Iron Inheritance

by G. R. Fillinger

  “We could look for sulfur,” said Miranda, staring up at the stars as if they might cough the putrid yellow dust down on us as a favor.

  “What’re you—” I shook my head and looked up.

  Ria let out a squeak of delight. “Sam and Dean were right!”

  I chuckled and shook my head, a flood of calm coming over me for the first time in over an hour. “Finally, all that time watching Supernatural’s going to pay off.”

  “Get your salt and holy water ready.” Josh came up to my side, his black shirt ripped in several places like the night we first met.

  “Do you really think so?” Ria stopped smiling, mad at herself for not bringing any.

  “Almost done here,” Freddy called hurriedly. “And once I am, he’ll wake up pretty quickly.”

  I dodged in front of Nate and Ria before they could take a step forward and wrenched open the nearest door, the deadbolt breaking the wood jamb. A bright white light blinded me for a second, but no alarm sounded, and no claws came out and slashed me to bits—a large possibility in my mind. Instead, a bland hallway with beige tile and office doors every ten feet or so stretched into the distance before turning sharply to the left.

  I stepped forward, and the rest of the group followed. A second later, Freddy closed the door, panting heavily from his jog.

  “What’s the plan now?” Ria whispered behind me.

  I continued forward, glancing back to see that Nate had them following me in a single-file line that hugged the wall as we rounded the first corner. Every door we passed I expected to burst open, someone or something jumping out at us.

  But there was nothing. No one.

  We turned another corner, and I started to wonder how many offices one movie studio needed when the click of a gear ticked and echoed two times somewhere ahead. Goosebumps ran up and down my arms, and I held up a fist for everyone to stop. I glanced back at Ria and could see Grandpa shaking his head. He’d taught me better.

  We waited for the gear to click again, but nothing happened.

  “I’ll check it,” Josh whispered and appeared at my side with a puff of air.

  “No, this is on me.” I stepped in front again.

  He dodged around me—just out of the reach of my outstretched fingers. “Seriously, I got—”

  An invisible electric hand picked him up into the air and shook his bones like a maraca.

  “Josh!” I sprang toward him.

  At the same moment, his body rocketed backward with a shower of sparks. His back skidded on the tile, and he knocked his head into a wall.

  My heart reached up into my throat, and I dropped to my knees next to him. “Josh!” I grabbed his hand, his callused skin rough against my palm.

  At my touch he sucked in a breath and rolled over onto his side, sputtering and shaking. I turned his head back to me and looked at his eyes to make sure they didn’t roll back into his head. A blue ocean storm stared back at me for an eternity in a second. He looked like he was going to say something, to reach out and pull me closer to him…to kiss me.

  I held my breath.

  He exhaled and sat up.

  “At least we know you’re definitely not evil now,” said Nate gruffly, stepping up to our side and extending a hand to help Josh to his feet.

  “What?” I said.

  “Trust me now, do you?” Josh smiled and took his hand, grunting to get on his feet.

  “Trust that you’re not evil, not that you’re not an idiot,” Nate said.

  I slapped Nate’s chest with the back of my hand. He skidded into the wall from the force.

  “Sorry.” I bit my lip.

  He clenched his jaw.

  “I’ve never seen a Babylonian force field,” said Miranda, five feet ahead of us and staring at the air. “Only dark essence can pass through—that’s why Josh couldn’t. It seems to get power from up there.” She pointed to a light in the ceiling.

  “Good thing you weren’t moving at full speed.” Freddy slapped Josh on the back. “If you’d got caught in that when you were running, you’d be extra crispy.”

  My eyes widened and my mouth went dry. What was he thinking?

  No, what was I thinking bringing all these people I cared about to a place like this?

  “We need to find another way around,” Nate said, a military swagger surrounding his unspecified order.

  “No, you need to get them out of here.” I turned to him. “Josh hitting that force field probably triggered an alarm. You need to run.” My pulse quickened. How were there not ten Babylonians on us already? There’d be no way a Babylonian could get this far inside a Patron headquarters.

