Special Edition - Stolen Embers

PREORDER: THIS IS A PREORDER FOR STOLEN EMBERS SPECIAL EDITION HARDCOVER. IT IS ANTICIPATED TO SHIP FEBRUARY 2025. 

A twig snapped under my foot, gouging the tender skin as I raced through the dense trees, dodging withered branches and deadfall. But I couldn’t stop. The rushing of water drew me through the forest, calling me to that unknown place I so desperately needed to be.

Nyrah.

There was no other reason to be here—lost in this bit of nowhere—if not for my little sister. Unbidden, I screamed her name, praying that just this once, I would get an answer. But through the darkness, all I got back was stillness.

And stillness in a place like this was a very bad thing.

I never should have let Arden rip me from the Judgment Room. I should have fought—should have died fighting—anything but let Nyrah fend for herself in a world as harsh as this one.

“Nyrah,” I screamed again, begging the gods to give me even a hint of a clue. She had to be here, but I had no idea where “here” was.

The trees rapidly thinned into a yawning darkness, and it wasn’t until my feet skidded on the slippery bracken did I realize it was a cliff. The world dropped away, and I plunged into blackness. My screams died as the world slipped and slid, changing into a biting coldness that seeped into my bones.

Sharp stones dug into my hands and knees, but I couldn’t see anything at all. No light, no air, no warmth.

This wasn’t right. This was…

Dream walking.

I was dream walking. Done only a handful of times, I was still getting used to the feeling of being in my body and also not at the same time. But just because I was dreaming, didn't mean what I was experiencing wasn't very, very real. If I could find my sister in this space, I could find her in reality as well.

I just had to push a little farther, and I could reach her.

“Nyrah,” I shouted into the nothingness, hoping for a spark of something that would let me know where she was. “Tell me where you are!”

I used a sharp stone to cut into my palm, begging the magic beneath my skin to come forth, to shine the barest hint of light in the inky blackness.

But, still, nothing came.

No light.

No air.

No warmth.

Was she dead? Were all my worst fears coming true? Had I failed so spectacularly that all my efforts had been for nothing?

“Please,” I screamed, the hot tracks of my tears the only heat in the room. “Please come back to me.”

A rough arm hooked around my middle as light bloomed around me, nearly blinding as a harsh stone tunnel finally came into view. At the end of it sat a small blonde, shivering as she hugged her knees to her chest. I couldn’t see her face, but I feared my sister was fighting for her very life in whatever hell this place was.

“Nyrah,” I shouted yet again, my voice echoing off the walls, even as I was yanked off my feet, pulled away, my breath stuttering in my lungs. “Nyrah!”

But she didn’t so much as twitch as she flickered and faded, the scene changing as Idris tore me from my sister and into whatever dream he’d concocted for himself. Usually, we ended up in his bedroom, but not this time.

No, this was someplace else.

Withered walls reached for the blackened sky like a giant’s fingers, the roof of the building crumbling with age. A half-demolished window let in the frigid wind, whipping dead leaves and drifts of snow against the rotted benches. And as much as I wanted to ask where we were, I wanted to slap him a hell of a lot more.

Idris gripped my arm, turning me to face him. “What the fuck did you think you were doing, Vale?” His large hands cupped my jaw as his thumb wiped at something on my face. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

I yanked my jaw from his grip, fighting off the urge to growl. I’d been so close to her. I could have reached her. “Do you? I almost had her. I could have asked where she was. I—”

“Could have fucking died. Look.” He held up his hand as his golden gaze flared with his power, showing me the thick blood staining his fingertips. “You’re not supposed to dream walk without me. You haven’t been trained. You have no idea how dangerous it can be.”

Breathing was dangerous. Being in the castle was dangerous. Every gods-be-damned thing in my life since the day I took my first squalling breath had been dangerous. I shouldn’t have survived this long as it was, and after agreeing to come to this stupid broken kingdom, I’d nearly been killed a half-dozen times.

“It’s not the first time I’ve gotten a bloody nose. I’ll heal.”

Pivoting on a foot, I headed for the door. I needed to get back to Nyrah. Golden power shot from his fingertips, curling around me, even as I backed away from it. It hauled me closer, lifting me off my feet, so I was forced to look him in the eye.

“Lesson number one of dream walking: If you get hurt in your dream, you get hurt in real life.” He held up his hand again, the blood marred by the light of his power, but it was there all the same. “Meaning, this blood? It’s on your face now. Those cuts on your feet? Your hands? You’re hurt, Vale.”

Didn’t he understand? Didn’t he know how much I’d bled for my sister already? How much I would give to see her, to have her safe, to… “Who gives a shit about a little blood? I could have figured out where she was. She was so close—”

His jaw hardened, the dark slashes of his eyebrows pulling into a scowl. “You have no idea if that was her at all. Second lesson of dream walking: Not everything you see in your dreams is what it appears to be. You have no idea how to ward your mind, how to protect yourself. That could have been your sister, sure. It also could be a dream demon or a mage in disguise, or—”

A crushing weight filled every part of my body as tears made the already-surreal world blurry. “Or it could be someone else ready and willing to kill me to keep you caged. I get it.”

It was one more reason to find Nyrah before one of Idris’ enemies found her, one more reason to break the curse, one more reason to shove this sham of a wedding along and just fuck whatever I wanted in the meantime.

Idris’ magic got warmer, softer as he pulled me closer, the tendrils of golden power transferring me to his waiting arms. He wrapped them around me, burying his fingers in my hair as he held me tight. But as comforting as they were, as much as my body wanted to melt into him, my brain was a whole other matter.

