by Kelly Gay
Llyran spun around. “Not yet, you idiot!”
Slowly I raised my heavy hand and flipped him the bird.
He slapped me hard; the force of his blow tipped me off balance and I fell to the side as searing pain shot over my face and rung in my ears.
“You are a waste of powers!” he shouted, jerking me upright, back into a sitting position. Then he grabbed my chin, fingers digging painfully into my skin and bringing tears to my eyes. “But you won’t be for long. The ash will cling to your spirit, suppressing it, taking away your will to fight.”
“To fight what? You?”
“No, you foolish woman. The king who is about to call your body home.”
21
“That’s what ash does to you humans.” Llyran squeezed my face harder. “Makes you a vessel, prepares your soul and your annoying will to step aside. No struggle. No fight for control. And since you’ve turned out to be a huge disappointment, we have to do it this way.”
I swallowed and lifted my hand, poking him in the chest and slurring, “You’re a lunatic.”
His lips split into a sneer, and his arctic gaze narrowed, grabbing my hand and shoving the gold ring into my line of sight. “And once he is inside of you, he will use his knowledge to raise the star with this.” He dropped my hand. He leaned closer and whispered in my ear, lips brushing the skin. “Then I’m going to take her power for my own, and kill the both of you.” He cast his glance to the alabaster spirit jar on the altar table. “Say goodbye to your will and hello to Solomon. He’ll be pulling all your strings from now on.”
I shook my head as a blanket of sickness rolled through me. “But … that’s not …” No, it wasn’t supposed to be Solomon inside of that jar, it was supposed to be his servant, his demon, a jinn.
“Oh, yes,” Llyran continued with glee, “his soul is housed inside of that jar, but not for long. Not for long …”
Llyran turned back to the altar and began placing candles around the jar. His slap had woken me up, had stirred my anger and my power. Once it was engaged, it went to work, slowly destroying the effects of the ash. At least, the physical effects. If what Llyran said about ash suppressing my will and my soul was true, making me a willing vessel, I wasn’t sure if my off-world genes would fight that or not.
I stayed on my knees, eyes closed, letting them think I was still heavily under the influence. Solomon’s ring was on my finger. Aaron’s life force was inside of the stone.
I had what I needed. Now I just had to get free and get the ring to Pendaran.
Llyran returned to the sarcophagus and raised his arms, calling out loudly to the darkness. The breeze picked up as a shaft slithered down toward him, wrapping itself around the tomb. An energetic tingle vibrated beneath my skin.
Slowly, the lid began to slide off until it fell onto the other side of the tomb, with a thud that vibrated the stones beneath me.
The darkness receded. Llyran and his companion leaned over to gaze inside of the sarcophagus. “Incredible,” he breathed.
As soon as the lid was off, the atmosphere changed as though the entire rooftop had just become one gigantic lightning conductor and there was an electrical storm brewing. The hum already inside of me from the darkness amplified until my teeth were vibrating. The agate no longer suppressed the power signature in that tomb. It was out. And, holy hell, it was so strong and low and pulsating that my eardrums rang.
Voices poured into my mind. Faint. Confusing. A clatter of noise and broken words. I shook my head. It didn’t help. I tried to block it, imagining the usual heavy curtain coming down, but the voices were already inside, the ash, maybe, making me weak or susceptible. Whatever the reason, they were desperate, scared, and angry. It was as though I’d gotten a firsthand listen into the depths of hell and human suffering.
I grabbed both sides of my head and bent over.
Charlie!
My name. Familiar. Inside of my own screwed-up mind. Aaron’s voice called to me, and I knew I must be losing it. Then a strong female voice. No language I could understand, but welcome and soothing, not at all horrifying like the others. I latched onto that tone, bringing it to the forefront of my mind and shoving all the others back.
Llyran and the hooded figure finally turned from their ogling of the tomb’s contents. The smug look on the Adonai’s face went completely blank, slowly turning pale. His lips thinned and his irises bled to black. “The Old Lore!”
