Ashes

by Sophie H. Morgan

  The kid looked at him. Searching, invisible hands invaded, trying to pry out his secrets, even past his shield. His jackal snarled, a noise that vibrated Cade’s chest in warning.

  “Cade,” Alana snapped.

  “No, it’s okay. I intruded.” The kid sounded shamed, as though he’d done something bad. He sat opposite them, tucking his legs underneath his body and drawing a finger across the carpet. “Adelaide’s been trying to help, but…” He shrugged.

  Feeling like he was missing everything, Cade hunkered down like the predator he was to wait.

  Alana didn’t reach out to Gabriel, though Cade could sense her longing to. Instead, she had a smile in her voice when she spoke. “We all make mistakes when we’re learning. I once set a forest on fire.”

  That startled a laugh out of Cade. “That’s right, you did.” He stroked a hand across his face, feeling the stubble that already decorated his jawline. “I forgot about that. Took two fire trucks to put it out.”

  “Well, if somebody hadn’t made me so mad…”

  “You’re saying it was my fault?”

  “Hey, you were the one calling me Lady Sparks-a-lot.” Her arms folded in the gloom.

  Cade chuckled. “Yeah.”

  The silence this time was more relaxed, a warmth to it that spoke of shared history. So many connections, different paths they could have taken.

  Before he traveled down the road he’d mentally stuck “no entry” signs on, Cade asked the question most dominant in his mind. “How did you know about our past?”

  The kid shrugged again, drawing his knees up to wrap his arms around them. “Same as I know that the high ruler wants me dead.”

  A slow blink. “Why would Edward want you dead?”

  “Because I told him he had no soul.”

  Yep, that’d do it.

  Alana licked her lips—and yes, he was that fucking attuned to her he could hear every change in her breathing. He was screwed. “Are you okay to tell the story, Gabe?”

  Gabriel’s skinny frame shrugged again. “He needs to know, doesn’t he.” It wasn’t a question.

  At the sheer desolation in his voice, Cade’s jackal keened. It wasn’t a pack animal by nature, despite his father’s wish and subsequent demand to form one. Yet it wanted to go and nuzzle the kid, to make sure he never had to feel such down-in-the-gut pain. “He doesn’t—”

  “Tell us, Gabe.”

  Cade scowled at Alana, even though she couldn’t see it. He went to interject, stunned when feminine fingers fluttered over his lips. Pressing down, she turned toward him. He knew her vision wasn’t as perfect as his in the dark, but he could see every nuance of her face, down to the twist of her lips. Right now, they were irritated. “Listen,” she mouthed.

  Huffing out a breath, Cade nipped at one of her fingers. She startled, a quiver as she withdrew her fingers.

  Settling, Cade cocked his head as the soft-spoken boy began to speak.

  “I don’t even know where the beginning is. I…” Seemingly lost for words, the boy trailed off.

  This time, Alana shifted to touch the boy on the knee. He flinched at her touch, withdrawing into himself. Alana’s fingers curled back, claws piercing her flesh. Cade scented blood, confused. Why would the boy reject reassurance?

  “Anywhere’s fine.” Alana, offering touchless comfort.

  The boy took in a breath. “I started getting hints of what people felt when I was small. Around three or so, I guess. It wasn’t clear—like muddy pictures. I’d have to scrape it off to see what was hidden.”

  Cade felt a frown carve a sharp line between his eyebrows. “Feelings?”

  Gabriel gave a jerky nod. “Like if someone was happy or sad. Or angry. I always knew my mother was sad. Like deep-down sad, as if she carried a rainstorm inside of her.”

  “An empath.” Cade whistled soundlessly.

  Empaths were human, but possessed the gift—or curse, depending on who you talked to—of feeling and understanding emotions. If they were strong, they could even channel emotions into abilities. Like a demon’s strength, a furie’s viciousness, a shifter’s shift. Cade had never met one, but one worked for the Treaty, so powerful that she skated the edge of madness.

  To think this teenager contained the gift was extraordinary.

