The Hour of Dust and Ashes cm-3 Read online

  Surprise made me stiff as a board. His pulse beat hard through his neck. I felt it pumping against the side of my chin. We were sticky and sweaty and gritty, but it didn’t matter. My hands slid around to the hard planes of his back. I relaxed. It felt … good. Safe. Comforting.

  “You really piss me off,” I muttered against his shirt.

  He kissed the top of my head, tucked my dirty, sandy hair behind my ear, and then graced me with a crooked smile that dimpled his scruffy cheek. “A clear indication you like me, Madigan.”

  I rolled my eyes, not bothering to lift my head, but I couldn’t stop the ridiculous laughter. “Oh my God,” I breathed. “We are so screwed.” In so many ways. “What will they do if they catch you?”

  “They’d probably put me back in the grid and make sure I can’t get out. That would be worse than death and the Circe know it.”

  And his life would basically be over. Time would pass, people would come and go, and Hank would be stuck again. But he could break free from it. He’d done so before.

  “No, Charlie,” he said, perceiving my thoughts. “It took me a long time to break free. You. Emma. Everyone I know would be gone by the time I’d manage it again—if I even could. And by then …” He shrugged. “What would be the point? Everyone I care about would be gone. I might as well stay there.” His jaw flexed and I could see he was uncomfortable talking about the mortality of those he cared for. “We should get going.”

  He took the lead this time.

  I stayed quiet, mulling over his words and everything he’d gone through. He never had a life until he came to Atlanta. All those times his humor was off or he seemed a little schizo, or he steered me away from his past however he could … Now it all made sense. He’d been in my world for many years now, but he was still learn Atla to interact in human terms, learning all the subtle sarcasms and ironies and meanings of my culture. In projecting certain attitudes and behaviors, learning how to joke and make me laugh. I’m sure he’d taken his time learning about women as well, and according to Zara, he must’ve learned pretty damn quick in that department.

  But I was glad Hank wasn’t the usual siren with a couple hundred years’ worth of notches on his bedpost. I was glad he wasn’t a jaded, narcissistic ass like a lot of male sirens I’d come into contact with. And despite all he’d been through, he brimmed with iron will, strength, confidence, determination … He’d certainly come into his own as a member of society, as a man—a damn good one, too.

  18

  Hank and I hiked for what had to be a few more hours at least. The stubborn grains of sand still lurking in my shoes had rubbed my heels raw. My aches and pains from the fall still lingered, but I was too tired to heal myself, too tired to care, and too emotionally exhausted to do anything except put one foot in front of the other.

  Eventually, the ravine grew shallow. The direction turned north, so we climbed out to stay on an easterly track. The slant and the jagged rocks made it easy to grab footholds and handholds in the ravine walls. The sky remained clear of nithyn. Nevertheless, as soon as I made it out, I stayed down and turned to call for Brim, letting out a low whistle.

  He circled below, whined, and then ran at the wall, his long claws digging in and propelling him up the rock.

  “Good boy,” I whispered, patting his head.

  I crept over the rocky outcroppings to where Hank lay on his stomach and dropped down beside him. The low gray sand dunes that greeted me caused a shudder to rush down my spine.

  Across the sand, the dunes rose to another ridge that fanned out into a plateau littered with ruins. Moonlight shone over gigantic slabs of broken stone. A few intact columns jutted into the sky and practically glowed in the light. Others had fallen or were broken in half. A large Throne Tree grew on one corner of the ruins.

  “Look,” Hank whispered, pointing up.

  Three nithyn flew over the ruins, circling like vultures. One dove down and landed at a fresh nithyn carcass that looked like it had been torn apart. The handle of an axe jutted up from the dead animal. “Looks like Rex had his work cut out for him.”

  “The nithyn are still circling. Rex and Bryn must have made it inside the ruins. We need to get you inside and through the portal.”

  “Wait a minute.” I stared at his profile. “What do you mean, me?”

