Ashes (The Slayer Chronicles Book 3)

by Val St. Crowe

Logan and I came behind him.

  Slowly, we made our way up the hallway.

  I began to notice that the paint on the wall was only a light coat of white. It was covering up some kind of wallpaper with a flower print. Daisies.

  We kept moving.

  The wallpaper was peeling away at the corner, revealing the wooden wall behind it.

  As we got closer and closer, we could see through the door, but all we could see on the other side of the door was a blank white wall, maybe five feet on the opposite side. If there was someone in there, we couldn’t see him.

  At last, Naelen stopped in the doorway. “Hello?” he called out.

  “Hello,” said a voice.

  And the doorway was full of a man in long dark robes. He was thin, with dark hair and pale skin. He had heavy shadows under his eyes. He looked skeletal and monstrous.

  We backed up.

  He made a gesture with one hand and sent us all sprawling. Logan on his backside, me on top of him, Naelen on both of us.

  I lost my grip on the monocle, and it skittered out my grasp.

  The man in the doorway laughed at us. He lifted both of his hands and we floated into the air, as if something was dragging us up by our throats.

  I felt as if I was being strangled. I couldn’t breathe. I coughed. I struggled.

  Now we were high enough up that our feet didn’t touch the ground. We were dangling in the air.

  Naelen glared at the man.

  The man stumbled backwards, as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. I knew that Naelen’s magic was to blame.

  I had a talisman too, so I concentrated on accessing it. I threw all my power at the man, slamming him into the ground.

  Logan used his magic too. He picked him back up and slammed him down again.

  We fell out of the air.

  I crawled over to get the monocle and picked it up.

  The man got to his feet again, holding out both his arms.

  But I could see the magic that was coming from his palms, and I ran forward, throwing my fingers into the threads as they poured out of his hands, untangling them.

  The threads went dull, then black, then disappeared.

  I looked at the man, and that was when I realized that he had compulsion threads, just like the gargoyles had had. This man was being controlled by someone else. Who was he? Some lackey sent by the brother?

  I tackled him.

  He went over easily, seemingly stunned by physical attack or by watching his magic come apart right in front of him. I felt around the back of his head to the place where the compulsion threads were attached. This time, when I tugged on them, there was no magic within the man’s brain to untangle as well. I felt safe undoing his compulsion. I sorted through the threads.

  And then he let out a wailing sort of sound, putting his hands to his ears. “Stop, stop, stop!” he screamed. He rocked back and forth. “I just want to stop. Let me stop, let me stop.”

  “Stop what?” I said.

  His eyes snapped open. “Was I saying that out loud?”

  I nodded.

  Naelen and Logan nodded.

  The man looked at his hands, turning them over to see the front and the back. “The compulsion. It’s over.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I did that.”

  “He was compelled?” said Logan.

  “Who are you, anyway?” said Naelen.

  “I’m Ambrose Chapman,” said the man. “Who are you?”

  “If you’re a Chapman,” I said, “does that mean you’re Riley’s brother?”

  “Yes,” said Ambrose.

  “His crazy brother who’s into dragon sacrifice?”

  “No, no. Not anymore,” said Ambrose. “I went too deep into the power, too deep. It started to disintegrate my brain.”

  We all widened our eyes, but no one said anything.

  “You think I’m crazy, but it’s the truth,” said Ambrose. “That’s what it does if you stay in the dark magic too long. No, these days, I don’t even dabble.”

  “And you were being compelled?” said Logan.

  “Yes, he was,” I said. “I undid it.”

  “Thank you,” said Ambrose.

  “What were you being compelled to do?” I said.

  “Hurt,” said Ambrose. “Hurt you three. Not kill. Just hurt. Make you frightened. Chase you around. He thought it would all be very amusing.”

  “He?” said Logan.

  “Who’s he?” said Naelen.

  “Has he been compelling you?” I said.

  “Yes, he’s been doing the compelling,” said Ambrose. “He’s a cheerful guy. I’ve never met him before, and I can’t think if he even ever told me his name, but even if he did, it’s slipped clean out of my head now.”

