All Chapters of Ashes of the Sky: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The doors open. Not with a scream like the cell. Not with resistance. Just a heavy, final shift of iron that echoes deeper than anything else I've heard in five years. Then blinding light. I stop. It hits all at once. Too bright. Too open. Too much. I raise a hand, squinting against it, but I don't look away. Not after five years of being prisoner in Skyless Keep. No windows, no sunshine. I refuse to allow myself to look away. After my eyes adjust, I look around at my surroundings. The sky stretches endlessly above me, gray-blue and streaked with slow-moving clouds. I stare at it like it might disappear if I blink too long. I forgot how big it was. Forgot how... exposed it feels. Like standing under something that sees everything. "Move," the guard snaps behind me. This time, I do. The path curves away from the prison, winding along the mountainside until it opens into a wide clearing carved into the rock. And that's where I see them. Not one. Not two. A full escort. Guards

I wake before the sun. For a second, I don't remember where I am. Then I do. And I wish I didn't. The ceiling above me isn't stone. No cracks. No damp. No flickering torchlight. Just smooth, unfamiliar quiet. My body is already tense, already awake, already waiting for something to go wrong. Old habits don't fade. They settle in your bones. I sit up slowly, scanning the room out of instinct. One door. One window. No immediate threats. Good enough. The silence presses in around me. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand, rolling my shoulders once before moving toward the washroom. The water is warm. Hot even. Skyless Keep either had freezing water or no water. I stand under it longer than I mean to, letting it run over my skin, over scars I don't look at too closely. Clean doesn't feel like mine yet. Neither does this place. When I step out, I dry off quickly, pulling on the cadet uniform piece by piece. It fits. Too well. Like I belong here. Like I was always me

By the time I make it back to my room, everything hurts. Not in a dramatic way or in a way anyone would notice.Just—everywhere. I shut the door behind me and lean against it for a second, letting the quiet settle in. I slowly slide down the door until I am sitting on the cool floor. I drop my head into my hands.How am I going to survive this? If I don’t find a way to escape, I am certain I will die. And I will be damned if my entrance into Eryndor is caused by this Gods forsaken school.I stand up shakily and move toward the washroom, grabbing a cloth and rinsing it under cold water before pressing it to my lip. It stings. But in a way, it’s grounding. I need to know I’m still here. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and cringe. I look away before I start hating what I'm looking at. I clean the worst of the blood, ignoring the dull ache spreading through my ribs and shoulder. I've had worse. I've had a lot worse.Still, this is different. Not the pain, but the rest of it. T

I drag my feet as the three of us make our way to our class- Bonding 101. Which I supposed it could be a worse class to attend, but that doesn't mean I'm excited. As we walk, Luca and Seyla flank either side of me. It feels like it's been a lifetime since I've had anyone that’s actually given a shit about me. Since my parents and sister were alive. I shove those thoughts back down before I begin to muster 5 years worth of pain I've managed to shove in the deepest darkest parts of my being. When we get to the classroom, I head towards the back of the classroom expecting the twins to take a seat in the front. They don't. They take a seat on either side of me in the back row. Weirdly, having them close is actually comforting as the anxiety begins to grow in my belly. Meeting with the dean today has my stomach in all sorts of knots. But I do needs answers as to why I was thrown into this Gods-forsaken school. As I rummage through my bag, an overly tall blonde man takes the seat on th

Apparently the Gods are cruel enough to give me one monster and then send me directly into the arms of another. His dark brows pull together. “Maeve?” I step back, but way too fast. My shoulder hits the wall. There is no one else in the hallway. No Seyla. No Luca. No Lyra. No one. Just Callan Ravaryn. The son of the man who murdered my parents. The son of the reason my life ended five years ago. My breath comes faster now and my visions darkens. He takes one careful step forward. I flinch. He stops immediately. “Maeve,” he says, softer this time. “What happened?” I laugh. Or maybe I choke. I can’t tell. “Stay away from me.” His eyes flick to my wrist. I clutch it harder. Something dark crosses his face. “What did he do?” The question punches through the panic for half a second. Because he knows. Or at least he suspects. And I hate that. I hate that his voice sounds angry. I hate that his eyes are not cruel. I hate that some stupid, broken part of me wants to answer him. Tea