Rise from Ash

by Fleur Smith

  “She . . . jumped,” Clay said, looking back over the edge and grimacing as if he witnessed something terrible at the bottom.

  Ethan picked his way around the terrain to get closer to Clay. His foot landed inches in front of my face, and I forced myself to freeze so that I didn’t cry out or move. As much as I wanted to pull away, to sink farther back into the bushes, experience told me staying still would be safer. Any shift I made would risk giving away my position with shaking leaves or rustling branches.

  After a heart-stopping moment, Ethan moved away again, edging closer to the outcrop. When he did, Clay circled around him to move between his brother, effectively blocking any view Ethan might have of my hiding place and me. Shifting my head slightly to the left, I was only just able to see Ethan.

  “I don’t see any fire,” Ethan said as he leaned a little farther over the edge to peer into the valley below. “Aren’t they supposed to, you know . . . whoosh?” His hands formed a ridiculous impression of a fireball.

  “Yep, that’s definitely what’s supposed to happen when they die,” another, female, voice called out.

  “Lou,” Clay growled. His fingers curled into fists and twitched against his palm.

  The shock that had immobilized him earlier had morphed into a rage that he was barely able to contain. Every muscle on his lean frame quivered with the effort he was obviously extolling to stay still. I longed to be able to comfort him, but I couldn’t. There was no way I was equipped to handle two attackers and, despite his earlier declaration, I couldn’t be certain of what Clay would do if it came down to a choice between hurting one of his family or saving me. Regardless, I didn’t want to be the one who forced him to make that choice. It was far too risky, and I wasn’t certain I could face Louise.

  Not now that I knew it was her who had been so close to me so many times—so willing to torture me. To kill me.

  I remained as still as possible, pressing my stomach firmly against the ground to make my outline as small as possible.

  “Clay,” she replied in a tone just as harsh.

  “Well, it doesn’t look like being dead has hurt you any,” Clay said. So much venom and rage filled his voice that even I wanted to shy away from it.

  “I saw what you said about me, it was touching.” Louise’s feet moved closer to Clay. “I’d almost forgotten that you cared.”

  “Cared is right. Past tense.”

  “Clay, don’t be like that.” Louise almost sounded regretful. “Please?”

  “Don’t be like what exactly,” Clay seethed, “fucking disgusted at you?”

  “You have to understand. I just wanted to give you a push. You needed to realize how dangerous that freak could be so you’d willingly help destroy her.”

  My fists clenched against the ground, and my skin flooded with fever. Clay had spent years grieving for his sister all because they wanted him to turn against me. Guilt ate at me that I’d left him alone to deal with all of that. I’d thought the worst of him. I hadn’t trusted him.

  I will this time. The thought stilled my body, giving me the peace I needed not to react to Clay’s family. He had a plan and this time, I would trust him with my life.

  “First,” Clay snapped back at Louise, “Evie is not a freak. She’s a person just like you or me.”

  Both Ethan and Louise scoffed at his words.

  “Second, she would never do what you did. She wouldn’t let me think she was dead, just to . . . What exactly? Prove a point? Create a vendetta? What possible justification is there for what you did?”

  “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt, and it wasn’t my intention to lie to you,” Louise said soothingly. I couldn’t see her, but I could see every reaction Clay had to her words. Despite the years we’d been apart, I knew him well enough to see he was in agony as his anger buffeted through his body.

  I longed for a better view. If something happened, I wanted to be able to see it. Instead, my vision was limited to the space a few yards ahead of my position. All I was able to do was try to calm my nerves, breathe as quietly as I could, and stay as still as possible.

  “It wasn’t utter bullshit. I was very sick, and we thought it would be the push you needed to see that she’s evil. We were going to tell you the truth as soon as that filthy creature was gone.”

  She stopped when Clay took a step toward her. Rage contorted his features, but it didn’t look like Louise was going to shy away from him.

