City of Secrets

Chapter 9: The Blue Hour

Images of her life appeared through the water's surface, clear as crystal, from childhood to recent events, but she felt strangely detached, as if she were there, but looking on as a stranger, not herself.

The images ceased abruptly...and then the voice came. Not any voice- his voice.

"My mother's parents were burned..."

"Idris..."

"A manor..."

"My place of birth..."

"Burned to the ground..."

"Where it all began..."

"Fairchild Manor..."

Fairchild Manor.

The words inscribed themselves in Ember's memory, almost like a brand. She could see them when she closed her eyes, over and over again like a tattoo.

Ember was pulled through the frozen water by an unknown force. The ice shattered as she broke through the surface.

Everything was white and covered with snow and ice. Her breath escaped her lips as cloudy fog. She was suspended in the air for a moment. Everything seemed to stop for a single second, and then she was thrown back in by the same powerful force.

Pieces of the silk fabric of her dress that had floated around her freely now reached down into the water. They sank so deep that Ember lost sight of them in the black waters.

Then she was choking, gasping for air. Her lungs burned as water filled them. Ember tried to swim to the surface, but every time she seemed to get close, something would pull her back down by yanking on the pieces of her dress. She stopped struggling, and instead began to slowly sink into the dark depths of the lake. She could still see Jonathan and her baby through the wall of ice. Their smiles were gone. She heard the baby's tearful wail of terror pierce through her mind, and Jonathan's surprised shout.

She was fading into unconsciousness, and her eyes began to slowly drift shut.

The blood in her veins suddenly began to warm. She could hear the blood roaring in her ears and her heartbeat accelerate in her breast. The blood in her veins was now scorching. She yearned for release, to get rid of the burning sensation that was eating her alive.

She felt the water heat up around herself, and then there was an explosion. Golden fire unlike any fire burst out of her hands, melting the ice and evaporating the water around her, but it didn't burn her.

She was no longer in water, but lying on the bottom of a now-dried lake. A cloudless sapphire sky appeared above her, and she finally could breathe. The air smelled of spring grass and sweet flowers.

Jonathan appeared in her line of vision as she pushed herself onto feet. He held the baby in his arms.
        
Its eyes were closed, and she felt fear, the kind of fear that made her blood turn to ice and forget how to function. She ran to where they were and collapsed onto her knees in front of Jonathan. She took the baby from his arms. His little eyes were closed. His chest barely rose and fell, and his breath was ragged and shallow.

Ember screamed brokenly. It was like the sound of glass shattering, and her scream seemed to carry out on the four winds.

The baby was quiet.

Ember looked down at her baby. She had never felt so useless, so helpless. She found herself placing her hand over the baby's heart. It was growing steadier, beating louder, harder. His breaths turned normal. His lips and cheeks turned a rosy color.