Chapter 1 – Incendiary – Fire Elemental Series

Amber needed desperately to talk to her sister. Callie had been gone for almost six years now. At first Amber blamed Callie for leaving. Now Amber feared that her sister had been right and that she’d have to leave too. The thought of going terrified her. Amber had lived her whole life safe behind the warded walls of Beckingston.

The wards were ancient and so powerful that they were able to keep out the elementals. Elementals are magic creatures ruled by the four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. The elementals are destructive creatures, killing and laying waste to anything and anyone that crossed their paths.

For that reason the town held a Naming Ceremony every year where they tested all the children in their sixteenth year. Amber was sixteen now and it appeared she was doomed to fail.

Amber thought back to the last time she’d spoken with her sister Callie. It had been a couple weeks shy of a year since they’d seen the dead bodies behind the Mayor’s house.

“Where are you going?” Amber panicked when she saw Callie carefully tucking her belongings into a large satchel.

“Amber, you mustn’t tell anyone that you saw me leave.”

“But why? You’ll miss the Naming Ceremony.” Amber was only ten and as far as she was concerned turning sixteen and going to the naming ceremony was the most important thing in the world. It was where the boys were apprenticed to learn a trade and it was where the girls learned who they were to marry.

“That’s my plan,” Callie said grimly. “Do you remember the night we found the bodies?”

Amber shuddered. The visual still haunted her dreams almost every night.

“I never told you this but I knew them. They were all people that had failed their testings. They were supposed to be exiled.”

“What are you saying?”

“People aren’t really exiled. If you fail the testing they kill you.”

“Even if that were true it still doesn’t explain why you’re leaving,” Amber whined stubbornly.

Callie held her hand up and a ball of hot orange flame flared into existence in the center of her palm. Amber jumped back in fright holding a hand over her mouth, unable to speak. Callie closed her hand and the flame extinguished, leaving behind a faint burning smell.

“I won’t pass the testing.”

Amber ran to hug her sister almost knocking her down and Callie wrapped her arms around her and gave her a quick hug before reaching for her full satchel.

“I promise I’ll write you once I find somewhere safe. You can’t tell anyone you saw me leave. Not even father.”

***

Amber realized she was crying again just like she had all those years ago when her sister Callie had run away and she scrubbed her hands furiously to wipe away the tears. Crying wouldn’t solve anything. Crying wouldn’t bring her sister back. She held out her hand and a flame formed in the center of her palm.

“Crying definitely won’t fix this,” she said as she closed her hand but the flame didn’t go out. She started to shake her hand but she was afraid of starting another fire like she had in the kitchen so she just stood still and waited for it to fizzle out. Callie had made extinguishing the flame look so easy. Amber needed to find her because she needed much more than a place to crash. She needed a teacher.

Amber took a deep breath and added a small bundle of letters to her satchel. They were all from Callie. Callie hadn’t been able to write frequently over the years so she’d saved each and every one. Letters were expensive and the messengers only visited every few months as they traveled from town to town.

Amber knew she’d waited too long already and only hoped she’d make it out in time before the testing. She felt awful as she pulled the satchel over her shoulder and crept quietly down the hall past her father’s room. The thought of him all alone broke her heart but Callie hadn’t trusted him enough to tell what they’d seen, and Amber just couldn’t risk it either.

She was just about to leave when she saw her father’s book of the ancient wards. Part of her felt wicked for taking it because it had taken him so many years to complete, but the larger portion of her mind felt comforted by the thought of having something to remember him by. Deep down she knew she would never see her father again.

The city gates were still closed against the night but Amber knew of a small gate used by the guards on the north side. She stepped softly and tried to keep to the shadows. She should have left weeks earlier like her sister had, but she hadn’t been able to work up the nerve until yesterday.

She knew full well that it may already be too late. The Testing Ceremony was today and they’d be coming for her soon. Amber let loose an inaudible sigh of relief when she neared the small door and didn’t see any guards. And then a hand reached out gripping hard into her shoulder bones and pulling her to a stop.

Prologue – Incendiary – Fire Elemental Series

Callie thought she heard a noise and looked over her shoulder nervously. When she’d been dared to steal the Mayor’s toupee she should have said no, but she never could resist a dare. So here she was, sneaking around the town square at three in the morning jumping at every little noise.

She turned a corner and headed down the narrow alleyway that fed behind the mayor’s mansion. It was agreed by all that the best thing about being elected mayor was living in the nicest dwelling in town. The current mayor had been reelected so many years in a row that most people had stopped bothering to run against him.

He wasn’t a particularly good mayor, but people at least knew what they were getting. She’d wanted to come sooner but everyone had stayed up late celebrating the Naming Ceremony. Callie couldn’t wait until next year when she had her testing. She’d reached the back of the house when she heard it again. She whipped her head back and there was no mistaking the small form of her little sister Amber.

“What are you doing out here?!” Callie started to yell and then quickly muffled her voice to an angry whisper.

“Following you,” Amber choked back a sob and Callie instantly regretted yelling at her. Amber was only nine and since their mother had died she’d taken to following Callie around everywhere. It was annoying and endearing at the same time. Callie opened her arms and Amber barreled into them for a tear-filled hug while Callie ran a comforting hand across her back.

“I need you to stay right here and not move.”

Callie stepped closer to the house and heard the unmistakable sound of Amber’s footsteps trailing behind her. She turned around and held a hand to her forehead and counted to three. It helped her calm down. She waved Amber over and gestured to a tarp covered wagon.

“Why don’t you lay down here and I’ll be right back.”

Callie had just started to pull back the tarp when she saw the bodies. She stood frozen in shock and didn’t register that Amber had leaned in to look until she started screaming. Callie slapped a hand over Amber’s mouth and told her to be very quiet and to not let go of her hand.

Amber wanted nothing more than to get away from the bodies and didn’t have to be told twice to run. By the time they’d reached home Callie had already decided that they couldn’t tell anyone. Given the fact that the bodies were parked behind his house it was pretty obvious that the mayor had been behind the murders.

She’d recognized all three of the dead people in the cart. All three had failed their tests at the Naming Ceremony. But instead of being tested they’d been murdered. It took her what was left of the night to convince Amber to say nothing. That was the night Amber started having nightmares.