Into The Black By Ava Jae

Into The Black By Ava Jae

Prologue: Those were the words Nol said to me when I was five as he bandaged my bruised ribs. I didn’t understand what he meant then, with my mouth tasting like sand mud—bitter, thick, and chalky—my tears drying on my red-dusted face, and my ears ringing with words gathering in the back of my throat like broken glass. Half-blood. Alien bitch. Mutt. But now as crackling orange flames lick up the pyre and the people I love burn to dust and sand and stars, it’s Nol’s words tattooed across my mind. It’s my nephew Aren’s face lighting up like a sunrise when his father and I came home from a patrol—it’s every moment we had together curling into smoke and reaching to the stars where I can’t follow. Mal shifts beside me as he sniffles and rubs his eyes again. He lowers his head until his rusty hair cover his eyes. “It’s—” My voice comes out tight and raspy. I clear my throat and try again. “It’s okay to cry. You don’t have to hold it in.” Mal squints at the pyre and doesn’t answer. I don’t push. Not so long ago, before Kora’s soldiers attacked our camp, there were 236 of us. Not so long ago, I had a mother and father, and a brother with a young, happy family. Kora’s raid brought our numbers down to just over one hundred. Now I count fifty-three. And of my family, Mal is the only one left.

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