An Ember's Tale

Chapter Thirty-Three

  Ember awoke to the sound of clanging. She shot up to find she was in a small bed surrounded by faded walls with water dripping from them onto a hard floor. She looked over to see a cell door that was heavily secured by thick chains. Ember then looked down to find chains on her foot and wrists keeping her to the wall as she cursed and fought against them until the sound of clanging was echoing throughout the cell.

"I'm sorry," a voice said.

Ember turned to find Mark standing outside the cell with pursed lips as he gripped the metal bars.

"A cell?" she tried to stand up, but the chains pulled her back to the bed. "Are you insane?"

"You can't go to that island," Mark told her. "It's too dangerous. I'm trying to protect you."

"I don't need protection!" Ember yanked her chains. "I have come too far just to sit by and have you go do something that I was meant to accomplish!"

"You told me your impulsiveness was something you regretted." Mark's eyes flashed. "Take a second and think. What do you think is going to happen on that island? What do you think Akull will do to you?"

"The same thing he will do to you!" Ember pleaded with wide eyes as tears began to form. "If we go together, we will be stronger. We can face him together... Just let me out, Mark. Please. Don't go to that island alone."

"I'm sorry, Red." Mark turned before he began to walk away. "But I can't risk losing you."

"No!" Ember yelled after him. "You can't just leave me here, Mark!"

She yanked on her chains until they were digging into her skin as she continued to curse. She stopped and closed her eyes when she realized the chains wouldn't budge. Ember summoned the heat inside of her as it rose and consumed her body. She could feel the chains heating up, but they deflected on her and burned her instead.

Ember grew cold as she looked down to see the red burns on her skin.

"Damn you, Mark," she muttered.

Ember looked around desperately as memories from her dream flooded her, making her even more desperate. All she could see was Mark rolling off of the board and into blue flames until the echoes of her cries filled her mind. She looked to see the wall the chains were attached to. If she couldn't melt the chains, she could surely melt the wall...

A flame appeared in her palm as she threw it onto the wall. It rapidly began to consume it until her chains fell to the floor, and she cheered. The fire still ravaged until she pulled the flames back into the air, and they slowly dissolved into ash and embers. Ember grabbed the ends of the chains in her arms before she raced toward the cell door.

Her hands gripped the bars as the cool metal touched her hot skin. She knew it would be the same if she tried to melt the bars like how the chains had burned her, but if she could get hot enough to retract the heat back on the metal...

Ember closed her eyes as heat propelled from her body.

The metal burnt her skin as tears formed in her eyes. She gripped the bars harder as the heat continued to flow from her until she cried in pain. She pulled the bars until they were like liquid that dripped onto her skin, apart before her heart stopped. She looked down to see her chains had melted off, leaving significant burns that were a deep maroon and boiled on her skin, but she didn't feel the pain. All she could feel was worry that consumed her: worry and regret.

Ember looked back to find that bars now had a large opening as she stepped through and dusted her dress off from the dank cell. She heard the ship stop as her eyes widened, and she began to race down a large hall.