Dream in the Ash |Book 1|

Chapter 1

For the first time in ten years, Audrey was leaving prison.

Fat, fluffy flakes fell as she crunched through the frozen ice on the sidewalk. But her skin heated, and her heart pounded as they walked outside.

It still took three months to determine they wouldn't try her case again, but reporters had already been trying to contact her for weeks.

Yet again, the media and court of public opinion named her guilty, especially with the farce of a press conference the district attorney held when dropping the charges last week.

"My office will file paperwork today dismissing the charges against Ms. Sarafian. The decision was based on the fact that this is a decade-old case with deteriorating evidence and had nothing to do with the question of innocence."

The past few months after they vacated her sentence were tense. Waiting to see if they would charge her again forced her to relive every memory she had of that day.

If only she'd been on time for her curfew, she might have been able to stop the fight between her sister and parents from getting out of control. The worst part was that in sneaking in, she saw the man in the backyard. She heard his thoughts and knew he was like her immediately, except there was a dangerous edge to his aura as he stood in the shadows. He was tall and lean. She couldn't see his face entirely, nor could she discern the language he thought in—but she'd never forget that lilting, melodic inner monologue from him.

However, her sleepless nights and fretting were a wasted effort because Alex had really done it. Her best friend—her only friend now that her twin sister was dead—had fucking freed her.

A swell of love burned in her chest. He was a man of his word.

Or so she'd thought. She glanced around for Alex's tall frame again. He was supposed to be here today to pick her up, and she prayed he was waiting in the parking lot like they'd planned.

They knew it would be a madhouse here today.

In Audrey's head, someone else's thoughts mingled with her own as she entered the gates outside. A low hum was growing in the background of her mind—a crowd no doubt had gathered.

Audrey had nerves of steel, but it had been a long time since she had to exercise this type of control.

The hum grew louder—clearer.

She trembled a little. Vague memories of her first time in court surfaced—it had been a circus. Not even the post-conviction hearing had been as bad.

She'd had a seizure on the second day of her trial because of the avalanche of consciousnesses. All the attention and thoughts physically hurt her.

Audrey wondered if her problems had started then instead of the day of the fire, but her memories of the trial were hazy after they had drugged her.

Probably for the best then, but today, she was doing this on her own.

As they approached the gates, the group she'd been walking with slowed to a creep. People clogged the parking lot. Audrey's hands spread against the chainlink fence as she looked at the reporters talking into cameras, screaming women, glaring men, and hundreds of phones waving above heads, the cold morning air fogging from their mouths in puffs.

Family reunited with inmates. She watched a mother and daughter embrace and cry. Audrey's mouth thinned, and the hole inside her where the guilt should have been gaped. But she felt nothing but anger still. Her sister would have been here every day, but she'd died that day with her mom and dad. Most of Audrey died with them, too. She had them one day, and the next, she had no one.