Iron Inheritance

by G. R. Fillinger

  “I was going to knock you out and go alone anyway—either that or flip the car.”

  Josh looked like I’d slapped him. “You’d do that to Melva?”

  I rolled my eyes when I realized he was talking about his car. “But since your family is in danger as well, you can come,” I said crisply and signaled for Josh to turn around.

  Brody leaned forward so he could look me in the eye. He didn’t look scared or angry, but like he was sizing me up.

  I stared back, unblinking.

  “Head North,” he said.

  “And then west,” I added.

  “Too many drivers in the Bug, people.” Josh started the car again and stepped on the gas.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Nate’s headlights flashed in the mirrors ten minutes later. We’d texted him to follow us, and he’d caught up in no time. The only problem was his incessant questioning.

  How many updates did he need?

  I texted Ria again. We messaged Denisov, but there’s still no response.

  “We’re here.” Josh pulled off to the side of the road; the dilapidated house from my vision was behind some trees in the distance.

  The property was more like an estate with about a half mile of an overgrown orchard between the perimeter fence and the house. Lion statues poised with paws raised halfway between threat and affection stood on either side of the arch over the main driveway. Its yellowing plaster made it even harder to see the three black stars painted in the center.

  Brody sniffed the air, his face pale beneath his beard. He had kept his eyes closed the whole way, trying to see some glimpse of his brother and sister.

  “What is it with this day?” Nate threw his hands up in the air as he got out of the car.

  “Are you the Guardian I remember?” Brody turned to Nate.

  Nate’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. He clenched his jaw and looked back and forth between Brody and me.

  “I need your help,” Brody said gruffly even as his eyes pleaded.

  Nate looked at me for a moment longer before he nodded.

  “The rest of you wait here and keep trying to contact Denisov or Morales. I catch any of you following, and I’ll set my sister on you,” Brody growled at us. “Last person who got in her way still thinks he’s a ferret.”

  “What?” Ria said.

  “Messengers have quick legs and tongues,” Josh translated. “Properly trained, they can convince hordes of people to do things. A single person has no chance.”

  “I thought I heard Messengers could be that persuasive.” Miranda smiled cheerily, petting one of the lion statues. “You should get working on that, Josh.”

  Josh looked at the house in the distance. “At least let us follow you to the nearest tree line. If you call for help, I’ll run and get Morales and Denisov and whoever else you want myself.”

  I raised my eyebrows. He must mean we’d save them instead of him running away.

  Brody sighed and walked toward the left side of the arch, motioning for us to follow at the last second. Instead of heading directly through the driveway entrance, which had the deliberate electric hum of a booby trap, we climbed over the stone wall.

  “Glad Babs have such bad security,” Ria whispered.

  I looked back over my shoulder at the archway—the only way they didn’t want us to enter. Why would they do that?

  We continued down through the overgrown orchard, leafy branches casting shadows in the moonlight. Several cobwebs hung loosely from the trees and caught on my arms and hair as I passed.

  “What do you think?” asked Ria as we stopped and peered through a bramble of thorns about thirty yards from the house. It was a large, rectangular adobe that had faded and fallen apart with age and weather. The roof had holes, and the balcony and porch were fractured with splinters of rotted wood sticking up like spikes in a death pit. An old, stained mattress and a toilet were left to decompose just outside the front door. No lights. Every living thing in the garden shriveled yellow or brown.

  Brody sniffed the air again and exhaled a menacing growl, his eyes wide with things beyond the physical world. Nate stood at his side without saying a word. Dark shadows seemed to scratch at his face from the tree limb above.

  “I’ll take the front, you the back.”

  Nate nodded.

  “And I’ll—” I began.

  “Be ready to run to headquarters,” Josh finished, bumping my shoulder. “Ria, keep trying Denisov, please. She’ll get the messages eventually and speed over here.”

  I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

  “Set your watches,” said Brody.

  “If we’re not back in three minutes, run,” said Nate, his eyes on me.

