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Back Ashes of Gold
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. More from this Series
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  49. Also by J. Elle

“Not if I don’t give him the chance to.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

THE JOURNEY TOWARD THE forest outside Yiyo to meet Zora and the others is silent but for the rustle of the twisted, knobby trees and an occasional chirp. We walk but don’t speak. Jue makes eyes at me every once in a while, like he wants to crack a joke, but the weight of my worries must bleed into my expression, because he says nothing. Everything’s riding on this spell working. And he knows it.

Yiyo is a hike. So, since our group is small and there’s nothing out here, I’d transported us as close as I could to the edge of the island. The fading sun is dipping below Yiyo, and the glass Dwegini homes that used to sprinkle the mountainside are faint glimmers, shattered in some places, gone in others. We’re a mile or so from the tree line, where Zora and the Macazi should be lying low.

I step over a fallen branch and the dry ground crunches under my feet. We stick to the shade as we approach where the invisible barrier around the mountain should be, the one that used to protect my people, keep their existence secret. We find what’s left of the jagged barricade. The world behind it is a heap of blown-over trees and debris. It’s like walking through a nightmare. I’m reliving the failure of the battle that led to my imprisonment and weakened me—isolated my people for so long, all over again.

I close my eyes and search my memories hiding in shadowed corners but find nothing. None of it makes sense. What has come back is fractured bits in my mind. Wisps. Maybe I’ll never know what happened—how the world turned upside down in the span of minutes. Why the man with the eyelashes haunts me. How Jhamal and I had a chance to get away but somehow didn’t.

I catch Bri looking at me, probably wondering if it’s come back. I shake my head. And she turns away. And despite the guilt, I can’t help but wonder if there’s anything she isn’t telling me. She wasn’t exactly forthcoming about the memory spell.

We skirt bushes that are no more than singed twigs. Thanks to an energizing potion Bri put together, Bati isn’t as slow as he should be. The foliage thickens the closer we get to the mountain, and the sky is a pastel rainbow.

“You sure you wanna go back to get Shaun’s hair yourself?” she asks.

“Yes.”