  “And you?” said Ria.

  I clamped my jaw.

  “We’re with you.” Freddy put his hand on my shoulder.

  Miranda nodded, a much too happy smile between her cheeks.

  Josh didn’t say anything and didn’t look at me. His face was blank and angry, like that electric shock had fried his personality chip.

  I shook my head and opened my mouth to argue again, my heart compelling me with a dull throb of pain.

  “How many more are they going to kill?” asked Ria.

  My voice caught in my throat.

  “How many? We know Morales isn’t doing anything about it. If we don’t stop them, how many more people are going to jump on train tracks or get eaten by bull-lizard things? I don’t see any other Patrons around here—it’s our job.”

  I looked at her soft green eyes and knew she wouldn’t look away. I couldn’t convince her of anything right now, and the more I tried, the more time we’d waste.

  The more likely we’d get killed, actually.

  I looked back over my shoulder through the invisible force field, but saw nothing.

  “Nate, find us a way around.”

  “No, we can still go forward. I can do it.” Miranda walked toward the force field with her hands stretched out, her yellow dress stained black at the bottom but otherwise unscathed.

  Nate reached for her shoulder to stop her, but missed it as Freddy pulled him back.

  “Let her try.”

  “We can’t afford any pyrotechnics right now.”

  I looked at the glossy, beige tile that stretched ahead and behind us.

  “I can do this,” Miranda said and stopped just before the place where Josh got shocked.

  “They wouldn’t expect us to be able to go that way,” I admitted.

  “Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly,” Nate whispered.

  Miranda closed her eyes and put up her palms. My mouth went dry as I remembered what Freddy had told me about Miracles needing to practice over and over to get these things right…and how objects had a tendency to combust when Miranda got it wrong.

  She remained motionless for fifteen seconds. Cold, clammy sweat stuck between my fingers. I still didn’t understand how the Miracle talent worked. All the others seem straight forward enough, but Miracles? There were so many different options, so many different things that could go wrong. The light could explode and shower us in sparks. Flames could ride up the walls and collapse the whole building on top of us. A spontaneous inferno could suffocate us before we could scream.

  “You can do it,” Ria whispered.

  I shook the thoughts out of my head and watched as Miranda twisted her right hand like she was turning a door knob. My eyes scanned the light that powered the force field. There was a small, black box attached to the ceiling right next to it that let out a small click every few seconds now.

  Miranda continued to twist her hand slowly until the box dropped as the glue used to hold it had aged into a yellow, crusty dust that sprinkled the air long after the black device hit the tile floor.

  Miranda stepped forward. I reached out my hand to stop her, but she just kept walking.

  “All done.” She turned back and waved for us to follow.

  “You did it,” I said lamely because I couldn’t believe how simple it was.

  “I love those ones where
you almost can’t tell if it was a miracle or not.” Josh smiled. “Makes you think.”

  “Talk later,” said Nate, taking the lead before I could. “Stay next to the wall.”

  We continued down the hallway, the hairs on my arms standing up. Something was wrong here. It was the middle of the night, but there still should have been someone here. A janitor. Another guard. Someone.

  Then the lights went out.

  I sucked in a breath as the chalky darkness dried out my mouth. I tried to focus to see their essence, but it was no use.

  Someone pushed me back, and my body pressed up against Josh’s.

  At least I think it was him.

  No one said anything, but we all stumbled back, a chain of interlocked arms, each of our hands searching for the way back, the way out.

  Two gruff voices echoed off the tile behind us, their words indistinguishable from the tribal beat that my heart thumped in my ears.

  I spun my head around and glimpsed a thin strand of light flicker under a door. Maybe it had always been on and we’d passed it without even knowing. We might have never known unless the lights went out.

  Fate.

  God.

  At that particular moment it didn’t matter to me because it felt like I was either being saved or led by the nose into a trap.

