Dawn of Ash is almost here, and while the first chapter has already been revealed in a super-awesome blog hop not too long ago, this is the first time it has been made public in one complete form.

And, with less than 2 weeks until the publication, I figure it’s about time that we make this first look into the sixth book of Imdalind a little bit more public and accessible.

I hope you enjoy this little peak, and make sure to pre-order your copy if you haven’t already! This one is worth the wait I promise.

Chapter One

Ilyan

 

“Ilyan!” Risha’s voice cut through the explosion that shattered the building to my left. The ancient structure answered with a groan that threatened to send the building down on top of us all.

“Move!” Risha, The Skȓítek woman who had led the survivors from Edmund’s raid, who now served as my second, screamed again from where she fought alongside the others we were trapped with, even though it was becoming increasingly obvious that there was no way we could fight them off alone.

That wouldn’t stop me from trying.

Yells and shouts of fear increased over the already rampant noise of battle, the building heaving as the screams escalated, the attacks right along with it. More dirt, more dust, more debris fell over us, ripples of fear tensing through me at what was about to happen. I shoved it all aside, letting Risha’s yell alert me to the much broader danger—my fathers men who were rushing me- moments from destroying me.

With one flash of magic, I killed the two men before me, their power fading to nothing as their destruction became nothing more than shadows. Dodging the attack at my back, my attackers powerful blast flew into the building that groaned loudly in warning.

Shards of brick continued to pour over us like hail, burning sparks of magic singeing my clothes and hair. I expected the building to tip with the impact, that powerful explosion being the final nail. However, it stayed, the loud Trpaslíks’ laughter ringing in my ears as I turned to face them, my jaw a hard line of anger.

With one quick movement, my hand shot out to grab my would-be assassin by the throat. Hand clenched around the soft, warm flesh of his neck, the pulse of his heart was a torrent of fear, beating in time with the explosions that surrounded us. His fear increased alongside the heat of my magic, one sharp flare of warning moving into him.

“How did you get in?” I growled, watching the man’s eyes for any sign that he might answer, but he only stared at me, his eyes bulging red and wild as I continued to hold him in place. “Tell me, and all this ends.”

He gasped for breath, but I already knew it was not in an attempt to answer, not with the way he smiled, the way he tried to posture to me, the threat obvious in his expression, even if the fear in his eyes didn’t make it believable.

A streak of red light erupted right above my head, and I turned. Keeping the Trpaslík debilitated under my palm, I fired toward the battle that we had inadvertently walked into expecting to hit whoever had tried to assault me. Instead, I was faced with a cavalcade of my father’s men as they emerged between the destroyed buildings that surrounded us, the skies full of his Vilỳs.

My anger increased at the knowledge that one wrong turn had led us there, into the dead end with alleys and streets feeding into it like some sort of river basin. How was I to know they had built a new shopping mall last year? The street had always gone straight through. Modern invention continued to baffle me.

With one flare of power, I sent an attack into yet another of the Trpaslíks with my free hand, the other still holding the little man, his smile fading to nothing as one of his comrades collapsed to the ground lifelessly.

“I don’t like killing innocents,” I growled as I turned back to my captive, fully aware that the anger in my voice would make that phrase unbelievable. “Tell me where Edmund is, and I can protect you.”

The man’s smug smile faded as fear clouded his eyes, his focus intent as he weighed his options. My chest tensed in fervent possibility, hoping perhaps this one would tell me. Perhaps this one would crack.

Just as he opened his mouth an explosion erupted at our feet, rubble flying through the air around us and instead of speaking, he laughed.

“I obey only my master who saved me, who taught me what it is to be truly strong.” His voice echoed around us, loud and disjointed. “We will defeat all!”

The man screamed his last words before I let my magic flow through him, into him, ending his life with one flash of power against his heart. Quick and painless.

It was the humane way. They weren’t all Trpaslíks, after all. Many of them, like the one I had killed, were Chosen—innocents my father had poisoned with his tainted Vilỳ’s, trained, and abused to send into the city we were trapped in with the sole purpose of attacking us, destroying us.

