SOME FIRES WILL NEVER BE EXTINGUISHED

Set 4 years after the events of the Ziva Payvan trilogy, Embers picks up right where Fracture left off and delivers a thrilling conclusion to the Ziva Payvan saga…for now.

EMBERS - \ˈem-bərs\

1. the smoldering remains of a fire
2. slowly dying or fading emotions, memories, ideas, or responses still capable of being revived

A silent war is raging through the far reaches of Fringe Space. Vying for territory and precious resources, the Niiosian Mob—governed by the calculating Tobias Niio—prepares for a showdown with the Ibarra Cartel and its ambitious leader, Alastair Manes.

After reuniting with Ziva Payvan and escaping the Ibarra-controlled world of Panuco, the Alpha team is faced with choosing a side in the ongoing battle between the two galactic criminals. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and an offer to help tilt the odds in the Niiosians’ favor draws them deeper into the conflict than they ever anticipated. With little faith in their tenuous alliance, they must stand together in order to protect both themselves and each other.

Meanwhile, haunted by the events of the past four years, Ziva is put to the ultimate test as she confronts the inner demons that threaten to consume her. With Aroska and her old team at her side, she must fight to regain control of her life and put an end to the struggle between Ibarra and Niio…which may just free her from her personal battles as well.

Embers is available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats. Find it at:

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PRAISE FOR EMBERS

"While in many ways this is the most impassioned, affecting, I daresay even sentimental story of the saga, the final third of the novel is also one of the most thrilling, intense, frantic-page-turning arcs I’ve read in recent memory. It was INSANE. The fact that the author can pull off both themes at once says a great deal about her skill with the pen.”
— G.S. Jennsen, author of the Amaranthe saga

“This book was everything I hoped for and so much more. I'd even go so far as to say it's my favorite Ziva Payvan book ever. I've been heavily invested in this story and these characters from the beginning, and while finishing this left me with the same bittersweet feeling that comes from the end of all good things, I can't think of a more appropriate and satisfying conclusion.”
— T.A. Hernandez, author of Secrets of PEACE and Tethered Spirits

AN EXCERPT FROM EMBERS…

A dull ringing in her ears brought her back to her senses.

She gasped and blinked several times. The scene before her grew lighter and crisper but remained cloudy. It took her just a split second to realize the view was literally of the clouds, and the ringing slowly sharpened into an urgent beeping. She must have only lost consciousness for a few seconds. Blackened pieces of debris shot through the air beside her, trailing smoke and flames. The smell of burnt flesh and clothing reached her nostrils even through the jet suit’s helmet, and though the crushing wind dominated her senses, some part of her brain still managed to warn her it was her flesh and clothing.

The HUD inside her helmet visor glowed red and the numbers on the altimeter scrolled by at an alarming rate. It struck her that the data pad she carried wouldn’t survive the landing she anticipated, and that she might not survive if her attention was divided. Struggling against the wind resistance, she reached into the pocket on the front of the suit and removed the device, holding it close to her body to keep it from being blown away. The file containing the three messages she had composed the previous night remained on the screen, prepped for transmission. Without even studying the display, she hit the transmit command and released the pad, catching one last glimpse of it as it tumbled away into the clouds. There’d be nothing left of it after it hit the ground.

Free of that distraction, she directed her focus toward orienting herself and slowing her descent. She considered spreading her arms and legs but didn’t want to risk being recognized as something other than a piece of burnt debris. Her mind was beginning to register pain now anyway, and fighting the wind was becoming increasingly difficult. Her right arm, hip, and leg all felt like they were on fire, and the thought occurred to her that they might literally be.

The cloud cover dissolved, revealing Noro below. The city’s towering structures rose quickly to meet her, and the disorientation left her momentarily overcome by dizziness and nausea. Another glance at the altimeter revealed they weren’t as close as they appeared, but it was unnerving all the same. Keeping her arms pressed to her sides, she took hold of the jet suit’s stabilizer handles and prayed the repulsion system hadn’t been damaged in the blast. She gave them a squeeze and felt the pack on her back hum to life. The thrust carried her a good distance laterally but didn’t seem to slow her fall. That was better than nothing—she had hoped to land as close to her home on the river as possible—but it didn’t matter how much distance she covered if she was still moving fast enough to pulverize every bone in her body when she hit the ground. The altimeter told her she’d just passed the one-kilometer mark. The suit should have been working by now; she could already see other pieces of the Intrepid striking the buildings below her.

