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Back Ashes Reborn Save as PDF
Chapters (20)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the Souls of Fire Series
  3. ALSO BY KERI ARTHUR
  4. Dedication
  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  6. CHAPTER 1
  7. CHAPTER 2
  8. CHAPTER 3
  9. CHAPTER 4
  10. CHAPTER 5
  11. CHAPTER 6
  12. CHAPTER 7
  13. CHAPTER 8
  14. CHAPTER 9
  15. CHAPTER 10
  16. CHAPTER 11
  17. CHAPTER 12
  18. CHAPTER 13
  19. Excerpt from CITY OF LIGHT
  20. What’s next onyour reading list?

“Hang on.” I walked across and picked the item up. It was a torn bit of lined paper—the same sort of paper that came from the notebooks Baltimore had used. Heart hammering, I quickly unfolded the tiny scrap. CH3COOH, it read. Though I had no idea what it meant, I’d worked long enough with Baltimore to know it was some kind of chemical formula.

“Found something.” I read it out. “It might be a clue; it might not.”

“We’ll check.” Sam paused. “Are you sure there’s no activity in your vicinity? We’re still seeing movement right above you.”

“No—” I paused as something hit my shoulder. I frowned and flicked it off. Dust. Why would dust be hitting my shoulder? We hadn’t stirred it up that much . . . The thought died.

Above us, Sam had said.

Oh fuck.

As I looked up, the ceiling collapsed.

CHAPTER 6

It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I collapsed under its weight. But it wasn’t just plasterwork and metal, but also flesh, blood, and decay. The cloaks were all around me—even on top of me—and they used hands and teeth and god only knows what else to tear at my body, until the sharp scent of blood overrode even the stench of their rotting bodies. Pain was a wave that threatened to toss me into unconsciousness, and reflex and self-preservation rather than any conscious thought swept me from flesh to spirit.

The nearest cloaks erupted into flame, but it didn’t stop their attack. They continued to slash at me even as my flames ate at their flesh, their actions filled with an odd sort of desperation.

For the first time since I’d first come across them, pity stirred. Most of them would not have invited this fate. Most of them would have done nothing more than cross the path of a madman intent on using the virus to do what he would never have been able to on his own—become a leader. A major player.

“Emberly!” Jackson’s desperate shout was both verbal and telepathic, and it cut through my drifting, still-hazy thoughts. “Where are you?”

Here. I’m okay. But I was in fire form and still dazed, and I had no idea if he’d understand me. I couldn’t speak any form of English when in this form, but maybe sending thoughts was different.

“Not sure what language that was,” he said, “but at least you’re alive and aware enough to reply.”