I'd always thought of myself as a good person. Someone who knew right from wrong and would make the moral choice at least ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Even though I'd dabbled in martial arts in my previous life for fun I'd never been able to fully commit to hitting another person out of fear of hurting them, even if I thought they probably deserved it. I'd never been perfect but I'd always just assumed that I was a good person on the balance.

When I willingly dropped to one knee before Queen Salem, bowed my head in submission and pledged my loyalty to her and her cause… that was when I first realized that I must have been deluding myself all along.

As I saw it there were three strong personality traits in me that eventually led me to this end result.

One, I'd always been more comfortable as a follower than a leader. I had never had an Alpha personality. I'd never had any grand ambitions I'd been driven to fulfill. When it came to dealing with other people I had always either just gone with the flow or simply walked away.

In this case, however, simply walking away had never been in the cards.

Two, trust. I looked at my older sister out of the corner of my eye. All of this had been at her insistence. She had her flaws, yes, but I knew that she always had our best interests at heart and that she loved me more than anyone else in the world. Because she had ensured me that this was the best choice for us I'd swallowed my reservations and done as she'd asked.

Three, loyalty. Cinder had sacrificed so much for us, for me, that I would willingly follow her into hell itself. She was the very last of my family across two lives. Where she went, I would follow, because that is what I owed her. I'd follow her because we were inseparable. Because we shared a connection that would always be ours and ours alone. When she smiled at me and I felt the warmth of the Fire between us I knew that I could never have made any other choice.

Maybe this had been my destiny. Maybe this had been inevitable all along.

I was Ember Fall, younger sister to Cinder Fall. My place was at her side. And the world, as they said, could burn.