didn’t know what it was, it sounded like beating. Curiously I betrayed the ignorant part of my mind that was tempting me, compelling me to stay in the nice empty depths of nothingness. It was like space, almost deserted, until I started to kick my legs and thrust my arms out determinedly; then I began to see sparks of life, like stars. It became colder the higher I swam, and noisier.

  Eventually I broke through the surface and my eyes darted open.

  As my vision slowly adjusted to the dark surroundings, I realised in a terrified panic that the only things surrounding me were clouds and the piercing pinpricks of stars and planets. The vast skyline stretched into the distant night. I was in the air. Frantically bolting upright, the wind gnashed at my face like shards of scraping ice. I screamed but something hard clasped over my mouth. My heart thumped vigorously as I whirled my head around. I didn’t feel relieved when I saw Adrian.

  “Calm down,” he ordered angrily, loosening his grip on my mouth so I could breathe; just. “It’s alright.” He didn’t sound reassuring.

  He released me. I looked down and saw feathers, dark brown feathers.

  I gasped, a renewed fear igniting within me. I was on the back of a monster. Cautiously I leant over the monster’s back, shivering as the bitter wind clawed at my hair, and saw an ocean far below me. I cringed, concentrating on gripping onto the monster’s feathers so I didn’t fall to a watery grave. Adrenalin pounded in my veins, fear pumping my heart erratically. I was a jumbled mess of blind terror and confusion. It slowly filtered into comprehension that I had been on a creature like this before I’d fallen unconscious. It was broader than Kieran, I guessed it was Nikolas.

  “How did I get here? How long have I been asleep? Where’s Kieran?” I yelled over the wind to Adrian who stubbornly ignored me. I turned to repeat my demanding questions. Eventually he responded with an ignorant shrug.

  Looking around, I wondered where everyone was. Then I looked up and gasped. They were above me. I realised the two terrifying predators must have been the two girls. They seemed smaller than Nikolas underneath me, with slender, streamlined bodies covered over with dark feathers. They were beautiful, but terribly and deceitfully so. Their beauty hid their talons.

  Then another monster swooped underneath Nikolas and I felt my perspective shift entirely into something of absorbed fascination. This monster was glorious; those emerald encrusted wingtips incandescent in the moonlight. It dived and twirled recklessly, slicing through the air with its cutting bladelike wings. I felt no longer afraid.

  Then, to my utter astonishment, I heard a husky voice echo in my head, How’s your head, Princess, still not fully functional?

  I stared in shocked awe. What the fu—

  Hey! No swearing in my head, Kieran objected, to my utter astonishment, winking a rounded green and black eye. I want to keep it clean from such vulgarity.

  How in the world? I thought bewilderedly.

  His fantastic eyes brightened as he shrugged his feathers, you’re more Phoenix than human right now. How else do you think we communicate?

  Startled, I looked down at myself. No, I wasn’t covered in feathers. I was a little redder though, like I was flushed. I didn’t feel warm, I felt cold. The veins in my arms were raised, a dingy burnt red liquid pumping though them. My head was still hurting, a persistent and superfluous aching.

  You can read my mind? I asked Kieran, horrified.

  Yeah, he replied. I know all your dirty secrets. Be prepared for future blackmail.

  Seriously? I thought frantically. What a horrific thought.

  No, he said. I can only hear what you want me to; when one of us is in this form.

  Does that mean I’m getting better? I inquired hopefully.

  His mindvoice dropped, No. It means you’re Changing.

  I gulped; I really am going to Change. My friends were right; I really am going to die a virgin. How depressing.

  Kieran stared forwards as he uttered: The darkest hour must pass before sunrise.

  I didn’t have the time to think it over; Kieran had suddenly jerked his beak upwards, immediately serious, ostensibly sniffing the frigid air. Trying to be surreptitious, I mimicked his movements. I couldn’t smell anything. I glanced around, watching as the others breathed in the scentless air. Can you smell that? Kieran asked generally. I shook my head, but the others made agreeing noises.

  What is it? My mindvoice was disreputably impatient.

  Home, they chorused simultaneously.

  What…? I wondered just as Nik made a prodigious dive through the air, tipping almost vertical and falling at a blindingly fast speed. My eyes widened in shock but before I could do anything the others were copying him. I gasped in horrified astonishment as we cascaded towards the ocean waves, accelerating faster than I thought possible. I clutched tighter to Nikolas, my legs clenched tight, planting my face into his feathers and screaming profanities. I opened my eyes at the very last minute to see a ridiculously small-looking clump of rocks in the seemingly endless pool of salt water.