It wasn’t their fault.

Stepping over the body, I rushed back into the battle, killing man after man as the tension in my body grew into a dangerous rage. I always had trouble controlling my temper, especially without Joclyn. Normally I had her magic to comfort me, but she was asleep. Her Drak magic pulling her under as it did every so often. I was walking a dangerous line.

With an explosion of sound and an eruption of power, a single stream of red light exploded from my hand, flying right into one of the many abandoned vehicles rotting in the dark, forgotten city. The broken thing flew through the air, right into the narrow opening of an alley to our left, hindering the advance of about thirty more attackers.

“Risha,” I yelled as I raced toward her, heart pounding as I blocked another attack, sending one right back toward the source and into the heart of a man who fell to the ground.

“Help! Ilyan!” a voice came, one of my Chosen calling out in fear of the hissing creatures that were quickly surrounding him.

With one quick slide of my hands through the stale air, another beam of light flew from palm, the two Vilỳs turning to ash and smoke as the earth reclaimed them.

“Risha!” I said again as I walked right to her side, the tall Skȓítek woman didn’t so much as look away from the fight. She turned, sending our enemy away as she protected the young Chosen woman who sat huddled behind her, crying as she bled profusely from her chest. She wasn’t the only one huddled behind the warrior, but I was sure the elderly man she was leaned up against was already gone judging by the glossy look in his eyes.

“Focus your magic on stopping the bleeding,” I yelled at her as another explosion sent my former blockade into us, my magic catching it moments before it landed on top of us. With a burst of energy I sent it to the left, speeding toward two of Edmund’s men and pinning them between brick and twisted metal.

“I’m never leaving the cathedral again,” Risha growled from somewhere behind me as yet another stream of light moved past me, my magic alerting me to the danger late enough that I watched the bright red blade cut through my hair, long lengths of gold falling to the ground.

For a moment, my heart stopped, scared the délka vedení královsk had been lost, but the long length of ribbon was still wrapped around my wrist, kept safe in the only way I knew how in these situations.

“You said that last week, Risha,” I growled as I destroyed another man, the older gentleman crumpling to the ground like improperly made origami.

“This time, I mean it.”

I clenched my teeth at her determination, jaw tightening as my shoulders did, my temper continuing to rise. I was becoming dangerous.

Another man collapsed at my hand, my magic scurrying in a mad attempt to keep us ahead of the fray, only to freeze as the entirety of the narrow street lit up in a bright yellow blaze. Heat moved over us as the luminescence shone over every lifeless body, every smear of blood, revealing the destruction that Prague had become in ribbons of light that made the dilapidated city all the more frightening.

The light washed over us, waves of iron following behind wrapping around me with the force of a weapon. A weapon that if I didn’t fight would destroy us all, friend and foe.

Grimacing in effort, I broke free of the attack, glittering trails of crimson streaking away from me and toward every one of my people. My scream of exertion ricocheted through the light as my magic broke through the attack, ripping the bands from their bodies, releasing them from the deathly bind.

Heaving, I fell to the ground alongside Edmund’s men. My body weak from the assertion, while Edmund’s deformed army lay, gasping dying breaths, their own attack taking their lives in a slow painful end.

I would rejoice in the luck of such a ploy, but I wasn’t a fool.

I could already hear the wings.

The light would bring more Vilỳs to us, and with no quick escape route, our only chance was to go up right as Vilỳs were coming down. My heart pounded violently as I jumped up, muscles shaking with exertion that I had to ignore.

“Risha, I need you to take them up. Fly to the young prince, keep your head down, and move on to the old man. Use the river as a guide to mask the magic. Meet me on the high point. They are coming.” I didn’t need to say anything more. Risha nodded in understanding, not a moment passing before she shot ropes of green from her fingers, each powerful strand of magic attaching to one of the Skȓíteks, one of the survivors who traveled with us.