  “Cheerful guy,” I said. “With a five-o’clock shadow and dark hair?”

  “Fond of wearing bright suits?” said Naelen.

  “Oh, you know him then?” said Ambrose. “Upbeat, but an utter bastard.”

  “Cunningham,” I muttered.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  We didn’t stop to chat any longer with Ambrose. We ran down the stairs as quickly as we could, heading directly for the front door.

  When we got there, Logan flung it open, and we hurled ourselves through it.

  But we couldn’t actually get through.

  There was a barrier. It was springy. I could feel it if I put my hand out to touch it. I put the monocle against my skin, and I could see the threads of it. They were coming down from the ward above the door.

  I reached out to undo them.

  “You can’t leave,” said a voice.

  We turned.

  Riley was standing on the second floor landing. He started to walk down the steps, one at a time. “When you placed those wards, you didn’t realize that you were actually sealing yourselves in the house.”

  “Sealing us in?” said Logan. “That’s why Sonya couldn’t leave.”

  “No one leaves,” said Riley. “He won’t let anyone leave.”

  “The ‘he’ isn’t your brother,” I said. “It’s Ronan Cunningham.”

  “He showed up before you did,” said Riley. “When I spoke to you on the phone, Naelen, I was holding the cup in my hands, but once Cunningham got here, he demanded it. I said I had another buyer. He wanted to know who. When he found out your name, that’s when he decided he was staying. And when he found out that the attic upstairs had been outfitted for my crazy mother, he moved right in. My mother was kept up there, but she is dead now.”

  “So, all this time, Cunningham’s been in the attic?” I said.

  “We couldn’t stop him,” said Riley. “I’ve never met anyone so powerful. And he’s obsessed with the three of you.”

  I started to shake all over. No, no, no. I couldn’t see Cunningham again. I wasn’t ready to see him. It was too soon. All I wanted to was to be free of him. If I saw him, it would bring everything back.

  “Anyway,” said Riley. “He’s not here right now. He left to look for some scarab thing.”

  The scarab? He couldn’t get the scarab!

  “How can he be compelling people if he’s not even here?” said Naelen.

  “He’s powerful,” said Riley. “Or maybe he’s done some trickery with the wards, made them amplify the compulsion even in his absence. I don’t know. He’s made me do everything thus far, and when he heard about my brother, he hunted him down and brought him back here, restored his memories. I think he thought that someone with my brother’s knowledge could help him become even more powerful. But my brother is broken now. Whatever my father and the council did to his mind, it is not reparable. He will never reveal his knowledge.”

  “So, that’s what disintegrated his brain,” said Logan.

  I turned back to the ward. “I’ll undo this. I can undo them all if I need to. If that’s what’s causing you to be compelled, then we can all get away before he comes back.” I tugged at the threads on the ward, ripping apart the magic. As the threads
dulled, they became brittle, breaking in my hands and disappearing.

  I had another sensation of being lightheaded, and my stomach growled.

  And then the world was spinning and the floor was too close and I was falling.

  * * *

  “Clarke!”

  The sound was distant and tinny, like it was coming down a tunnel.

  “Clarke, wake up.”

  Someone was shaking me.

  I opened my eyes. My head was pounding. I groaned.

  Logan and Naelen were kneeling in front of me, their faces looming huge in front of me.

  I put out my hand to touch both of their cheeks. “My guys,” I whispered. “What happened?”

  “You passed out,” said Naelen.

  We were still in the foyer of the house. Over their shoulders, I could see Riley, who was holding the talisman that had warded the front door and turning it over and over in his hands. He was obviously confused.

  “Why’d I pass out?” I was trying to sit up.

  “We don’t know,” said Logan.

  “I’ve got an idea,” said Naelen. “You know how overusing the objects can take it out of you? Like when I used the knife on all those dragons in Colorado?”

  “Yeah, you were completely unconscious,” I said.

  “Well, maybe your monocle is draining you,” said Naelen.