I followed his murderous gaze to see that the tome was gone. Orin, I thought. It had to be. He’d been so near before … That tome was the Old Lore? Now it made sense. Hank had said that Llyran stole something big from the Hall of Records. This had to be it. No wonder the Elysian Council had attempted to execute Llyran. No wonder they never revealed what he’d taken from the Hall of Records.
It was their most prized possession. How could they admit they’d lost it?
I laughed. It started small, but grew. “What? Did you need that?”
“What did you do?!” He backhanded me hard, my hair whipping across my face as I flew to the side with a grunt. Slowly, I righted myself, my expression conveying my humor but also my extreme hate. “Fuck. You.”
“Go find it.” The hooded figure nodded at Llyran’s command and blurred down the terrace, the ends of the cloak flying out and making it look like she floated over the ground.
Good. That left me and Llyran.
He had a brief look on his face, like he wasn’t sure now how to proceed. I used that to my advantage and punched him in the groin since it was pretty much eye-level with me. He doubled over, cursing as I jumped to my feet, still a little wobbly, and then gave him a hard right uppercut to the jaw. He flew backward, and I turned and bolted for the terrace railing where I flung the ring over the edge as hard as I could.
I glanced over my shoulder, as Llyran pushed to his feet, feeling a rush of victory. He hadn’t seen me toss the ring. This might actually work. Energized, I went for Hank’s discarded gun, swiped it up, and ran like hell into the arboretum, luring Llyran away from the terrace.
The foliage was so thick I couldn’t see beyond my own path or what might lie on either side of me beyond the plants and trees. It was truly a labyrinth, a dark, humid place perfect to evade and hide.
A booming crack made me slide to a stop. Like the breaking of an Arctic ice shelf, several cracks resonated through the arboretum, so sharp and deep I felt it in my chest as they grew, splitting until finally the glass dome shattered, a thousand pieces hurtling toward the stone floor and slicing anything in their path.
I dove into a wide swath of plants, crawling on my hands and knees in the soft, wet dirt as small pieces of glass sliced my shoulders, legs, and stuck into my back and scalp. I burned all over. There! A banana tree. I lurched beneath it, cradling myself beneath its leaning trunk and waiting, calming my pulse, and directing the adrenaline and energy into shielding myself and pulling that heavy curtain down, imagining myself sinking into the soft soil and becoming nothing but a plant with a faint signature of life.
The side of my face ached. Dozens of small cuts stung and bled. The smell of leaves and soil held a whiff of honeysuckle, but I knew that was me. Ash had a purpose that went far beyond simple narcotics trade. My new genes may have protected me from becoming a coma victim, but Llyran seemed to think that it still had the ability to suppress my will and soul completely. I hoped to hell he wasn’t right. This nasty shit needed to get out of my system pronto.
“Charlie!” Llyran called in a casual tone. “There is nowhere to hide, you know. You come out and finish the ritual, and I’ll remove the darkness from the city. I’ll walk you through it. We don’t need the Old Lore. You and I can raise the star. She’ll give us whatever we want. You will be a queen. How can you refuse such a thing?”
He was close. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my head in my arms, concentrating on my curtain. I heard the shuffle of his feet amid the wind that now blew through the exposed foliage before he spoke again. “The Sons of Dawn are f
ar greater than you or this city. The only way to get what you want is to give us what we want.”
I wanted to laugh at that. Yeah, and he was just masquerading as a member, using the cult, using their relics and information to get what he wanted. He wasn’t going to raise the star to worship it; he was going to raise it to kill it, to suck out her life force in hopes of becoming untouchable.
“You know, Charlie, we tested the ash theory. Mynogan brought its properties to our attention. Did you know he was a Sons of Dawn member? Thanks to you and your little trip into Mynogan’s mind when you killed him, I was able to find the spirit jar that he’d hidden.”
My stomach dropped, but not from his revelation about Mynogan and the spirit jar, but from the ash theory. I knew where he was going with this, and I tried to stay calm even though I knew the words were coming, even though I knew he was taunting me, trying to get me to respond. “The ash victims were test subjects. The survivors are all excellent vessels. In fact, several of them have already proven the theory true.”
