Page 104 of The Ember and the Emerald

“I’ve seen them in visions. He’s always at her side, silent.” Always cloaked in shadows, hiding his visage, but not his menace.

“Malkom was once the greater threat, but he is now controlled by Sin. She keeps him on a chain, much like you did your Jasher. Malkom’s powers are…they are terrible, Moriah.” She shuddered. “He—they—must be eliminated.”

“But Ian first,” I said.

“Ian first.” Elowen angled her hand, so that her fingertips brushed mine. I wrapped my fingers against hers, and we pulled in, pressing our foreheads together.

“Sisters until the end,” she breathed out.

“Sisters until the end.”

32

OPEN SEASON

Istayed in the cavern long after Elowen vanished in the pool, the surface smoothing itself into a perfect mirror both innocent and deceptive. When I stripped and stepped inside, I discovered it wasn’t as shallow as it appeared. The bottomless water swallowed me whole.

Warm velvet enveloped me, pulsing against my limbs like a living heart. It stroked my skin, coaxed my breath loose, and whispered welcome as I sank deeper.

Power hummed in my veins, gathering in my hollows until I vibrated with it. But get my head and heart right? Sure. Let me just pull clarity out of the magic hat Ian had torched.

I swam up, breaking the surface, ready to scream into the ether. Why couldn’t Jasher love me enough?

“Ding dong,” Kevin announced from his perch, “the romance is dead.”

I groaned, reminded of his presence. Oh, wow. Around him, the journal, the hat—no longer ashes but perfectly whole—the stones and the green dress. Now each item, even Kevin, possessed a faint green aura. The galemark. My galemark. I recognized it, though I’d never seen it before. I even knew how I’d claimed them. Like everything else a water maiden did, I’d wanted them more than breath and flooded them with my essence, making myself a part of them.

“You’re not just a toy, are you, Kev?” He couldn’t be. He had no buttons, and he spoke at the exact right times with the exact right taunts. “So what are you?”

Perhaps the answer would explain why I’d galemarked him. But as I probed my mind, the information floated just out of reach, as if I didn’t really wish to know. I hated this want-it-enough-don’t-want-it-enough thing.

Did the corners of his lips lift? “I am everything and nothing. What are you? Ha ha ha. Ha. Ha.”

“I must have believed you can help me win against Ian. But why?” An idea took root… “I bet your eyes are camera lenses. Are you controlled—possessed?—by someone?” A man behind the curtain. How very Wizard of Oz. “Yeah, I’m talking to a person, not a toy, I’m sure of it. Who are you?” I demanded, treading water.

“Keep eyes vigilant in night.”

“What does that mean?”

“Brain blip. Please wait patiently while I reboot.”

I rolled my eyes. He didn’t want to talk? Fine. I wasn’t worried about his intentions. That galemark acted as a seal of approval from my past self. More important matters were afoot, anyway.

Floating in the wondrous abyss, I forced my thoughts into focus.

Ian.

He wanted my Ember. Which he couldn’t get without my stones. The ones that hid and revealed the Ember within. Stones Elowen had given me. The memory of it struck as sharp as broken glass, her smile vivid as I stood within their flames.

“We must hide you among humans,” she said. “The Refining Stones can conceal with smoke and reveal with flame. I can’t remove the Ember or make you human, but I can make you appear as the mortals do.”

Now, that shield was gone. I wasn’t human, but I wasn’t what I should be, either. Not fully. Yet, we had only two days before the big battle.

Tension snaked around me. The ultimate battle where Ahav lost his life.

If everything played out the same, Ian wouldn’t be there. He never was. He let his monstra bleed for him while he watched from shadows and safety.

I sucked on my bottom lip. I’d have to drag him into the light to end him. Which kinda seemed like the Ember’s thing. If every part of me wanted to do this, then I should succeed. Condemning Jasher, as promised.