From the Embers (The Born in Flames Trilogy) by Candace Knoebel Page B

home,” he said, catching me off guard.
    I dropped the book as quickly as I had picked it up.
    He looked at me and then at the book. “It’s not what you think,” he said, his eyes wide.
    “I wasn’t thinking anything,” I lied.
    He sat down on the pillow across from me and placed his cup of tea down next to him, carefully folding his hands across his lap. “I just wanted to know,” he said softly.
    “Know what?”
    “If there was a way.” He kept his eyes off to the side instead of on me.
    I waited to see if he would finish what he was saying, but nothing came. “A way for what?” I probed, careful not to sound too pushy.
    His eyes met mine. “To bring your mother back.”
    “Dad—”
    His hand shot up. “Before you say anything, you need to know that I wouldn’t have gone through with it. Your mother would have killed me. But I had to see. I had to know if it was possible.”
    “And…”
    His head hung, shoulders slouched. “It’s not. At least not for a dragon.”
    I couldn’t help the sigh of relief that whooshed out of me.
    “I feel so lost,” he admitted, plunging a hand through his frazzled hair.
    “Me too.” Truth was, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have any words of wisdom to take away the hurt that he was feeling. I had nothing to give that would soothe his constant ache.
    He looked away from me, past anything that was in front of us. “This place will never be my home. I don’t have a home anymore.” His words were distant and tore at my heart.
    “Dad,” I said, but he looked back at me and smiled sadly, stopping me from saying anything.
    “You are leaving?” He changed subjects, still smiling.
    I nodded.
    “Then I suppose now would be the best time to explain everything. That is the one regret your mother always had, never being able to tell you everything.” He scooted forward on his pillow. “There have been so many secrets, so many things held back from you, all because we wanted to protect you. But after losing you and your mother, I have come to realize that secrets don’t always help, no matter how white they are.”
    I scooted forward.
    “Before all of this, before your mother and before Zordon’s reign, this land was peaceful. The world was ours for the taking. I was a young Mage with much potential, training alongside Zordon under Liege Lev’s command. He was a great man.”
    My heart nearly stopped at the mention of Lev, and the memories of Zordon’s crystal ball came crashing back down on me. The crystal ball he had trapped Lev in. The one he kept on the mantle in his room.
    “Dad—”
    He held his hand up to stop me. “Those were the most peaceful years in the realm. All four Lieges were in allegiance and on the path of discovery. That is, until Lev abandoned us.”
    “Dad, he—”
    “Shortly after the rise of Zordon, we all fell under a dark cloud, allowing him to twist our thoughts into thinking that our race was the only race worth fighting for. Of course this drew a rift in between the Magium, separating the races as they are now. And one fateful day, I was given the task to decipher a prophecy about a Progeny who would change the times as we knew them. I didn’t know then that I would be deciphering the prophecy about my own daughter.
    “Meeting your mother was no accident. As you may have guessed, we were pushed together by the hand of a Fate. By Iliana. We knew, even then, what we were getting ourselves into, but it didn’t matter. I loved your mother and she loved me, no matter how different and incompatible we were.”
    “So Iliana helped bring you two together?” I was beginning to see just how far her hand played in my fate. She was responsible for it all.
    He nodded and continued. “My magic alone could never have shifted your mother into a human. It was a gift from Iliana. She told us the strength of our love would enable us to conceive a child if we were willing to accept any sacrifices that came with it. She said the child we