  “I lived in the crystal palace when I was smaller,” Gabriel continued, causing Cade another jolt of shock. The boy must have been an advisor’s child, as some did choose to live in the caged comfort of the palace.

  “I remember a music room like the one downstairs.” Gabriel poked at a hole in the jeans he was wearing. “But it was bigger and had three white pianos, violins, cellos, clarinets. And a golden harp.”

  As the boy drew in even more breath, Cade was struck by how much he reminded him of his younger brother, Tobias. That same determination. It made his jackal howl in grief, hunch to protect the one who reminded him of family. As always, the memory of his father’s evil made Cade’s teeth grit.

  “My mother was beautiful, with long black hair and eyes blue enough he always said he could swim in them.” There was no doubt who the he was whom Gabriel had mentioned. Edward. “She loved to play the harp—any music at all, but especially the harp.

  “He let her play for years, used to listen to her and clap, and say how beautiful she was. He wasn’t so bad then. Not all the way bad.” Gabriel hesitated. “But he’d get very mad if she even talked to another man, or wanted to do anything with me.”

  “Obsession,” Cade murmured. So the high ruler had had an affair with an advisor’s wife. No surprise, as everyone in the Kingdom had known he hadn’t been happy with the nymph he’d wedded, the one who had borne him his twin sons, Gable and Garrett.

  Gabriel nodded. “He found her playing the harp for a visiting ambassador once, a man. He went black and red, ugly, dead colors.

  “She disappeared.” Gabriel hunched his shoulders and spoke to his knees. “One day, there was nobody to sing to me, or tell me my talent was a gift. She’d never told him. Maybe she knew enough not to. I didn’t. I thought he was still mostly good.” The kid tugged at his sleeves, covering most of his palms with material. “One of his advisors, who used to whisper about my mother, was lying to him. Liars always taste the same, like rotten candy.”

  A too-sweet scent.

  Cade’s jackal sat up in earnest, remembering the overwhelmingly sweet smell that he associated with Edward.

  “I told him.” It was a whisper filled with self-disgust, desolate as the wind on the moors of the High Lands. “Once he’d found proof and believed in my gift, he made me his lie detector. He used me for a year and a half, taking me with him all over the Kingdom. I even saw some of the Southern Territories. And the sea.” The kid brightened for one shining moment before the shadows overtook him. “Then Gable told me that he was the one who’d stolen my mother away. He’d made sure he never spoke of my mother to me; that way he’d never be lying. So I wouldn’t know. I should have.” Gabriel’s voice held a viciousness that nobody could manufacture.

  He shuddered out a breath, the ugly emotion draining. “That night, I stood in front of the court and told everyone what he was inside: nothing.” Gabriel clenched his arms tighter around his scrawny legs. “The nothingness had eaten away until it was almost all that was left.”

  “What happened?” Cade had to know. Even while his animal shoved at him, snapping, wanting to leave the boy be, he knew Gabriel had to finish.

  The boy hesitated, frozen, the night stretching talons down the sky as it finally battled back the sun. Though his lips trembled, Gabriel’s jaw firmed with resolve.

  Cade’s animal approved of such strength.

  “He had his guards drag me off, stating that I was lost to the rebellion. He said I’d been taken, my mind theirs. That it would be a mercy to—” He broke off.

  Cade let loos
e with a growl that was felt more than heard. “Mercy?”

  “Gabe?” Alana shifted, concern weaving through the words. “Are you…?”

  “I’m fine.”

  So saying, Gabriel pushed to his feet and walked toward a square metal table that rested next to an unmade bed. A lamp sat on it, obviously what Gabriel was headed for.

  Cade frowned as Gabriel walked, something off in the way he located the table, the switch.

  Light flared into brilliance, illuminating his back.

  Blinking, adjusting, Cade checked for obvious injuries. Finding none, he brought his focus to the kid’s nape. Gabiel was staring at the light, something that had to hurt given how close he was to it.

  “He did this.”