  “Meaning if anything goes wrong, you go through that portal with or without me. If you’re not back in time to receive the sylph’s gift of fire, the other gifts will kill you. So what I’m saying is, don’t risk it.”

  I hated this kind of talk. I started to say something to that effect and he stopped me. “I’m serious. You have a family, Charlie. That trumps everything else, including saving or waiting for my ass. I want your word.”

  My family meant everything to me; he was right about that. But the fact that he didn’t consider himself important as well truly annoyed me—that and the rocks poking my ribs. “I think you’re failing to recognize one very important thing.”

  “Enlighten me, then.”

  “You’re my family, too.”

  I meant it, but I couldn’t help but smirk because the times were few and far between when I could make Hank Williams utterly and completely speechless.

  His mouth actually fell open. His irises shifted from sapphire to topaz blue as though he had no idea how to feel. His lips snapped shut and he looked as though he was about to make a comeback, but then frowned when he realized he didn’t actually have one.

  I reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “Didn’t think of that one, did you, siren?”

  I belly-crawled closer to the edge of the rocks. After a moment he joined me, his face a bit redder than before.

  “Hank?” I said, a thought occurring. “Rex said to concentrate on a specific place when you go through the portal. That’s how you arrive at your destination. I want you to think of a place those sirens can’t find you. Don’t come back with me.”

  He was shaking his head before I even finished talking. “I ran the first time because I was vulnerable and weak. I didn’t know how to defend myself. But that’s in the past, Charlie. I’m done running.”

  “Oh, and then what? They take you and put you back in the grid? All because you’re too proud to run?”

  His eyes rolled. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “No.” I blinked, feeling confused. “I just mean it’s a bunch of them against two of us. By now they’ll know where you work, who your friends are, everything about your life. What’s so wrong with laying low for a little while?”

  “Because they will always have someone watching my old life, that’s why. That means I can never come back. This time, I fight. For what’s mine. For the life I’ve made. I know what I promised Edan, but there are Malakim in those towers who don’t deserve to be there, and when they run out of steam, more children will fill their places. I kept that ring as a reminder. I’ve always known one day I’d go back and stop them. I’m not running away, Charlie. This time, I’m no child in a man’s body.”

  I knew about making a stand. I’d done the same. I’d fought for my life. I’d fought to keep my daughter. I’d chosen to bring darkness to the city in order to save my kid. How could I lay there and convince him to not do what he thought was right?

  “Fine,” I finally said. “Let’s just get back to the station. We’ll figure out something from there.”

  He leaned slightly so he could reach out and flick the ends of my hair. He winked. “That’s better.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”

  He eyed the nithyn and the mile or so we had to run across the sand. “You ready?”

  I let out a deep sigh “No. But when does that ever matter?”

  “Before we go,” he said as I turned to him, “I think this is the part where we’re supposed to kiss before facing mortal danger.”

  I blinked, flustered for a second by the chang
e in direction. I was starting to suspect Hank took great pleasure in keeping me off-balance like this. “Says the guy who’s pretty much immortal,” I pointed out.

  A boyish white smile broadened his face and crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Just admit it, Madigan. You like me. And saying so before we get ourselves seriously injured would be good.”

  “Sure, what’s not to like?” I said flatly, rolling my eyes.

  He frowned. “I am a siren. There is a difference between being into me and being into the siren.”

  So which one was it? While I was the type of person who, no matter how gorgeous the guy, could be turned off by a shitty personality, a siren was a different story. Whether you wanted to or not you were lured in. So in that respect, Hank’s question had merit. And unlike most sirens I knew, he actually cared about the answer.

  But more importantly, I saw the vulnerability in his words.

  He wanted to be liked, not because he was a siren, but as a person, one who wasn’t as confident as he let on. One who never got a chance to grow his confidence naturally like the rest of us. One who’d been forsaken by his family, his race, and the girl who promised to wait for him.