  “Skipping breakfast really was a bad idea,” said Logan. “You need to eat.”

  I pointed at the windows. “I need to undo the wards. Cunningham could come back.”

  Naelen looked at the door. “Can we get through that door? Let’s get her the hell out of here.” He tucked his arm under my knees and braced the other around my shoulders and picked me up like it was nothing. He headed for the door.

  We went right through.

  Riley tried to follow us. He couldn’t. “He compelled me to stay here,” said Riley. “I can feel the threads.”

  I reached for him. “Let me undo them.”

  “No, Clarke, you need to eat and we need to get away from here,” said Naelen. “Cunningham is coming back, and we’re no match for him.”

  “Actually,” I said, holding up the monocle, “I think I am.” I let out a breath. “This was the wish I didn’t know I had, the most important wish. I can dismantle magic. Cunningham can’t compel me any longer. This is the gift that Dasher gave me. Exactly what I needed.”

  “You don’t even know if it will work against him,” said Naelen.

  “I think it will,” said Logan, standing in the doorway. “Naelen, this is our chance. This is how we kill him.”

  Naelen wavered. He looked out at our car, which was still parked in the driveway. Then he looked back into the house. We’d been trapped in there and hadn’t even known it.

  “Take me back inside,” I ordered Naelen.

  “Clarke, we should get you away,” said Naelen.

  “I’m the only one who can use the monocle,” I said. “Now take me back in. I need food, and while I’m eating, you guys need to gather up all the talismans that are being used for the wards.”

  Naelen was still hesitating.

  “Either take me inside or put me down, Naelen Spencer. You should know better than to try to stop me once I’ve made up my mind.”

  * * *

  I ate and ate. I had the whole chafing dish of bacon and biscuits in front of me, and I just kept eating. They’d hand me a talisman, I’d unravel it, and it would be like I was starving again. I ate more. And more.

  I dismantled all the talismans. I dismantled the compulsion on Riley, on all the gargoyles—now that I’d done it a few times on creatures that weren’t comprised of magic, I had figured out how to undo the threads without hurting the gargoyles themselves.

  And still, I ate.

  I was beginning to think that if someone could manufacture this monocle thing, it could totally be used for off-label weight loss. It was crazy how hungry undoing magic made me.

  Once the gargoyles were free, we sent them off, made them leave the house.

  Riley tried to stay, said he wanted to help us. He’d been angry with us only because he’d been compelled to keep us out of the attic and was failing miserably at it, which he knew was only going to make Cunningham angry. Like any rational person, he was frightened of Cunningham.

  Anyway, Riley was grateful to us for all that we’d done. He said that he wanted to do whatever he could to help us out.

  We told him getting out of there and hiding someplace where Cunningham didn’t know to find him was the best thing he could do. We didn’t want to have to worry about him.

  So, eventually, once all the wards were destroyed, he took his brother and disappeared.

  I almost thought about trying to convince the guys to leave, but I didn’t. I knew they wouldn’t leave me alone, for one thing. I also wasn’t really into being a martyr here. If I failed, I wanted backup. Besides, I knew that they were intent on killing Cunningham. They weren’t going to leave without the satisfaction of cutting off his head.

  Anyway, I didn’t ask.

  I ate some more, just trying to get up my strength.

  But even with the food heavy in my belly, I wasn’t sure it was going to be enough.

  I got up from the table and I went over to the window. I looked out, as if I expected Cunningham to come up the driveway any moment, maybe speeding up in a limousine like he’d used the first time we’d met him. “We’ve got to play this smart, guys.”

  “What do you mean?” said Logan.

  “Well, Cunningham’s really powerful, and using this monocle seems to really take it out of me. How do I know that I won’t be in the middle of countering his magic and just pass out again?”

  “Yeah, I have to admit, I’ve been thinking that,” said Naelen. “But what else can we do? Leave, like I said, look for some way to strengthen you and face Cunningham another day?”

