AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But not even my doe eyes did the trick. Instead, Grandmother let loose a roar of a laugh, the type that was contagious. I wanted to join her and curse her calmness at the same time.
“Grandmother! This isn’t funny!” I cocked my head, memorizing her face—every wrinkle of a life well lived.
“No, it’s not.” She sighed, her features losing their softness. “I suppose I’ve just missed you, my fearless girl. Missed that spark in those eyes.” She tapped my wrinkling nose. “But you’re right. This is far from a joyous moment.”
My grip on her tightened. I was afraid she would float away.
“Tell me,” I demanded, my chin jutting out. “What do I need to know? Are the keys even out here, the ones that will save us?” Or was it yet another rumor, a lie? A hundred questions popped up, but for once, I shoved them down, studying my grandmother’s face as a solemn expression weighed down her features.
“All I can tell you is that this”—she tilted her face toward the window, to the sun just beyond our reach—“is what could await you, should you succeed.”
“At finding the keys,” I groused, my jaw tensing. Back to business, it seemed. “So theyareout here.”
“The tool to save us does lie in the cursed lands.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but she sucked in a sharp breath and averted her eyes.
It was obvious she was holding something back, and I’d long ago grown tired of vague answers. “Can you at least tell me what any of it means? Why Raina left? Why the king—”
Grandmother held up a single finger, silencing me. “Patience was never one of your virtues.”
“And that’s one of themanyreasons you love me,” I retorted, growing more irritated by the second. Hells, if I was in some dreamlike world, having a conversation with my dead grandmother, you’d think I’d come out of it knowing more than I did before.
“Fine,” she said with her trademark huff. “I can say that—”
A deep rumbling shook the house, the floorboards beneath our feet groaning and trembling. Grandmother’s gaze widened as her movements turned frantic.
I swore I heard my name being called from somewhere in the distance.
“Kiara, listen to me.” She gripped my shoulders, surprisingly strong for a woman her age. “You need to finish reading the book. You’ll find the answers you’re looking for inside.”
Book?What book?
The only book I’d been reading had been… Realization dawned on me.The book Jude gave me.
“And please be careful around the commander. History always has a way of repeating itself, no matter how hard we try to rewrite the story.”
“Jude?” Why should I be careful around him?
My vision swam with shards of dusted sunshine and onyx ash, my grandmother’s gentle face growing fuzzy.
“What’s happening?” I shouted, desperate for this moment to last a bit longer. To spend just another minute with her.
“You’re waking up, Kiara,” she answered, her voice not sounding like her own. It lilted at the end in clashing discord. “Gods, I should have told you years ago. I was hoping to find another way, but I ran out of time.”
Told me what?I wanted to ask, but my voice didn’t work.
Her mouth continued to move though I couldn’t make out the words, a wrecking thunder shaking this dream world. One that was slowly being razed.
Just beyond the window, my village shattered and crumbled, bricks dropping from the skies as people vanished from sight, leaving nothing but plumes of black smoke where they’d stood.
The dream and my grandmother faded away.
…
“Kiara.”
Black and gray blinded me, the sun from my dreams a distant memory.
“Kiara.” A voice wafted from above, growing more urgent. Desperate.
