Megan Martin
is
Ember Reign

 

Prologue

 The snow came down in sheets driven by the howling wind.  A burning farm house illuminated the snow-covered landscape.  Flames licked up the side of the newly built, white, two-story house.

 Across the road, a second fire burned through hay on the floor of a barn.  A panicking horse reared and kicked at the sides of his stall with both hind legs attempting to escape.  Two cows mooed as they turned in their stalls in panic.  Chickens clucked and flapped their wings as they scurried along the walls searching for a way out.

 Footsteps appeared among the trees moving down the slope toward the house.  The form of a woman materialized shimmering translucent blue.  She was dressed in a form fitting white suit with dark blue stripes accenting the arms and legs.  Occasionally the blue stripes shimmered to gold then back to blue.  Upon her left chest was a symbol of a circle inside an oval inside a triangle all surrounded by another circle.  She wore a beautiful glowing golden jeweled crown with a central silver triangular jewel that emitted a rainbow of energy around her.

 As she reached the house, she waved her right hand.  The snowflakes and flames became motionless.  She walked through the now hovering snowflakes directly through the front door of the house like a ghost.  One by one she levitated the unconscious occupants into an old trailer house on the opposite side of the driveway.  As the mother, father, and two children were now safe, the glow of the silver jewel changed to a green hue.  She placed her hand on each of the victims and the glowing energy moved over them. 

As she laid her hand on the chest of the youngest daughter, the ten year old girl opened her eyes and looked up at her rescuer.  “What happened?  Who are you?”

 “You can call me Ember.  What’s your name?”

 “I’m Chloe.”  Coughing to clear her lungs of smoke, she choked out, “Am I dead?”

 “No.” Ember brushed the girl’s cheek to comfort her.

 “Are you an angel?”

 Ember forced a smile through her somber expression.  She looked around the inside of the trailer and noticed a relatively new gas heater.  “Does that thing work?”

 “I think so.”

 “Can you light it?” 

 The girl nodded.

“I need you to do that.”  Ember glanced at a display on her left wrist.  “I’m going to let the animals out of the barn.” 

Following Ember, Chloe noticed the snowflakes hanging motionless in the air.  She touched one.  Suddenly, a gust of cold air stole her breath away and the snow began to fall.  In horror, she gasped as she saw her family’s brand new home in flames.

 As Ember approached the barn, she waved her hand and the double doors swung open.  The animals that had managed to escape their pens ran out into the snow.  The flames leapt around Ember as she walked through the barn.  One by one she opened the pens that still contained livestock allowing them to escape the blaze.

 Standing in the doorway of the burning barn, she could hear the sirens of the fire truck and ambulances in the distance.  She looked toward the trailer and saw Chloe, now wearing a winter coat, running toward her through the snow.  She looked at the display on her left wrist to see it flashing “Power Transfer in Progress.”

Realizing the flames were lapping the air around her, Ember walked out toward the road to meet Chloe.  “You should be inside with your family where it’s warm.” 

 “I have to know what happened!” Chloe exclaimed.  “I saw you walk through that fire!”

 Ember embraced the girl, holding her tight.  The glowing energy around her moved over Chloe.  Magically, Chloe felt warm and safe.  She looked toward the burning house.  “That’s our new house.  Daddy just finished it last month and now it’s gone.  I don’t understand!”  She began to cry.

 “Sometimes life isn’t fair,” Ember said softly, “mostly it isn’t fair.”

Chloe looked at the house, the barn, and then toward a horse that approached them.  “Skizics!” she called running to the horse.  “Are you all right?”

 Ember walked around the horse running a gentle hand over it.  The silver jewel on her crown turned green and the glowing energy moved over the horse and the girl.

 “He’s going to be just fine,” Ember said.  “Is he yours?”

 “Yes, daddy got him for me for my last birthday,” Chloe answered.

 “You remind me of another girl I knew a few years ago.”  

 “Why would God do this to us?”  Chloe looked at the burning house.  “We go to church every Sunday and I always say my prayers.”

 “God didn’t do this.  A very evil man is responsible.”

 “Did God send you to save us?”  She touched Ember’s arm and watched the glowing energy move over her.

 Ember smiled solemnly.  “I guess he did,” she answered softly.

 “What is that?  It’s like liquid energy.”

 “That’s exactly what it is.”

 “It feels so warm.”

 They could see the lights of the fire truck and ambulances through the snow as they came over a hill in the distance.  Ember looked at the display unit on her left wrist.  “I have just enough power left to put out one fire.  I’ll let you choose.”

 Chloe looked at the house.  “The house.”

 Ember took a deep breath and stretched out both arms.  A glowing ball of blue energy formed at her hands then shot toward the house snuffing the fire out instantly.  She handed Chloe an animated three dimensional business card with a picture of Ember and a horse on it.  “This man will board your horse no charge.  Just show him that card.”

 Suddenly, Chloe’s father ran screaming from the trailer toward the smoldering house.  Ember looked toward the approaching rescue vehicles.  “Time for me to go.”

 “Is that your real name?”

 “I was known by another name,” Ember answered.

 “Will I ever see you again?”

 Ember smiled and patted the girl on the head.  “You can count on it.”  She began walking away.  Ember vanished but the foot prints continued on a few more steps.

 “Chloe!”  Her father ran toward her in the snow.  “Are you all right?”  He grabbed Chloe up from the ground and hugged her.

 “I’m okay, daddy.  An angel named Ember Reign saved us.”
 

(Find out what brought Megan/Ember to this point in time.  Read Ember Reign book 1.  Find out what happens when Chloe comes to visit her horse on the Martin farm in book two "Project Fallen Angel.")

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 Did you know that you can log onto the previews website on emberreign.net and listen to all the previews in MP3 format? 

 The first two Ember Reign novels are available in PDF and MP3 audio format at a fraction of the cost of a printed novel.