Ash (The Underground Series Book 2)

by Melody Robinette

“Er, nothing.”

  “Okay, well, we’ll just camp out here until then,” Lucian said.

  Kyndel groaned at this.

  Twilight had fallen over the outer edge of Heather Plains, painting the sky a dark blue with a few bright stars shining down on them. Lucian pulled out the jars of fay light he had stored in his packs and began placing them in the center of their new campsite. Somehow starting a fire in the middle of hundreds of miles of dry grass seemed like a bad idea. They still had bread, fruit, and cheese leftover from the warlocks so there was no need to roast anything.

  Lucian finished grouping the fay light together in the center of the cots, placed in a perfect circle around the pulsating jars of light.

  “I can’t believe we’ve recruited fighters from each group,” Forrest said to break the silence. “And I bet the centaurs will help us too when their leader comes back. I really thought we’d all be dead by now or coming home empty handed.”

  “That’s optimistic,” Eden said dryly.

  “We’re gonna need all the help we can get,” Jack said, flipping his long hair out of his face. “Vyra and Victor are a force to be reckoned with, not to mention the Atrums and Shadows.”

  They have no idea, Autumn thought.

  “There are so many Shadows,” Crystal said, shaking her head absently. “It seems like they’re never-ending.”

  “They multiply,” Autumn said without thinking, remembering the flashes of memories of Vyra and Victor in her dreams. It took her a second to register everyone’s confused expressions.

  “How do you know that?” Lucian asked.

  “Vyra, uh, told me when I was in her lair.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us that?” Charlotte asked.

  “I forgot, I guess. She said a lot of stuff to me in there.”

  Jack shot her an accusatory glance. “Well, that’s sort of important for us to know, don’t you think?”

  “I didn’t intentionally keep it from you guys, I—”

  “What else did Vyra tell you that you haven’t told us?” Lucian asked, a hint of accusation in his voice.

  Autumn sighed, hating this. “Well, I only just remembered this, but she told me that the Shadows were made from Victor’s blood, and that…he can control them.”

  Everyone stared at her with wide eyes, some looking more angry than surprised.

  “You knew this all this time and you never told us?” Eden said.

  “I told you I—”

  “That’s not the only thing you’re keeping to yourself, though, is it?” Ember spoke up then, the fay light dancing across her face, casting dark shadows.

  “What are you talking about?” Autumn said. Her hands started to shake and she felt Avery tense up beside her.

  “Tell them, Princess. Tell them what you told your little friends last night.”

  Autumn’s heart raced.

  “I—How did you—?”

  “I was coming to apolo—to, er, talk to you,” Ember said. “And I overheard you all talking.”

  “What are you talking about, Ember?” Kyndel said impatiently.

  “Yeah, Ember, spit it out,” Eden added.

  “Autumn here found out some interesting news from that warlock, Rion, last night.”

  Avery, Luke, Crystal and Autumn watched Ember with round eyes.

  “Ember, don’t,” Avery warned.

  “No, I’m going to, actually,” she said, raising her voice to a growl before addressing the rest of the group. “It would appear that Victor Vaun isn’t really Victor Vaun like we all thought. He truly is Victor Lavigne, and his father is actually a warlock.”

  A wave of shock, anger, and confusion washed over the faces of the Warriors.

  “A warlock?” Willow gasped.

  Kyndel’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean he isn’t really Victor Vaun?”

  “Wait, but that makes him a—” Eden began, realization and horror dawning across her face.

  “Okay!” Autumn yelled, hushing everyone. “I didn’t tell you guys because the fewer people that know about this, the better. This is literally a deadly secret to know. If it got out—”

  “Vyra wouldn’t be our biggest threat anymore,” Luke finished.

  “How did you acquire this information?” Lucian asked in a grave tone. Autumn took a deep breath and rushed through her conversation with Rion. Avery added information about the last Ellock where it was needed. When they finished, the reactions of the others were varied. Lucian pressed his forefingers into his temples as the others exchanged concerned glances. Ember merely looked satisfied with what she’d just accomplished.

