Burning Embers (book 3)

Now

A cold breeze lifted her matted hair from her shoulders, strands of golden brown covering her face. The dagger fell from her hand, blood that was not her own dripping from her hands. The same blood covered parts of her clothes, and even her hair. But she pretended not to notice. If she thought about it now, she would break and she couldn't afford that just yet. If she gave herself time to think about what she had just done, she didn't think she'd ever be able to carry on. So she pretended as if the last two hours of hell hadn't happened at all.

She stepped over her father's body and walked away, sparing no glance behind her. No longer would she be trapped. She would finally be free. Perhaps now she could finally be reunited with her friends... or at least those of them that were still alive. Elliot had told her years ago that Casian had died not long after she was shipped to this gods forsaken place. Of only she had made better choices, not caved in to his touched, the one whose name would not cross her lips until she saw him again. As much as she hated to admit it, it still pained her to think about him. About that last day she had seen him and the sting of his rejection.

This mess she was in, it was far from being his fault. It was her own doing. But now, after twelve years of agony, she was finally free. She could finally go back to a normal life, or at least the pretense thereof. Her father was dead by her own hand and he could no longer force her to stay here to be "purified" or "cleansed".

Skylar climbed over the still closed gate as sirens went off behind her. Surely they must've found her father's body and would be out hunting for her. But they wouldn't find her. Never again. She would leave this place and never return.

And she would kill anyone who tried to make her.