  Gabriel turned, revealing the refined features of a boy on the cusp of becoming a man, around thirteen, fourteen, but not old enough to live in a place like the Maze. Rich brown hair curled out in soft tendrils that somebody had tried to cut short, haphazard around the more stubborn lines of his face. His nose curved out, oddly big for the delicacy of his features.

  His eyes were filmed over, the pupils frozen in one dilation for eternity.

  Gabriel unerringly located Cade, gesturing at his face with one hand. “He said I should never be allowed to see into people’s souls.”

  It wasn’t until they were on the streets of the Maze again, outside of the courtyard, that Cade felt he had a handle on the bubbles of boiling wrath that hissed and spat in accord with his jackal’s howls for vengeance.

  “What happened next?” He kept the volume low, aware there were many ears to listen to a private conversation.

  Alana’s biker boots clinked as she sent a stone spiraling against a concrete wall. Two gutter people paused in their collecting, beady eyes locking on to potential targets.

  She hissed at them, hand drifting toward the blade she’d hooked on the outside of her clothing.

  Their heads whipped back down.

  “Gabe’s one of those special people the world can kick the shit out of and still be truly good.” She rubbed her nape, murky lamplight playing shadows over her face. “What do you think happened?”

  “Is he sure? That Edward ordered it.” He kept his tone neutral, prepared when Alana rounded on him. Sparks lit her cheeks, wisps of smoke curling out like locks of hair.

  “Fuck, Cade, seriously? You still believe in him?” Ana tugged at the hair that fell to her cheekbones with agitated fingers. “After Adelaide and the children, after Gabriel, after everything I’ve told you. You still think he’s a good guy?” She shook her head, disappointment shimmering in the gesture. “You’ll never believe.”

  Cade snagged her arm, tugging her against him in a whiplike movement. He trapped her arms by her sides as she struggled, cursing him.

  “I didn’t say that,” he said under his breath, aware they were drawing attention. “I asked what anyone would. You wouldn’t want me to switch allegiances just like that, would you?” He snapped his fingers, releasing her for an instant.

  An instant she took advantage of. She boosted away from him, a stallion-like kick to his midriff making him stagger. She flipped in midair, landing with a dainty bounce. A gesture at him—one that wasn’t dainty. But she stayed.

  “Truth, Alana?”

  “Don’t call me that.” She jerked her chin to the side, where fascinated ears were perked up. Many would be interested to learn her old identity.

  “Truth?” he persisted.

  “Why start now?” When he just looked at her, she heaved a sigh, the motion as unsettled as an earthquake. “Fine. Hit me.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” he shot back, unwilling to lose ground, somehow knowing she wouldn’t respect him for it. He ran a hand through hair that needed a good wash, the locks tangled with dirt and sweat. “I want to believe you.”

  “No, you don’t, or—” she began hotly, stunned into silence when he whipped over to her, using the speed and grace intrinsic to his race. One finger pressed against her lips.

  “Hush,” he said, none too kindly. “I want to believe you. I don’t want to kill you or your boss, not after seeing those kids.”

  “So pleased my life isn’t in danger,” she scoffed around the finger. When her tongue wet it, he felt his cock stiffen with need.

  Focus.

  “I’m a loyal man. So when something questions that, I have to be a methodical pain in the ass. Or I’ll always wonder if I made the right choice.” He bent his knees to stare directly into eyes that had burned out. She wasn’t furious anymore, at least. “I need to believe wholeheartedly.”

  She released a breath, one that whispered sweetly across his face. Then, “I know.”

  She didn’t continue, but when she rolled her shoulders and began to swagger down the street, Cade allowed himself a grin. His phoenix hadn’t changed that much; when she’d been younger, whatever she’d wanted, she’d wanted it yesterday.

  Recalling her pale face, he caught up to her. “You need to eat. We’ll grab something at the hovel.”

  Alana’s lips twitched. Cade’s jackal arched with pleasure.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The rooms Cade had rented no longer seemed oppressive when Ana walked in, the atmosphere having shifted from claustrophobic to cozy. A change she wasn’t sure she was happy about, especially regarding what Gabriel had whispered to her before they left.

