Ashes (Fire Within Series Book 3)

by Ella M. Lee

  I had never been happier to see Keisha’s shining portal, knowing that the safety of my home was on the other side.

  An hour later, the atmosphere in the clan house was tense. I was curled up on one of our common room couches with Dan, drinking sweetened coffee from a can—my new addiction after moving to Japan.

  The rest of our family was scattered around the room, with Nicolas sitting alone in a chair across from me. He’d been receiving calls from Claudius every five minutes. Even Daniel had received a few.

  After Nicolas told everyone what happened, we had argued for a while on the best course of action.

  “Are you going to answer that?” I asked, on Claudius’s seventh call.

  “Yes, eventually,” Nicolas said. “He can wait. He knows better than to fuck with me and Stephan. He did this to himself.”

  “Is that the first time you’ve seen Stephan since…?” I asked.

  “No, certainly not,” Nicolas said, “but it never goes well. This time was better than most. I am more practiced at holding my temper now.”

  “That was you holding your temper?”

  Everyone in the room laughed, including Nicolas. I could tell that seeing Stephan had rattled him. He seemed upset and a little undone, but he was doing his best to appear reassuring and confident.

  “Stephan has too much interest in us,” Nicolas said. “We need to make an important decision. Option one: We can go ahead with our plans, but we have to do it soon. If we succeed, we’ll have some advantages over the other clans, the chief one being that our magic will be undetectable for a while because no one will know what to look for. We’ll be safe as long as we remain off the grid, and we can build the allies we choose slowly and carefully. The downside to this is… we don’t know if we’ll succeed. And if we don’t? The consequences will be devastating. We risk death, discovery, destruction…”

  He took a deep breath. “Option two: We back off. We stay in Water. We disavow our plans and destroy any evidence of what we’ve done, with no idea of if or when we could resume. Stephan could still make problems for Daniel and the rest of us, of course—he could reveal our plans, and we could still be tried by Water, evidence or no. Or he could convince Claudius to sell out Dan.”

  “I thought Claudius liked you and Daniel,” I said.

  “He does, but… this is greater than him. Smoke can put a great deal of pressure on Water, and Stephan won’t hesitate to do that if he thinks it will get him what he wants. He could have done it for me too. I expected it for the first few years after leaving Smoke, but he is strangely content without me in his possession. That could change at any moment—that’s why I keep in touch with Kate—and it could especially change if he thinks he can get me and Daniel.”

  “I think this all depends on one thing,” Sylvio said. “How likely are we to succeed with Shatterfall right now?”

  All eyes in the room went to Daniel. He tossed his head. “Likely, I think.”

  He looked at Ryan, who in turn looked at me. “What is left on the list?” Ryan asked. “Let’s lay out all the cards.”

  I pulled up our planning list on my tablet. “There are three major outstanding tasks, and they all have to do with sanctum creation and preparation. The first is to craft the new clan’s permanent sanctum.”

  “Both prototypes have been successful,” Ryan said. “I should be able to craft the new sanctum immediately at its full size and capacity. I will need a day or two to make the best possible specimen, cool it properly, and lay the wards correctly.”

  “The second task is to lay the wards for nullifying elemental interference and stabilizing the flood of new magic,” I said.

  Teng, who had been reading something on his laptop, looked up and cleared his throat. “I will need a day to do that, once the new sanctum is in place. Maybe half a day with help and some of Nicolas’s magic.”

  “And the third one is conducting a final experiment on the new sanctum with Daniel’s inverted magic and shaping it into a sanctum space,” I finished.

  Daniel sighed. “We can probably skip that step. There are only so many times we can test small-scale inversion and have the results show us anything useful. At this point, we’re just asymptotically approaching the end.”

  “Keisha,” Nicolas said, “are we completely moved out of the Water clan house? Including the storage units?”