  Someone ahead of me jiggled the handle and swung the door inward. Another someone behind me, probably Nate, pushed me forward until I crossed the threshold and the door was shut with a silent sweep of the carpet.

  My eyes didn’t finish adjusting to the new light until the gruff voices in the hallway passed the door outside and continued on without stopping.

  I turned around and found myself on a small, semicircular balcony, complete with plush movie theater seating, thick carpet, and red curtains tied to the outer walls. Ria and Miranda already had their chins perched on the railing, staring at the giant movie screen before us. A sexy, voluptuous woman with dark hair and bright eyes who’d made a name for herself as the stupidest person to ever go on a reality show flicked her hair back and forth in an epileptic fit.

  Nate nudged me with his foot and jerked his head below. Several rows of luxurious recliners held at least a dozen men in suits; their eyes were fixed on the screen. Further down, just below the reality show preview, a lavish feast that included a whole roasted pig, complete with a red apple stuck in its mouth, sat on a table, untouched.

  Typical evil people. Always roasting their pigs whole.

  I chanced a better view, raising my gaze a few more inches over the railing. Most of the men were young, tall, muscular. Chiseled jaws. Dark hair. Urban Ken dolls with business degrees.

  Three much older men sat almost directly below the balcony. Two of them were like twin morticians with short gray hair, and the other was bald with a black soul patch under his lower lip, a blinding white smile…

  Kovac!

  I craned my neck far past the railing to get a good look. It was definitely him. I blinked several times to make sure before Nate pulled me back.

  “What are you doing?” he whispered.

  “Kovac is alive.” I mouthed as slowly as possible.

  His eyes widened, and he stood next to the side curtain to get a better look. Josh did the same from the opposite side. Both of them looked back at me at the same time, their eyes bulging.

  The projector in the wall next to the balcony clicked, and the woman on the screen disappeared. The lights rose very minimally as one of the dolls got up to speak.

  “The new line-up this season could be very profitable. We have Kat Heart and Bernie Tuddle. They’ve signed the contract.” He gestured to the screen.

  “Ratings in our screen test groups?” the twins’ voices said in unison from under the balcony. There was no way I could risk another glance with the presenter standing at the front. As it was, we all ducked down below the railing.

  “8.3, but I expect that will increase with the holidays.”

  “What of the girl?” A smooth voice echoed through the chamber. Everyone quieted in an instant. “Well?” Kovac repeated.

  I imagined his blindingly white smile plastered on his face as he said it.

  “The Gallu’s essence sped back twenty minutes ago,” said the TV show presenter.

  I looked sideways at Nate and furrowed my brow in confusion. He stuck up a finger on either side of his head and pretended to charge. I would have laughed under different circumstances.

  “And did anyone think to increase security in case she tracked it back here? Perhaps she was the one who just triggered the alarm in the hallway outside.”

  The man in front looked genuinely dumbfounded. “We will check, sir.”

  A chair under the balcony creaked as someone got up.

  “She is of Solomon’s line.” He seemed to think out loud as he sauntered to the side. “We should not underestimated her.”

  “Or those willing to die for her,” Urban Ken Doll #4 spoke up from the first row.

  The room guffawed.

  I grabbed hold of the wrought iron railing to keep my hands from shaking.

  Kovac stepped down to the first row, his smile firmly fixed, and strolled toward the comedian like he was bringing a microphone to audience members. “I’d hoped to save Solomon for the end. That’s what he deserved—to watch his only family die. Even after all these years, I’d hoped he would come for her.”

  Her?

  “You see,” he said, coming into full view now. He didn’t have a scratch on him, not one bruise or a limp or anything. How had he survived?

  “Most think if it came down to the greater good, one person should be sacrificed over the many. They’re ok with it. But now ask yourselves if it was your only daughter. What would you say then? If your enemy kidnapped her and threatened to kill her if you didn’t hand over everything that kept thousands upon thousands alive.”

