THE ASH QUEEN

My name was on the purge list. I found it this morning nailed to my dorm door. A piece of cheap paper with my name written in red ink. EMERY FAE - POWERLESS - TO BE PURGED AT MIDNIGHT. My hands shook. For three years at Blackwood Academy, I had survived being the only girl with no power. No fire. No shadows. No shifting. Just... me. The other students called me Mistake. Glitch. Ash. Because I was always covered in ash from cleaning the academy floors to pay for my tuition. Tonight, they would finally get rid of me. The bell rang. Midnight. I was dragged from my tiny room in the basement by two senior guards. My bare feet scraped against the cold stone floor. The entire academy was gathered in the central courtyard. Hundreds of students in their black uniforms, their eyes glowing with their powers. In the center, a stone pillar for burning. "No! Please!" I struggled, but I was too weak. They chained my wrists with iron that burns powerless skin. My uniform tore at the shoulder. Headmistress Valeria stood on the balcony, her face cold. "Emery Fae. Three years you have lived among the gifted with no gift. You are an insult to Blackwood. Tonight, we cleanse." The crowd cheered. "Burn her! Burn the ash!" I closed my eyes. Tears mixed with the dirt on my face. This was it. Three years of bullying, of being invisible, of being stepped on... ending in fire. "By the ancient law," Valeria raised her staff, "we purge!" A wall of black flame shot from the ground and swallowed me. I screamed. But the scream never came out. Because the fire didn't burn. It stopped one inch from my skin. It trembled. Then, like a loyal dog seeing its master, it curled around me. Soft. Warm. It kissed my cuts and they healed. It wrapped around my chained wrists and the iron chains melted into water. Gasps echoed across the courtyard. The fire moved into me. Through my veins. My back arched. My black hair turned blinding silver-white in an instant. My brown eyes bled into molten gold. Markings of ash and fire crawled up my neck like a crown. The flames behind me exploded, forming two giant wings made of pure ash. I wasn't burning. I was being reborn. "WHAT IS THAT?!" Valeria screamed, stepping back. "What power is that?!" And then the air changed. Heavy. Dark. Possessive. So powerful the weaker students fell to their knees. Five figures walked out of the darkness, through the fire that parted for them. The Five Devils of Blackwood. No one says their names out loud. Everyone fears them. Reign Blackwood - the Heir of the Academy. Cold. Ruthless. Said to have no heart. His silver eyes locked on me and for the first time, I saw shock in them. "That power... it's impossible. That bloodline died out a thousand years ago. "Khaos - the cruel one with a smile that makes girls cry. He stepped into my fire without flinching. He lifted a strand of my new silver hair, his eyes dark with hunger. "Well, well. Our little cleaning maid was hiding. All this time, you were hiding from us, little queen?" Sin - sin made flesh. Tattoos crawling up his neck, lips red as blood. He circled me slowly, inhaling my scent. "Gods. She doesn't smell powerless anymore. She smells like... ours. Like something we are bound to. "Nox - you never see him, you only feel him. His voice came from right behind my ear, though no one saw him move. I shivered as his cold fingers brushed my burning wings. "Someone hid her. Suppressed her power with those chains. The question is who... and why they didn't want us to find our Queen." Blaze - the beast. The academy champion who shifts into a demon wolf. His eyes were already glowing amber, possessive and wild. He knelt in front of me, right in the ash, and growled at the crowd that was staring. "MINE. If anyone looks at her again, I will rip your eyes out." Mine. Ours. Queen. What were they saying? I was still chained, but the chains were gone. I was standing in the middle of a circle of black fire that now obeyed only me. Reign walked up to me. He was taller than everyone. He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. His touch was ice to my fire. "What is your name?" His voice was command itself. My body was shaking, but my soul was not. For three years I had looked down. Tonight I looked up. I grabbed his wrist. My fire burned him, and he didn't let go. He smiled. "My name was Emery," I whispered, my new golden eyes glowing. "But Emery died in that fire." The ash around me rose like a storm. "Now... I am the Ash Queen. And you..."I looked at all five of them, the most dangerous devils in this world. "You will kneel." For a second, silence. Then, one by one, to the horror of the entire academy...They knelt.