My body was ruled by the mating bond I didn’t want.

My mind, however, knew better.

“I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear,” he murmured, trying and failing to comfort me, “but we will find her.”

The real question was: How? How would we find Nyrah when I didn’t have the first clue as to where she was? How could we when she was in more danger with me than without me? When just looking for her, put a target on her back?

A hot lash of bitter anger tore through my chest, and I ripped myself out of Idris’ hold. What would he know about my disappointment? He hated his brother.

“Funny,” I seethed through gritted teeth. “When I agreed to marry you, you said you’d help me find her. Now, here I am about to fulfill my end of the bargain—far too soon for my liking—and I have nothing to show for it, other than a vague promise and a maybe.”

“That’s not fair,” he growled. “We’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone—”

But I didn’t give him a chance to lie to me. It was bad enough I’d gotten forced into this sham of a wedding, the date barreling toward me with each passing second. I didn’t need false promises on top of it.

Focusing all my energy, I yanked myself from the dream world, forcing myself to wake from this brand-new prison.

Before I even opened my eyes, the pain registered. Lightning streaked across my brain as a familiar voice rumbled his displeasure.

“You’re bleeding again, my Queen,” Rune growled through our mental connection, setting off a spike of agony as I tried to get my bearings. “I believe we’ve had this discussion before.”

Rune himself was the whole reason I was here, wasn’t he? Had Idris not been cursed—separated from his dragon—Rune wouldn’t exist.

“Yeah, yeah. Staying alive is paramount. Tell that to my wandering subconscious. I didn’t ask to dream walk, you know.”

Yes, I had used far too much magic to seek Nyrah out. The problem was that I hadn't even consciously done it. And worse? I didn’t know how to stop it, or even if I wanted to. All this had started because I’d been defending my little sister. The power I’d hidden for so long bubbled to the surface as I’d made sure she was safe, signing my own death warrant in the process.

But I hadn’t died that day. Kian and Xavier had saved me, taken me from the Perder Lucem, stole me from the mountain—the only home I’d ever known—and thrust me into a world of kings and queens, dragons and magic.

And death.

Lots and lots of death.

“You have been too lax on your magic studies. You are a Luxa. It is high time you figured out what that means.”

But being a Luxa had only been a death sentence for as long as I’d had this wretched power, and learning about it wouldn’t change how many people wanted me dead because of it. Being a light-wielding, “supposed” curse breaker wouldn’t stop the assassination attempts or the impending nuptials to a man I could barely stand or the odd fateborn mate bond I had with not one but three dragons.

It would only keep me alive.

In theory.

That was if it didn’t kill me first.

Peeling my eyelids open, I was faced with a pair of angry dragon shifters staring at me like I had just taken out a blade and stabbed them in their hearts. Kian’s amber eyes blazed with wrath as he clenched his jaw, while Xavier’s cool blue ones were tight with worry. Neither of them wore a shirt, and what could only be my blood was smeared across their skin, like I’d tried to bleed out at some point.

I probably had.

It wouldn’t be the first time for that, either.

Searching the recesses of my mind, I vaguely remembered falling asleep on Kian’s chest the night before while Xavier played with my braid. I had barely recovered from the last assassination attempt, so the lecture I was about to receive would be one for the history books.

“Don’t,” I croaked, trying to ward off stern reprimands and urges to remember that I was a frail little Luxa with no grasp of the severity of my actions. Gods, I’d heard it enough over the last few days. “Please, just don’t.”

It wasn't my fault that people were trying to kill me. It wasn't my fault that to save myself and them, I'd been forced to overextend my power. And it wasn't my fault that I’d accidentally dream walked into what could have been a trap.

Kian’s gaze softened as he knelt at the side of the bed. “You scared us to death, little witch. I don’t know how much my old heart can take.”

I reached for his hand, threading my fingers through his. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Xavier circled his fingers around my ankle, his jaw still tight, his gaze still sad. At the cliffs when I’d nearly fallen to my death, he’d sworn that he couldn’t survive the god of death taking another person he cared about. I had yet to ask him about it after everything, but something about his expression made me want to know who had put it there.

It made me want to know everything—all his secrets, his past, his dreams.

“You never do,” Xavier murmured, his thumb rubbing sweeping arches over my skin.

The doors to the bedchamber flew open in a blast of golden power, and Idris prowled into the room, his golden gaze alight with wrath. I had no idea why he was here, but his presence was supremely unwelcome. I'd managed to avoid him for the last twenty-four hours while I got my head around our impending nuptials, and I wasn't too keen on speaking to him now.

It was bad enough that he invaded my dreams and prevented me from finding Nyrah. Now, he was winding up to give me a lecture I absolutely did not need.

Again.

Then he stalked closer, and I noticed the blood staining his nostrils and shirt.

Alarm had me sitting up, ignoring the ache in my bones and the tearing in my joints. “Rune? Why is he bleeding?”

“You ventured where you should never go, my Queen. Dream walking is a nasty business.”

Maybe I did need that lecture.

But it wasn’t until he reached the frame of the bed and pointed a finger at me with that burning fury smoldering in his eyes that I grasped just how dangerous what I’d done really was.

“This is the last night you’re sleeping anywhere but in my bed, Vale. If you can’t control where you dream walk, the only place you’re dreaming is next to me.”

It was a command.

An order.

A royal fucking decree.

It would be stupid to say no.

But when had that ever stopped me?

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