  “Just look at me, Clay,” Louise said softly, closing the last of the distance between them and placing her hand on his arm. “She might not have killed me, but look at what she did to me. These are her fault. I was certain that if you thought she’d killed me, you’d realize the mistake you made in trusting a monster. Dad was too, that’s the only reason we ever put on that charade. She’d already laid a trail of destruction across the States by then; we weren’t willing to allow it to continue. It’s what we do. I thought you’d understand, once you were back on our side.”

  Clay began to pace, his gait wide and hurried as he took three steps and swung around.

  I hated how stressed he appeared and longed again to comfort him, but instead waited and trusted him like I’d promised I would. My mind raced as I watched for any possible chance for us both to flee and plotted potential escape routes.

  Surely, we’d be better off facing this together.

  Unable to answer the voice, I replied in my mind. Maybe, but I have to trust him. He’ll find a way to get us both out of this.

  “It’s not about sides,” Clay said. “It’s about making the choice to not kill innocent people. Evie isn’t a monster. I have research that proves it.”

  “She’s got you bewitched.” Louise’s voice was quiet and soothing—a master at manipulation trying to plead her case. “She’s a murderer, just like her mother.”

  Fire raged through me at her comment. My mother wasn’t a murderer, she’d been murdered. The leaves pressed between my fingers and the hard ground began to smolder. I tried to calm myself, drawing in breaths as deep as I dared.

  “Evelyn did this too,” she said.

  Louise moved to Clay and handed him something. Her stance blocked the object from my view, but I knew it couldn’t be anything good. I struggled to keep myself calm and still. I wanted to charge out and defend myself, and my mother, against Louise’s accusations.

  The rustle of a newspaper and knew precisely what Louise had shown him. My heart raced as I thought about the article that declared me as a suspect in the death of Luke and his mother. The article that laid out all of my apparent sins on display for the world.

  Would Clay believe the lies?

  “No,” he said firmly. “She didn’t do this. She wouldn’t.”

  “Read it,” Ethan said. “There were eyewitnesses.”

  Clay scoffed. “Just like there were eyewitnesses at the Hawthorne Hotel?” he challenged. “Or when her own father was killed?”

  It made me breathe a sigh of relief that he seemed to trust me implicitly. Then guilt twisted inside me that I hadn’t done the same for him. I’d been so sure that he was nothing more than a killer after hearing his words at my bedside. I’d been so willing to run from him because I hadn’t trusted all the words he’d uttered before then—the countless times he’d told me he loved me, or when he’d reassured me I wasn’t the monster they thought I was. Yet, he was defending me in spite of what appeared to be irrefutable evidence. I just hoped they wouldn’t be able to shake his trust in me with more lies.

  “She’s a killer,” Louise said. “If you weren’t still caught under her spell—”

  “For the last fucking time, I’m not under any spell,” he spat, interrupting her. “And I’ll gladly come with you and show you my research. You just have to promise me that Evie will be safe and left alone for the rest of her life.” I wanted to stand up and argue with him. I had experienced life without him too many times already. I wouldn’t do it again, even if it did guarantee my safety. I’d rather be in
danger and with him any day.

  As if he heard my thoughts, Clay added. “And once I convince you of her innocence, I’ll join her.”

  “We’re not going anywhere until we’ve eliminated the threat,” Louise growled back.

  “There is no threat!”

  Louise and Clay were toe-to-toe, talking at each other with raised voices, and it reminded me once more just how different they really were. He was willing to stop and look at the world with open eyes, she had hers screwed so tightly shut to anything that didn’t fit her narrowly defined beliefs. Clay’s assertions about his sister flooded my mind. Once upon a time, he’d defended her. He’d been so certain that she had a valid reason to be like she was, and I again wondered what must have happened to her for her to be so completely evil. What terrible deeds had been committed against her during her childhood, when she’d apparently been kidnapped by the fae, to damage her so completely?

