“Anaeris.” It’s like seeing the city unlocked a memory.
As an eight-year-old child, I wandered into the castle, as desolate and decrepit as it is because a voice called me. I was gone all day, part of the night too, and when I got home dirty and covered in scratches and bites, my mother scolded me for wandering off. I never told her or my father where I went or what I did—especially not what I saw.
Inside the castle, in the depths of the vault, lies an ancient artifact with such power that it could tear the fabric of our world open. The voice told me to pick it up. And being a child, I did. The moment my tiny hand touched the red stone, my body caught fire. The voice promised someday I would be reborn as a Firebird of the night sky—the one to break borders and worlds.
The following morning, when I woke up, I thought it was a dream. I never spoke of it or even dreamed of it again.
“It was true,” I whisper and step toward the ancient city, but then the green-eyed male repeats my name, his voice pleading.
“Grace.” His hand reaches for mine and I move to take it but stop short. I should feel something. Deep down, I know I should. The vulnerability in his eyes draws me back to the void, but I balk before the pain. He sees the hesitation and it’s as if something inside him crumbles. “Do you not know me?”
The memories elude me. Every time I reach for one, they crumble like ash in my mind. “No, but it feels like I did.”
The devastation on his face is more than I can bear.
I was reborn in the fire, but it burned away who I was, who he was. The male looks at me as if I am someone to him, but he is nothing more than a stranger to me.
Niethal touches my arm, and I flinch, not realizing my flames had gone out while talking to the green-eyed male. Before turning away, I ask, “What’s your name?”
A pained expression crosses his face, and his voice comes out weak. “Isiah. King Isiah Thorne of Daminae.”
“Isiah.” I say the name, deciding I like the feel on my tongue.
He offers me a heart-wrenching smile, and it hurts to know I am the cause.
Niethal tugs on my arm again, and this time I follow.
He slides his hand into mine, giving it a firm squeeze, before gesturing to the city beyond. “This is what we worked for, what you made possible. Anaeris is your new home,Firebird.”
I whip my head toward him. “How did you know that name?”
There’s no way he could have known. The voice in the vault was the only one to use that name.
“I told you from the beginning. I have waited for you for a long time, my dear.” He leads me toward the woods and doesn’t look back at the other males. I don’t look back for fear of seeing the devastation on Isiah’s face again. His grief may break me, and I don’t know why.
Instead, I walk toward Anaeris.
Towards my new home.
CHAPTER 32
NIETHAL
“R
ise, Firebird.” I have never spoken truer words.
The sheer magnitude of Grace’s power is astounding. I knew performing the ritual might unlock more of her magic, but I never imaginedthis.And while I am glad she survived, I hope this amnesiac version that returned isn’t permanent. I quite enjoyed fighting with her.
When I slide my hand into hers, heat still warms her skin, and not uncomfortably so—quite the opposite. It feels right.
With my free hand, I point to the city. “This is what we worked for, what you made possible. Anaeris is your new home, Firebird.”
Her head snaps toward me so quickly I’m afraid she may have hurt herself. “How did you know that name?”
“I told you from the beginning. I have waited for you for a long time, my dear.”
And I have.