The Hour of Dust and Ashes (14 page)

“What’s wrong, Tennin?” he asked in a menacing tone. “Your moles not listening to you anymore? Or maybe,” he ventured, “you’re not the one in control after all? Is that it?”

Tennin’s eyes brightened even more. I’d only ever seen them this bright once before, when he’d killed
one of his own tribe members here in this very room with a thought. Something, I hoped, he could do only to other jinn.

He pointed the jar at Hank. “The last time, I was aiming for your skull.” He stuck out his other arm and the battle-axe hanging on the wall flew into his outstretched hand. “Let me try again.” As soon as it met flesh, Tennin threw it. It sailed end over end, whooshing like a countdown clock. One. Two. Three.

Hank ducked as I leapt to the side. The axe slammed into the wall behind us, cleaving the rock and sending pulverized bits flying in all directions.

I swallowed, heart pounding as I straightened and rested my hand on the hilt of my firearm. This was not good.

Hank rose to his full height, casually wiping the bits of rock from his jacket. He gave Tennin a challenging look. “Missed again.”

“Who’s giving the suicide order?” I interrupted before they went at it.

A slow grin split Tennin’s face. “You’re like a blind nithyn in a nest full of moon snakes.” He waved his hand around. “Going around and around. Lost. Stumbling.” He shook his head, turned, and then flung the last spirit jar at the fireplace. It hit the mantel and smashed into a spray of tiny fragments.

After the last piece hit the ground, Tennin moved to his table and sat down, propping his booted feet on the corner of the table. “Tell me, Charlie—how
is your Revenant companion? He remembers his jinn past now, yes?”

“You know he does. But if you think he plans to join with you, you’re wrong. Rex is one of the good guys.”

“And I am not? Come, Detective. Be nice. Your Rex will turn in time. He is a jinn after all. He knows what he is. Matter of time. That is all. You will see.”

Rex had come to Tennin to find a way to repay the twenty-one-thousand-dollar collection debt I’d been hit with, thanks to Rex’s oversight. Tennin had waived the fee in return for Rex agreeing to drink a potion that made him remember his past life, his original, physical life as—surprise, surprise—a jinn. It had worked. Rex remembered. And Tennin got what he wanted, though what his ultimate goal was regarding Rex remained a mystery.

“Run along, blind nithyn, run along,” Tennin said, shooing us away and chuckling to himself as a pair of jinn brought out his meal.

I had to actually tug on Hank’s arm to get his feet moving. I’d gotten the information I’d come for, and I sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Powers That Be that we’d arrived when we did.

Once we were in the club upstairs and headed for the door, I said, “He’s not the one giving the suicide order. And he’s pissed about it.” So pissed that he was destroying the spirit jars. “Could you tell how many jars there were?”

“No. But there had to be at least four, judging from the debris.”

If there had once been Sons of Dawn spirits contained in those jars, Casey and Mike could’ve accounted for two of them. Amanda, and possibly Bryn, for another two.

As we left the Lion’s Den, a flash of movement to my right caught my attention. I followed it, peering into the darkness as my eyes adjusted to see a dark figure—female and small in stature. The shadow darted into the alley that ran between the Den and the apartment block. Soft, feminine laughter echoed in her wake, a daring kind of laughter, the kind that said
Are you brave enough to follow me?

“You heard that, right?”

“The laughter? Yeah.” Hank was looking in the same direction.

“I bet that’s a sylph. Come on.” I took off at a run toward the dark alley. And she was not only going to give me her gift, she was damn sure going to tell me how to use it.

The alley was pitch-black, reeking of urine and tar mixed with smoke. Obstructions rose up in front of me so fast I only had a second to adjust and then jump or dodge as I hurried after her. A dim light illuminated the end of the alley and the narrow delivery street that ran behind the backs of the buildings.

Laughter again. Echoing. Taunting. Calling my name. Oh, yeah. Definitely a sylph.

A shadow passed through the light. Metal banged. I raced around the corner and slid to a stop, scanning the area.
There
. A small metal service door
hung open. I scrambled over a discarded couch to get to the door.

This was one of the entrances that led to the old sewer tunnels and supposedly intersected with the MARTA rails. The sewage system was long gone, leaving behind some impressive Gothic architecture and brick-domed tunnels.

