by E. A. Copen
I nodded. “Funny way to forge an alliance, interrogating me out in the middle of nowhere and calling me a poacher.”
Ike repositioned his horse to follow the dwarf, but didn’t take off. “Very well. What do I need to do to convince you we should work together? Name your price.”
“Trust is earned, Commander. Not bought.” I crossed my arms. “You want to convince me you’re not just some asshole trying to get under my skin, maybe get off your high horse and start treating me like your equal. We’re both grunts in this hunt, you know.”
He nodded, expression unusually grave. “I understand that.”
“Do you? Because you almost seem like you want to run this hunt and not Ash.”
“I don’t want to run the hunt. I only want to make sure it’s run well. This is dangerous prey we’re after. The only chance we have of succeeding is if we can all work together. When people are keeping secrets… It makes that impossible. All I want is honesty, transparency. Honor. Those are the principles the Iron Company is built upon. Since I have to be involved, I want to make sure this will not stain my reputation, or needlessly cost lives. Is that so much to ask?”
“You sound like a control freak.”
Ike chuckled. “Foggy would call me a worrier. Look, Ember, I’m only here because I’m trying to look out for everyone involved. I don’t want animosity between us, or a feud with Ash. I respect what he’s trying to do. I just wish I knew more about where we were going and with whom.”
“Sometimes, the best laid plans go awry, Ike. You’re just going to have to trust that Ash knows what he’s doing.”
Ike climbed up onto his horse. “As you said, trust is earned. I look forward to working with you, Ember.”
“See you tomorrow, Ike.”
He circled my makeshift camp once more before riding off after the dwarf. His horse kicked mud all over the side of my tent.
I sighed and hung my head. And here I thought I was almost done cleaning and packing.
Chapter Six
It was dark by the time I found myself downtown, standing in front of the ruined Omni hotel. The original building had been an oddly shaped rectangular creation of reflective glass, concrete and steel. That building had long ago fallen, the glass shattered by a concussive wave of magic that had blown through the area years ago. Like most of the rest of downtown, it had stood abandoned for years after, letting nature reclaim it in part. Flowering vines twisted around the metal carcass of the old hotel, their white petals shimmering in the moonlight.
In the shadow of magic’s destruction, we built new wonders.
The new omni may have only been two stories tall, but it was even grander in its construction, forming a circle in front of where the old building had once stood. Wooden arched observation bridges wove across the top floors. Ivy and moonflowers clung to everything.
I entered the lobby and had to turn full circle, taking in the building's beauty. Marble floors and an indoor garden, complete with a waterfall, made it feel like a temple to some forgotten god of beauty, comfort and commerce.
“Ember! You made it!”
I turned around just in time for Ash to embrace me.
He squeezed tight and stepped back. “I was worrying you’d changed your mind.”
“And miss all this? I’d have to be crazy.”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” Ash put an arm around me and led me past the front desk. “Perhaps magic should’ve destroyed the original downtown years sooner. Can you imagine what an eyesore it would’ve been back in the day? Truly, a blessing in disguise.”
“Well, except for all the people the magic wave killed.”
“Obviously.” Ash paused in front of the stairs. “Where are your things?”
“Everything’s right here.” I patted the duffel bag in my hand. “Everything I need to survive.”
“You’ve always been a light packer.” He gestured to the stairs, but we went up together.
“Well, it’s not like I travel with a big convoy or anything,” I said. “Honestly, if I can make it or find it along the way, I try not to pack it. These days, I do more with a knife, some cloth, and a bit of string than anything. Simple is better.”
Ash smiled. “Old Jim would be proud.”
I stopped on the landing in front of the second-floor door and stared at the crimson carpet beneath my shoes. “I still miss him, you know? He was a good man, and he deserved a better, easier end than he got. What happened out there…”
Ash put a hand on my trembling shoulder. “Jim didn’t blame you. He made his choice, Ember. We all know that every hunt, every bounty, every day might be our last. We must live prepared for death. It’s the life we chose.”
“You didn’t have to come back to it.” I met his eyes.
He looked shocked. “Ember…”
“When you came back, you could’ve done anything. Honestly, you’ve surprised me, taking up this hunt. I was always the one who wanted it so badly. You were just… along for the ride. Why come back to being a bounty hunter? Why not just go live the good life with your second chance?”
Ash smiled a chiding smile and took my face in his hands. “What sort of life would I have without you? I came back so I could find you, Ember.” He planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.
I blinked, warmth spreading over my nose and cheeks. My legs practically turned to jelly so that when he let go of me, I swayed slightly.
He laughed at me and winked. “Come on,” he said, opening the door and going through. “I’ll show you your room.”
Come on, Ember. Get yourself together. What’s wrong with you? Did you forget about the deadly crystals growing in you? Stop this before it goes too far. If Ash finds out…
What would he do? Would he recoil and reject me? No, not the Ash I knew. The old Ash would have gently chastised me for not telling him, and then promptly moved on to plotting out a solution. But maybe everyone was right, and he wasn’t the same person I’d known. Five years was such a long time to be gone. I knew I had changed in that time. Why wouldn’t he?