  I braced myself for a rough landing and wasn’t disappointed, jolting backwards violently and praying not to be catapulted int
o the ocean.

  Getting off Nikolas seemed an even more daunting task, I realised as I looked down at the rock a couple of metres below. To my annoyance Adrian slid off Nikolas’s side and landed perfectly. When I tried my legs buckled underneath me and I fell on my ass. I managed to straighten up after a couple of seconds; the others had disappeared from sight. As I looked up searchingly, Adrian shouted me over.

  I was very aware of the great expanse of water surrounding me. It made me anxious, to be on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean. However, as I ventured over to Adrian, I immediately noticed that he was standing in front of a fairly large hole in the rock. It was about the size of a child’s paddling pool. I realised, as I clambered up the slippery surface, that its depth was unknown as the light only filtered down to the top layer. I guessed the bottom still contained sea water from previous storms.

  “Go on.” Adrian snapped, “Get going.”

  “Down there,” I said, “You’re joking, right?”

  I looked at his deadly serious face, avoiding those intensely black eyes, and thought that he wasn’t the type to joke. Or have a sense of humour at all.

  “Where have the others gone?” I wondered, eyeing the hole sceptically.

  “Where do you think,” Adrian spat, glaring at me.

  I’d had enough. “What’s your problem?” I demanded.

  His glower intensified as he snarled, “You really have no idea what we are doing for you, do you? We left Kariak for a reason; who are you to make us go back?” he demanded, “You selfish bitch, you have no idea.”

  “I’m not making you do anything,” I snapped. “I’m dying; your friends seem to think they can save me. They have compassion, but I didn’t expect it.”

  He sighed with melodramatic hostility, and then proceeded to climb down the hole on his own. I watched him disappear, resisting the urge to kick him on his way down, then waited for a moment. I looked around for no reason, seeing what I knew I would see, water and night’s sky, then sighed; I knew I would have to eventually go down the hole, it was either that or swim. Which I was pretty sure I couldn’t do.

  I gripped onto the ledge of the hole and slowly backed my way into it, my feet groping the slippery wall for a place to rest and balance.

  “Come on Princess,” Kieran called from below me in a voice so loud I jumped and nearly slipped. “We don’t have all day. Well,” he amended himself, “We do. But you don’t have all day.”

  I gulped and cautiously edged my way down. As the light became weaker the further down I climbed, I became more and more dependent on my sense of touch, feeling for somewhere to grip onto. It wasn’t too far down before I managed to touch something with my foot that definitely wasn’t rock. Rock doesn’t usually complain when you hit it.

  “Sorry,” I muttered to which ever girl I’d kicked.

  “Jump, I’ll catch you,” Nikolas said patiently. “I’m right underneath you.”

  Now, if it would have been Kieran or Adrian who’d have said that I would have laughed at the idea, but Nikolas had this calm steadying voice without a note of harshness or derision; it was impossible to believe he would do anything to hurt me. So I took a deep trusting breath and let go of the wall. There was a burst of air then hands immediately snagged on my waist and stopped my fall. He instantly put me down.

  Complete darkness surrounded me. I was very aware of the bodies surrounding me. They radiated heat in the non-existent space. I accidentally brushed someone’s side as I shuffled restlessly, realising I had touched bare skin. Those who had changed hadn’t dressed. Kieran was once again butt naked and in close proximity; apparently it was a natural state for him.

  “Anyone got a light?” Nikolas wondered.

  “There’s one in Ruby’s bag,” a girl, Chara I think, answered.

  There was movement around me as I perked up, “Someone has my bag?”

  “I got it for you at that party,” someone offered; a pleasant female voice, Briseis. “I knew what would happen when I saw you in that bonfire; I thought you’d want it.”

  “Thank you,” I said quietly. I felt oddly relieved that some of my things had survived despite the fact that I probably wouldn’t end up needing them anyway; with my impending doom and all.

  Someone lit the lighter and I just caught a flash of skin and curves before awkwardly glancing away towards the wall -which thankfully was the place where the lighter was being directed. That insignificant little flame showed little of Kieran’s body as he kneeled down before a large spherical boulder, barely flickering over the prominent muscles of his broad shoulders.

  “Hold this there,” he ordered to Briseis, gesturing at the lighter which she grasped accordingly. He grabbed the rock.