  “Clay. Lou. Just stop,” Ethan said as he looked around cautiously as if he was worried the raised voices might bring someone else out. “This isn’t worth tearing our family apart over. We need to be stronger than this pettiness.”

  “The family was torn apart when he chose a monster over us!” Louise spat.

  “No, we could have still been a family if you hadn’t chosen to allow me to believe you were dead! When you all let me grieve someone who was alive and well!”

  “Clay, just tell us where the creature is, and we’ll sort this out,” Ethan said.

  “I told you already, she jumped,” Clay sneered.

  “And we don’t believe you,” Louise said. “As Eth said, there would be a fire down there and there plainly isn’t.”

  “I don’t know what to say. Maybe she’s not dead, maybe she made it down to the bottom alive. All I know is she isn’t here anymore. She leaped when she heard you coming for her. Again.”

  “Unless she sprouted wings, there’s no way she could have made that jump and lived,” Ethan insisted.

  Clay bent down at the edge of the outlook, ostensibly checking the distance, but I watched his hand close around a rock. My stomach twisted and my heart leaped into my throat as I realized what he planned. Even though I didn’t agree with his plan, I could see that there wasn’t any other option. I could also see that he’d need backup to avoid it being two-on-one. Pulling my arms tightly under my body, I prepared myself to spring to my feet and make a move as soon as he had.

  Ethan looked over the edge again and, as he did, Clay made his move. He raised the rock in his hand and stepped closer to his brother. Just as I was about to leap out too, Louise shouted out a warning and Ethan swung around with a gun raised in Clay’s face.

  I almost gave away my position as my breath rushed from my body. My instinct was to rush forward and push Clay out of harm’s way.

  Clay’s hold on the rock instantly loosened and it dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

  “Nice try, little bro, but your reflexes are a bit rusty,” Ethan said coldly as he cocked the hammer on the revolver in his hands.

  My heart leaped from my mouth in the form of a squeak of protest. It was completely involuntary, but it was also enough to draw the attention of our attackers.

  Ethan’s gaze scanned the bushes around me carefully, passing my hiding spot a couple of times but missing me each time. I couldn’t see Louise, but the pinpricks of her stare passed over me, and I knew she was scouring the area with her gaze too.

  “Now where is she, really?” Louise asked. “Where are you, Evie?” She said my name with a poisonous tone that sent shivers along my spine.

  “She jumped,” Clay said defiantly, not even flinching at the gun in front of him.

  “I know you’re up here. Come out now,” Ethan said. “Or I’ll shoot.”

  He wrapped his finger around the trigger of his gun, still pointed squarely at Clay.

  “You’d shoot your own brother?” Clay asked with an incredulous tone.

  The words didn’t seem to cause Ethan even a moment’s pause. I remembered his relentless pursuit of me years ago, the way he’d rammed my truck over and over without any remorse. He was exactly the type of person that my father had warned me about.

  “Some people will hurt you because of what they think you are. They won’t take the time to get to know you.”

  Chills raced over my body, only to be chased out again by flaming heat. He had been deadly when I’d fled from the warehouse, and he would be again now. Even before that, he’d tackled Clay. The gash on Clay’s cheek that had resulted from that altercation came to mind, and I thought it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to injure Clay just to get me to reveal myself. My heart raced, and I sank my teeth into my bottom lip as I debated between trusting Clay and saving his life.

  Clay must have guessed at how close I was to giving myself up. “Look, just let Evie go, all right?” His tone had shifted, using the patient manipulative tone that Louise had tried on him. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  Ethan cocked his head to the side and frowned. “Lou’s right, that monster definitely has you under some kind of spell. The worst part is you don’t even see it, man.”

  “I see it,” Clay said. “I see it clearer than I’ve ever seen anything in my life. There’s so much that you are blind to. She’s opened my eyes to the truth, and I know that it’s the Rain that’s the lie!”

  Ethan ignored him and cast his eyes over the area where I was hiding one more time. “I’m going to count to three and then your loverboy is going to experience heaven firsthand. One.”

