Free Bitter Ashes (Bitter Ashes Book 1) by Sara C. Roethle

bashed in. I felt the pain of the blow and almost fell to the ground.
    Without a thought I reached down and smoothed a hand across her face, releasing her life force. I was instantly horrified that I'd done so without thinking. What if she could have been healed? If these people could maintain their lives when they were chopped up in little boxes, maybe her head would have healed. 
    I looked up to find Alaric seated against the wall, rocking his sister back and forth as he cradled her like a baby. Her body hung limp and unresponsive in his arms. 
    James came to stand beside me, though his gaze was all for Alaric and Sophie. “You need to release them all,” he instructed.
    “But what if they can heal?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off Alaric and Sophie either.
    “They will not heal,” he said darkly. “Once we are dead, we do not come back, but we do not fully die either. It is our curse.” His voice shook as he said it, surprising me.
    I closed my eyes. There was so much pain in the room that it was almost unbearable. The dead man nearest to me was the one that the lizard creature had half-eaten. As I looked at him, the pain in my stomach doubled me over. I fell to the ground and curled around myself. My cheek was in a pool of blood and I didn't care. I just wanted the pain to go away.
    I forced my hand out toward the man and took his pain. As soon as he was truly dead, my own pain eased, but there was still plenty more to go around. I slowly rose to my feet in order to continue my work. 
    I went around the room and took the lives of the fallen one by one. Each life that I took seemed to stick to me, leaving a little bit of itself behind. As I went, the collective pain lessened each time, just as the remnants of life force remaining with me grew.
    Finally all that was left was Sophie. I could tell that her throat had been cut without even looking at her, since it was the only physical pain left that was strong enough to ring though me. The wound was not nearly as brutal as some of the others, but her pain hurt my heart more than anything else.
    I could feel Alaric's pain as well, like a heavy weight on my soul, mourning the loss of his sister. The others left living felt pain, but nothing like what was coursing through Alaric's veins at that moment.
    I came to stand before him, and he looked up at me with human eyes, his tears streaming down to mingle with the blood staining his mouth. I crouched across from him and looked down at Sophie. Her blood was beginning to congeal in her loose, dark hair. She looked pale and very dead.
    I crouched down and reached my hand out slowly, looking at Alaric rather than Sophie. I felt his pain more than hers. His loss was almost unbearable. I meant to soothe her pain, but instead tried to soothe his.
    I focused on taking that sense of loss away while I stroked my hand down Sophie's face. I felt the clinging remnants of the lives I'd taken leave me while I touched her. At first they slowly dripped off like water, then they leapt from me in a mighty torrent. I looked down, surprised at the sensation, to find that Sophie's eyes had opened. She took a deep, rasping breath and sat up in her brother's lap. The wound in her throat was gone.
    Alaric looked stunned for a second, then laughed, hugging his sister to him. Pushing his arms away, she scooted out of his lap, seeming rather cranky, so he turned to me instead. Before I could react he pulled me against him and kissed me. I could taste the blood and salty tears on his mouth, but underneath that I could taste him. It was a comforting, yet at the same time exhilarating taste, that felt somehow right.
    After a few seconds I managed to gather my wits about me and pulled away. I looked into Alaric's eyes as they sparkled with joy, and couldn't help feeling somewhat joyful myself. We laughed together, covered in blood, and surrounded by corpses, and I knew with a surety that my life would never be the same again. Maybe I didn’t