With one jerk of my magic, I sent a stream of fire into him, the magic infecting his useless body, burning him from the inside out, turning whatever made him the person he was into nothing more than useless ash. His body sagged under the loss before I stopped, knowing better than to get rid of the evidence completely.
“You,” I said to the man Ovailia still held against the wall. Everything about him shook as I started to move closer. “I have a job for you. Do it well, and I won’t kill you. Fail and your life will end in a much more painful way than poor Edmund finally found.”
I smiled, Ovailia laughed, and the man cowered as Ovailia released him from her magic, letting him fall to the ground.
“Stand,” I commanded, and he scuttled to his feet, his eyes darting away from mine in fear. “I want you to go and tell everyone what you saw here. Tell everyone of what Sain, the first of the Drak, really is. Can you do that?”
“Y-ye-yes…” he stuttered as he continued to shake, the smell of urine filling the air around us.
Ovailia laughed harder.
“Good. Then, when you are done, come back to me, and I’ll have another, little job for you. You have a new master now. Do you understand?”
The man nodded before he ran from us, his feet tripping over one another in his desperate need to find a way out.
“Do you think he will do it?” Ovailia asked as she stepped up to me, her body so close I could feel her warmth against my skin.
“Yes, I do. Now is when things really start to get interesting.” I pulled Ovailia to me, her eyes wide as I plastered her body against mine, my arms strong as I held her in place. “Now is when everything gets real.”
“Watch it!” the voice shouted in anger, but I kept running, weaving my way through the legs of people who lingered in the courtyard, making my way around the tents in a frantic need to find out if what everyone was saying was true.
That they had found a girl … about my age.
It wasn’t often kids showed up here or even survived what the Vil?s had done to them. I guessed this one had. It was something I had to see for myself. Being the single one in a forest of adults was boring, even with magic.
Maybe that wouldn’t be the case for long.
Ducking behind a big, green tent, I moved to the little alley behind the makeshift emergency room Ilyan had put together, knowing I could get in through the window near the end. I had done it before.
Running past boarded up windows and that creepy, old door, I let my magic carefully wiggle open the pane of glass, wind moving around me as it moved me up and through.
Perfectly silent.
The first time I had done that, I had made so much noise one of the healers had scolded me for twenty minutes.
I had mastered silence quickly.
I didn’t even let myself touch the ground as I opened the door, the old, wooden thing creaking loudly as it opened to a hall lined with beds, the badly burned people covered by blankets and sheets. And there, at the end…
A little girl.
A few people hovered around her, their hands looking like birds’ wings as they talked or healed or did whatever they were doing. I knew that, if they saw me, I would get kicked out, and my better logic told me to run and hide, wait until they were gone. But I couldn’t, not with something this exciting.
I kept moving forward, my eyes trained on her, eager to see her for myself. Then I froze as one of the healers moved to the side, giving me a clear view of the girl they had rescued no more than a few hours before.
“Míra?” My voice rang out loudly as I saw her.
Her head turned at the sound of her name, her jaw dropping as mine did from seeing her here, the adults around us looking between us in confusion.
“Jaromir?” Her voice was the exact squeak I remembered, high and deep … even though something in it had changed.
Something in her had changed. But I didn’t care.
Why would I?
She was here.
She was alive.
My sister.
My twin sister.
Thank you for your support and love during this crazy and difficult journey. Every purchase, every review, every letter has kept me going - you, my fans, have kept me going. So, let's keep it going! And, as a thanks for your purchase, here is a special compilation of every bonus scene that has been written for Imdalind, as well as a little something written just for Dawn of Ash. Enjoy! And Joclyn and the gang will see you in just a few months for Crown of Cinders!