I kept my head down and willed myself to breathe even though thoughts of Bryn seeped through my control and filled me with the most unimaginable dread. His footsteps passed, and I let my breath out slowly. If I tried to summon my power, he’d know. I had to be still.
“A disembodied soul, a trapped one, like Solomon’s, is weak, you see. It does not have the power that a Revenant or a Wraith has. It can’t fight, can’t win control unless control is given. That’s what ash does. That’s what ash has done to your sister.”
My teeth clenched hard.
There was no more movement, no more talking. And then faintly, very faintly, I heard the sound of Llyran’s low chant. Shit! He was calling the darkness! The wind grew. Leaves and dirt flew up all around me. Louder and louder until it sounded like a wild boar dashing through the woods.
I felt it, all over me, all around me. My body vibrated. I lifted my head as a thick tendril of darkness rose up like some gigantic smoke serpent and dove for me. I darted from my hiding spot and ran, dodging branches and falling over bushes, tumbling head over ass and coming up right at Llyran’s feet.
My heart hammered. I grabbed his ankle and sent my power through my hands, not having to hide it now, not having to hold it back. He jumped, his concentration on the darkness lost, leaving it to disperse.
I got three steps away before he grabbed my collar and jerked me back. I punched him in the throat, sending my Char power through my fist as I did. Llyran flew back. I couldn’t let up on him, though. I ran after him, leaping as a bolt of power shot from his hands and circled around my waist, lifting me up high and slamming me down hard against the stone pathway. Pain shot through every part of me, leaving me breathless and stunned.
His footsteps approached. There was a crash in the distance. A growl. Llyran reached down and jerked me up only to punch me in the face. I saw stars. My vision wavered. He hit me twice more, holding on to one of my arms to keep me upright. I swung with the other, making contact but not enough to do any damage.
I punched him once more in the groin.
The idiot obviously hadn’t learned to protect himself there. He doubled over and I grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down as my knee went up and connected with his face. He screamed and fell backward, his eyes bleeding to black as I turned and jumped into the jungle to the sound of him tearing after me.
My lungs strained. One eye was swelling shut. My face was being cut by every branch and leaf I darted past. Llyran tackled me from behind and I went facedown in the dirt, suffocating. His hand gripped the back of my head and pressed, holding me down, shoving my face farther into the soft soil, and he was laughing.
My arms and legs flailed, but it didn’t matter, none of it mattered if I couldn’t breathe. My lungs sucked dirt into my nostrils and down my windpipe. I choked, tried to cough, but there was no air. Panic had my heart pistoning like a steam locomotive. The strain and burn in my chest was unbearable.
Eventually I stopped fighting. My heartbeat slowed. My mind became hazy. At least Pen had the ring. He’d take it to Liz like we planned and Aaron would be saved. Llyran’s “cause” was gone without the power in the ring to raise the star. He’d lost, and he didn’t even know it.
The wild boar sound coming through the forest again. Raging, growling. So close.
A split second of nothing and then an “oomph.”
Llyran’s hand was suddenly gone from my head. I pushed myself over onto my back as air poured into my lungs. I wheezed, gasped, and coughed up dirt to the sounds of snarling and curses. And I looked over to see glowing red eyes.
Brimstone?
I pushed to my elbows. No, no, no …
Fuck. No.
Emma. She’d sent him. The baying in the streets. She’d sent him to protect me.
Llyran’s shock wore off and he tore the hellhound from his shoulder and flung him into the artificial jungle.
Oh, Em. Why did you send him?
Llyran appeared above me, bloodied and heaving and furious. He threw his hands skyward and yelled at the darkness. I couldn’t see it, but I heard it: Brim’s high-pitched scream as branches snapped. Piercing. Terrified. And I knew. The darkness had him.
Satisfied, Llyran snatched my ankle, turned, and dragged me through the undergrowth. The back of my head banged over the choppy landscape. My hands flailed, trying to find something to hold on to. Just as Llyran stepped down onto the stone pathway I saw it—a juvenile Throne Tree. Once he got me back onto the path my chance would be over. I reached and grabbed, snagging one of the thin branches and then letting the momentum of Llyran’s pull snap the twig.