  Ria shook her head and chuckled. “Who wears a watch anymore?”

  Freddy raised his wrist and pushed a button.

  Without another glance backward, Nate and Brody disappeared into the landscape. I grabbed a rock and gripped my fingers all the way around, squeezing past when I felt it cutting into my skin.

  I should be the one going in. If my mom’s in there…

  I’d what? Knock the whole house down? Get myself caught? Walk right into their trap and scream as they slit my throat? Yeah, good plan.

  Rock dust crumbled out from between my fingers, and I kept my eyes trained on the house, trying to keep my breathing steady so I might glimpse a flare of essence to signal they were all right. I couldn’t see Nate and Brody anymore, but that didn’t mean much. They could control how their essence appeared, block it, even make it change color if so inclined.

  As could the Babylonians.

  The seconds thumped into minutes. I tried to silence my thoughts, but Kovac’s bald head and too-big-for-his-mouth smile loomed closer and closer. The other half of the necklace appeared again as he threw it on the floor, the silver wing glinting in the light, the cracked blue stone jagged and sharp on the edge. It hadn’t been worn smooth from years of rubbing a thumb over it.

  My hand moved to my own pendant.

  Kovac was the reason it had cracked. He’d probably broken it when he kidnapped Mom.

  Why hadn’t Grandpa tried to save her?

  I shook my head. I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to focus on getting Mom out alive…and Kovac dead, if the opportunity came.

  But could I really kill someone? Revenge wouldn’t bring Grandpa back. It wouldn’t make what they’d done to Mom go away.

  I inhaled deeply and pressed all of my feelings into a knot in my stomach. I’d do what I must.

  I turned to Josh. “We should get closer.”

  He shushed me.

  I listened intently and jumped back from the thorny bushes as a man’s deep scream sliced the night sky and made goose bumps rise on my skin.

  Silence.

  It persisted long past when we could hold our breath, waiting for the next sign that all was not well.

  I stood and set my jaw.

  Josh grazed his hand against the back of my arm. “Wait.” He turned to Miranda. “If I signal you, light that whole roof up. Then Ria, you drive back to Denisov and tell her what happened.”

  “What?” said Freddy, his eyes bulging. “No, you could run and—?”

  “I wouldn’t get back in time to stop her from foaming at the mouth.” He jerked his head toward me.

  A growl escaped the back of my throat involuntarily.

  “And Brody and Nate probably wouldn’t survive.” He grimaced. “Get some burn cream ready.”

  I stepped out from behind the bramble and started for the house, no real plan coming to mind, just adrenaline flowing to every extremity.

  “Can you jump that high?” I pointed to the balcony when Josh came even with me, just twenty feet from the house.

  “Anything you can do, I can do better,” Josh sang, still smiling.

  “Your mood swings are enough to give a girl whiplash.” I shook my head and put on a burst of speed. I pounded my foot into the ground at the l
ast second and soared fifteen feet into the air. I landed feet-first on the thin railing of the second-story balcony, my hand catching on a sharp metal bracket to keep from falling back. Warm blood rolled down my palm.

  Josh appeared right next to me, perfectly balanced on the railing as he crouched down and looked through the open window. The thin curtain hung still, claw marks scratching down the center.

  I stretched one foot onto the windowsill and ducked inside before Josh could beat me to it. Almost instantly, my head whipped back into the wooden frame as a steel-toed boot collided with my skull.

  The world tilted, and my eyes turned off. Flame enveloped my head and trickled down my spine with needle-pricking pain sent to every limb. I curled my fingers and toes into balls of self-preservation and held on to what little air was left in the world.

  And then it was over.

  I opened my eyes, blinked, and rose to my feet—red anger controlling my every move. It was a small room with plaster falling off the walls. A man dressed in black lay crumpled in the corner. Before I could raise my arms, Josh pulled me into a hug.

  He laughed. “I knew you were thick headed, but this is ridiculous.”

  I leaned in to him and saw every wave of red essence evaporate off his skin into the gray air, not even needing to concentrate to see it anymore.

