Lies That Bleed (The Ember War Book 1), page 17
“Kohen, it’s just… a lot.”
“Just go,” he ordered.
“Kohen…” I searched for a kind thing to say, but telling me that I was his and that he already owned my heart in some future where he had yet to romance me was definitely freaking me out.
“Just go,” he said again, and so I did. I stumbled out into the hallway and went right for the bathroom, where I stared at myself in the mirror for ten whole minutes in shock.
‘Kohen can see the future,’ I told Liana.
‘Yes.’ Her reply was filled with sadness.
This changed everything.
Over the next week, all I thought about was making love under a bed of stars and crying out his name. He’d implanted that into my head and now I was going insane with it. He was avoiding me. He ate lunch at our table in under two minutes and then went outside to run. He ran all the time now, as if he trying to run away from his problems. We trained daily as a group with my fellow wing mates. We did flying drills and combat drills, and all I thought about was Kohen and I having sex.
It was driving me crazy. I wished he’d never told me. The only way I would have sex with him were if we married. I was a responsible successor to my father’s throne, held to the highest standard, albeit an old law that was outdated. But I wasn’t about to go sleep around and ruin all my prospects just because Kohen whispered something in my ear. One check from the doctors telling my future husband that I was impure and I’d be a spinster for the rest of my life, collecting cats. But there was literally no world in which I would marry Kohen Badshah, which led me to believe that he was either mistaken about his visions of the future or he was deliberately lying to mess with me. My mind was a wreck, and there was no one I could tell, because on the off-chance Kohen wasn’t lying, or making this up… revealing his secret could get him killed.
I was functioning on such little sleep that my movements were sluggish when we were dragged out of bed at 2 a.m. Another week had passed and the instructors were torturing us with nighttime drills.
“This is a drill!” Instructor Ashendell announced through her bullhorn as she walked down the hall. “Pretend that we’ve just been attacked by Luskins—who will be wearing red vests. Go find your creature and defend the training center, detaining as many red vests as you can.”
Tetra limped over to the dresser in her underwear, half falling over until I caught her midair and helped her into her pants.
“There’s no time for lacing boots, ladies and gentlemen!” Ashendell barked, and I released Tetra as we both stumbled into the hallway still dressing as we ran.
My gaze flicked to Kohen, shirtless and not even bothering to put one on as he strode into the hallway in low slung pants and a long sword in each hand.
Stars help me.
You’re mine, Aisling. His words reverberated around my head and I had to push them out of my brain. It wasn’t the time to think of such things. The second we stepped outside, we were hit with an onslaught of mock weapons. Blunt rubber tipped arrows, water balloons filled with paint, and wood throwing “knives” rained down on us. We scattered like bees, running in every direction, and I tucked myself flat to the building and moved to the woods that way.
“Cadet Everhart!” a male whisper-screamed from a nearby bush. “You are with me.” He stepped out and waved me over. It was one of my instructors, and he wasn’t wearing a red vest, so I followed him, keeping my head low.
“What’s the plan?” I whispered-screamed to him as we walked in a crouch farther away from the noise and chaos.
He peered back at me. “We are going to make a jail of sorts and hold the red prisoners there securely.”
Okay, not my ideal position in battle because it sounded more like babysitting, but I wasn’t going to complain if this was what the lieutenants had come up with for me.
I followed him across the back field of the school to an abandoned building. The windows had been blown out and it was missing a roof. It looked like they had tested bombs in here or something. It was basically four brick walls and nothing else, but would make a decent jail if we bound everyone’s hands together.
“Alright, come in and check out the space first,” the instructor said to me as we entered. The second I stepped through the threshold I felt air whoosh at my back and I ducked just in time to avoid a blow to the head. Dropping to one knee, I rolled out of the way, and that’s when both men came at me.
Their creatures joined in.
The two men grasped me by the arms and hauled me up as a small fox creature stalked towards me, the electric blue ember lines on her back glowing as a wind stirred around the room. Her power.
“Quickly, kill her before her creature shows up!” the one instructor barked.
I didn’t know if I was tired or what, but this entire time I thought this was a part of the drill. It wasn’t until he yelled about killing me that I realized this was an ambush. They’d lured me away from my friends and now I was going to die. Ice cold dread settled in my stomach as I realized these were the men wearing the gasmasks who had spoken of “taking me out.”
A wolf creature then stepped out from behind a stack of bricks and my stomach sank. His power was poisoned teeth if I remembered correctly. These two instructors weren’t our main ones. They popped in to help from time to time, but I think they were normally on the officer side. I didn’t even remember their names. But I was keenly aware that there were only two of them and three had spoken of offing me on that day.
The fox creature suddenly dove for me but I kicked out and connected with her belly, sending her flying across the room. She hit one of the walls, knocked out cold, falling to the ground with a thud.
Four on one were not great odds, but there was no way I was going out like this.
‘I need help. I’m under attack,’ I told Liana, my brain finally awake enough to make smart decisions.