  Nik turned to me. I just made out the side of his strong jaw and the fan of his eyelashes in the dimness. He began speaking. “When we move this rock there is going to be a gush of sea water flooding in here. What we want to do is to get through the water to the other side and swim up to the surface of the sea, which will hopefully be Kariak’s shores. You see, this is a weakened spot in the Wards that protect the island, a fracture if you like. I won’t go into details now on how it works, but do you understand what needs to be done?”

  I nodded, but I had no clue what he was on about.

  “There are too many of us to get through separately,” Kieran stated, “There won’t be enough time. Lads, help the ladies. Ruby, you’re with me. I don’t suppose you’ve ever swam before?”

  I wracked my brain but I knew the answer was no. I’d always avoided swimming; it just never seemed something I’d be interested in. I muttered a ‘no’ and I could see the smile brighten the shadow of his face; it had an edge.

  “Good,” I heard Adrian grunt behind me, “That means at least for now she isn’t conditioned against it.” What did that mean? Of course I was terrified.

  “Brace yourselves,” Kieran instructed, “Ruby, get behind me. When I say go, grab onto my shoulders, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Once you feel you are out of the current kick your arms and legs until you reach the surface.” His voice dropped then into a deep almost kind murmur, “If you’re having trouble I will be there.”

  Kieran and the other men took hold of the boulder and nodded at each other. Then, with astonishing effort, they began to push the boulder away.

  Instantly water gushed over my feet, flooding so powerfully I stumbled backwards against the rock wall. I barely managed to scramble over to Kieran, the liquid firing at us like shards of broken mirror, before he shouted “Now!”

  I gasped a quick breath and practically threw myself onto Kieran, furiously shutting my eyes as he dived forwards into the watery onslaught.

  The last thing I thought before I hit the water was: I can’t swim.

  We crashed through a wave of water, but its power was indomitable. I could feel Kieran’s strange metal bag underneath me pull us back further with its weight. Though my eyes were squeezed tightly shut and my hands clasped desperately to Kieran, I could tell we were still travelling at a devastatingly slow pace. I could feel his muscles move as he stretched out his arms to claw at the walls of the rock, attempting to pull us through despite the battering force of the current.

  The impact of it was so intense it was painful, but slowly I could feel myself come free of the full force of it. Slicing deeper into icy depths, my lungs began to itch longingly. Suddenly Kieran and I separated when my fingers accidentally slipped from his flesh.

  I wanted to find him but I knew what I had to do. I kicked my legs and moved my arms, feeling myself move through the ridiculously cold water. The cold hadn’t been so obvious until now, perhaps because I was too distracted by the force of the water cascading onto us. Now, however, it cut me like a thousand glass splinters. The pain was incredible. Unbelievable! I had never felt such cold; all I knew was that I wanted out of it.

  As I swam in a direction I hoped was upwards the pressure of the water seemed to loosen and I knew I was nearing the sur
face. I lifted my arms to distinguish when I found air but to my horrified shock my hands touched something else. It was cold, freezing cold. As I ran my palms along the barrier that blocked my way to safety, it slowly came into comprehension that I was trapped under thick impenetrable ice.

  Instinctively I opened my mouth to gasp but instead swallowed water. It was grimy and salty, thicker than normal; like blood. I coughed involuntarily, subsequently gulping more; searching frantically for none-existent air. A petrified panic exploded throughout me, I tried to feel my way for a crack in the ice, but I was deluded in thinking I could escape this watery fate. I was trapped. I bashed the ice with my fist, trying furiously and pointlessly to break it. The hope that I could succeed was the only thing I had left to cling on to. Behind my closed eyelids, where I was inevitably drifting away, my body too numb to feel the pain anymore, I saw a flash of sudden brightness.

  The next thing I was really aware of was the sound of drumming.

  Should drumming hurt? It was hitting me, I swear.

  Then I realised. Someone was, quite literally, beating the life back into me.

  My eyes burst open. I coughed up what felt like gallons of bitter water.

  “Will you stop trying to die on me?!” Kieran yelled. His voice was saturated with a mixture of anger and relief. “Honestly, I have had enough of saving your ass,” the angry part seemed to be dominating, “Once you burn, I refuse to play guardian angel anymore. “ He babbled antagonistically as he pounded my back with his fist, causing me to throw up more ocean. I wasn’t listening.

  He could have warned me, stupid git. “You could have mentioned the ice.” I half-coughed with a gravelly voice. I will never, ever, voluntarily go into water again; I was officially scarred for life.

  “We didn’t know,” I heard Nik’s voice admitting from a short distance; “We never anticipated that the sea would have frozen this early in the year.”

  “You’ll be okay,” Chara continued, “Your fever will burn off the cold soon, it won’t affect you for long.”