  Don’t think about that.

  The click of the door shutting behind her sounded like a flash-gun bolt, making her startle. She wasn’t used to such quiet; the Outer Boundary had more respectable tenants than the Maze, and therefore more respectable hours. The gang would be gearing up for the evening, while people here would be winding down.

  Truth be told, she was relieved they hadn’t been accosted by the Hoods. Though she longed to get back to her gang and her Liberty duties, she needed Cade’s secret. It was crunch time—it all came down to whether Cade was convinced by Gabe’s horrific story.

  If she was honest with herself, she also wanted a little more time with Cade. She didn’t know what would happen, even if he did throw in his lot with her. After all, her unsuccessful attempts at satisfying sex had proven she was a little too hot to handle for most men who weren’t born with the Kindred gene. Nostalgia and desire linked in silken knots around her until her vision was clouded to everything but him.

  “I have a question.” His voice rumbled behind her, rough and poet-deep. It made her want to rub herself against him.

  So she deflected with flippancy. “No, I’m not wearing any underwear.”

  Too late, she realized that probably wasn’t the best way to diffuse the tension.

  His silence behind her beat with a thick, sensual energy. Until, “Good to know.”

  The uneven timbre of his voice whispered down the nape of her neck, causing shivers.

  She found she had to clear her throat from the mountain-sized lump that had formed. “Food?”

  “Soon,” he promised. His more muscular frame book-ended her from behind. Delicious heat blasted her from his shifter body. Her flames answered, stirred from her core. “My question concerns Liberty.”

  That broke her bubble of intimacy more efficiently than piercing her back with a dagger.

  Ana moved away, stunned that she was jealous of his obsession with the rebellion leader. Of herself. She was losing it. “Why have you got such a hard-on for her?” she tossed at him as she tried to pace away the jitters. Her hands trembled at her sides.

  “You know that’s not it.”

  Edgy, she shrugged. “What’s the question?”

  “How does she operate?”

  Wary now, Ana chanced a look at him. He was arranged in the doorway in a long line of muscled man, eyes dark and fixed. His hair was tousled, wild.

  A tendril of fire snapped at the heat humming in her blood.
<
br />   “What do you mean?”

  “How does she go about rebellion? Rousing speeches? Kidnapping? Torture? Arson?” His jaw clenched. “What’s in it for her?”

  Shaken, Ana swallowed. His last question hit too close to the mark, struck the guilty bruise that could never heal, no matter how much evil she stamped out. Her parents would still be dead.

  Light flicked on. Their bodies were limp, her father’s sprawled over her mother’s, together in death. Blood surrounded them like a moat. A silent scream that never ended.

  Touching her tongue to her bottom lip, Ana tried to tough it out. Apparently Cade still harbored doubts about Liberty’s motives. She wondered why he’d never asked her the obvious question—whether or not she was the dangerous assassin.

  Unless the truth was something he wasn’t prepared to face. Something she was more than happy to help with. “Liberty’s never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

  “Is that her decision to make?”

  “What else are we to do?” Ana shot back. “You haven’t been here the last ten years, Cade. People are dying in the streets, children, from starvation, disease, exploitation—experimentation. What do you suggest?” A mocking smile. “That Liberty talk to Edward?”

  “Why not take your evidence to the Treaty?”

  She barked out a laugh. Whirling, she began again to pace, fired up despite her lack of nutrition. “You think that bunch of pompous fatheads are going to listen to a gutter rat? They’d sooner believe Edward.”

  “They’d believe a royal from the House of Farrah.” His statement was quiet, more devastating because of it.

  As chilled as if she’d sat in a freezer for three hours, Ana gave a violent jerk of her head. “She died a long time ago.”

  “Fine.” A muscle ticked in his jaw despite his acquiescence. “We’ll shelve that for now.”

  “Forever.”

  “Do you always ride along?”

  Didn’t see that coming. “I fight with her, if that’s what you mean.”