Time is always relative to those who feel its ravages.
The prince's crown has fallen. There is no princess there to catch it. Not this time. He thinks, maybe, not ever again.
The princess has both her queen and her king back, but neither are really hers. She thinks they will never be. They belonged to the girl she used to be, and the person she is now can't accept their idea of contentedness.
When she was young, she liked to dream about the angels, with their soft white tunics, their soft voices, their soft spirits, their soft songs. But Gabriel has wings of star-fire and a halo of barbed wire, and his voice shatters the bedroom mirror every time he speaks.
Hers are rattled bones. She might even be the one who rattled them.
The world is changing, and she likes to think it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because she's so far removed from it.
Look back at the mess you've made, my dear. You try your best to pick up the fragments. Your ghosts will make the same mistakes. You will make the same mistakes. This will be your legacy, if you let it.
But oh, darling, there's a song hidden in your quiet mouth somewhere. How deep must you reach to find it? How many beating organs must you tear out before the song breaks free?
You twirl a string around your fingers, but you begin to wonder what would happen if you tied it around your neck. You might be flesh and bones and a beating heart, but you feel like sallow skin hangs off your brittle bones, and your heart might not even be beating anymore. It feels dead. You feel dead. You shouldn't, but you do,
you do,
you do.
Can you feel how your withered heart is opening up? It's ready to heal.
Will you let it?
YOU ARE READING
Ashes
Science FictionBook 2 in the Burning Series: the sequel to Dust. The world is changing. There used to be men, and there used to be monsters. The line between the two is blurred now. Long ago, the earth spun in a constant cycle. There was life. There was hope. It i...