  “But it isn’t our fault an elf and a warlock hooked up and made a baby,” Kyndel said. “Why should we be responsible for the actions of one elf? And an Atrum, at that.”

  “Yeah,” Edric said. “All the more reason for them to help us. We just get rid of Victor and Vyra and go back to how things were. No big deal.”

  “You aren’t listening, you idiot,” Luke said to Edric. “The rest of the Underground will want to prevent this from ever happening again.”

  “And the only way that can happen—” Autumn said.

  “Is by eliminating the elves and warlocks completely,” Avery finished.

  “Oh,” Kyndel and Edric said.

  Jack spoke up then. “But if they do help us fight Victor and Vyra, they’re going to find out what he is. It’s not like Victor’s going to try to hide his powers if all the creatures of the Underground are attacking them.”

  “Well, hopefully we can take him by surprise and kill him before he has time to show his powers,” Jastin said.

  “That would be best case scenario,” Luke said. “Which probably won’t happen.”

  “Oh, don’t be so negative,” Willow trilled. “You never know.”

  “No. He’s right. That probably won’t happen,” a voice said from a distance. The Warriors all jumped up, turning their backs to the fay light to see Kason, Bryn, and about a dozen other centaurs making their way forward, swords in hand, and a glint in their eyes.

  Burn it to the Ground

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “So that’s why you came here, elf boy?” Bryn said to Luke. “To recruit the centaurs for your pathetic little army? Yeah, like that was going to happen.”

  The centaurs moved slowly forward into the ring of fay light as the Warriors took cautious steps backward, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder in a staggered circle.

  “The elves made themselves another power monster did they? Typical,” another centaur said. “You’re never satisfied are you? You have your Powers and your nature-magic and your obnoxiously large tree houses, but that still isn’t enough for you. You have to go and breed with a warlock and unsettle the balance of the Underground. AGAIN.”

  “We didn’t do anything,” Luke said once the Warriors had backed up as far as possible. “It was an Atrum. Why do you think we’re trying to destroy him?”

  “To cover up your mistake,” Kason said darkly, keeping a tight grip on his sword.

  “Your fight is not with us, centaurs,” Lucian said in a warning tone.

  Bryn grinned malevolently as the centaurs raised their swords. “I have to disagree with you on that.”

  Without thinking Autumn let out a jet of Song trying her hardest to wrap it around the outer circle of centaurs and away from the inner ring of Warriors. It wasn’t enough to completely stun them, but their actions were significantly delayed. The rest of the Warriors jumped into action. They charged for their pegasi, leaving their cots and packs behind, jumping onto the winged horses’ backs. Autumn stopped Singing as she climbed onto Sundance. The centaurs’ dazed stupor wore off and they snapped to attention.

  “Go!” Lucian ordered as his pegasus leaped into the air.

  Autumn saw Ember standing on the ground beside her pegasus with a contemplative look on her face.

  “What’re you doing?” Autumn yelled. “Come on!”

  Ember seemed to have come to a d
ecision when she pointed her index finger at the ground and flames erupted across the plains, the dry grass disintegrating faster than melting snow.

  “Ember!” Autumn called in disbelief, but Sundance was already in the air, escaping the quickly spreading fire. Ember jumped onto her pegasus and took flight, a look of satisfaction on her face.

  No longer concerned about the Warriors, the centaurs were galloping away from the growing wall of fire and smoke. Ember’s pegasus was now level with Autumn’s.

  “Are you insane?” Autumn shouted over the sound of the heavy beating wings and the roar of the fire below.

  “I was distracting them!”

  Lucian slowed his pegasus to fall back beside Ember and Autumn. “What the hell was that, Ember?” he exclaimed.

  “That was saving everyone’s ass!”

  “Everyone was already in the air,” he said. “Do you realize how fast fire burns across plains full of dry grass?”

  “That was the idea.”

  Autumn shook her head in disbelief. “The idea was to escape, not to destroy the centaurs.”

  “They were about to kill us!”

