A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire, #3)

I pitched forward onto my palms as I heaved, dragging up nothing but air and the faint taste of something metallic. Through the tangled strands of my hair, I stared at my hands—my left one looked as if the pores had filled with faint silver light. Nausea rose, and I gagged, my stomach clenching. Though my eyes were closed, the chamber felt as if it were spinning.

I didn’t feel right. My head. My body. I felt too loose, yet too tight. There was a strange hollowness in my chest, one that felt final. My arms and legs trembled from the effort it took to keep myself upright. Sweat dampened my skin as if I had a rising and breaking fever.

The embers suddenly hummed in my chest as my right hand warmed. Blinking stinging tears from my eyes, I looked down. The swirl across the top of my hand shimmered brightly.

He was almost here.

My arms gave out. Suddenly, my cheek was plastered against the cool shadowstone tile, and gods, it felt good against my hot skin. My eyes drifted shut as I thought I heard shouts, but I couldn’t be sure. My heartbeat was in my ears. A loud crash came from somewhere, the sound of doors slamming into walls and shattering. Charged air stirred around me, then blissfully cold fingers touched my cheeks. I was lifted and brought against something cool and solid. Safe. The scent of citrus and fresh air enveloped me, and a breathy sigh left me.

“Liessa,” Ash spoke, his rough voice a balm. “I’ve got you. Everything will be all right now. I’ve got you.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO





I’ve got you.

Three short, simple words, yet they shook me to my core.

“Open your eyes, liessa.” Ash pulled me tighter to his chest as he rocked back.

Fighting the bone-deep exhaustion, I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry at first, but my vision soon cleared. Crimson stained the lower half of his face, but the blood did nothing to mar the striking lines and angles of his features. The harsh shadows under his eyes weren’t so unforgiving, having faded between the time I’d lost my connection through the essence and now.

“There you are.” Ash smiled, but it was tight and strained as he brushed strands of my hair back from my face. I saw his lips move before I heard him speak. It was as if my mind was on some kind of delay. “Talk to me.”

I swallowed, wincing at the dull ache in my throat. I struggled to concentrate on him. “You—”

A roll of rumbling thunder came from outside—somewhere close. I stiffened. The sky beyond the narrow windows flashed an intense silver. That wasn’t thunder and lightning.

“It’s okay,” Ash assured me as distant shouts turned to quickly silenced screams. “It’s Nektas. He felt it the moment I got free.”

Nektas was here? Who was he burning—?

A high-pitched yelp came, causing me to flinch. The entire sanctuary shook as something large landed nearby.

I now knew what Nektas was burning.

Other draken.

“You’re safe.” Ash caught my wide stare. “Talk to me, liessa. Please.”

“You found me.”

“Always.” Eather-laced eyes swept over my features before they slammed shut. His chest rose, and then he looked at me again. “I will always find you, Sera.”

Tears immediately rushed my eyes, stinging them. Drawing in a breath filled with his scent, I lifted a tingling arm and grasped the back of his neck, catching strands of hair between my fingers.

“But I didn’t find you.” Ash dragged his thumb over the curve of my jaw. “You found me. My beautiful, strong Consort. You ended this nightmare.”

I had, hadn’t I?

But didn’t that sound too good to be true? That I’d stopped Kolis before he…destroyed me in ways I wasn’t sure I would recover from? That I finally understood the full extent of how powerful the embers were and freed Ash from his prison?

My breath hitched.

I could see and feel him, but everything felt surreal—from the moment I’d touched The Star until this very second. It didn’t feel real.

What if this—all of this—was one of those too-real dreams? Panic slithered up my spine. What if I hadn’t stopped Kolis and had instead retreated far into my mind? Heart tripping, I turned my head to the side. My gaze skipped over small shards of gilded bone, swaths of fine cream and gold silk, and a wide pool of shimmery red-blue blood.

Kolis lay on the floor, his arms widespread. His face and throat were a mangled mess. So were other parts of him. A gilded bone jutted from his chest—from his heart—but that wasn’t where my stare lingered. It shifted back to his arms.

Arms he hadn’t lifted to defend himself. He’d gone still when I said I was going to kill him. I thought I’d seen…acceptance settle into his features. Maybe even a glimpse of…peace.

That couldn’t be right. It sounded like something my imagination would cook up. I sucked in a shallow breath as a draken’s growl grew closer.

“Is this…?” I rasped, my throat scratchy and hoarse. “Is this a dream?”

“No, liessa.” Ash guided my attention from Kolis with a gentle press of his fingers against my cheek. Tension bracketed his mouth. “This is not a dream. It’s real. I’m here. We’re not at your lake.”

A shudder of relief coursed through me as Ash’s confirmation scattered the remaining fuzziness from my mind. So many things rushed me at once—stuff I needed to be concerned about, but the only thing I cared about was him. “Are you okay?”

“Am I…?” A shaky laugh parted his lips as he shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re asking if I’m okay.”

“You’ve been imprisoned,” I pointed out, drawing in another deep breath. I didn’t feel like I needed to vomit, but the exhaustion remained, and I thought—

No, I knew what that meant.

I did.

A strange sense of calmness descended over me. My chest loosened. Resolve filled me. I needed to get up. We had to get out of here because someone, or multiple someones, were bound to arrive. And if someone removed that bone from Kolis, he would awaken. And then…

Everything would get really bad, really fast, because Kolis would know the truth—that I wasn’t Sotoria.

Even if that didn’t happen, Nektas’s fight could end up on top of the sanctuary, and there were innocent people like the Chosen here. I tried to sit up, but Ash’s arms were like steel bands around me.

“And you haven’t been?” Ash’s hand slid to the nape of my neck. The coolness of his fingers was pure bliss against the tight muscles.

“I’ve had it much easier,” I said, though the talk of imprisonment made me think of another. “Veses is free. I don’t know how.”

“With me being in stasis, the wards on the cells would’ve weakened,” he said. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

“Yes,” I assured him as he tilted my head back. “But what if she hurt someone—?”

“You are not fine.” His nostrils flared.

The air in the chamber suddenly thinned, charging with energy. The tiny hairs on my arms lifted as the embers in my chest thrummed faintly in response to the power pouring from…

“Ash?” I whispered.

Shadows appeared, whirling beneath his flesh in a dizzying rush as his eyes filled with tendrils of crackling eather—eyes that were focused not on mine but on my throat.