Page 20 of The Ember and the Emerald

More sounds from Jasher. He climbed to his feet, not quite steady but strengthening quickly.

My pulse jolted. I stretched out my hands to stop him, but he looked beyond me. Guess he’d learned his lesson about the dangers of eye contact.

“You want to kill me,” he snarled. “I sense it. But I will strike first. I can already feel your beating heart in my hand.” His fingers unrolled to reveal a bloody palm dotted with cuts from his claws.

“I want to help you, never hurt you. Please, Jasher. Let me. Don’t fight—” When he flared his wings and braced, as if to attack, I shouted, “No! Stay!”

To my astonishment, he submitted, exactly as Emma had claimed. But oh, fury crackled in his sunset eyes, promising brutal retribution.

“How are you doing this?” he demanded.

Guilt surged as I lowered my arms. I’d known he would hate being powerless, but seeing that hatred live and up close was altogether different. I attempted a smile. “You wouldn’t want to hurt me if you remembered my importance to you.”

Hey! Maybe I could force the return of his memories. “Remember me,” I commanded.

He bared his teeth. “Die,” he snapped.

Great. There were some orders he couldn’t obey. Or maybe it took time? Maybe I could move his body, but not his mind.

Ignoring my abused, protesting muscles, I picked up the end of his chain. “I’m taking you home,” I told him. “Do not attack me.”

“I will gift your corpse to my brothers. They’ll feast for days.”

“Don’t expect them to thank you,” I snipped. “I’m a little too spicy for most monsters.” Eyes on the water. “Elowen, I paid your price. Deliver on your promise.”

Nothing.

“I paid your price. You owe me,” I gritted out. I don’t know why, but instinct urged me to add, “Until the end.”

I did, and ripples immediately erupted over the glassy surface. That worked, like a password of sorts? I expelled a relieved breath, then braced. Time to return to that brutal, horrific place where I’d nearly died.

I cast a last, longing glance through the barn’s doorway, finding the farmhouse in the distance.

Jasher pulled at the chain, reaching for the axes too far from his reach.

The water gurgled, the ripples coming faster and faster. Soon, a funnel formed.

Elowen didn’t appear, but I heard her voice dance through my mind. I’ve done my part. Enter or don’t. The choice is yours.

My mind locked onto my task. Find the Ember. That was it. When I succeeded, and I would, I would save my parents. Free Jasher. And defeat Ian.

This trip, I wasn’t going in empty-handed.

My mom’s pained bellow pierced the air, and I stiffened. Time to go.

Chin up, shoulders squared. Backpack and journal secure. Elowen had said the storms might carry me where I needed to go. Hopefully, this waterway did the same.

“Follow me,” I commanded Jasher, stepping into the rushing water.

He trailed right on my heels, without the axes.

A terrible suction yanked us down, down into a whirling sea of darkness.

Lights pulsed into my awareness. Bright pinpricks within an endless black void. Once. Twice. Thrice. The next flash lingered, bleeding into color.

A kaleidoscope of shades melded before fracturing. Again and again, faster now, accompanied by blips of sound. Not words. Not quite screams. Small, sharp bursts of indistinguishable noises. One pulse slammed into another until the darkness split.

War.