  “No,” I said. “Play into his hands. When he gets here, be frightened of him, let him do what he likes until he falls asleep or something. Then we can break whatever compulsions he’s put on us and go after him. Cut his head off before he even wakes up.”

  Logan let out a breath. “Well, I kind of did want to see the look on his face when I killed him, but I’d rather have him dead than the memory of that look. So, I’m in.”

  “Who said you were going to be the one to kill him?” said Naelen. “I’m the one who’s going to swing that blade.”

  The two squared off.

  “Seriously, are you going to fight over this?” I said.

  “If he thinks I’m going to give in,” said Naelen, “then he’s crazy.”

  “Look, Naelen, how many vampires have you actually killed?” said Logan.

  “That’s besides the point,” said Naelen.

  “This is so not the thing we need to be talking about right now,” I said. I tapped my chin. “I don’t know if Cunningham is going to buy that we aren’t springing a trap for him when everyone in the house is gone except us and we’ve done away with all his magic. He won’t know how that happened. But we can’t ask Riley and the gargoyles to come back now, and we can’t put the wards back up.” I bit down on my lip. “This isn’t good.”

  “That’s why we should jump him when he comes in,” said Naelen. “You do your thing, Clarke, and I’ll cut off his head.”

  “With what?” I said.

  “There’s tons of knives and swords and things upstairs,” said Naelen. “I’ll go get some.” He sprinted out of the room.

  “About my plan?” I called after him.

  Naelen floated back into the room, feet dragging on the floor.

  “What plan?” said a cheerful voice.

  I shut my eyes. Damn it. Cunningham was back.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “Well, well, well,” said Cunningham, surveying us. “Are you three really so stupid? You can’t fight me. You would think after all the time we’d spent together, you’d be quite aware of that fact. Did you really think
you could win?”

  “Put Naelen down,” I said, fingering the monocle. I could see the threads that had come out of Cunningham’s hand, how they wrapped around Naelen and kept him in the air, how they were tight around his neck, cutting off his air. I could undo those threads, but would I have enough power to keep undoing those threads? And besides, once I’d done that, I would have played my hand. Maybe Cunningham would figure that I was using something to be able to undo his magic, and maybe he’d take the monocle from me while I was passed out.

  My plan was a better one. We needed to wait until he was asleep.

  “Oh, so worried about the dragon,” said Cunningham. “I could kill him, you know. What would you do then? Tell me the truth, Clarke, would you rather I killed the gargoyle or the dragon?”

  I saw the threads of his compulsion come for me, hurling through the air to burrow in my skull. I reached up and pushed them out of the way. “Neither,” I said. Maybe that was using a little too much of my energy, but that was one truth I didn’t want to know. When Cunningham compelled me to tell the truth, sometimes I said things that I could never unsay.

  “Really?” Cunningham cocked his head to one side. “How interesting. I wonder if that would have been true before I kept you all in our little playroom for all those months? I really did create a bond between you all.”

  I shuddered, thoughts of it all going through me again, making me feel weak, making me feel terrified. “Let Naelen go,” I said through gritted teeth. I was going to have to intervene if he didn’t drop him soon, and that would show my hand.

  But Cunningham just chuckled. He dropped Naelen into one of the chairs at the table in the breakfast room. “Stay there, Naelen,” he said, and I watched his compulsion threads burrow into Naelen’s head.

  Logan glanced at me.

  I shook my head slowly.

  Logan’s nostrils flared.

  Maybe he didn’t agree with me, but that was too bad. If the two of them hadn’t had to have that stupid fight, maybe we’d have had enough time to come to an agreement before Cunningham barged in.

  “Well,” said Cunningham, smiling at us. “I missed you. I mean, not recently, because I’ve been watching your every move since you came into the house. But I did miss you all while you were gone. I think we were really only apart for a few days, but still, your absence pained me. I mistakenly thought I was bored with you. It was only because you were compelled. Giving you back your free will made you all so entertaining again. Watching you deal with the Brotherhood and with those dragons? That was aces. Really. If you hadn’t figure me out, I wonder what else I could have compelled to attack you.” He chuckled.