  “Even so,” Lucian said through clenched teeth. “That was not your call to make.”

  “You aren’t the leader of the Warriors, Lucian, no matter how much you think you are,” Ember growled before pushing her pegasus onward, leaving Autumn and Lucian behind glaring after her.

  “Where are we going?” Autumn asked him.

  “Back to Onyx Forest. We have to warn the warlocks.”

  They flew as far as they could into the early hours of the morning before landing so the exhausted pegasi could rest. Once again, they were back to the dense forests that surrounded the warlocks’ dwelling place. The full Underground moon shone through the canopy of trees and the ground was littered with pine needles.

  Seeing as how they had left their packs and cots behind, the Warriors got little to no sleep that night. Their fay light had been abandoned as well, so they had nothing to light or warm their camp. A fire was too conspicuous, and after what Ember had done back at Heather Plains, it probably wasn’t a good idea either way.

  As Autumn lay on the pine needle strewn ground, she couldn’t help but worry about the centaurs. Their horror-stricken faces flashed ceaselessly through her mind. Granted, she believed they had fully intended on killing every last Warrior, but she still didn’t wish a fiery death on them. Hopefully they had found a way of escaping somehow. Autumn rolled from her left side, to her back, to her right side, and back to her left, unable to find any comfortable position. Finally she gave up, standing and moving away from the others to where the pegasi lay.

  The winged horses looked peaceful with their muzzles tucked beneath their folded wings like slumbering swans. Autumn found Sundance—the whitest of the bunch—and knelt down beside her, running a hand down her mane. Sundance stirred, un-tucking her face from her wing and turning to look at Autumn with big blue eyes.

  “Hey, Sunny,” Autumn murmured, smiling at her. Sundance let out a soft snort of air. Autumn leaned back against her strong body, resting her head against her. Sundance laid her head to the side, closing her eyes. Autumn curled into a ball, the pegasus’ warmth transferring to her own body, and quickly drifted off to sleep.

  “Really, Princess? Sleeping with the horses?”

  Autumn squinted up at Kyndel, blinking sleep from her eyes. The sky above her was a bright pink with rivulets of orange running through it. Kyndel’s blonde hair was pulled back from her heart-shaped face, which was staring down at Autumn with an amused expression.

  “Better than sleeping on cold pine needles,” Autumn said, yawning.

  Kyndel came to sit beside her. “I didn’t sleep.”

  “I doubt anyone did.”

  “It wasn’t because I was uncomfortable.”

  “Why then?”

  She paused before saying, “Ember.”

  “Listen, I support you and Ember’s relationship and all, but I don’t really want to hear all the juicy details, if you know what I mean.”

  “No!” Kyndel protested, blushing. “It’s nothing like that. I just—I don’t understand why she told everyone your secret last night.”

  “No offense, but she’s kind of a bitch,” Autumn admitted.

  Kyndel frowned. “I know, but so am I.”

  “You’re more of a brat than a bitch, though.”

  She flashed Autumn a half-hearted glare and then sighed. “Maybe she’s different than I thought she was.”

  “You know her better than I do,” Autumn said. “Better than anyone does from the looks of it.”

  “I don’t know if anyone really knows her.”

  “Well, that fire thing was pretty messed up. I will say that.”

  “What fire thing?” Kyndel asked.

  “The huge grass fire at Heather Plains.”

  “Ember did that? I thought that was from the fay light or something.”

  “Fay light can’t ignite anything, Kyndel,” Autumn said, half amused.

  Kyndel on the other hand looked thunderstruck. “I can’t believe she did that. Maybe it was a mistake—an accident,” she said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than Autumn.

  “It wasn’t an accident. I watched her do it. That, and she admitted to it.”

  Kyndel looked down at her lap and her eyes slowly filled with tears, which she hastily tried to blink away. “I knew she was too good to be true.”

  “You can do better than her, Kyndel,” Autumn soothed, patting her on the arm. “There are plenty—”

  “Plenty of homosexual elves?” she demanded. “How many do you know exactly?”

