Smoke Rising: Book III

Part Two ~ Chapter Twenty-Two

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Part Two

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Chapter Twenty-Two

I stand over the grave, looking down at the raw dirt as the snow trickles down from the sky. It smells like ash and mud, and the frost has grown so cold it's climbed it's way into my fingers and toes and slid into my heart.

Good.

If I wasn't frozen, maybe I'd feel the pain.

My mother sobs behind me. She kneels near the headstone, placing a single red flower over my the name. Aaron bends down and wraps his arms around Maria's shoulder. His eyes are rimmed red, but I'm not so sure if he's any tears left in him. I know I don't.

"Come on, Maria. We need to get you home."

"I can't leave my baby. My baby—" the pain is so much she can't breathe for several long second. "My baby, my baby, she's gone."

Ella is dead.

"Maria," Aaron voices breaks. "I'm taking you home now." How he can be strong for her, I'll never understand.

It should have been me. I should have died. Ella should have lived.

My step-father supports my mother as they walk away towards our house, leaving me in my own barricade of ice to hide under. I kneel down next to Ella's grave and trace the name carved into the stone with my fingers. She is dead because I wasn't brave enough. Because I could embrace my magic.

I take out the potion from my pocket and pull out the cork. I throw the contents of the potion into my mouth and swallow before I can even taste it. The magic trickles into me, for the first time in my life I feel the hum of power underneath my skin. It melts the frost away, and let's the heat of the pain pour in.

"I will not sit back and watch someone die. Never again. I promise you Ella, I will do everything in my power to end this." I set the empty bottle next to her grave, pull out the spell book my mother stole from my father the day she ran away from him, and recite the spell.

I call for him. I call for my father.

"Who are you?" He says, Nicholi Mathias, the magical Caster King, ruler of all of Europe.

"My name is Emery White. I'm your and Maria's daughter."

His eyes brows drop, uncertain.

"I've been hiding from you the past seventeen years, and I'm done. I want to fight. I want to kill the Chancellor and I want to save the humans living here from another dictator."

"Well, aren't you ambitious," he cocks a smile. "Tell you what, I'll entertain this little mission of yours. I'll help you kill the Chancellor. But I need two things from you."

"My magic."

"Yes. First, your magic. And second," he pauses. "You will rule the Americas."

"How would I rule?"

"If you are who you say you are... then you're a half-blood Princess my dear. You have more power then you know."

"Why would you even want me to rule?"

"To keep humans from attacking or trying to rise against us."

"But humans are... human. Casters could crush us—I mean.. them, whenever they want."

Nicholi steps forward shaking his head and giving me a sly smile. "That's where you're wrong, dear. All it takes is one person. One being with a strong enough will to fight back, and the world could be forever changed."

His sly smile turns to a warm grin.

"Its nice to meet you, Emery."