The Hour of Dust and Ashes (4 page)

I honed in on the worried face above mine.

But in my disoriented state, all I saw for a moment was Will. Will’s face. Will’s body. Handsome. Tall.
Athletic. The concern shining in those stormy blues and the gentle smile was so much like him … But it wasn’t him. It was Rex in control now. I let my head fall to the side, irritated that my mind had gone there for even a second.

The club was in utter ruins. Employees and bodyguards picked over the rubble, righting chairs and tables …

“Come on, sunshine,” Rex said. “Time to go.”

I grabbed his outstretched hand and let him pull me to my feet. My vision swam and my stomach gave a sickening wave. The groan was out of my mouth before I could stop it.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said through gritted teeth. “Let’s get out of here.” Before Alessandra got there and started assessing damages.

I started moving toward the exit until her last words struck me still.

Do me a favor and don’t summon your power tonight, ’kay?

“Charlie?” Rex was a few feet in front of me, his brow wrinkling.

I’d summoned my power. The loud crack. Then … that thing had come. And she’d
known
. I turned and marched toward the tunnel, my strength and fortitude returning.

“Oh man, here we go again …” Rex muttered from behind me, shoving debris out of his way to catch up.

Alessandra was already striding through the tunnel toward me, her angry steps matching my own.
The light from the temple behind her lit the veil over her head and shoulders like a halo. Her eyes glowed in what could only be called Pissed-off Green.

We met in the middle of the archway. I’d never seen the oracle so angry before, but the implications of her wrath—and their consequences—were lost on me at the moment because I was just as steamed.

“What the hell was that thing, Sandra?”

“I
told
you not to summon your power.”

“What. Was. It?”

Emotions cycled through her expression and finally settled on something akin to spite. “Fine.” She leaned in close. “
Sachâth
. Destroyer. Death. Call it what you will. But
you
brought it here.” She poked me hard in the chest. “Now
you
have to deal with it.”

She shoved her way around me, shouting Tuni’s name and leaving me standing there in the smoky tunnel with my mouth open.

The air on Mercy Street was blessedly cleaner than the acrid haze contaminating Alessandra’s temple and club. After several purifying breaths, I threaded my fingers through my hair and gave a hard ruffle to remove the burning smell and bits of glass and debris. My jacket came off next, and I gave it a good shake.

After I was finished rearranging myself, I tucked my jacket between my legs and brushed off Rex’s shoulders.

“Ow! Take it easy there, Nurse Ratched.” He stepped away from me. “I can do it myself.”

I shot him an eye roll as he brushed off his clothes and then bent over to ruffle his hair. Small fragments of the club hit the sidewalk. He straightened. I smiled despite being so rattled. His brown hair stuck up, making him look like a kid just out of bed.

“What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Come on.”

I chose a path down the center of the carless street to avoid the after-Christmas-sale shoppers populating the sidewalks. January was just a few days away, but you wouldn’t know it from the temperature. The darkness hovering over Atlanta seemed to insulate everything beneath it from the winter weather. Or maybe, like some theorized, the darkness was generating its own energy, its own heat …

Whatever the case, I didn’t need the light jacket I slipped back on as I walked. But it covered my weapons, and I’d rather not be gawked at for parading around with three different firearms strapped to my body.

Without warning, the hair on the back of my neck stood. I glanced over my shoulder with the distinct feeling of being watched, but there was nothing unusual. Just your typical day in Underground Atlanta.

“You ever see anything like that before?” I asked Rex as we walked.

“Those old fairy dudes? Nuh-uh. And now that I think about it, I’ve never seen a Pig-Pen do that much damage.”

“I meant the creature.”

“What creature?”

“What do you mean, what creature? The one that came out of the wind. The one that went
through
me. The reason I was out cold on the dance floor.”

“I thought you just couldn’t handle the Donna Summer remix.” He reached over and patted my head.

I swatted at him. “What are you doing?”

“Checking for a bump.”

“There is no bump. It was there, right in front of me.” I used my hands to explain. “Yea big. Tall. All gray and floaty-like …”

He frowned. “That must’ve been
after
you made me get hit with a flying bar stool.”

Oh. Yeah. I’d forgotten about that. Might explain why he hadn’t seen the creature.

I pulled out my phone, hitting Sian’s cell number. “Hey. It’s me.” I proceeded to tell my new office assistant every detail I could remember about the creature and asked her to put her research skills to work. “Oh, and while you’re at it, access the gate logs and see if any new sidhé fae visitors have come through from Elysia within the last two months. And I want whatever you can find on their warrior classes, groups, sects, cults, whatever …”

My steps slowed as I came upon Hodgepodge, my sister’s variety shop, which catered to crafting, odd off-world items, and rare plants from all three worlds. “That’s it. Thanks,” I mumbled, hanging up. The
doors were open for business and shoppers browsed the aisles.

What a relief.

I’d finally convinced Bryn to take advantage of her part-time employee’s offer to run the store while she dealt with the
ash
addiction. Gemma was a retired schoolteacher and had been working for Bryn for almost two years now—just weekends and some evenings, but she’d been around long enough to know exactly how Bryn liked things done. And Bryn desperately needed the sales after having been closed during the holidays.

Seeing the female figure behind the counter made my chest tighten. It should be my sister standing there, stealing M&M’s from her stash, and talking to her array of herbs and plants. My gaze traveled up to the second story. The blinds in the windows were down. No light from within. Barren.

And it was all wrong. So damn wrong.

Bryn was currently staying at the Mordecai House, the League of Mages headquarters in Atlanta. Her choice, not mine. Bryn was afraid. Afraid to be alone, afraid of what she was capable of, and more determined than ever to uncover her lost memories. Her guilt in possibly aiding or even directly causing Aaron’s death was eating away at her faster than her addiction to
ash
.

