Read Online Dawn of Ash by Rebecca Ethington - Free Book Online

plotting, of scheming were about to come to fruition. It had been that long since my reign had ended, since the first four who had come from the mud had been stripped of their title in favor of Edmund, a snot-nosed brat with no right to hold my magic, to hold any magic. Regardless, they had seen a god who held everything inside of him.
    I had told them then what fools they were, but the order of the council had been in place since the beginning, and therefore, the council took control.
    The people had won, and their precious kingdom had fallen to the wayside because of their conceit. I would gain it back, remind them of what we were put here for.
    Edmund was trying for the same thing, or at least, that’s what I had made him believe. In the end, however, he only wanted power, not to reinstate our true purpose. He didn’t understand what we had been, because he was the one to ruin it.
    I understood, and I would perfect it.
    Silently, I ran over the streets of the deep red city, the solitary sound of the flapping cloak filling the lifeless city. The fabric was heavy, perfect for the prickly harshness of cold that was familiar for Prague this time of year. Once I was outside the barrier, it would be needed. Now, it was nothing more than a hindrance. What little of winter that made it through the greenhouse effect the barrier had created felt out of place against the stagnant pressure of the heat.
    To Kozi, near the river.
    My power flared inside of me at the sound of her voice, the strength of her command. The deep growl of the pure Drak magic swelled as I pulled it from the place I had hidden it within myself.
    The icy chill of the powerful magic swirled as it took control, flooding me, and then, with the tiniest pop, with the smallest amount of effort, I moved, my body stuttering right to where Ovailia had commanded: the Kozi—the long, historic street that extended straight from the Vltava River, the banks of which had overflowed weeks ago, leaving bright red water lapping against the historic buildings, eroding the cobbles and thousands of years of history.
    One place to another, without the faintest bit of effort.
    A stutter.
    A perfect stutter.
    As they were meant to be.
    Ilyan could perform a stutter because of the magic of his father, the weak strain of Drak magic the Chosen children possessed. It was why Edmund could stutter so flawlessly, and Ilyan was able to because the whispers of the same power ran through his own veins, the tiny magic amplified by the magnitude of his power. It was only the Drak who could truly stutter, who could truly manipulate time and space.
    Drak power Edmund had stolen, that Ilyan had seized.
    For centuries, I had let them believe it had something to do with the amount of power a body held.
    It was an easy lie to let grow, just like all the others.
    Like the ‘sight’ that had led Edmund to order the murder of all those bastard Chosen children who were like his siblings. One word to him about their danger and he had killed them all.
    I needed them gone, and Edmund had given that to me.
    It was needed. I couldn’t control their magic, after all. I couldn’t restrain the Drak power within the Chosen children as I had in my progeny, as I still struggled to do in Joclyn.
    Letting that much power roam free would risk the future I had planned. The magic was too powerful for them, anyway. They had not deserved it. No one, not even my precious Dramin, deserved it.
    At least I could control him.
    Consequently, they had to go.
    Joclyn would go, too. I had already groomed Edmund for that task centuries before. Although, at the time, I had assumed I would be able to control her, use her, a bit more than I had. No matter. She would be gone soon, thanks to a little information leaked to Edmund like a slow drip.
    They saw her as nothing more than a threat, not what she really was. Edmund would destroy her, and thanks to sight, I already knew how Ilyan’s life would end.
    They were the only two who