ashen city (Black Tiger Series Book 2)

by Sara Baysinger

  “Hurry, Rain,” I say. Because I have the sinking feeling one of the bombs is located too close to this interstate. He darts down the exit, and we travel the narrow road until we finally arrive at the ramp that leads up to the bridge. The trucks pull up beside us in a meadow, just below the winding ramp leading to the bridge, and everyone begins unloading. I dart out of the car and race to Dad’s side. He’s helping Elijah out of the car. Elijah’s movements are stiff, and I can see the pain he’s trying so hard to hide flash though his eyes.

  How on earth is Elijah going to climb across the bridge? I look back at the bridge, try to see if it’s really as bad as it looked from the distance. The smoke has cleared some. But the metal is torn and mangled, and only the iron frame holding up. No way Elijah can cross that in his condition.

  “We need to build a raft,” I say.

  “No time for that,” Dad says.

  “It’s the only way.”

  He stares at me. “There is plenty of wood and vines around here. I’ll work on it. You go ahead. Climb across.”

  “No way. Not without you.”

  “Please, Ember. I need you to go. You’re Ky’s only hope. I need you to live.”

  “No, no, no, no, no, I’m not leaving you alone—”

  “We’ll help him.”

  The Fearless Five unload from the back of the truck. Kate is already gathering wood and reeds and straw to tie the wood together, Isaac behind her. Ash stares at me and nods. “We’ll stay and help.”

  “Thank you guys.”

  I immediately set to gathering wood and whatever else we could use for a makeshift raft, surprised when I catch a glimpse of Aurora helping out, too. And of course, because we’re staying behind, Rain and Forest stay back, too. Bombs keep exploding behind us, about one every minute, each one making my heart pound. The entire city is a cloud of smoke, and what was left of Louisville is ashes, ashes, ashes and dust.

  What a shame. What a perfect disaster. The only place where I sought solace—the only place in all of Ky where I actually sort of felt safe is just embers and ashes and fire and smoke.

  Just like the orchard.

  Why does everything Titus attacks end in smoke?

  Between the Five, the Turner brothers, Aurora, me, Jonah, and Dad, a few logs are tied together by the vines pretty quickly. We help Dad on with Elijah, and Jonah decides to ride with them, too, since he knows how to swim and can direct the raft if anything happens. And we shove the raft off the shore and watch it float into the river. Elijah and Dad—the two most important people in my life, at least, are safe. Rain kneels in front of Julius.

  “Swim across the river,” he instructs. “Stay with them until I’m safely across.”

  Julius obediently steps into the water and expertly swims behind the raft toward the shore on the other side.

  “Come on, Ember!” Rain shouts. I whirl around and begin racing up the stairs leading to the ramp. Most of the Resurgence is already halfway across the bridge. The Fearless Five are just now beginning to climb the iron skeleton.

  We reach the top of the stairs and bolt along the circular, winding ramp toward the burning bridge, Rain in front of me, Aurora right behind me, and Forest behind her. And we’re a line of refugees. We’re an exodus. We’re running like we’ve never run before, until we finally arrive at the iron frame.

  The smoke has cleared just enough for me to see that a large portion of the bridge has fallen into the river. A six-foot gap stands between the ramp I’m standing on and the shards of iron on the other side. Rain leaps across with no problem. He grabs the scaffolding, regains his balance, moves down and gestures for me to jump…right when a dozen Defender jeeps dart into the clearing below.

  Oh, no. Not the Defenders.

  And then Titus himself steps out of the one the vehicles. He stares at the bridge. He looks up at Rain, then turns to find me on the other side of the gap. Rain, Forest, Aurora, and I—we’re the lingering four, the last ones to cross the bridge and the most wanted on Titus’s list.

  Titus nods at his Defenders and they begin aiming their guns.

  “HURRY!” Rain shouts.

  Stepping back to give myself a running start, I bolt into a sprint and leap across the river, just barely grabbing onto the iron bars. My fingers cling to the rusty iron, and my heart is pounding because the drop into the river is a good thirty-plus feet, but Rain immediately grabs my arms an pulls me up until I find my footing, and then we begin climbing down the crumbling frame of the bridge, inch by inch.