‘I’m coming,’ she said just as the wolf creature lunged for my throat.
I jerked my head to the right, cracking skulls with the instructor on that side, and he let go of my arm, which allowed me to block the wolf’s attack. I punched the wolf in the side of the head before he could bite me, and he fell to the ground but got up quickly. I was just about to try to run when the other instructor wrapped his hands around my throat.
My dagger was in my boot, the stupidest place it could be if you were standing and currently being strangled. Trying to fight him off, while also keeping my eye on that wolf was proving too much. So I did what Elaine called panic mode. I went berserk and thrashed every which way, throwing knees and elbows, hoping to catch my opponent off guard. It worked, until it didn’t.
I was able to wrestle out of his grasp, but then his partner cracked me over the skull and I went down, ears ringing and darkness dancing at the edges of my vision.
These bastards were really starting to piss me off. Smoke filled the room and I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, until I realized it was me. Curls of gray puffed off of my skin as if I were a hot coal doused in water. I was smoking like a damn steak on a grill.
“Quick! Her powers are manifesting,” one guy said, and then his wolf lunged for me again.
In the midst of the chaos, it happened. A surge of energy pulsed through me like an unexpected force that seemed to saturate my entire being.
I focused my thoughts on the advancing wolf and threw my arm out.
“Stop!” I flung the word as if it was a physical force, and a thin, silver, glowing string flew from my mouth and wrapped around the wolf’s head. The wolf dropped to the ground before me, head bowed with a whimper in his throat.
What the hell?
“No,” the man beside me breathed, and that’s when I noticed a shadow overhead.
I peered up, just in time to see Liana dip from the sky and take one of the instructors into her mouth, biting his midsection like a snack.
He screamed and she shot into the air with him in her mouth, carrying him away.
The other instructor stood there in shock, watching me in fear.
“Y-you can control minds,” he stuttered. “That’s forbidden, even for you.”
What? No. I didn’t control anyone. Did I? But I replayed the scene in my head and fear washed over me. Maybe I did. I told the wolf to stop and he did. Was that what the silver cord was? A manifestation of my control?
The instructor slowly stepped closer to me. “You might as well just let my wolf end it here, because they will never let you live. No one will follow a leader that can’t even give them free will.” He spat and lunged for me with a dagger in his hands.
Another dark shadow dropped from above and I thought it was Liana, returning to finish off this second guy. But suddenly Kohen landed behind the instructor, wearing a feral expression. The ex-prince grabbed the instructor by the head and snapped his neck cleanly, causing his body to fall dead to the ground in front of me.
The wolf was still kneeling, as if stuck in a trance, and I realized that I still had my power over him, thick like a blanket I could almost feel. The silver cord I had somehow attached to his head was still there, connected to the center of my palm. I pulled it back and the cord snapped. The wolf tipped his head back and howled before dropping dead beside his bonded.
When we died outside The Wilds, our creatures died as well.
I heaved deep breaths as I processed that two instructors from the Imperial Fleet that my dad ruled over had just tried to kill me.
Kohen was watching me like you would watch a caged bird flit around wildly looking for an exit. Which was exactly what I was doing, but I couldn’t move. I was in shock. What the instructor said… what I did to the wolf…
My power.
Kohen heard, he must have. The guy said it right before he dropped down.
Kohen knelt before me and I realized I was hyperventilating.
“I don’t want this,” I told him. I didn’t want to control people. It was a dark power, forbidden. I couldn’t help but think that Kohen and I were the same. Both carrying a terrifying power neither of us wanted.
Kohen reached for my hand and took it into his, stroking my palm with his thumb in such a tender way it made my heart ache.
“You will be empress, Aisling. And if you want to live, you will never tell another soul that you can do this one thing. I will take it to my grave, you have my word.” So he did hear, or maybe he had known this whole time.
The confident way in which he spoke of me being empress made me wonder if he was just being nice—the instructor had said no one would follow me—or if he knew something.
I didn’t want to know either way. I felt insane. The wolf had been about to attack me and I’d basically frozen him in a trance mid-attack. That wasn’t normal. That was…
Liana returned with a blood-soaked beak and two instructors, one being Ashendell.
Ashendell took in the scene and her eyes flew wide.
Kohen dropped my hand, storming over to the lead instructor angrily. “Is this how you protect your future empress? By having two of your own instructors try to kill her?”
Ashendell’s mouth flew open as her gaze went to the dead man’s body and then to my neck, which I was guessing had marks from where he choked me.
“Call the emperor and tell him there has been an attack on his daughter. I’m sure he will want to know how this training facility is being run,” Kohen growled.
My father? No way. I could be on my death bed, and if I thought it would piss him off I wouldn’t want him called.
I stood, holding out my hands. “That’s not necessary.” My voice was raspy and painful.
‘Let Kohen lead,’ Liana told me, and I shot her a glare.
“If the emperor finds out his daughter was almost killed and you did nothing…” Kohen shook his head. “You’re done for.”
