Free Burning to Ashes by Evi Asher Page A

“Forgive me,” he started, and Scarlet knew he was pushing it with the Oracle. “I must know if there is any way…” He looked over at Scarlet, then back to the Oracle. “To keep what fate has given me to treasure?”
    The laughter that came from Cerise’s lips was like the tinkle of wind chimes. “I will not, no, I can not answer that question, and you know it. I have found you, even though you were looking for me. I have answered, and given a boon of more than one answer, so to give you more would be against my rules.” She took Scarlet’s hands into her own for a moment and dropped her formal tone. “I’m rooting for you, kiddo.”
    With those cryptic words, Ceries’s image wavered, and vanished.
    A knot formed in Scarlet’s stomach, and it felt like the world was falling away under her feet. She sensed Archer’s hand on her arm, steadying her.
    The world became a maelstrom blur and vanished. When Scarlet could see again, the group was standing in a patch of knee high wild grass, the cars a little distance off on the battered dirt road.
    Tate shook it off first. “What the hell? That was like drug trip.”
    Erik moved past Tate looking around in the dark. “Hard drugs don’t work on us, moron, so how would you know?”
    “Freaky.” Heath shook his head. “I could see and hear everything, but I had to fight to move in a little.”
    Scarlet turned to Heath. “How did you know your zoning out was connected?”
    He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Took a guess. Archer said I’d rambled on about pink.”
    “Dude, that was a lot of pink.” Erik shook his head and put his hand to his stomach.
    Sophia spoke, then bent down to check the buckle on her boot. “I had a feeling she would find us. Creatures like the oracle don’t like to wait. She had some yummy guards, though, wouldn’t have minded staying a little bit.”
    She winked up at Zane, who wasted blood by blushing.
    “I need to hunt. Can you all wait here for me for about an hour?” He looked away from Sophia.
    “Sure, tell the bunny I said hello before you have dinner,” Erik quipped.
    Zane shook his head, not commenting as he loped off into the night.
    “Where to now?” Tate walked up to Archer who was standing at the edge of the grass patch staring into the distance. He got no answer.
    Scarlet wondered what the oracle had been talking about when she answered the question Archer hadn’t asked. She was going to ask him. With that, she moved over to Tate and Archer.
    “Dude, I’m talking to you.”
    “What!” Archer turned toward Tate with a feral snarl, causing the other Eternal to step back and raise his hands.
    “Whoa, I just asked a question. What’s up with you?”
    Archer hissed out a breath and ran his hands through his hair. “Just shut up, I need to think a bit.”
    Scarlet carefully stepped away, and went to stand next to Sophia. “You’d think I’d be the one in a violent mood, considering I’m the one who got the death sentence,” Scarlet muttered, but, Sophia heard her.
    “If my suspicions are right, Archer got a death sentence in a way, too. So, give him a little space right now, okay?”
    “What suspicions?”
    “Not something I’m willing to share.” Sophia’s tone became distant and cold as she stepped away from Scarlet.
    Scarlet wasn’t going to take this. She was going to call Sophia on this shit.
    Archer was in a mood, Sophia was being pissy with her, and Scarlet had had enough. She was sick of being the newbie, the one everyone felt the need to keep on a need to know basis, and their idea of need to know was—she needs to know jack-shit.
    She’d damn well earned the right to know these things, she’d earned it with terror, pain, exhaustion and the burnt skin that was still blistered on her forearms.
    She had just stepped towards Sophia, her hand raised to turn the other woman by the shoulder when a wave of nausea hit her hard, almost doubling her over.
    There was a roar in her head, and for some