  The river is so far below, the brown water steadily weaving on its course. The height is dizzying. And if I fall, I’ll either drown or get shot by Titus. Either way. I’m dead. So I cling to the metal frame, my hands trembling, and begin crossing behind Rain to make room for Forest. And bullets begin ringing out, ricocheting off the metal, and the noise is so loud that my heart is pounding, my ears ringing, my hands trembling so violently, I wonder if I’ll even make it halfway across.

  Forest leaps across next, gripping the iron bars and steadying himself, then waits for Aurora. She backs up, ready for a running leap, but Defenders are already racing up the ramp, coming closer and closer.

  “Hurry!” Forest shouts at her. She breaks into a run. And she leaps across the river, her arms outstretched for the metal frame of the bridge.

  And she misses.

  And falls into the river below.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

  Defenders immediately splash into the water to retrieve her.

  No. No, no, no, no, no. It was NOT supposed to happen this way. Aurora is our future leader. Aurora is my replacement. And we…we JUST bonded. She cannot get caught by Titus. Titus waits on the shoreline for his sister. His favored sister. But not so favored anymore, because she held a gun to his head yesterday, and now he’s pulling a gun out of his belt, and he’s aiming it at Aurora. And that sick, sick, sick grin he has just before he kills someone spreads across his face, and I realize, he’s going to kill her.

  “Keep moving, guys!” Rain shouts to me and Forest in obvious irritation. “Forget about her! Move!”

  Without a hesitation, Forest dives in after Aurora.

  “What—no!” Rain lets out a long string of curse words this time, and I watch in horror as more Defenders trudge into the water to gather Forest. “What an idiot,” Rain says. “What a complete son of a jackal!” He looks at me. “Don’t look down, Ember. Forest will be fine. He always is. Just keep moving. If we stop—if we try to help him—we’ll be killed on the spot. Understand? DON’T LOOK DOWN.”

  But I can’t help it. I grip the ledge, the rusty metal biting into my palms, and stare below at Aurora, now with her hands bound behind her back as she stumbles onto the shoreline with the Defenders. Forest is yanked up beside her, water dripping off his golden hair.

  “We have to help them,” I say, looking at Rain.

  “No. Ember. Don’t you even think about—”

  “It was Aurora all along, Rain,” I say. And I realize this might be my last conversation with Rain, so I really need him to understand. I search his eyes. “You’re the one who told me I am the Garden and God is the Sower. Don’t you understand? I am the dirt. Aurora is the seed.”

  “If that’s the case, she’s nothing but a weed and not worth saving!”

  “I’m here to prepare the way, Rain. She’s the one who’s supposed to redeem Ky. I’m incompetent. She’s been trained to lead.” I swallow the burning in the back of my throat. “That’s why I have to save her.”

  “No. Stop.” He shakes his head too quickly.

  “Weren’t you the one who told me to be more selfless?”

  “For your country, not a shoddy traitor!”

  More shouting below. Forest and Aurora are kneeling side by side while Titus speaks to them. I try to gauge how far the fall is and wonder if the water is shallow enough for me to walk in, or if the current will just pull me under. But then I catch another glimpse of Titus. And he seems to have forgotten us, be
cause he’s saying something to Forest, that sick grin on his face. Then he places the barrel of the gun against Forest’s temple.

  And he shoots him in the head.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

  Death. There’s so much of it. Too much of it.

  Forest falls limp on the ground, blood pooling beside his head.

  And I scream. Rain utters a string of curse words, then reaches for my arm, but too late, because I’ve already released the railing, and I’m falling, falling, falling into the river. Freezing water wraps around my body, into my eyes, flooding my mouth and ears and nose. And then hands—strong hands grip my arms, and I’m shoved up the shore. Someone kicks my legs, and I fall onto my knees beside Aurora. I cough up water, look into the eyes of my brother, my enemy, the boy I should have killed long ago.

  “Bind her hands,” he tells the Defenders. They yank my hands behind my back and tie a cord around my wrists. Titus’s green eyes are mocking as he looks between me and Aurora. “Would you look at that,” he says with a short laugh. “Both my sisters, side by side. Again. But this time I have your lives in my hands. I rather like it this way.”