  I let go of Josh and looked at the unconscious man in the corner, my head throbbing. The center of his chest was muted black, and when I exhaled, the world opened up more than it ever had before. The walls disappeared, and I saw five more patches of inky darkness float like shapeless sentinels, each in a different room. I could still see the house, the world around me, but it was like a hazy outline. The spiritual world had come to the forefront.

  I kept my eyes on the five patches of darkness. Why weren’t they moving? Coming toward us? They had to have heard us come in.

  I searched the rest of the house with a single, penetrating glance. There weren’t any blues, greens, or reds at all. Had they killed them? Nate? Brody? Who had screamed?

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Josh whispered. “I can’t believe you’re still standing.”

  I nodded absentmindedly, the floorboards creaking as I opened the door and stepped into the deserted hallway, my gaze fixed on the bedroom at the end, padlocks at top, middle, and bottom. I refocused my eyes and the door became a vague outline. There was a particularly dark essence in there, not shapeless like the others, but defined, jagged, and writhing with electric current.

  This was it. I didn’t look back at Josh but ran at the door and kicked it so hard that it snapped off its hinges and broke in half.

  Dust floated transfixed above the wooden desk and canopy bed as I stepped inside, the air so thick that I didn’t see him right away. He didn’t even stand but kept sitting on the edge of the mattress, one leg crossed over the other.

  “Glad you came.” Kovac smiled and tossed the silver necklace at my feet.

  My eyes flicked from the broken pendant to the woman lying next to him. Why wasn’t she moving?

  He reached out and stroked her hair. I stepped forward and exhaled a snarl, my lips pulled back from my teeth. He stroked her hair again, gripping it between his fingers.

  Then he pulled her head off.

  A breathless squeak of unexpected terror rushed into my throat and clamped it shut. I swallowed, and tears blurred my vision as my one hope cracked in half—unrepairable.

  Kovac stood and pulled the covers back from the headless manikin.

  Mom’s not here…She never was.

  I blinked away the tears, my whole body shaking.

  He shook his head. “Very sorry about that. Had to find some way to get you here.”

  “Where is she?” I whispered.

  “Oh, you know, it’s difficult to say.” He paused. “Everlasting pit of torment or fluffy clouds of white seem to be the audience’s top two choices.”

  I clenched my fists to steady the shaking. She can’t be dead. She can’t be. “You’re lying.”

  “Oh, not at all.” He shook his head with pouty lips. “I did kidnap her initially. That much was true, but then I got bored with her. Slit her throat in the end. Quite the twist, eh?” He flashed his bleached-white, game-show grin.

  My arms shook as I pushed down denial. My mom hadn’t survived all these years; she was dead, and Kovac had lured me here to kill me, too.

  Rage coursed through my veins with more strength than I had ever felt in my life.

  I rushed at him.

  No more thinking. No more feeling. No more talking.

  I screamed and pulled my fist back to punch a hole through his chest.

  But he was too fast.

  My knuckles careened through the air and met nothing but empty space. When I straightened again, he was standing in front of me lazily with his jagged black saber pointed at my throat.

  My eyes twitched to the side and saw Josh at the room’s entrance, surrounded by five men who had suddenly materialized in the room. His gaze darted back and forth from me to them, his cheeks puffing in and out.

  A high-pitched scream rattled through the floor boards and sent a shiver up my neck. I started to step to the side.

  “Ah, Ah,” Kovac whispered, coming closer, the length of his blade reducing with each small step. “I would dislike having to make a mess,” he added, the point of his blade digging into my skin, through it, but not drawing blood. Instead, a bolt of sadness shot through me. Painful, powerful sorrow spread like a virus through my skin and into my veins.

  Grandpa’s body jumping over mine to save me.

  Nate convulsing in the backseat.

  My mom crying out in pain.

  “What do you want with us?” Josh said loudly, his voice not shaking like I’d expected it to.