  “Yeah, Nico, it’s done,” she said. “There is some remaining furniture, but it’s nothing we deemed essential. Everyone’s personal items are moved. All magical items. All servers and documents. Farhad, Irina, and Athena got scans of all the useful books we need from Water’s libraries. Ryan has all the materials he needs for crafting.”

  “Farhad? Our accounts?” Nicolas asked.

  “Any of our group’s bank accounts that were at all tied to Water Clan have been drained, and the money has been moved to new accounts. There is a significant portion that can’t be touched without the council knowing about it, though.”

  Nicolas waved a hand. “That’s fine. We have plenty of money. Even if we lose that remaining amount to Water Clan, we’ll be fine. Perhaps we can leave it with them as a peace offering. I don’t want Water thinking we have any intention of becoming aggressors.”

  Nicolas’s phone rang again. He closed his eyes for a moment in frustration and said, “Let me get this.” He held a finger to his lips as he answered the call.

  We all watched him intently, only able to hear his side of the conversation. “Yes?” he asked crisply, annoyed. “I am fine, thank you. Fine, but angry. … Yes, of course. … You had to have known what would happen. How dare you let Stephan use Fiona and Daniel like that? … You keep warning me of that, yet I’ve disengaged from him at all points. It is Stephan who keeps dogging me. … I am busy with other work. … Don’t bother. Daniel wants nothing to do with you right now. … I will remind you that the bylaws of the clan protect me in this case, not you. … Claudius, if this happens again in such a manner, the two of us will have problems. … Not a threat, merely a clear explanation of what will happen. … I will hold you to that. … Goodbye.”

  Nicolas placed his phone on the table and put his hands to his face, annoyed. “Everything is all right. Claudius isn’t angry at me. Not in a meaningful way, anyhow.”

  “So… back to our decision?” Daniel asked.

  “Should we vote or something?” Chandra asked, grimacing.

  “I feel like Daniel gets a greater say than all of us,” Irina said.

  “Me?” Daniel said. “I’m fine. This will be easy. Our pre-Shatterfall plans have been solid for forever. The hardest part comes after, when we need to deal with the new magic.”

  “We have plans for that, too,” Sylvio pointed out. “Fiona?”

  I brought up the post-Shatterfall list. “Daniel creates the new sanctum and becomes our first commander. Nicolas declans everyone from Water. Daniel grants everyone Lightning magic. Ryan uses transference to remove Nicolas’s Water magic once we are sure we don’t need it, and Daniel clans him to Lightning. We begin work on new wards and shields first, using Daniel’s prior test results and templates.”

  “We’re sure no one will detect the new clan’s creation?” Athena asked.

  “We are fairly certain,” I said. “Verdant and Meteor are the two newest clans. No one detected the creation of Verdant, and only sensitive wards within a five-hundred-mile radius of Meteor detected its creation. We’re hoping to prevent that with our own nullification wards. Teng has tested them on a small scale, and we believe it will work.”

  I looked at Nicolas. His eyes were closed now, his hands pressed to his face. He was searching for visions. We all waited for him to speak.

  “I can’t see much,” he said. “I don’t sense any catastrophic, world-ending outcomes. It seems like we generally make it to the other side of whatever comes next. But that’s not a guarantee of anything. My visions can omit paths entirely or be misleading. We’re going to have to make this decision as a group with the
information we have at hand.”

  “Should we do a blind vote?” Ryan suggested.

  “I don’t know, is this a democracy?” Chandra asked.

  “We can’t go through with Shatterfall without everyone here,” Nicolas said. “If anyone has reservations, we should discuss them.” He paused. “Openly.”

  No one spoke, and he sighed.

  “We can do a blind vote, but only if the people who vote against Shatterfall see me later, privately, to discuss,” he said. “Agreed?”

  We all nodded. Irina cleared her throat. “Of course. You’ll know the vote anyhow.”

  She was right. Nicolas could hear the deliberation of every person in the room right now. I wondered if that killed him, to know in advance how close he was to achieving his goals or having them smashed to pieces in front of him.

