Page 1 of A Spark in the Ash

Chapter One

Please come back to me,I beg in my head, over and over and over again.

Jaxon roars savagely in the vault. His entire body is consumed by flames and light. He glows so brilliantly, I can barely stand to look at him, and my eyes have been adjusting to it for the past sixteen days. His body shimmers with flames, though the literal heat of his shift has burned out. The temperature of his skin can rise now, but the only ones he can actually burn now, is us darklings.

His hands raise to his hair, his fingers lacing in it. He presses in on his head as if he is in pain, and I think he really is in pain.

I think.

I’ve never witnessed this before. I’ve never seen an ultralight manifest. When I first manifested as a darkling, it had been terrifying, but it had felt amazing.

Maybe the shift into an ultralight is different.

“Serena,” a voice calls from down the tunnel. My eyes shift to the right to see Davorian. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” he says. He’s still angry with me. I think he still believes that if he hadn’t let me and Jaxon leave the day he began to manifest, that I wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. He’s wrong. “You can’t keep standing there, watching him day after day. You need to go out for a while.”

My eyes shift back to Jaxon, locked inside the vault.

It’s been sixteen days since Jaxon manifested. Since we had one last perfect day. Since he and I shared a soul-fusing kiss in a parking garage. Since his lips and his hands burned me. Since all the others knew the truth of what was going on between us.

It's been sixteen days that I have watched the man I’ve fallen for burn in a never-ending inferno of light and flames.

Jaxon looks up at me now, his eyes glowing sonic white. I see confusion in them. I see conflict.

His gaze says he wants to kill me, that he would if he weren’t locked up.

But I see that he’s fighting that urge with everything he has.

At least he isn’t trying to melt the glass anymore. At least he isn’t throwing himself at it anymore, trying with every ounce of his new, supernatural strength to break through.

He’s fighting it.

But not once, even for a few moments, has he been able to shift back into his human form. Sure, he’s surrounded by darklings, but he hasn’t gained control over his ultralight instincts, even for a second.

“You need a break, Serena,” Davorian repeats. I didn’t realize he’d walked to my side until I feel his hand on my shoulder. It’s firm. It tells me that this isn’t just a suggestion. It’s an order.

“Fine,” I say, my jaw clenching. I stare at Jaxon, holding his gaze.

I barely recognize him.

He watches me with more confusion as I walk down the hall.

In the last two weeks, more and more darklings have been arriving. There are now thirty-one of us back here in the compound. Where once it felt empty, lonely, considering the hundreds this place could house, it actually feels incredibly crowded now. The bunkroom is full of agents, others take up space in the washroom, others taking over the kitchen.

I should be glad. In a way, I am. I’m with my kind.

But I find myself…irritated. Suffocated.

This spider has gotten used to being on her own.

I pop my head into the kitchen, and I’m in luck. Or maybe I just know him well. Renwick is grabbing something from the snack cupboard.

“Hey,” I say, and he glances over his shoulder. “I need your help for a bit. You up for a trip into the city?”

He rips the bag open with his teeth and spits the plastic into the trash. “Sure.”

I see it in his eyes, he’s feeling a little claustrophobic, too.

I retrieve my keys from my room, and we head for the tunnel.

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