  “Us?” Kovac smiled, not looking away from me. “No us, Johnny Boy. Her.” He twisted the saber a centimeter deeper, and then pulled it out. “We want her.”

  He guided me toward the bed with the point of his blade. The bed posts were scratched and clawed into barely standing pieces. He flicked the blade for me to sit down, but I stayed standing, unblinking.

  “You know, I’m surprised by the gullible quality of today’s youth. They’re so easily deceived.” He smiled to the whole room. Several of his minions chuckled.

  “You were the one who sent the vision when I projected—the one of my mom,” I said flatly. If he wanted to talk, I’d talk. It just meant longer for me to figure out how to get out of here so I could crush his skull to powder.

  “Oh, very good. A thousand points.” He smiled.

  “And the vision from the dog-catcher. Is the word ‘iron’ a fetish of yours, or something?”

  “You’ve had another vision?” His eyes widened. “You’re quite a bit further along than I expected.”

  I narrowed my eyes and held his gaze. Why would he lie about sending it? It meant nothing to him, unless…he didn’t send it. That meant Meg and he weren’t working together—at least not yet. But then how had her vision led me here tonight, right when he—

  Kovac snapped his fingers in front of my eyes and smiled. “Oh, yes. What fun.” He laughed. “In truth, I had my reservations about you, Evelyn, but I’m so glad you got my message tonight. I’ve been sending it out all week in the hopes that you’d see it. It tells me so much about you. But, I’m sorry, go on. What did your other vision tell you?”

  I leaned forward so the blade’s black point cut into me and Grandpa’s death flashed before my eyes again. “It told me you’d die before the sun rose.”

  He grinned and flicked the blade away so I could see the jagged black edges.

  I wrapped my fingers around the wooden banister behind me and squeezed until the wood compressed like soft honeycomb.

  “No, I say we start that fun with your friends downstairs.” He walked toward the crowd of men surrounding Josh. “Or we can start with this strapping young fellow here. What do you say? He looks healthy. Have you told him how yo
u feel about him yet? Might not get another chance. What about you, Johnny? Have you told her you wuv her?”

  Josh disappeared in a split-second and knocked two of the men into the wall. In the next moment, in a flash of black, he was instantly pinned to the floor by the three other faceless cowards. Black swords and clubs beat him again and again until the color drained out of his skin. He kept his eyes on me the whole time, not sad or even hurt with each slash into his soul. Instead, they pleaded with me to run, to leave him behind.

  I reached forward, and Kovac appeared in front of me again.

  “Why? Tell me why!” I screamed.

  He smiled sinisterly and twisted the point of the blade into my skin like an auger. Blood pumped pressure to every one of my veins. I didn’t want to breathe because that would just slow it down. I didn’t have to look down to see the blue light lapping off my skin like an over-excited flame, like a herd of solar flares announcing a star’s transition to supernova.

  “I’m a fan of history’s greats, aren’t you?” Kovac said, stretching out each syllable.“Tonight I’m going to—”

  I looked down at Josh and pressed my lips together in a thin line of decision.

  I stepped straight into the point of Kovac’s blade and jabbed him in the Adam’s apple with my free hand. The serrated saber went through the back of my neck and sliced through my spine without breaking my skin. Dark essence coursed through every nerve and flooded my mind with the worst memories I’d tried to forget. Disappointment and shame and despair.

  But I forced my eyes to stay open, and reality pulled me back to the present where Kovac was on his knees gasping for breath.

  I have to kill him. I can’t let him live after what he’s—

  The faceless minions abandoned Josh and launched themselves at me, the first one digging his fingernails into my already bloody hand.

  I yelled, eyes wide, and knocked him into the plaster ceiling. White cement chunks rained down on the other two. I swung my arms in wide hooks as they came at me—no technique, just rage. My fists connected with chests and jaws and eye sockets until they crumpled.

  My ears rang, and my chest heaved as Kovac scampered into the corner. I stomped toward him, and Josh stepped between us, hands stretched out toward me cautiously, his lip bleeding. “Eve, we have to get out of here.”