  Ryan left the room for a minute. When he returned, he was holding two lacquered bowls—they held Go stones. He handed them to Teng. “Everyone, take a black stone and a white stone.”

  While the bowls were passed around, Ryan put a cloth bag on the table in the center of the room. “Everyone goes up one at a time and puts a stone in the bag. A white stone means you’re casting your vote against Shatterfall. A black stone means you’re casting your vote for Shatterfall.”

  The bowls had come to me. I took one each of the smooth convex stones and held them in my palm.

  Daniel desperately wanted Shatterfall to happen. As did Nicolas. I knew their votes. But what did I want? Would it be possible for me to turn back at this point, to accept that we might have to stay in Water for a long time? For possibly forever? Could I cast a vote against Shatterfall knowing it would disappoint Dan? Knowing it would disappoint Nicolas, who would know what I had done?

  It seemed like we could do this. Nicolas had been working toward it for years. Some of the smartest people in Water were sitting in this room. We all wanted this, at least to some degree, and we were all confident that it was possible. Was it time to stop stalling and just try?

  If it didn’t work, I still had a family. I still had people who loved me and cared for me. We’d gotten through everything else; we could get through this. We’d be able to handle whatever the other side brought.

  I watched as, one by one, they went up to the bag and slid a stone inside. I was the last person. Nicolas, who had gone right before me, took a seat heavily. I shifted the black stone into my left hand, keeping it in my fist as I stepped up to the bag.

  I took a deep breath and slid it inside.

  Magic is born of need, I reminded myself. I believed we all needed Lightning Clan enough to make this happen.

  Ryan tipped the bag over and emptied it onto the table.

  Twelve stones.

  All black.

  Chapter 29

  “You’re sure about this?” I asked Daniel the next day, when we were alone in his room.

  He was setting up his kotatsu, a low, coffee table-like piece of furniture with a heat source under it and a blanket over the top, meant to keep your lower body warm as you sat at the table. I unpacked his books and put them on his bookshelf, listening to the birds through the open window.

  “Very sure,” he said. “I know exactly what to do. Well, not exactly. But I have a good idea.”

  Daniel’s eyes went to my hands. I was fiddling with my zodiac bracelet nervously. He came over and wrapped his hand around it.

  “Don’t damage this,” he said. “It would be bad luck to break it.”

  “Never,” I said. “I take gifts very seriously. This is one of my favorites.”

  “This?” he echoed. “This was just my idea of a pretty leash for you. My lieutenant, always.”

  “Ha ha,” I said, tousling his hair. “Don’t I get to be a commander in Lightning?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, if you want. Do you want that? Because if not, I’m keeping you. Lightning Clan will be a new challenge, and I want you with me.”

  “I never wanted to be a commander in Flame, and I never thought about it in Water. I think it’s a safe bet that I won’t want it in Lightning. Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

  “Perfect,” he said, letting my wrist go. “I can’t wait.”

  Daniel’s confidence was infectious. Maybe it would rub off on me someday, after years of watching him and learning his secrets.

  I glanced out his window, my eyes landing on the temple building at the other end of the field. We’d decided that would be our new sanctum’s home. I watched Sylvio and Keisha walking the perimeter, pointing things out, making final changes and repairs to the building before Ryan installed the sanctum and Teng warded it.

  It was a beautiful place to start a new clan.

  The morning of our Shatterfall attempt was unseasonably warm. I woke up in Nicolas’s arms. His windows were open, and I could already hear commotion coming from the garden, where Keisha and Chandra were planting perennial flowers. I rolled over and pressed my face into Nicolas’s chest, letting his arms tighten around me. I dug my fingertips into his back, holding him close.

  He kissed my hair. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” I said. “You seem well.”

  He was relaxed against me, our legs entwined together, his heat and magic enveloping me. His breathing was slow and even, and he wasn’t as tense as he’d been these past weeks.