We weren’t kids anymore, and I couldn’t afford to let my life fall apart just because Ash was back. His return wasn’t some magic fix-all. I was still dying slowly, and I still needed the antigen to keep myself alive, which meant I needed this job, and many more. I’d be working until the day I died. Ash had other dreams to chase, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to get in the way of them. If he found out, he’d give up on his dream to take care of me. I couldn’t let that happen.
For one moment, our lives had intersected again, but it would be cruel for me to let him think it could be more than that. I’d have to set the record straight.
It could wait until we were on the road, though. I didn’t want to give him the excuse he needed to leave me behind again.
Ash walked me down the hall to room two-twenty and handed me a key. “Open it.” Light glimmered in his eyes. He looked like a kid about to show off his newest artwork.
I slid the key into the lock and carefully pushed open the door.
The room beyond was a far cry from the dingy motel room where I’d slept the night before. The air smelled like moonflowers, sweet and magical. On the immediate left was a small wardrobe while another door to the right opened into a bathroom with a large, round bathtub. An unbroken line of bottles waited on the counter, everything from shampoo to body wash to exotic lotions. Further in, I found the biggest bed I had ever seen with a mattress that might as well have been made of clouds as soft as it felt when I sat on it. There was a desk with paper and pens, a free-standing floor to ceiling mirror, and a basket of chocolates.
I sank into the bed and looked around, shaking my head. “Ash, this is…”
“It’s everything we dreamed about as kids.” He gestured around the room. “Imagine this all the time.”
I sighed. “It’s too much.”
He chuckled. “Well, don’t get used to it, of course. We won’t be traveling in this sort of luxury. Although, th
e dragon may surprise us. I imagine he needs a rather enormous bed.”
“No, Ash, I mean everything. You, this trip, this room… It’s too much.”
Ash’s proud smile faded. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “I mean this morning, when I woke up, I still believed you were dead, that I’d never see you again. Now, here you are. Everything’s changed. It’s like five years didn’t even happen, though I know they did. I’m not the person I was five years ago. Something about you has changed, too. You’ve got all this money, and the necromancers… And this hunt. It’s like you’re you, but not really. It’s almost like you’re someone else pretending to be you.”
He crossed his arms and paced to stand with his back to the mirror. The room itself seemed to darken with his movement. “I was afraid of this. You don’t think I’m the same person I was five years ago. You don’t trust me, do you, Ember?”
I shook my head and put a hand on his arm. “I’ve spent the last five years reliving that day at the rift over and over, trying to find some way for you to have survived. I read everything, asked everyone. They all agreed that once a person goes into a rift, they don’t come back. I look at you and I wonder how you can really be you. Are you?”
“Ember, please.”
“I need to know, Ash. I have to.”
The bed shifted as he came to sit down next to me, staring at the wall. “Okay, how can I prove it? You want me to tell you something only I would know about you? What about that time you took the blame for when I broke Old Jim’s brand new earth magicite crystal? I must’ve cost him a month’s wages, replacing the thing. You took the blame, though. And he made you clean the stables for a month.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Worst month of my life.”
Ash laughed. “Or what about that time with the sugar plum fairies in Mrs. Keller’s basement? Only time I ever saw you afraid of anything.”
I shuddered. “All that sugar in ninety degree heat and Atlanta humidity? I thought for sure we’d die down there.”
“But we didn’t.” Ash put his hand on mine.
“Yeah, only because Old Jim came down with that fire mage and a hose. I wonder how long it took Mrs. Keller to get all that sugar off the walls.”
“Months, probably.”
We shared another laugh.
“Okay, I believe you,” I said.
“Are we good now?”
I stared down at his hand over mine. “I don’t know. It’s just… I don’t know if things can just go back to the way they were, like the last five years didn’t happen, you know?”
“But I don’t want to go back to the way things were,” he said and pulled his hand away. “Why would you want that? We were children. We were stupid and weak and full of fear. You could fit our understanding of the world in a thimble. You and I spent our days working and our nights afraid of what the day would bring. The best we could’ve hoped for was to be accepted into a guild and work our way up, dying at the hands of some monster, just as our parents did. I don’t want that. I never wanted that.” Ash had worked his hands into trembling fists resting on his knees.
I put a hand over one of his fists and held it there until he relaxed.
Ash sighed and closed his eyes. “There was so much left to do when the rift swallowed me, Ember. So much left unsaid. My greatest fear used to be dying like my father did, alone and forgotten, his name stricken from the guild roster for his cowardice. Now…” He gripped my hand tightly and met my eyes, his expression pained. “The only thing I fear is facing what comes next without you.”
I looked down at our intertwined fingers, the memory of him being swallowed by the rift flashing through my mind. In an instant, I relived the months of loss that followed, the mourning, the pain of knowing I had lost a part of myself too when that rift closed. A part I could never reclaim. It wasn’t his fault, but I couldn’t, wouldn’t let him back into my life just to die on him. The pain I felt when I lost him would only be worse for him. I had to end this before it ever got started.