  Of course, he was completely confident in his virility, in his power and ability to attract and please. That was never in question. But under all that was a vulnerable soul who wanted someone to care about him—not because of what he was, but because of who he was.

  “Charlie, when we get back … if they come for me, I don’t want you to fight.”

  It was my turn to frown. “And you’ve known me how long?” I shook my head. I knew why he said the words, but they made me angry, too. “Forget it. If you think I’m going to let them take you back to Fiallan, think again.”

  He leaned in, slid a hand behind my neck, pulled me toward him, and kissed me hard. Then he leaned back and searched my face. “Thank you. You don’t owe me. I didn’t have anything to lose when I fought for you and Em. No children, no family, no one waiting for me back home. You have everything to lose, and those who came through the gate won’t care.”

  I swallowed hard. “I’ll do what I think is right. You don’t even know what we’ll face when we get back.”

  “Yeah. Unfortunately I do.” He looked out over the sandy plain and sighed. “I’ll take the one on the column.” The biggest nithyn perced on the top of a broken column. The other two flew circles above. Waiting. Waiting. “Can you run and use your power at the same time?”

  “I can try.”

  “I guess we run like hell.” He was already surging to his feet.

  I ran after him. Brim bolted past me in a blur of speed.

  We made it halfway across the plain before the nithyn spotted us. Hank stopped and lured the one coming in fast.

  He stood still, waiting and mumbling, luring, enticing the beast to dive faster and faster. Closer and closer. I stopped running and screamed his name. Hank dove at the very last second. The nithyn crashed into the ground. Hank rolled, leapt up, grabbed its neck before it could get its bearings, twisted, and broke it. Patient. Efficient. Deadly.

  “Charlie, duck!”

  I belly flopped immediately, not even looking at the incoming bird. Wind blew over my face. Sand pinged me. Claws dug into my back. I screamed. Air rushed down all around me as the nithyn lifted.

  A shot of nitro hit the tip of its wing.

  I flailed, reaching around to grab at the leathery ankle. After three tries I got a good hold, sending everything I had into my grip.

  Cold, cold, cold, I chanted, I imagined, I felt …

  It dropped me six feet above the ground and let out a wounded cry. I landed belly first in the sand, flipped over, finally able to pull my gun, only to see the largest nithyn crash into the wounded one.

  They tumbled through the air, landing in a rolling ball. I looked away from the macabre scene and focused on getting back on my feet.

  A few feet in front of me, Brim circled and whined. He lay down and rested his jaw between his front legs. Alarm crept up my spine. I went for Brim, but only made it one step before I came face-to-face with the shadow creature.

  I drew up short and gasped. Brim whined again.

  It hovered inches from the ground. A tall, black form without solid mass and as terrifying as before.

  Had it jumped planes? Jesus. My mind raced. Had it sensed my use of power earlier and had come after me? Come this far? Sensed it from another world?

  What the hell was this thing?

  My fingers flexed on the grip of my gun.

  I saw beyond it to Hank. He was running toward me. Sand kicked up and circled around me and this creature. It spoke and the ground under my feet trembled.

  Shadowy tendrils reached out, wrapping around me. The main mass of the creature pulled toward me in a blink so fast it seemed like one minute it was a few feet from me and the next it was inches from my face.

  I swallowed, poised and still, utterly at the mercy of this thing.

  Darkness that went on forever is the only thing I saw on the inside of this creature. Yet somewhere inside of it was a voice, a mouth, some type of creature, I was sure of it. Maybe one that didn’t want to be seen …

  It spoke again, this time with an inflection that suggested a question had been posed. My body thrummed, the words ebbing deep into my bones. A question I had no idea how to answer.

  Then it drew back, spun, drawing all of the shadows back into itself. It disappeared like a puff of wind, gone on a breeze. The sand tornado around me dropped. Brim lifted his head, stood, and shook off the sand as Hank came to a stop, heaving from the run. “That was it? That was the creature?”