My boots on the metal steps rang softly through the dark space below me.

“You sure about this?” Hank whispered above me, following me down.

“Yeah. Once you’ve seen a sylph …” I dropped to the ground and stepped away from the ladder. “Shadows or not, there’s no mistaking it. I know it’s her and I need that gift.”

I pulled my ITF-issued flashlight from my belt and aimed it down both sides of the long tunnel. Hank dropped down beside me and clicked on his light. We followed the soft echo of laughter.

The scents of earth, bricks, and musty water hung heavy in the air as we went through the tunnel. The ground vibrated. A loud rumble filled the space as a MARTA train passed somewhere close by.

As the rumble slowly disappeared, a shadow appeared far down in the center of the tunnel.

The hairs on my forearms stiffened. My fingers flexed on the barrel of the flashlight. Anticipation heightened my blood pressure and added to the adrenaline already pumping through my system.

Hank turned to me suddenly and grabbed my arm.
A deep frown marred his shadowed features. “Christ, Charlie, what the hell am I supposed to do, watch it kill you?” He glanced down the tunnel. “Don’t ask me to do that. Don’t ask me to step aside and just stand here.”

I hadn’t thought about that. I knew what was coming for me, but the idea that Hank would have to stand by and watch … He just wasn’t made like that and it showed in his aura and the chaotic anger emanating from him. He was tense, jaw tight, holding the flashlight so tightly, his knuckles were white.

He released me, his frown deepening in exasperation. “Why are you smiling?”

Before I could think better of it I grabbed his face. His stubble scratched my palms as I rose on my tiptoes and kissed him full on the mouth and then stepped back.

He stared at me, dumbfounded.

“Thank you,” I said, removing my jacket and weapons and then handing them to him. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

I jogged down the tunnel toward the sylph.

She was petite, pretty, stockier than the other two. A tough little thing by the expression she wore. Her brown hair was braided in several small cornrows and pulled back into a high ponytail. It made her large eyes look more slanted and her cheekbones more prominent. A brown tattoo fanned out from the corner of her eye in a swirling design, like some intricate
leaf, and her irises burned a mean green flecked with brown.

She wore a gold torque and two gold armbands, and a bare minimum of clothing like her sisters, though hers looked like some kind of suede material.

“Earth, I presume,” I said, coming to a stop before her.

“Emain,” she introduced herself. “And you’re Charlie.”

“I am.”

No sooner than the words were out of my mouth, the ground trembled at my feet and opened up. Hank’s shout behind me filled the tunnel and mingled with my gasp.

One minute I was standing and the next I was waist-deep in the earth, completely trapped. The faint beginnings of panic flirted with my mind. Dirt hugged me from my chest down. But my arms were free, thank God.

My flashlight was kicked out of my hand. It hit the wall and landed on the ground. It remained on, however, and while it wasn’t pointed directly at me and the sylph, it was enough to illuminate the space and allow me to see the legs in front of me.

The bare knees bent and Emain’s face appeared in front of me, one side illuminated and the other shadowed. The skin closest to the ground shifted color, blending into the shades of the dirt like a chameleon’s. “Neat trick,” I said, trying to control my breathing.

Her face moved closer, eyes narrowing. “Tell your siren to back off or he’s going under.”

Hank’s shadow fell over us. I angled the best I could to see him standing there, chest heaving from the run, one hand holding the flashlight, the other holding his Hefty. His gaze was pinpointed on the sylph.

“Hank.”

He wouldn’t look at me, determined to keep the sylph at bay. Finally he flicked a glance my way and his eyes were hard as granite.

“No, Charlie, I—”

“Damn it, Hank.” From the first moment I accepted Nivian’s gift, I was on a path I had to complete. He knew it. I
had
to do this. And worse, he had to let me. “Just be here when it’s over.”

He swore. Turned, took two long strides to the wall, and punched a hole in the brick with an Elysian curse. I might’ve heard the crack of bone, but I tried not to think about it as Emain flicked the ends of my hair and smirked. “Do you accept my gift, Darkness Bringer?”

“Yes. Just get on with it.”
Before Hank goes ape-shit.