  “Let us go, Titus.” Aurora’s voice breaks. She looks at Forest, lying on the ground beside her, and a tear slips down her cheek.

  “And why,” Titus says, “would I do that?”

  She looks back at him and grits her teeth. “Because we’re family.”

  He shakes his head, places his fist below his chin and skates his thumb along his lower lip. Then he looks across the river where, thank God, the rest of the Resurgencies have escaped to. I glance over just in time to see Dad and Elijah reach the other side. I look up at the bridge where Rain was, but he’s disappeared. I can only hope he’s prepping for his grand entrance where he will save the day Rain Turner style.

  “Family doesn’t stab each other in the back,” Titus says, looking back at us.

  “Like you’re one to talk,” I snap. “You, who locked your own sister in a room for sixteen years.”

  He barks out a laugh. “Is that what she told you? That I locked her up?” He laughs again, a loud, annoying laugh. “She never wanted to leave. She was always so pathetically shy. Too terrified to take her chances.” He looks at her, smirks. “Weren’t you, sister?”

  She stares at him, completely level, completely held together, even with water dripping down her face. Even with Forest lying limp beside her. Forest. Forest is dead, a bullet hole in the side of his head and blood forming a halo around his golden hair. Tears burn my eyes and rage. Rage is something I thought I was familiar with, but was clearly not. Because, right now, I feel like I could destroy this entire continent with one pound of my fist. I glare at Titus through hot tears.

  “You really have no heart, do you?” I say. “You just killed your best friend!”

  His eyes flash in the light. “I’d hardly call a traitor a friend. Just like I wouldn’t call a traitor a sister. Both of you,” he says, “stabbed me in the back. Both of you sided with the Resurgence. You’re both too weak-minded to lead. You’re both too pathetically similar and what a waste,” he says. “What an inconvenient waste, to have two completely ineligible candidates share my blood. The semen you came from should have been swallowed.”

  He pins me with those eyes and says, “You in particular, Ember, are weak-minded and foolish. You’ve always been against the government. You could have been agreeable, but you refused. And because of that.” He lifts his gun to my temple. “I’m going to have to shoot you, too.”

  I close my eyes listen to the pounding, pounding, pounding of my heart and wait for the bullet that’s coming to end my life and hope that Aurora is smart enough to take advantage of Titus while he’s so focused on killing me.

  “Titus,” Aurora says in a calm, collected voice. “Don’t do something you’ll regret the rest of your life.”

  “Have you forgotten, Aurora?” Titus says. “I’m the chief of Ky. This is my call to make. Not yours. You’re just a lousy little backup.” He snorts. “Some backup, though, stabbing me in the back.”

  I notice, while he talks, that the cord binding my wrists together is loose. Really loose. Almost like the Defender who tied it kept it loose on purpose so I could escape. I begin working at the cord.

  “She doesn’t deserve this,” Aurora says through gritted teeth. “Keep me. Let. Her. Go.”

  “No,” I say. “Keep me. Let her go.”

  He looks between us, bewildered, then amused. And he laughs and lowers his gun. “You two. So willing to give up your lives for the other. It’s ridiculous. Uncle Jonah must have really done a number on you. But, you’re right, Rory. Ember doesn’t deserve this.” He swivels the gun and presses it to her temple. “You do.”

  Oh. No. Aurora can’t die. I didn’t give up my one chance of freedom to sit here and watch her get shot. I work at the cord faster, but I have to do something to stall Titus. This was my place all along. To prepare the way for Aurora. It’s what God wanted. It’s what Mom would have wanted. It makes perfect sense.

  I know what I have to do.

  Titus cocks the gun.

  “How does it feel, Titus, to be the least favorite?”

  He pauses and looks at me, his smile freezing in place. “Excuse me?”

  I smile a little. Try to wiggle as little as possible while working at the ties. “How does it feel to know that I was Mom’s favorite, and that she only left Aurora behind because she was a sick baby?”

  His smile fades. He points the gun back at me.