  “I am feeling very well. It’s been a relief lately to be able to clamp back down on my visions. They drive me a little insane. I need to be rested in order to use my magic effectively today. There is no room for mistakes.”

  “Yeah,” I said. I pressed myself closer to him, worried.

  “Why are you clinging to me?” he asked gently.

  I swallowed. “I’m scared that this is the last morning we will get like this for a long time.”

  He kissed my temple. “The apocalypse could start, and I would still make time to hold you, Fiona.”

  I let out a breathy laugh and kissed his smooth skin. “That is why I love you.”

  “We will get through anything and everything together.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m going to start by getting up and rescuing the garden from Keisha’s clutches.”

  “Stay, lamb,” Nicolas murmured. “For another minute.”

  I tilted my head to look into his beautiful eyes. I was completely unable to resist him. But eventually my worry about Dan and the others got me moving.

  “Don’t worry about Daniel,” Nicolas said. “He was made for today. He will succeed in this like he’s succeeded in everything else.”

  “I know,” I said. “That kid’s a genius. I love him for it.”

  “We all do, lamb.”

  When I caught up with Dan for breakfast, he was more frazzled than I would have expected. He looked like he’d been up all night, his hair disheveled and his eyes shadowy.

  I put my arm around his shoulders. “Are you okay?”

  He offered me a tight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m fine, just busy. I just… I just want to make sure this all goes well.”

  “It will,” I said, wondering how I had become the reassuring one between the two of us. Our roles had been reversed just last night.

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, uh, you’re probably right.”

  I sat down across from him at the kitchen table and refilled our teacups. “Where did this uncertainty come from?”

  “I’m not uncertain,” he said. “I’m just running through my plans over and over, hoping they work. Any little issue, and the sanctum could collapse.”

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry. Do you know how many people have built and rebuilt active sanctums from inverted magic before? Not many, and you’re one of them.”

  “You’re right,” he said, nodding.

  “Come on, let’s finish our food and go check out Teng’s wards.”

  Daniel seemed relieved that I had offered a distraction, and I was happy that his entire expression lightened and relaxed.

  “T minus ei
ght hours,” Chandra called to us as we walked across the lawn to the temple, and her words sent a jolt of excitement through me.

  I took Dan’s hand in mine. “New beginnings.”

  “New beginnings,” he echoed, pulling me closer.

  It was six o’clock. The sun had just set, and the light was dying behind the mountains, casting only weak rays into the open doors of the temple. That hardly mattered; there was enough magic here to light up a football field.

  At the base of the wooden Buddha statue, slightly raised on a fancy wrought-iron pedestal, sat our new clan’s sanctum. It was beautiful—slightly larger than a beach ball, hollow glass, thick and smooth. There were tiny bubbles in some places, proof that it had been hand-blown a few days earlier by Ryan. The surface was covered in complex runes, wards similar to the ones that had been on our prototype, designed to let magic in but not out.

  The building itself was covered inside and out with magic. It was all Teng and Nicolas’s strong, impenetrable magic, meant to keep whatever happened here from affecting the outside world. Inscribed on the floor was a large circle around the sanctum’s pedestal, roughly twelve feet in diameter. When Daniel started his work, we’d put a shield in place around his workspace, which would act as a container so that he could safely conduct magical inversion within it.

  We had gathered in the temple and were seated on the floor. Eleven people here, ready to change the world. We were waiting on Dan, who arrived last, stopping as he got to the temple doors, out of breath.

  I smiled and went to meet him. “Hey, you.”

  “Hey,” he said. “Sorry. I was finishing something up.”

  “No problem.” I took his wrists in mine, and then glanced down, frowning. “Where’s your watch?” Except for the one time he’d lent it to me, I had never seen him without it.

  “Oh,” he said, his gaze following mine. “In the shop. Maintenance. Not even expensive things last forever, I guess.” He shrugged. “Let’s go, Fi. Everyone is waiting on us.”