Burning Embers

Chapter One

For NRB Reviewers :)

Author's Note: Hello! I'm so excited that you're here! Thank you for taking the time to come and read Burning Embers, I hope that I get you hooked into Feia's story and you join me for the journey #BE!

This has been my book baby for such a long time, that I'm just buzzing to share it with you. I'll appreciate any honest reviews and advice.

Questions:

1. Is the scene clearly set up for you to imagine?

2. Is the order of action clear?

3. Do you feel that you would like to continue reading, and find out what happens next?

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The sky was mottled grey over murky water. Beside the Temple of Dancing Light, a skinny girl sat on a standing stone and stared at the grey horizon. Waves crashed below her dangling feet. The Sisters of Light promised that anyone with the Gift of magic, would be able to see the faces of their loved ones in the very first rays that broke the surface. The first wash of light was pale and slow to spread and Feia held her breath, hoping to see something, anything. Disappointment was a familiar companion.

Her dark hair was tied back, and the school uniform hung loose from her shoulders. She would have given up, but that meant accepting that she wasn't special. But like a tickle in the back of her mind she felt incomplete. What if that was just wishful thinking? What if this was all she was, a girl who no one wanted?

Feia watched a shaft of light as it pierced the black clouds above her. Then she slid down the stone, hands scraping on the rough-hewn surface. Her feet landed in the long grass that sprouted through cracks in the paving.

A shriek screeched over the wind: 'Get her!'

Feia heard the heavy thud of boots and turned in horror to see a pack of girls charging towards her. A shiver of shock and fear raced from her skull down her spine. She darted to the side, but before she'd gone two steps she was grabbed. Her captors pushed her against the obelisk. She flinched as the stone chafed her skin through the woollen dress.

Knowing it would provoke the leader, Feia smiled.

'Saka, nice to see you out in the fresh-' she said, then faltered as a slap silenced her. She looked down, refusing to search Saka's gaze for mercy; she'd never find it anyway. A second slap had angry tears building behind her eyes, despite the promises she'd made to herself never to cry in front of them. Beyond the group of girls was the familiar courtyard and then the Temple. None of its windows, though, looked out towards the standing stone.

'What are you doing, Feia?' Saka demanded.

'The stone is sacred, Saka,' she replied.

They always said that Feia didn't have any sense, and she agreed. If she had been sensible, she would have been asleep. The sun was yet to rise over a cold autumn morning but she had already left a warm bed behind. She had decided that she'd rather be a slug, a dead fish or anything that meant she wasn't like her classmates; nothing like them at all.

In many ways, it was good that she'd made the decision. Feia didn't look like the other girls, and because of her differences they had turned her body into a battlefield of scars, scratches and competing bruises. Children in Arngeir typically had dark eyes, and Feia's were the colour of morning frost. Most children were also taller, broader and stronger than her. She'd learned to be quick; she'd had to. Even if she had looked like them, which she didn't, she wouldn't want to act like them.