Between the crush of the wind and the high altitude at which she’d ejected, she was left struggling for air. The sound of her own labored breathing was deafening inside the helmet, and she did her best to slow it and quash the encroaching panic. Come on, come on. She gave the grips another squeeze and felt herself drift farther toward the river. The thought was morbid, but if she at least managed to make it to the suburbs, the chances of killing anyone or damaging property when she plummeted into the ground would be much lower.

Oh please, oh please.

She squeezed again. Harder. Again. Harder.

The repulsion system kicked in and she shot forward, flinching as she came within meters of clipping the edge of a building. She was still traveling faster than she should have been, but at least now most of that speed was on a horizontal trajectory. Lowering her head, she leaned further in the direction of the river and carried herself toward the remains of her home, following the path of destruction the Vigilance had carved less than two days prior.

By the time she reached the clearing at the entrance to her neighborhood, the melted sleeve of the jet suit had adhered to her arm and the repulsion pack was vibrating so severely she feared it would explode. As she neared her house, she rose up as vertically as possible, hoping to create enough resistance to slow herself down. She released the control grips in quick intervals, allowing herself to fall for a split second before the repulsors caught her again. Any landing at this point would still be rough, but at least she’d be able to walk. Maybe.

She had just reached the edge of her front yard when the repulsors petered out altogether. Glad she was only a couple of meters above the ground, she flailed to get her legs under her and braced for impact. White-hot pain shot through her body the moment her feet hit the earth, blinding her as she tucked her knees in and allowed her forward momentum to carry her into a roll. Bright shapes danced in her vision, and with the sounds of her own breathing and hammering heart drowning out all other noise, she could only collapse into the grass and lie there numb for several seconds.

Get up, she commanded herself. Get out of here or this will have all been for nothing.

She wasn’t exactly sure what outcome she’d been expecting when she first came up with the plan to eject from her doomed vessel, but somehow this wasn’t it. She dragged herself to her feet and staggered forward, fumbling for the clasps to release her helmet. The air outside could hardly be considered fresh, choked as it was with all the lingering smoke and fumes from the Resistance attack, but it still seemed preferable to being confined within the suit.

If there was a silver lining to all of this, it was that the neighborhood remained practically deserted after so many of the homes had been destroyed. She was also banking on the hope that all the atmospheric infrared probes were focused on the orbiting Federation ships or the explosion site downtown and wouldn’t catch sight of her taking off in the Zenith. The last thing she needed was to be caught by the Feds after everything she’d just been through.

When she reached the stairwell leading into her underground landing bay, it was all she could do to keep from tumbling head-first down it. To her great relief—and surprise, she had to admit—the ship remained untouched. Truth be told, the agency had probably forgotten she even had it, what with everything else that had been going on. She found herself stumbling up the boarding ramp before it had even lowered completely. Although the interior bore an uncanny resemblance to the ship that had just almost killed her, being inside brought her an indescribable amount of comfort, as she honestly hadn’t expected to reach this stage of her plan.

She bypassed the cargo bay and headed straight for the cockpit. There would be time for proper inventory checks later. Besides, she knew for a fact that no one else had accessed the ship since the team returned home from Aubin; all her personal weapons and supplies were guaranteed to still be aboard. Her injuries would have to wait as well. She didn’t dare look at them—the adrenaline surging through her body was enough to reduce the pain to an agitated whisper in the back of her mind. She wasn’t bleeding, not badly, anyway. The superheated material of the ruined jet suit had helped cauterize the worst of her wounds. Right now, that was all she could ask for.

The Zenith’s ignition sequence took less time to initialize than the Intrepid’s, and she found herself lifting off in under a minute. One last thought crossed her mind as she cleared the bay, and she turned the ship’s plasma cannons on it. With luck, anyone who investigated the scene would assume the vessel had been stolen by looters, something she was sure would have actually happened if it had sat there much longer.

As the ship continued its ascent, the smoke and haze were replaced by the same cold clouds she’d fallen through minutes before. The city disappeared below her, and as she broke out of the planet’s atmosphere, she was presented with the same view of Na she’d seen upon leaving to find Skeet and Aroska just days ago. The thought sent a new ache crawling through her body, something beyond physical pain. Setting the autopilot to take her to the nearest FTL lane, she sat and watched on the rear cam as Haphez grew smaller and smaller behind her. As much as she wanted one last look at the home she doubted she would ever return to, it was probably just as well that the image was totally blurred by the tears in her eyes.