Ashendell swallowed hard and nodded. “Of course. Come with me, Miss Everhart. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
I allowed Ashendell to pull me away as a whistle was blown and the drill was called off. When I peered back at Kohen, he was mounting Onyx and flying off into the night, away from campus.
What the hell just happened? And why did it feel like Kohen had orchestrated something?
Chapter
Eighteen
Isat inside of medical and through the giant glass window watched my dad rip every single admiral a new asshole. They stood erect, against the far wall as my father and Zuri stalked before them, threatening to close the school, pull funding, and fire them all.
“She’s your future empress! If you cannot protect her, you certainly cannot protect our borders,” he shouted to the stony-faced men and women. They did nothing. Just stood there and took it, only speaking when directed a question.
Liana insisted on not leaving my side, so we had to open the double doors at the end of the hallway to get her inside, and then she had to duck low with her wings tucked in to enter the room I was in. She stood alert beside my bed, watching my father with her head cocked to the side.
He was pissed.
I needed to confide in someone about what happened, but I took to heart what Kohen said about me not telling a soul. Still, I didn’t think that meant Liana too. I was pretty sure she already knew through our bond, but I wanted to make sure.
‘Do you know what I did?’ I asked her.
She looked at me. ‘Yes. We call it the thrall where I am from. It’s a form of mind control.’
That sounded scary. ‘What is it? Are there limits? Can I control ten people at once? Could it hurt me if I use it too much?’ I had a thousand questions.
‘I don’t know. I only know one other person who had the gift, my grandmother. A firebird of great power who was not weakened by a human body.’
I knew she wasn’t being mean, just factual. The creatures of The Wilds were filled with magic, magic our human bodies could only hold so much of.
‘Did you know I had it?’ I asked her. She seemed so confident.
‘I suspected you had the power to control another since we bonded.’
I peered at her in shock. ‘You did? How?’
She glanced at me, ‘When you fought the fire beast. It was only fully defeated after you shouted at it to just die already and it did. I thought I sensed the power in you then.’
I cocked my head to the side, remembering the scary fire beast that tried to consume me. I’d used the mind control then?
‘Were you there with me and the fire beast?’ I asked. I barely remembered her flying underneath me at one point and then gone the next.
She was quiet a second. ‘I am the fire beast, Aisling. It’s part of me, a part of me I cannot control. The dominant part of me you had to subdue in order to bond.’
I sat there in shock for a full minute, absorbing what she had just said.
‘I would never want to hurt you,’ she told me, nuzzling my neck. ‘If I could choose, I would have allowed you to live without a fight. But my magic is bigger than that.’
That was heavy. The fire beast that was trying to consume and kill me while I was in stasis was her? The same Liana that protected me now. And yet I understood. She could not allow a weak bonding to be reborn.
“It’s okay. Thank you for telling me.” I stroked the feathers on her neck and she peered up at me. ‘Does that mean if I were to die again, I would enter that void again and have to fight before being reborn?’
‘I wish I knew. But if it’s any consolation, each time I die I have to fight the fire beast as well.’
My mouth popped open in surprise at that. She did?
‘Did you notice the other power that manifested before you enthralled the instructor’s creature?’ she asked, changing the subject, which I was grateful for.
I frowned. ‘No.’
‘The smoke that was coming off of your body. Not only are you impervious to harm from fire, but you can produce and direct fire at will. Like me.’
My eyebrows rose at that. ‘That’s something I can share with the Imperial Fleet, right?’ That would be an amazing power to have in battle.
I could almost see a smile in her eyes. ‘It is. Along with your ability to rapidly heal. But the rest… let’s keep to ourselves.’
Like the fact that I could possibly come back from the dead again, and the very secret fact that I could control minds. Yes, let’s never tell a soul about those.
“Aisling,” my father snapped, and I jerked my head to the door. He must have already called my name once and he didn’t like to repeat himself.
“Yes, Father?” I sat up straighter.
He stepped inside the room, Zuri trailing behind him; both their gazes went to Liana. There was a flash of trepidation there which I wasn’t sure was a good thing.
“I have dealt with this matter, but if anything else happens I want you to send for me right away,” he said. A spinning wheel of fire began to open at his back. I’d seen him create portals a hundred times and it never ceased to amaze me when I saw another place come into view behind him—his office at our home, the place where he spent most of his time.
What I wasn’t prepared to see, however, was Kohen closing my father’s desk and peering at me before running out.
I gasped and my father frowned.
“What is it?” He stepped closer, concern etched onto his features.
I grabbed my side, pretending I had a pain there. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
My father nodded and then turned around, following Zuri back into his office, and the portal snapped shut. Was that why Kohen made such a big deal about calling my father to the school? So that he could sneak into his office while he was away? I knew it. I knew he was just using me!
That bastard.
I peered at Liana in anger. ‘Did you know he was going to break into my father’s office?’
She looked surprised and hurt by that. ‘Of course not.’
I yanked the IV out of my arm and stepped out of bed, struggling to get my clothes on and not flash all of the admirals who were still talking outside in front of my window.