  I nodded, rubbing my arms as the nithyn’s death cries drew goose bumps along my skin. It made me shiver, cold despite the heat of the hot, dry dunes. At least it hadn’t gone through me this time.

  Hank was staring oddly at me. “You realize it jumped planes.”

  Yeah. I did. And it scared the shit out of me. If that thing was lured by my power and had the ability to cross dimensions whenever I used it … Not good. It had probably felt the first time I used my power fighting off the sand lizards and it had just taken some time to get here. All it had to do was hang around and wait for me to use it again and voilà.

  “Come on, they can’t be far behind us.” I took off toward the ruins.

  The ruins of the Temple of the Moon were colossal. Stone blocks the size of city buses littered the ground. Yet another testament to the god-like structures of the off-worlders.

  “Rex said the portal is under the altar.” I climbed onto a fallen column where I stood to survey the complex, trying to envision it as it had once been, to get a better idea of where the main temple might be. A piece of Bryn’s skirt had been wedged between two stones, a marker from Rex no doubt. “Hank! Over here!” I slid off the column and scrambled over the ruins.

  Hank studied the narrow, slanted opening near the stones. “Footprints, too,” he noted, looking around. Brim trotted over and began sniffing. He darted inside the dark passageway. I pulled out my flashlight.

  The passage was only wide enough for us to go single file. Blocks of stones stuck out of the walls, making us twist and angle our bodies around to make way. Eventually the space opened up to a larger area filled with fallen stones. The floor was streaked with footsteps. Rex must’ve cleared enough stone away to make the small passage.

  I climbed through. “Be careful. This leads down into steps.”

  Stone debris littered the way, but the going was relatively simple and soon we came to a dark chamber deep beneath the temple complex. Our lights beamed over large stones, fitted perfectly together. Side reliefs of jinn warriors had been carved into the walls, enemies and creatures subdued beneath their feet. Two ancient fire basins of black marble sat at opposite sides of the room.

  In the center of the floor ringed in smooth black stones was a circular pool. Very shallow and filled with a substance that looked like liquid mercury.

  “What is tha
t?”

  Hank stopped beside me. “The portal; I don’t see anything else down here that could be it.”

  “Well, they were here. Their footprints are all over the place.” Mytrailed over the dusty floor. “And look, there’s a dusty handprint on the stones. They must’ve made it through …”

  Hank knelt down, examining the stones.

  “Rex said to feed my power and think of where we wanted to go. He said the station, to concentrate on the station. The cell block.”

  “Using your power draws that creature. I’ll use mine.”

  “You think Elysian power is going to work in a Charbydon-created portal?” I asked dubiously.

  “We can try.” He placed his hands on the stones and closed his eyes. Instantly the energy in the place changed. A soft yellow glow began to form beneath his palms.

  And nothing else happened.

  Finally he opened his eyes, his brow furrowed. “Let me try this.” This time he stuck his hands into the pool. The strange liquid seemed to conduct power and the entire thing shimmered in a golden light and then dimmed. Again, nothing.

  “Here, let me try.” I returned my flashlight to my belt. “If this works, we’ll be gone before the Grim Reaper gets here. If he jumps planes behind us, we’ll deal with it at the station.” All that mattered was getting home. “You ready?” I asked.

  Hank nodded. I shoved my dirty hands into the liquid. It closed around my skin, heavy and thick, the consistency of honey, but dry and cool. I closed my eyes and brought to mind the hum, the memory of the power—how it tingled through my body, set me alive …

  “It’s working.” Hank said.

  I peeked. The pool shimmered blue, very similar to the colors of the sphere back at the terminals in Telmath and Atlanta. It began to swirl, going around and around until it resembled a whirlpool, the middle a long, bottomless pit.

  “Hook your arm in mine,” I said. “Think of the station, the cell block …”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” I just hoped Bryn had been strong enough to think for herself and concentrate on the cell block, too.