  “Evie, don’t!” Clay shouted.

  “Two.”

  There was no longer a choice for me.

  “I’m here,” I said, pushing myself to my feet and moving to Clay’s side.

  Now that I was able to assess everything around me properly, I took in every detail of the scene. I stifled the gasp that almost reached my lips as I took in the change in Louise’s appearance. Disfiguring scars on the right side of her face marred the once perfect, porcelain-like skin on her face. Twisted, red, angry marks clawed up her neck and across her cheek. A lasting reminder of where her skin had been burned away by the flames I’d set.

  Ethan smiled victoriously and spun the gun around to point it at me. The sight of him holding a gun was enough to send my heart cantering throughout my body. He and Louise were the embodiment of my every nightmare. After escaping him in Charlotte, I’d hoped never to see Ethan again. When I’d seen him in Tallahassee, he’d been a reminder of the one I missed. Because I’d been able to catch him off-guard, I’d had the upper hand. Now I was closer to him than I’d ever been, in a situation where I couldn’t easily run from him, and it allowed me to drink in all of his features. He was so reminiscent of Clay, and yet harder, steelier, and absolutely terrifying. His muscles were thicker, banded and stacked like a bulldog compared to Clay’s greyhound-esque physique. Up close, he cut a menacing, and for me terrifying, figure.

  “Did you really think I would shoot my own brother in cold blood?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “You lied to him about his sister’s death,” I offered in a defiant tone. I stepped closer to him, ignoring the gun in his hand and the tight ring of fear circling my chest to meet his eyes. I wouldn’t let him see how afraid I actually was—it would only give him more strength to defeat me. “So I wasn’t willing to risk it.”

  Clay jumped in front of me and blocked his brother’s shot. “Eth, don’t do this, please?”

  When Ethan didn’t respond, Clay spun around to me.

  “Evie, just turn around and run.” His voice was hysterical, and I knew that if I died, it would end him. Tears pricked at me eyes at the thought, but I’d had to do it. I couldn’t have stayed hidden as long as there was even the smallest risk that Ethan might shoot.

  “I’ll buy you some time,” Clay added.

  I shook my head. The last time I’d run from a fight, I’d lost both Dad and Clay. I couldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t. There had to be a
nother option, some strategy that would get us away but that would allow us to stay together.

  There has to be a way.

  Louise advanced on me with a knife in her hands. Matching her steps with retreating ones of my own, she forced me back until I was on the very edge of the outcrop.

  “There is no escaping this time,” she said with a twisted smile.

  I reached for Clay’s hand. Pulling it to my face, I allowed his fingers to linger on my cheek for just a moment before dropping it again. “I love you,” I said when I met his gaze.

  His face was ashen as I stepped away from him before he could stop me. His chest heaved as fear overtook him. “What are you doing?” he asked in desperation.

  “Louise is right,” I murmured as I stepped closer to Ethan. “There is no escape. Not right now.”

  “Do you have a death wish?” he asked as he reached for my arm, trying to pull me back behind him. “They will kill you!”

  Standing firm, I allowed my skin to flush with a heat greater than any it had reached before—until I was moments away from the sunbird taking over control. It had the intended effect; I was hot enough that he couldn’t grab me again. Turning away from Ethan and his gun, and Louise and her knife, I met Clay’s gaze.

  “I don’t want to die,” I said with a calmness I didn’t really feel. “But I won’t let you die because of me.”

  Even as I took another small step away from him, closer to the edge, a crazy plan formed in my mind. Knowing it was my only chance, I had to take the risk. Sensing the gun trained on me with every movement I made, I crept closer to the edge. When I was close enough that my heels were hanging out over nothingness, I knew there was no backing out. I’d never tested the idea before—I’d never even contemplated it—but something Ethan had said had triggered a mad thought, which the sunbird looped back to me in agreement. If she thought it was possible, it might be. I just had to trust her—she hadn’t let me down before.