A slow, menacing grin grew on her face. The earth shuddered around me. I swallowed, commanding my heart to slow.
Don’t panic. This is her price, whatever it is. She won’t kill you. This is for Bryn. For Bryn. For Bryn …

And then I was sinking, the ground eating up my sides, forcing my arms up above my head. My eyes went wide, fixing on the sylph in horror as she slowly
sank into the earth in front of me, feetfirst as though in quicksand. A sigh of pleasure went out of her.

The dirt was to my chin now.

Hank slid down, digging the dirt around my chin before it claimed my mouth. It was too late for him to stop things, but despite that, he dug frantically. His tormented eyes met mine. Despair thickened his voice. “Damn it, Charlie …”

Cold ground touched my bottom lip. “It’s okay,” I hurried.
Oh God
. I started gasping, knowing I’d need air and trying like hell not to panic. Emain stopped her descent into the ground and winked at me at eye level. “See you below, Charlie Madigan.”

Adrenaline shoved my heart into overdrive. I took one large draught of air and held my breath as my mouth and nose slid into the ground. Dirt filled in my ears, but not before I heard Hank curse with a catch in his voice and then threaten the sylph with every possible torture imaginable if I didn’t come back up.

I said a quick prayer and closed my eyes.

The last thing I felt was Hank’s hand. He grabbed mine and squeezed with encouragement before the earth swallowed me whole.

And then there was silence.

I was cocooned in pressure and weight. The sound of my own heartbeat drummed loudly and rapidly in my ears.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Going down. Down deep into the ground. My lungs burned. I couldn’t move, couldn’t struggle.
Claustrophobia took hold. It was worse than drowning because at least in the water I could move, I could struggle.

The pain, the pressure in my chest, burned a hot path through my blood vessels, stinging them, vibrating them. My mind went cloudy.
For Bryn.
My fingers curled, packing dirt beneath the short nails. It was the only movement I could make. My arms were trapped straight above me. The dirt pressed in on my body, my neck, face, eyelids, and mouth. God, my mouth …

I bit my tongue.

White erupted behind my eyelids.

I gasped.

For a split second I felt relief but that was immediately taken away by the dirt sucked into my mouth. No air. Just dirt. And then I was gagging, gagging without air to facilitate the action. Desperate, painful, familiar gulping for something that wasn’t there.

Finally my mouth stopped moving as it filled with dirt. My chest kept lurching. In and out. Slower and slower. Still mimicking the need to breathe.

The hum is what first stirred my detached senses. It was a welcome sound, a sound that carried life. Energy. Connection. I felt wrapped in the Earth’s womb. And she was alive. Pulsing. Powerful. And I was part of her, part of the cycle now. All of me, splitting apart, degrading, nurturing and feeding the soil.

Time disappeared. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Reclaimed. Dispersed. Just particles. Matter.

Eventually there came, at some point, a sense of body.

Floating, contained, wrapped in dirt, eyelids once again feeling the pressure, the weight. And it felt nice. This quiet. This cocoon.

So quiet, the city began to leak into this place. A thousand voices. A thousand random thoughts not my own. They came at me, at first just a slow trickle that became stronger and stronger until the pressure built inside of me, bloating me.

“Fighting, always fighting,” came a soft voice.

Emain.

My mind withdrew from the edge of panic. She was all around me, forcing the hum into my skin, pressing the earth closer around me, filling me, opening me up, and breaking me apart at the same time.

“I see you, Charlie Madigan. I see you now. You are as they say. Never doubt the
Ceallachan
. They spoke of a day when darkness would come. And here you are.” This pressure, this suffocating invasion, was too much, even for my unconscious self. “So much chaos inside of you. Fractured. She, Mother Earth, can repair this. Fix this. You’ll need to be whole for what’s to come.”

No, no. No more,
my mind cried.

“Fighting, always fighting …” The space went silent again and peace settled around me.

Then Emain’s voice again. “The gift is yours. Your
last gift will come soon. Once each element is inside of you, they will join to make a new element. Nwyvre. You will be transformed, able to see the energy, the magic inside of everything because you will
become
magic. It will happen at once. And then, after a time, Nwyvre will fade and you will be as you once were …”

Her voice faded, and I relaxed back in the embrace of Mother Earth, letting my mind go.