The back of my head cracked against the stone as he dragged me onto the path and outside to the terrace and the waiting sarcophagus.
Dawn had broken.
The chasm in the darkness was lit up by orange and purple and the tiniest shaft of sunlight over the horizon, the beauty of it shattered by horror as a flash of movement drew my attention. Brimstone, wrapped in darkness, then tossed like a stuffed animal into the open air beyond the terrace, one last cry echoing from him as he fell.
My fingers flexed on the twig as that distant cry tore into my heart and buried there like a venomous thorn. Hot tears leaked from my eyes, and for a moment I wanted to give up.
Llyran dropped my ankle, turning to loom over me. He leaned over to grab my wrists. My arms were still straight above my head from the drag, making him bend over my body to snag my arm, exposing his chest.
One shot that might not mean anything at all. But I had to try.
As his hands reached for mine, I gathered my last ounce of strength and made my move, jerking down my hand and then shoving the Throne Tree branch into Llyran’s heart, using my other hand to push, rising from the floor and screaming in pain as I did, using everything inside of me to make sure it reached the very center of his black, rotten organ.
He gasped, straightened, and then took two steps back and sat down. I collapsed back, breathing hard and teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.
His hand curled around the twig. “Nice try, Detective.” Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and his irises became blue once again.
“Throne Tree ink is deadly, didn’t you know?” I forced out through gasps.
A painful smirk spread his lips. He pulled the twig out. “Nothing can kill me.” His throat worked with a hard swallow. Thin lines of sweat ran down his pale face. Was it working?
“Your star will never rise,” I said. “And the ring will be destroyed. You’ve failed. And all those people you killed … may they haunt you into eternity.”
Llyran’s eyes darkened. With one last surge of strength he rose, still gripping the branch tightly.
At the same moment a piercing, bestial cry rent the air and shook the tower. Pendaran’s great black body shot up in a spiral past the rooftop, soaring high into the sky where his great black wings unfurled. He turned on a wide arc, the abalone shimmer flashing as a shot of sunlight hit the
underside of his wings. And then he dove for the tower. In his talons was the small body of Brimstone.
I was frozen in place by the sight, but Llyran paid no attention. His mouth moved. The darkness slowly began to close in around the chasm of dawn as another shaft formed and shot after the dragon. The great Druid King swooped toward the terrace, his wings sending a gust of wind flying across the rooftop as he released Brimstone six inches from the ground. The hellhound landed on all four feet, body coiled, lips drawn back in a fearsome snarl, and eyes bright. As soon as his paws hit, he was running, fixed on Llyran.
The darkness wrapped about Pendaran as he soared out over the terrace, but it disintegrated as soon as Brim hit Llyran. They went down in a tumble of screams and snarls and blood. Brim tore out a huge chunk of Llyran’s shoulder.
Enraged, screaming, knowing his goals were so far out of reach now and determined to take out his vengeance, he shoved Brim back, his face red and straining and gripped with bloodlust. He pinned the hellhound to the ground and stabbed him in the belly with the Throne Tree branch, over and over and over, lost in a murderous frenzy.
An icy scream ripped from Brim’s throat, propelling me up even as my insides curled in revulsion. I crawled to the side of the tomb, ignoring the pain firing hot, achy signals through every part of me, and pulled up, catching a glint within the sarcophagus.
No, not a glint—a fucking shining-ass sword.
Without thought, tears streaking down my face as Brim breathed his last breath, I grabbed the hilt of the sword, crying out as flame shot up my fingers, searing a path higher and higher.
The sun broke over the horizon, poured through the hole in the darkness, and bathed the rooftop in white gold.
I turned, raised the divine weapon, and brought it down with every last drop of will and strength in my body. It sliced clean through Llyran’s skull, going all the way down to his groin, cleaving him in two and leaving fire in the wake of the wound, one that spread outward and engulfed him.
Gasping, and nearly blind with pain, I dropped the sword, my arm hanging limp at my side as I shoved one half of the burning Adonai aside with my boot and then fell to my knees in front of Brim.