“Okay,” Rex said after we’d passed the store. “You can say it.”

“What? That you promised to stay in the temple?”

“No, not that part. The part where you tell me how awe-inspiring I was back there. You know”—he slid a look my way—“you might make a pretty good sidekick one day.”

Oh my God.

“Rex …” I paused, forgoing the lecture because it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference anyway. “What am I going to do with you?”

A slow grin spread across his face. “Now
that’s
one hell of a question.” He threw an arm around my shoulder and picked up our pace. “So glad you asked. I have plenty of ideas. First …”

A slow, familiar zing snaked through me as I entered the crowded plaza where Mercy Street, Helios Alley, and Solomon Street converged, and made for the wide concrete steps that would take us Topside. Like the first jolt of a drug-induced high, the Charbydon genes inside of me responded to the forty-mile swath of darkness that hovered above Atlanta and its outskirts.

I hated that I was getting used to it … that, little by little, I was coming to terms with the inevitable. The Charbydon and Elysian DNA that had been given to me as I lay dying ten months ago was altering me from the inside out, changing me into something new, or something old if I believed Aaron’s “divine being” theory.

But it wasn’t the darkness that made me stop in the middle of the plaza.

It was Alessandra’s comments about Hank that had quietly tunneled beneath my confidence, making fine cracks in my trust.

Just like she’d intended.

People passed by, conversations came and went along with the sounds of traffic from the city above. And I just stood there, knowing I should keep walking, that I should have some measure of belief.

I bit down hard, grinding my teeth together with indecision. But when you’ve been burned before …

I cursed under my breath and turned away from Topside, heading toward my new path: Helios Alley. Damn her.

“Uh, Charlie?” Rex said from behind me. “We told Bryn we’d pick Em up at ten.”

Was Hank really in bed recuperating? And, worse, how totally pathetic was I for having to check? “I know. This won’t take long. I just want to check on Hank.” I cleared my throat. Since when did saying his name become so uncomfortable?

“Oh,
really
?”

I didn’t need to look at Rex to know he was smirking. I sidestepped a baby stroller. “Yes, really. Someone should go check on him.”

“No one needs to check on him. You were there when the chief told us the deal. He’s in a self-induced coma. Doesn’t need to eat, drink, or take a piss … When he wakes, he wakes. What are you going to do, stand there and moon over him?”

My stride increased. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“What the hell are you getting so defensive about?”

“I’m not getting defensive.”

“You sound defensive.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you—”

“Rex!” I stopped, letting him see just how tired I was of being provoked. “Knock it off.”

He held up his hands in surrender. “Just trying to figure out which way the wind blows these days.”

I growled and kept walking. Rex could think whatever the hell he wanted. Hank was my partner and I had every right to check on him.

I knew Hank had his secrets. He was close-lipped about his Elysian history and why he’d come here. He evaded personal questions as easily as picking lint from his sleeve. Sure, he was entitled to his privacy, his secrets, like everyone else. But at the same time, we’d been partners for three years. I’d welcomed him into my world, shared my home, my life, my trust. We’d become friends. And recently, something more than that. Hadn’t I earned some small degree of sharing in return, some trust from him as well?

Sounded reasonable.

I chewed softly on the inside of my cheek, not liking the questions the oracle put into my mind. But how much could I lay the blame on Alessandra? My trust and faith in people—or, more correctly, men—had been shaken considerably since Will.

I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, I knew that. But it didn’t stop my feet from carrying me deep into Helios Alley until I was staring at the polished brass numbers attached to the black door leading to
Hank’s apartment above Skin Scripts and Off-world Exotic Pets.

Heat formed in my belly and made the journey into my limbs and my face. Last time I was up there, the windows got blown out, and I’d almost killed my partner with the twig of a Charbydon Throne Tree. Among other things.

I rolled my shoulder, thinking of the mark Hank had given to me during our fight. It was healed now, but not even my new healing abilities could erase the light indigo scar. Odd that it wasn’t giving off the strange, feel-good sensation that signified when we were close. But maybe the brick walls and the fact that he was a story above me and out cold had something to do with it.

What the hell did I know about marks?

“We going in or what?”

I ignored Rex and let my gaze fall to the big front window of Skin Scripts. All I had to do was open the door. The artists there could tell me everything I needed to know about the mark permanently pressed into my skin. It would be even better if they could tell me how to get around the truth issue.

In the heat of our fight, Hank had given me a truth mark, which meant I couldn’t lie to him if he asked me a direct question. I could evade it, choose to not answer, but if I lied outright, the ink embedded in my skin would release a toxin into my bloodstream. It wouldn’t kill me, but it would have serious consequences. There was a time when a broken mark could
cause death, but legislation and regulations had long since prohibited actual death marks.

I headed over to Skin Scripts’s entrance, but before I opened the door I turned to Rex with a stern warning. “Not a word. Not a single word. Got it?”

An exasperated look crossed his face, but he nodded in agreement, and we stepped inside to the tiny jingle of the bell above the door.

Behind the counter, the darkling fae artist looked up from a sketch. His long fingers were splayed over a piece of heavy paper, holding it down while he drew with a charcoal pencil.

Like the sidhé fae, the darkling fae possessed a fascinating, otherworldly skin tone—a sheen, a luminescent quality that put one in mind of pearls. And it was easy to tell them apart. The darkling fae’s skin tones were indicative of Charbydon—shades of gray, some with hints of blue and violets—while the sidhé possessed lighter skin tones that reminded me of a very pale human, except for the soft, pearly glow.