The poor, undertrained Chosen screamed in fear as the power moved into them, connecting them to her in a tether they could not break. Risha’s grating yell of exertion followed her into the air, her powerful magic forcing a wind to swirl and move as it swept her and her charges up and up, away from the battle. Away from the danger this city always provided. Away from me and what I was about to do.

I couldn’t even wait to verify their ascent.

Standing, leering at my fathers men who continued to move through the alleys, right to the lone man standing amidst destruction and death. I could see their anger, see their intent. And so, I let mine free. Let the temper, the anger, the magic free.

Free from the carefully crafted cage I always kept it locked in.

It moved, right into the monsters that surrounded me. Attack after attack felling man, woman and tiny, winged beasts. Everything was illuminated as I stood, surrounded by death. Heart racing, muscles tensing, when out of nowhere, a scream I recognized broke through the death, broke through the light, broke through the battle I was trapped in.

Joclyn.

She was screaming. I could feel her fear, hear her cries as she lay, miles from me, trapped in one of the many nightmares her sight had plagued her with for the past few months. Our connection opened up within me as I fought, my magic swelled, her fear ripping through me in agony, in an emotional prison that, even if I hadn’t been preoccupied, I couldn’t have saved her from.

Listening to her scream as I continued to fight, my chest constricting painfully, attacks continuing to move away from me, her magic continuing to move into me, strengthening me, filling me, controlling me in dangerous waves of frightening ability.

Joclyn’s magic supercharged my own past what I was capable of, the darkness and terror of her sight pulling my magic into a deadly concoction that fell one after another, many of them turning to nothing more than smoke and faded memories.

Teeth clenched, chest heaving, I continued to fight, focusing on Joclyn’s magic, on her fear, knowing what I needed to do. It was the only way I could calm her.

“Joclyn!” I yelled aloud, letting my magic smother her as Edmund’s men kept coming, flowing through the streets, flooding the space that was growing smaller.

I smiled as my power grew through me like a warm water bottle of determination.

I was out of time.

With one powerful stream of magic, I turned, red and yellow light flying right into the broken foundation of the building that was threatening to collapse and, without warning, sending it to the ground.

Right on top of me.

Joclyn’s magic erupted as mine did, the two joining together in a powerful force that encompassed me in a barrier, so strong that, as I stood still, I could watch the tons of ancient architecture crumbling around me. The dust settled as I remained untouched, witnessing the fall of something that had once been beautiful standing in an upturned fish bowl.

My heart rate increased as Joclyn’s did, as images of her sight flashing before me, a battle eerily similar to the one I had ended replaying right before my very eyes.

“Wake up, můj navždy,” I said, my voice echoing through the shield as I surveyed the damage, making one last sweep for any life that might choose to follow me before taking off into the sky, the shielded globe ascending around me, dust falling away from my movement like the tail of a kite.

“Wake up!” I spoke aloud to my mate as the blood of her sight flowed over her, her heart rate so fast within me I was sure some monster was trying to break free from the inside of my chest as well as hers.

With a graceful step, I landed on the rooftop of the high point, the tall lookout building that I had told Risha to meet me at, my tension still high with fear of the possibility that she and the others might not have made it.

The shield fell away with the faintest pop, the solitary sound loud in the silence after the battle I had escaped.

It was only the faint red of the world, only the hot breeze that moved through my hair as I stood, heart pounding, on the high rooftop, looking over the city I was raised in, the city I was now trapped in. The city that had quickly become a prison.

Wake up, mi lasko! I tried again, this time sending the call right into her mind, grateful when her heart rate slowed, the heavy influx of her magic regulating.

I could still feel her fear, still feel her panic, but it was mixed with reality now, the uncertainty and anxiety of nightmares leaving. Still, she was silent, and even through the temporary calm, my heart rate picked up.

“Mi lasko?” I breathed, sending the words right into her mind as the fright left. “Are you all right?”

Ilyan, she finally replied, her voice a calm wave.

With one word, my heart relaxed, my soul calmed, and although I had escaped the literal destruction of yet another part of this beautiful city …

It was still home.

She made it that way.

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