Page 131 of Stealing Embers
I lean back in my chair, my mind whirling with questions. This whole hot mess is so confusing. And I hate that I’m part of it. I just want to blend into the shadows. Is that too much to ask?
Straightening her back, Sable addresses the lot of us. “Let’s see if we can start making sense of all of this.”
* * *
Three hours later, we’re still trying to sort through all the details. My lids feel weighted with concrete and lined with sandpaper. My clothes are stiff with dried blood and several days’ worth of mountain gunk. My nails—yuck. The crescents that are usually white are caked with black dirt and grime.
My sore muscles started to ache in protest hours ago. The worst are the spots on either side of my spine where my wings attach. I don’t know if I have special muscles there, or what, but something back there is angry.
I fantasize about a shower—the warm water massaging my tender muscles and bruised skin, rinsing away the build-up of grossness suctioned to my body. Breathing in the lavender scented steam. Running my fingers through my hair, free of mats and—
“Emberly!”
“What? Who?” Jolting, I grab the tabletop to keep from sliding off my chair and onto the cafeteria floor.
“Classic,” Sterling snickers.
I don’t bother shooting him The Look. Sterling would just find that funnier.
“The orb glowed blue before turning gold, right?” Steel raises his eyebrows as he waits for my confirmation.
I turned the orb over to Sable after the last of the Forsaken had fled. Where Sable is keeping the object now, I don’t know. And I can’t muster the energy to care.
“Yeah, exactly. The moment my fingers brushed it, the color changed and you guys started to phase into the spectrum—I mean spirit realm. Even Silver seemed surprised about it.”
The room stills. I shouldn’t have brought her up again. I need to start referring to her as She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
“Someone who is like Emberly took it from the spirit realm.” Aurora’s sweet voice fills the silence.
“Someone like me?” Nervous energy tickles my belly.
Eloise squeezes her young daughter, who is settled on her lap. “How do you know that, sweetie?”
“The Forsaken said so.”
“I didn’t hear them talking about it,” Blaze adds.
“Oh,” Aurora tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “It was when you were sleeping.” She drops her gaze and plays with the ends of her hair.
Something about her answer feels off.
A crease forms between Blaze’s eyebrows, but he nods. “Oh, that makes sense.”
“What do you mean ‘someone like Emberly’?” Sable’s mouth tweaks to the side and she furrows her brow.
Yeah, exactly. That. I want to know that.
Leaning forward, I suck my bottom lip into my mouth and start gnawing.
Aurora scrunches her nose and she shrugs. “He’s a prince. He’s like Emberly because she’s a princess.”
Come again?
“You think this girl is a princess?” I’m not sure I appreciate Laurent’s tone or the look on his face as he takes my measure with a skeptical scan up and down my body. It’s clear he finds me lacking.
“Emberly is special,” Aurora insists.
Laurent’s inspection gets even more uncomfortable. His gaze narrows and he tips his body forward, partially blocking his wife and daughter from view. “Yes, but what exactly do we know about her?”