Legacy of Fire (The Blaze Trilogy - Book #1)

Chapter 22

Fireborne.

I hear it in hushed whispers as they usher me down yet another secret path, another secret hallway. They’ve put me in what they say is ‘temporary accommodation’ - a small white room with a simple cot and desk. The door locks shut behind me. ‘Temporary’ is starting to sound more like ‘prison’. 

I lay my head down on the cot and close my eyes. I feel sick to my stomach. The first time this happened, when I was saved from Martem’s blast, I thought it was a miracle. I had been shown mercy by Evo - his being did not destroy me. It let me live. 

But it wasn’t a miracle. Because I did it again. The fire does not hurt me. 

I don’t know how many hours I stay in that cold, quiet room, alone with nothing but the sound of my silence, but eventually I hear the lock click open. Kal'sayu strides in, her face sombre. At the sight of her, my anger begins to burn back. 

“I have told Greyson about your situation, and your circumstances for arriving here at Everywood,” Kal'sayu says quietly. 

I don’t respond. 

“I’m sorry, Ava. But when you were revealed at the Ceremony, I didn’t know what to do. You didn’t Inherit, so I had no proof that you had Terran blood running through your veins. It would have endangered both our lives. I was going to wait until after-“

“Stop.”

“Ava, you have to-“

I snap upwards, and rush towards her, locking my eyes to hers. “You left me for dead,” I spit. 

She breaks my gaze and looks to the ground. “I could not help you until I knew for sure.”

“And what if it hadn’t worked? Your little plan - pushing me into the fire. What would you have done then?” 

“I knew it would work.” She turns away from me as if my question is ridiculous. “There was no other explanation to your amber eyes.”

“Ah, the eyes,” I say bitingly. “Would they provide any information as to why I seem to be immune to fire?” 

“I believe so.”

“Care to share?”

Kal'sayu folds her hands neatly over her lap as she sits on the hard cot. “Are you familiar with the Legacy of Fire?”

I give her a blank stare. She hurries on. “Well, the legend of Inheritance tells of a fourth gift bestowed upon the Terran.”

Something tugs at my mind; a memory of Zander telling me a story the night we escaped. “He gave them…‘something within himself’?”

She nods. “And since Evo’s true form is pure, unbridled fire - well, the legends say that the god entrusted a piece of himself, hiding it within a mortal form. No one knows who the first Fireborne was, and whether there was ever one after him. So they’ve faded into obscurity, being considered nothing more than a folk story.” She looks into my eyes. “Well, until now.”

I look away, and my heartbeat flutters in my chest. Excitement or fear? I can’t tell. “Why me?”

Kal'sayu gives me a small smile. “I’ve just spent the last few hours answering that same question to the others.”

She tells me it took a while to explain to my past to Greyson and the Commanders, and to make them understand how I could have possibly have Inherited. She told them about my escape, my connection to her, about our family. Like me, the others harboured doubt that Kal'sayu and I share the same blood - after all, she did just allow me to be kicked me into a blazing fire pit. It’s only when she mentioned her daughter - my mother Lilan - that the other leaders began to understand how a daughter of the South could have anything to do with the anseian of Everwood.