Arena Of Ash – Ceara Nobles

It wouldn’t be enough for all of us to eat like kings, but we wouldn’t have to be on such strict rations, which would provide a big boost in morale. In the meantime… I cleared my throat. Everyone fell silent, their gazes going to me. The council members—not counting Aodhan—looked at me with near reverence as they waited for me to speak. Apparently they had also heard of the ronaigh and would finally give me the time of day. Good. “It is time for us to come together,” I began.

“As you’ve heard, our defenses in Thios are strained. It is only a matter of time before Asmodeus’s scouting parties break through, or he decides to bring his entire army and decimate our wall and all those who are stationed there. We cannot continue bickering. It’s time for us to set aside our differences and come together to defeat him. Which means we need all able-bodied fighters to take shifts defending the city.

Including”—I leveled a stare at Aodhan—“the Reyan Guard.” Aodhan returned my stare, his lip turning up in disgust. “The Reyan Guard is needed here. Without their presence, we would have no one to intervene in the conflicts that keep occurring when the rest of you do not follow our rules or value our ways.” “Those conflicts,” I said, “could be easily avoided if all factions set aside their differences and came together for a common purpose.

To defeat Asmodeus.” “Why don’t you defend the wall?” he shot back, eyes narrowed. “With your special blessing, you should have no problem doing so. You could even defeat Asmodeus himself.” “As I’m sure you’re well aware, I don’t have control over it yet.” I tried to keep my patience, but it was quickly unraveling. “We are currently researching ways that I can utilize it to help. But until then—” “If you truly have the ronaigh, surely the goddess would have granted you with the power to use it,” Aodhan sneered.

“It seems to me that you started that rumor in order to seize power over the Reyans. Well, we won’t be fooled so easily. We—” “Aodhan,” I snapped. “Shut. Up.”

he Great Tree stood like a silent sentinel in the night, guarding the city of Thios from unseen danger. It should have been comforting to sit in the pavilion beneath its branches. Here, I had a perfect view of the cobblestone streets that fed into this meeting place. Only days ago, everyone had gathered here to honor Aki and send his soul into the next life. A group of Fae had since used their water magick to wash away the charred remains of his funeral pyre, leaving the stone dais blemish-free once more, but I still saw it in my mind’s eye.

I would never stop seeing his burning body or feeling the immense grief that rounded my shoulders and crushed my heart every day. Now, in the middle of the night, when the city was still and silent, my thoughts were especially loud. I had come here to clear my head, but it had backfired in a big way.

“Everly?” a soft voice whispered in the night. I jolted and glanced up. I’d been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn’t heard Mina approach. “Hey,” I said softly. “Hey,” she echoed. Her silvery-blonde braid slipped over one shoulder as she settled onto the cobblestones beside me. She peered at me, concern evident in her expression. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I expected to find you on the bridge outside your room.” I let out a sound that was too strangled to be a laugh. “I can see Aki’s garden from there.”

“Ah.” Mina nodded. “How did you find me?” “My excellent power of deduction.” I raised a brow. “Shadow told you, didn’t he?” “Of course he did.” She smiled. I rolled my eyes and made a vulgar gesture at the darkness across the pavilion where Shadow was no doubt lurking in wolf form, keeping watch over me like he had been since we’d returned from the forest.

“He’s just worried about you.” Mina bumped me with her shoulder. “We all are.” “You all have bigger things to worry about than my mental state.” “You’re our leader.” At my scowl, she added, “We need you for what comes next.” Leader.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 6b88b0eab7d4f316
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 4,599,839 bytes (4.387 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 248
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 411.43 minutes
• Total Words: 82,286
• Total Characters: 449,771
• Average Words per Page: 331.8
• Average Characters per Page: 1813.59

Most Frequent Words

said (308), back (287), time (241), eyes (230), shadow (228), asmodeus (214), didn’t (211), one (207), like (207), mina (171), aodhan (167), fae (161), everly (158), gideon (154), long (150), now (148), asmodeus’s (135), air (132), way (128), around (128), know (126), right (124), cara (123), even (120), council (119), looked (118), away (109), hand (109), city (107), wall (107), behind (106), head (102), something (102), made (100), army (100), everyone (99), magick (98), nodded (96), side (96), toward (95), get (94), since (93), couldn’t (93), myself (91), see (89), against (89), i’d (88), hadn’t (88), need (88), enough (87), moment (87), stood (85), thios (85), much (85), voice (84), great (83), room (83), face (83), wasn’t (83), reya (83), gaze (81), hands (81), don’t (80), reyan (79), wouldn’t (78), turned (78), make (77), i’m (77), fire (76), take (76), let (75), chapter (74), palace (74), still (73), it’s (73), tree (72), use (72), first (72), every (71), felt (71), help (69), come (68), asked (68), table (68), met (67), across (66), never (66), many (65), beside (65), reyans (65), front (64), aki (62), water (61), end (61), two (60), between (60), past (59), another (59), knew (59), already (59).

PDF Download