I pulled my hands away and swallowed the beating heart that had made its way into my throat. “Sounds like somebody’s been reading too many paperback romances again.”
He laughed. “Guilty, though they’ve been more difficult to find of late.”
I smiled and gave him a gentle shove. “Do you remember what Old Jim said when he found them hidden under your bed?”
Ash frowned. “Threatened to burn them, if I recall.”
“You convinced him they were worth something, and he wound up trying to sell the lot of them. They offered him a dollar for his troubles.”
He let out a small snort. “Is that all? I bought them back for twice that and had to endure his teasing.” Ash sighed.
“He meant well,” I said, patting his arm.
“I know. He just never understood. I never read them for the romance. It was the places, the people. I always dreamed of going to some faraway land, meeting kings and their courts. I wanted to be anywhere but there. And then I got my wish. I went somewhere no one had ever been.” He hung his head. “I wish I could remember it more clearly, but all I get are flashes, like a nightmare in my waking hours.”
I patted his arm. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re back.”
A tired smile lit up his face. “So am I.”
We sat with each other awkwardly for a moment, not knowing what to say. There were so many words left unsaid, so many things I had meant to tell him. I’d spent the last five years living with my regret, thinking all the time about how I should’ve said this or that to Ash. Yet now that he was there with me, all those trivial things had faded. Every moment felt too important to waste on words, knowing we might not get another.
His brow furrowed, and he looked down at my hand on his arm. “Ember, I know I’ve been gone a long time, but I hope… I hope you don’t resent me for what happened.”
“No,” I said a little too quickly. “Never. You saved my life, Ash. I’ll forever be grateful for that. Why would you think I’d resent you?”
Ash shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just that… Well, I thought things would be different once I found you. Like they used to be.”
“We’re still friends, idiot,” I said, punching his arm again.
He rubbed his arm. “Just friends?”
I sighed. “It’s been five years, though. Maybe it felt like only a few months and a long sleep for you, but I’ve had to live every day. I’ve changed. The world’s changed. Hell, you’ve changed. The Ash that went into the rift never would’ve been able to organize all this. We just need some time, is all. To get used to each other again.”
“Maybe.” He fixed his vision on the mirror in front of him, staring past his reflection at something else, something only Ash could see.
“I’m tired,” I said, rising. “It’s been a long day, and tomorrow is going to be even longer. I think it would be best if I turned in early. Don’t you?”
Ash sat on the end of the bed for a moment, a shocked expression coloring the edges of his features. In a beat, he collected himself and rose. “Of course. Dawn comes early. I’ll see myself out.”
Part of me wanted to stop him, to grab him and apologize for being such a bitch and shutting him down. He deserved better. But that was why I couldn’t let him fall for me, and I couldn’t let myself fall for him. For anyone.
Ash paused at the door and turned back. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Ember. I never meant to leave you. I would change it if I could. I…”
Don’t say it. Just leave, you idiot. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.
He swallowed and lowered his head with a sigh. “I’m always here if you need me,” Ash said, and left, closing the door gently behind him.
Chapter Seven
I tossed and turned all night in a bed far too big for one. The darkness was too dark, the pillows too cool and soft. I didn’t belong in that room.
When exhaustion eventually overtook me, I dreamt I
was running through a forest covered in an early morning fog. A twig snapped behind me and I spun, bringing up my sword just in time to catch the claws of a great horned beast as it swiped at me. The creature had to be at least nine feet tall, with antlers that stretched as wide as the boughs of a tree. His head was a stag's skull housing glowing magenta eyes. The skull grinned at me, and the creature retracted his claws before stretching to his full height. His body creaked as wood bark grew over him like armor. Black smoke raced along his outstretched arms. When the smoke cleared, the creature held a sword whose blade stood as tall as a man. The smoky blue steel practically glowed as he lifted the sword high.
I woke with a start, my knife pressed to a stranger’s throat in the dark. The sudden gasp of the intruder was the only thing that kept me from slitting his throat. A bright white smile illuminated the dark, followed by Dex’s voice. “Now that’s a close shave.”
I kicked him away from the side of the bed. He grunted as his back hit the wall.
I sat up quickly, holding the knife out in front of me. The first pink hues of dawn colored the sky outside the window. “What are you doing in my room, Dex? How did you even know where I was?”
“Ok, I can explain.” He held out his hands in front of him.
“You’d better.”
“I’m trying. I’m just trying to think of a way to phrase it so it doesn’t sound so… bad.”
I rose from the bed, the knife still out in front of me. “Just say it.”
“Okay, I’ve been following you since Red’s. Well, not me. I had things to do. But I’ve had someone tailing you ever since you left the tavern yesterday.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’d better have a good explanation for why.”
“If I tell you, will you promise not to stab me?”
I looked down at the knife in my hand and lowered it slowly. “For now.”
Dex exhaled and lowered his hands. “Yesterday afternoon, some guy approached me. Expensive suit, cheap cologne, shiny badge. He flashed it too fast to read, but you know the type. I’m pretty sure he was DEMO. He’s offering a lot of money for information about Ash.”