  I held my breath.

  “Solomon made that decision long ago—and he chose the world over his own blood, his own daughter.”

  I shook my head even as my hand clutched at my necklace, the silver wing digging into my palm as my thumb rubbed the broken blue stone.

  “I’ve kept her alive this whole time—”

  My Mom’s alive! My heart beat so hard that rational thought couldn’t reach it. She’s alive. She’s alive.

  “— to taunt him and for a few of my own eccentric pleasures.” He raised an eyebrow, and the room erupted in laughter again. He smiled and continued. “I even hoped to add the granddaughter to the mix to see if a little more incentive might work.” He sighed. “But alas, the game is up, and I tire of playing alone. Solomon’s daughter is all but used up. She used to be feisty—”

  Another thunderous roar of laughter clapped through the room even as his lips kept moving. I strained my neck to catch even one word, one more word to force me to tear his throat out.

  “All in all, I am certainly glad to have reinforced the prison.” He smiled again and sighed. “But since the young granddaughter has proven herself, send another prize her way. Remember though, I want her alive. She should look into her mother’s eyes before I kill her.”

  “Why wait? You could just kill the mother now,” said a lean, blond man indignantly. “This is always our mistake. We shouldn’t imbue killing with meaning. It lacks efficiency.”

  Kovac’s smile faltered, and he stepped to the side. “See, it’s that type of short-sighted thinking that I’d like us to avoid.” He shook his head and fixed a maniacal smile to his face. “Tell him what he’s won, Johnny!”

  “No, Kovac, I didn’t—”

  Too late. Kovac stabbed his left hand forward just as a jagged black saber appeared in his fist. The darkness went right through the man’s chest.

  There was no shriek, no indication that anything at all had happened, but the man’s body went limp, and he fell forward in his seat.

  No one raised a finger to help him.

  Kovac sighed and held his sword for a moment longer, its j
agged, three-tiered blade shimmering in the air like it held a current of electricity.

  “Despair breaks the bond between them, it scars the soul. Remember.” He turned and addressed the whole crowd like he was explaining the rules of a game. “You must break them before you kill them. I did so with Solomon, even though I had hoped for a bit more, and now I will do the same with the rest of his line.” He turned and picked up a dinner roll. “Oh, this is delightful. You’ve really outdone yourself, Johnny.”

  I can’t believe she’s alive. I can’t believe it. Please let him say where he’s keeping her. Just one more word.

  I turned my ear for a more direct path to the table and saw Josh, Miranda, and Freddy doing the same thing.

  Then my stomach dropped.

  Ria had her hand stretched out over the railing with her phone pointed below.

  I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw, seeing it before it happened.

  The phone slipped.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  I reached out instinctively, and the phone froze in mid-air.

  A bubble of air caught in my throat. Am I doing that?

  My peripheral vision quickly told me “No” as we were all lunging in the same pose, and only Miranda’s outstretched hand seemed to carry any weight.

  It was crushing her.

  Her forearm shook with whatever invisible mass represented the phone. Ria’s face was ash white.

  The phone reversed directions, and the strain on Miranda seemed to grow. Every second it rose an inch. Sweat poured down her face, and her eyes focused with an unrivaled intensity.

  BOOM!

  The pink rectangle exploded in a fireball of electronic confetti.

  I didn’t look down at Kovac again, but immediately grabbed Ria’s arm and forced her toward the door. “Run!”

  The moment we got into the hallway, emergency lights flashed enough to make us all have seizures, and the ring of a fire alarm echoed off the tile. The floor seemed to tilt as we ran, Nate in front of Ria and me, Josh behind Freddy, who carried Miranda in his arms.

  My legs carried me forward without thought, my hand not loosening from Ria’s arm until my nose slammed into Nate’s back as he stopped suddenly. Even with my head throbbing I heard why—some kind of otherworldly bark snarled just fifty feet down the hall.