  “Well, uh, two…but—”

  “Two. Me and Ember. That’s it.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it.”

  “No, you don’t get it, Autumn. No one does.”

  “You’re right. I don’t,” Autumn whisper-yelled. Kyndel’s tawny eyes widened. “I don’t get it, but I’m trying to, okay? Believe it or not, I have more on my plate to deal with than your struggles with your sexuality.”

  “Fine,” Kyndel said as she stood, a blank look on her face now. “I won’t bother you with my trivial problems anymore.”

  “Kyndel, that’s not what I—”

  “Yes it was,” she said, tromping off.

  Autumn let out a loud sigh and collapsed back against Sundance.

  “Feeling overwhelmed?”

  Autumn turned to see Avery shuffling towards her wearing that lopsided smile of his that always caused her stomach do a small flip.

  “Slightly.”

  Moving with the graceful gait of a jungle cat, he came to kneel before her. She looked up into his gray eyes. They seemed bottomless, and full of concern. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

  “You’re like a sponge, Autumn, soaking up everyone else’s problems. Do you ever worry about yourself?”

  “No,” she admitted. “I don’t have to. You and Luke worry about me enough.”

  Avery chuckled. “Because we know that you’re the last person on your own mind.”

  “Not the last.”

  “You’re impossible sometimes, you know,” Avery said shaking his head, a small smile dancing on his lips.

  “I know.”

  “I still love you, though.”

  “That’s good.” Autumn laughed. Avery moved to sit beside her, resting against Sundance, who was still sound asleep. The sun had now burst above the horizon, washing out the colors of the pine trees, turning them to shadows.

  Two silhouettes appeared in the shape of Luke and Crystal. They both had dark circles under their eyes and their feet were dragging.

  “Did you two sleep here?” Luke asked.

  “I did,” Autumn confessed.

  “It’s more comfortable than sleeping on pine needles I’m sure,” Luke grumbled, taking a seat across from Autumn where Thunder was lying. Crystal sat beside him. Autumn noticed that she was careful to keep at
least a foot of distance between her and Luke.

  “Lucian says that we’re leaving in an hour,” Crystal said.

  Autumn nodded in acknowledgment.

  “What’s going to happen to Rion?” Luke said after a moment.

  “Nothing,” Autumn said, snapping a dry pine needle in half. “We aren’t telling the warlocks who was responsible.”

  “We have to tell them,” Crystal said. “How else would we know about what Victor is?”

  “I’ll just tell them that Victor told me a long time ago and that I’d kept it a secret. I’ll tell them that the warlock responsible was killed in the war.”

  The others were silent at this.

  “You know they won’t trust you anymore, right?” Luke said.

  “Do you realize what they would do to Rion if they found out he was the one responsible for the creation of the second Ellock?”

  “They’d execute him on the spot,” Avery stated gravely.

  Crystal and Luke looked at Avery with large eyes.

  “Do you think Lucian will let you do that?” Crystal asked.

  “He isn’t our official leader,” said Autumn. “I’ll tell him what I’m doing, but I’m not asking his permission.”

  “She’s right,” Luke said. “We’re the royal elves here. We should have more pull than Lucian anyway.”

  “You should probably tell him before we leave, though,” Avery said.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” She stood, dusting pine needles off of her backside.

  “Have fun telling our self-appointed leader that you’re about to risk your own personal safety to save a warlock,” Luke called after her.

  Lucian was talking in a hushed voice to Jack when Autumn approached him. His talking ceased when he glanced up to see her ambling towards them. All her earlier bravery quickly ebbed away when he looked at her with those steely blue eyes, his angular face, framed by a mane of black hair, tilted slightly. He nodded at Jack, indicating they were finished with whatever conversation they were having.

  “Did you rest well?” he said.

  “Not really.”

  “Did you need something?” he asked, dropping the false niceties.

  “Yes.” Autumn took a steadying breath. “I was going to let you know that I will be telling the Chief Warlock that I learned my information from Victor, and that Victor’s real father passed away in the war.”