[ACOTAR] A Court Of Ashes and Sunlight

Prologue

His dream was plagued with reddish flames and ghostly mist.

The sky covered in a black layer of smoke, making it impossible for him to see the stars or the moon. Heat burned on his skin and the flames around him fanned out on an ancient stone path into the black, unknown darkness. The only light was provided by the menacing flames that burned from the bowels of the ground to several meters above his head.

He was running down the path, his boots clanking against the stones, his lungs burning, filled with smoke. Around him there was the rattling of the fire, but also a cryptic hissing, far away, like the sound of the wind passing through a crack. He ran and ran without feeling that he could reach any end.

In the distance, screams became audible, unrecognizable, distorted in the hot and infernal environment that rose around him. He ran and ran, waiting to find an end to the terrible panorama, feeling as if the flames were taking over his body, trying to attract him to them, trying to merge him with them. And they yelled, they seemed to yell his name.

He ran desperately, trying to get away from them. But the world seemed to have become a tangle of darkness, fire, and stone strewn with withered leaves, and he felt he was going to drown in it, until a speck of light peeked at the far end of the road. The speed of him as a fae brought him closer, the world blurring around him, and his feet almost tripped over the uneven ground.

The speck of light grew larger, a pure white hole among that black smoke that filled everything like a wall. He ran and ran and suddenly he ran through the ring of light, like someone walking through a wide-open door, and everything went silent, the screaming stopped, and the whistling stopped like a macabre melody ready to end.

On the other side everything was light, a meadow of silver-colored grasses, trees with leaves a vibrant golden color like the sun, willows whose leaves bent to the ground were like a shower of gold spilling over the earth. That panorama extended as far as the eye could see, behind him the wall of smoke seemed like a huge impenetrable wall that reached to the ends of the sky with it's imposing height, and there was no longer any gate through which he would cross back into that horrid world of fire and darkness. He breathed uneasily, looking around him, feeling a tender warm breeze caressing his skin, like the wind of a peaceful spring that filled his lungs, that purified them.

The sky was blue, the purest he had ever witnessed, and the brilliant light of a huge sun bathed the world in its peaceful presence. However, he heard that whistle again, clearer, more melodious, closer. Coming from a group of huge golden willows, whose branches swayed very gently in a breeze that seemed to attract him sweetly.

The male stepped forward, almost in a trance. His boots sank into the grass as he walked in the direction of those trees. The path seemed so long in the distance, yet he was across it in a matter of seconds. He used one of his arms to move the curtain of tiny branches and leaves, the hissing coming through them without stopping for an instant, a sound that completely filled his ears. Something in his chest began to burn when he crossed into the small clear under the golden vault that the branches and leaves of those trees formed right in the center, surrounded by their strong logs; it was a burning sensation, which spread to every part of his body, to every hollow of his being. But it didn't scare him, instead, it caused him a great sensation of euphoria, a rising emotion in his chest, unlike the terror he'd felt on that road surrounded by supernatural fire.

In the center of the clearing, on top of a giant rock, a huge creature was waiting for him. A beast in all it's glory, bathed in the crackling light that passed through the branches of the trees above them. His huge eyes watched him impatiently, and his muzzle (which was getting sharper to the tip of his black nose) opened a little, letting out that hiss between dozens of white fangs. His fur was reddish, with large white sectors fused to it, his elegant and muscular body was covered in golden willow leaves, and on top of his head several of these were accumulated as if they were a golden crown. He radiated a powerful, familiar warmth, and there was something so familiar in his golden gaze that the male almost felt he was seeing a loved one —a reflection in a old mirror.

The beast stared at him, and hissed. A strange, overwhelming melody that made the male feel heavier, calmer, and light-bodied. His eyes, however, remained connected with those of the animal, which was not a creature like any other he had seen, but still he felt so familiar that gave him goosebumps. Somehow, deep inside him, he knew that the beast was waiting for him, hissing through its teeth, hoping that he would come looking for it, that he would find it and finally understand the reason for his long wait. But just when the male wanted to get closer, fighting against the drowsiness caused by the song sung by the creature, it rose from its place, its legs crashing against the rock, scratching the surface with its sharp claws that reflected the golden light of the sun.

And the creature left. And with it all that pure, white and luminous world vanished. Leaving the male plunged into the deepest and loneliest darkness. He fell, screaming in the direction where the magnificent animal had been before, looking into his eyes.

He yelled for it not to leave him alone in the dark.