The gods and demons of the ancient world were never myths but twisted from a very real past...and they are still living among us. When Kaja Landauer is violently killed she finds herself immersed in the world of the Avati, a race of ancient and inde...
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I don't know if the end of my life was the beginning, or if beginnings and endings are merely illusions. I remember the day I was born. Born... birth... rebirth... it's as good a name for it as any. I don't know what else to call it. Resurrection? Second chance? Somehow, that's just not good enough. It's so much more than that. I've had to stop trying to put names and meanings to things. My need for logic and order was the hardest part of myself to give up. But, if there is one thing I've come to understand, it's that classes don't exist. Labels are irrelevant.
To be reborn, first, you have to die.
My head was humming. That's what I remember first. The sound of billions of wings beat against the air mixed with the roar of wind rushing past my ears. The wind roared faster and closer with every second, howling and snapping at me until I couldn't distinguish one sound from another. I tried to cover my head, but my arms wouldn't move. They hung limply at my sides, flaccid and useless. Then the smell of sage, anise, and something dry filled the air.
In the distance, I could see a deep orange sun beginning to set against the mountains. Around me, the land looked as if the rocks had melted one on top of another in soft, dusty brown waves. I watched a man and a young boy standing with their backs to me at the edge of a rocky hill. As my eyes adjusted to the dimming light, I realized all around me were dozens of pillars of stone carved by the wind— the same wind that was howling wildly around me.
The boy leaned into the man, stretching onto his toes as he pointed into the distance. "Can you hear the sun whispering to her?" he asked, looking to a purple-ridged mountain far in the distance just being kissed by the setting sun. Despite the deafening noise, I could hear them clearly. They seemed either unconcerned or untouched by the storm. The man turned to him and smiled.
"The sun is whispering to the mountain?" he asked. The boy nodded. "What is he whispering to her?"
"He's asking her to run away into the sky with him," the boy whispered back. "But she can't because she's part of the earth. So the sun comes back to visit her every day."
As the boy squatted, dust blew fiercely into my eyes. I strained my arms, willing them to move. Instinct screamed at me to run, but I was rooted to the ground.
As the wind's howling slowly diminished, the buzzing retook its place. The man and boy disappeared along with the stone pillars. Wind and dust spun around me, whipping across my face, and I panicked. I still couldn't move. The buzzing intensified, and I felt tiny iridescent wings fluttering around me... wings, tens of millions of wings brushing my skin. I wanted to run. I needed to run.
Suddenly there was silence.
My skin felt warm as if I'd been bathing in the sun. I could smell something burning faintly, like metal and electricity. Resting on my back, I felt something hard and cold beneath me.
I stayed with my eyes closed for a few more moments, my heart still pounding from the storm and howling winds. Eventually, I opened my eyes. A pair of dark eyes met mine as the man leaned over me. He had his hands wrapped around each of my shoulders.