  “Why did she leave you behind, Titus?” I stick out my lower lip in false pity, trying hard not to smile triumphantly as I slide the cord halfway off my hand. “You weren’t sick. You weren’t guarded. Mom didn’t have to make a choice between us. She could have taken you away from your abusive father.”

  He flinches. I struck a nerve. I wasn’t sure, but judging by the hurt weaving in and out of Titus’s eyes, I realize our father really must have abused him, too. And I almost feel genuine pity for him.

  Almost.

  I shrug. “But she didn’t take you, did she? I guess she didn’t love you enough.”

  The hurt vanishes as quickly as it appeared, and he presses the barrel of the gun to my forehead again. “Watch. Your. Mouth.”

  “Or what?” My confidence surprises even me. “You gonna call Daddy? Too bad he’s dead.”

  “Ember, what are you doing?” Aurora asks.

  My hand finally slips from the cord and I lunge for Titus. And I’m on him just as he pulls the trigger. A shot rings out, loud and deafening, and I’m reliving Leaf’s first death all over again. We pummel to the ground and the gun slips from his fingers. Titus flips on his back and with little effort shoves me off him and pins me to the ground. He lets out a chuckle. He calls a Defender over, then rolls off me just as the Defender grabs my arm.

  Titus wipes a drip of blood off his lip with his thumb and stares at it, then glares at me, a dark look in his eyes. “Absolutely no training in mortal combat, and yet you somehow manage to make me bleed every time.” He wipes his thumb on his shirt. “You were right to stop me from shooting Rory. Her betrayal hurts the worst, and so she deserves a more painful death than a gunshot to the head.”

  He gives a two-note whistle and a black tiger leaps out of a jeep.

  He jerks his chin toward Aurora, where she stands with her hands still bound behind her back and a Defender gripping her arm.

  “Get her,” he says. “And make it painful.”

  And as if it was trained for this moment, the black tiger charges straight toward Aurora.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

  The Defenders release her, and she stands firmly in place telling the tiger to STOP and BACK DOWN but it doesn’t. It keeps charging. Titus must have done something to it so it’ll only listen to him, because he’s controlling like that. Titus laughs like this is some sort of sick show, and then Aurora spins around and begins racing past us and I realize, I’m not afraid to die.

&n
bsp; Not really. Because there’s something about giving it all up—your dreams, your fears, everything you’ve ever known—and stepping into unknown, knowing that you’re going to possibly die. There’s something about embracing the inevitable that makes the fear avoidable. There’s something about looking death in the eye, daring it to take your life, and knowing full well that it can—and will. I’m not being pessimistic. If anything, my optimism is stronger than ever.

  Because now my worst fear is my greatest challenge, and I want to take it on here.

  Now.

  The moves Rain taught me in the caverns flit through my mind, and I jerk around, knee the Defender in the crotch, then shove my elbow into his nose, and he releases me. Aurora bolts past me. I step in front of the black tiger just as it leaps into the air.

  And he pummels me to the ground.

  We roll and roll and then I’m on my stomach, trying to get up, but I feel the sting of claws in my back and the weight of the tiger pins me down. He places his jaws around my neck, clamps down, and I see my whole life flash before my eyes. The Community Garden, Elijah’s harmonica, crickets and apple trees and Leaf. I remember the smell of Mom’s baked cinnamon apples, the embers that bring forth fire, and I think of how I’m supposed to be that fire blowing over Ky, and I completely failed.

  The tiger’s teeth sink a bit deeper into my skin until thick, warm blood oozes down my neck. The tiger must have bit into an important blood vessel because I’m already feeling just a little dizzy. And the sting. It’s blinding.

  When the screaming in my head subsides, I can hear Aurora shouting at Titus to stop the tiger, and then I hear his amused laughter filling the air, and I’m just beginning to black out, when I hear Titus shout, “Stop.”

  The tiger pauses, his grip on my neck loosening.

  “Release her,” Titus orders.

  The tiger releases my neck, shifts just enough of its weight that Titus grabs my shoulder and flips me onto my back. And Titus—he’s staring down at me with those mocking green eyes. He’s smiling and laughing and he’s enjoying this entirely too much.