Spark [Prince Zuko - Book One]

❃Chapter One❃

Two years later...

Hot flames licked at the room around Asake, smoke choking the breath out of her body. She cowered away from the fire, but it slowly spread across each soft surface – the curtains, blankets, and her clothes all quickly caught fire. She let out a terrified scream, holding her hands above her head as the heat burned at her face.

Tears streaked down her cheeks, the salty liquid the only thing that could save her from the inferno. Her hands itched to do something, to manipulate the very thing that scared her so badly, but she didn't know how to do that. After keeping it a secret, she never got the correct firebending training that a girl her age should have.

The fire brushed against the skin of her right leg – just where Fire Lord Ozai attacked her – like a soft kiss, and she gasped in pain. Her breath never came back as the smoke and ash forced their way down her throat and into her lungs. Her eyes burned in the acrid air, and she knew this was it. Her life was cut short by this spark, by the ash, and by the flames of her own inferno.

Asake gasped for breath, her eyes flashing open. The soft lull of the ship reminded her where she was, that she wasn't being burned alive in a random room. A cold sweat clung to her skin as she sat up in her bed, running a hand through her hair. Her heart thudded against her chest, and her right leg burned.

She lifted the covers and saw the phoenix-shaped burn curving around her calf. Brushing her fingers against the raised skin, she sucked in a deep breath of stale air. This scar was a painful reminder of that day two years ago when she went against her better judgment and put her life ahead of Prince Zuko's life.

Asake knew she wouldn't be able to go to sleep for the rest of the night.

—

Everything had changed. Asake's life was flipped upside down on that cursed day. The chaos that ensued after she woke from giving in to the pain was almost enough to make her regret her decision. Yet she would never regret saving Prince Zuko's life, even though he got on her nerves every single day after they were thrown together – banished – on this ship. At first, Asake thought that the ship was big, bigger than anything she had ever been in besides the Palace. Two years later, she knew all of the hiding places because they had shrunk. Prince Zuko's permanent bad mood invaded each space on the ship until she no longer felt that peace she desired.

Prince Zuko was in another one of his bad moods again, the anger written across his face. Asake thought he was slowly becoming Anger; that was the main emotion that would always transform his handsome face. She didn't know how much longer he had until he became this emotion. From her spot beside the railing, she watched as his long legs took him through a path set out on the floor of the ship as a furious look appeared on his face.

"Prince Zuko, you need to calm down," Asake said to him gently. Her eyes went back and forth, back and forth as he went back and forth, back and forth, just like the sea beneath the ship. Her stomach rolled with the waves. She usually kept to herself, but he was really unnerving her with his pacing. The remnants of her dream from early this morning held onto her, the heat curling off her otherwise cool body. "I know you're annoyed, but you have to stop stomping around."

"I don't need your input," Zuko said icily. He kept his gaze trained on the horizon even as he moved back and forth. "And for the record, I'm not annoyed. I'm not feeling anything."

His amber eyes flicked toward her; one of them was wide open and intense. The other was a slit like the gilacorn had. A bright red scar was painted across the slitted eye. The color matched the scar that burned on her calf. It wasn't the same shape, but it was for the same reason. They both were burned because they cared for the well-being of other people.