27. Ash
Chapter 27
Ash
“Kane, this is a bad idea.” I shuddered as we reached the city below the estate in the darkness of the night. I remembered the hateful stares and words from the last time I came into the city with Jerek to find Denny. I hadn’t known we were going to leave the estate, and I wasn’t so sure of my decision anymore. “These people hate me.”
“Which is the purpose of the hat and the giant coat. Keep them on, and no one will know any better. Besides, when you’re with me, no one will bother you,” Kane replied.
“I wonder why? Your face screams warm and inviting. Practically a beacon for anyone to come share their deepest, darkest secrets,” I grumbled, ducking my head as we passed a couple on the street. It was fascinating to see that the instant they recognized Kane, they were the ones that ducked their heads and scurried away .
Jerek snickered on my other side, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Kane glare at him.
“Is this outing another ploy to get me to divulge my darkest secrets? Do it in the city among everyone who hates me. Expose who I am where everyone can see, so you get all the accolades and I get burned at the stake?“ I asked. Thinking of it now, it didn’t seem all that far out. What if that was his plan?
Kane winced at my words. “You think I would do that?” he asked. They way he said it was almost…sad, and for some reason, I felt a little guilty for my words.
“I don’t know you. I wouldn’t dare say what you would or wouldn’t do. For some outlandish reason, you seem hell-bent on helping me, but I don’t buy it. You’re probably just trying to get me to trust you so you can stab me in the back later.”
Kane’s jaw muscle clenched as we walked. Was I right? Was he getting irritated because I was on to his schemes? A rock sank in my gut, and I realized his kindness had already gotten to me. The way he taught me to be stronger, the way he gave me a choice—it was already softening my cold, dead heart. My breathing grew more hectic. Was I so stupid to believe another man with pretty eyes because he showed me a bit of kindness? How foolish was I?
“I said it once. I won’t say it again, Blondie. I am not Etan.” His voice was as dark as the night.
“That’s for damn sure,” I mumbled. At least Gabe seemed torn up about stabbing me in the back.
We walked in silence through the darkness and into the lighted streets of Hope. Then we veered north, and as we moved, the pristine shops and homes turned into shacks and broken-down buildings. Smoke and a scent like a swamp drifted along the chilled breeze. People huddled around barrels of burning rubbish to stay warm, and a few laid on the streets—I wasn’t even sure if they were dead or alive.
Kane looked at me, and his face hardened. “It’s the slums,” he whispered. “All these people have nowhere else to go. No trades, no connections, and they do not know how to survive outside the city.”
My heart ached for these people. This side of the city was vastly different from the perfect, gleaming streets and buildings to the south. Honestly, this place reminded me more of home than anywhere else I’d been. I felt the pain etched on the people’s faces, the hunger gnawing inside their bellies, and the shivers from the inability to warm up in this weather. Why did Kane bring me here? Why was he showing me this? My chest came alight with anger, the only emotion I could feel as of late. How could the King let the people in his city live like this?
I could feel Kane watching me closely, and we walked onward. My hands bunched into fists by my side.
“You said you wanted to see other people like you. Well, this is the closest I could get you to the Pit,” Kane said as we ducked into an alleyway behind a large building that stuck out like a sore thumb. It wasn’t crumbling like the rest of the buildings and appeared like it was maintained. We strode along the brick wall until we came to a door.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“This is where they have the underground rankings fights,” Kane said as he took a key out of his pocket and turned it in the lock, swinging the door open. Warmth rushed out to greet us as we stepped inside. The room was constructed of some sort of cement block, but that wasn’t what caught my eye first. My gaze immediately went to the large window opposite the door we walked in. Outside the window, dozens of soldiers dressed in black with blue armbands milled about, slightly below the room where we stood, like this room was a special sort of box to watch what unfolded below. Soldiers stood, watching two men in the center that sparred with their fists held high. The faint noise of excited chatter drifted through the door next to the window, which led out to where the soldiers were. What is this?
I tugged my hat lower, shrinking in on myself. I didn’t want to be around this many soldiers, and if I could see them, then they could see me. Why would Kane bring me here?
“They can’t see you.” Kane’s voice sounded from right next to me, making me jump. I turned and peered at him, and I could see it. Powerful. Dangerous. Dark . He stood next to me, eating up the oxygen in the room. “It’s a two-way mirror. We can see them, but all they see is the mirror.”
I moved closer to the window, curious about if what he said was true. Soldiers moved by the window but didn’t look twice in our direction. Jerek and Kane moved up to either of my sides to watch with me.
A faint, sickening crack split the air outside the room, and one of the battling men crashed to the ground with a heavy thud. Cheers for bloodshed ricocheted off the walls, the soldiers eating up the gore in front of them.
I glanced away and caught Kane’s eyes—he watched me carefully from where he stood. “He’s gotten better,” Kane mused under his breath, looking back at the man who still stood.
As soon as the fallen man picked himself up off the ground, Kane’s eyes fell on mine once more. “Welcome to my world, Blondie. ”
Our eyes stayed connected in a charged moment as I noticed the tiny scars dotting his face and his beautifully crooked nose. Something like pity crept into my heart for him as I searched those gray eyes. Did he choose this life? Was he forced into it like so many others? Was there some other reason he was here besides hatred for his own kind?
I swallowed hard and turned away before he could see any emotions cross my face. “Why are we here?” I asked.
“Keep watching,” Kane instructed. “You can learn from watching.”
“So, this is another training session then?” I asked. But why did he say this was the closest we could get to the Pit?
“Something like that,” Kane said.
The men in the circle started fighting again, this time with much more ferocity. The one that had fallen before now seemed hell-bent on revenge. He attacked brutally, all while blood ran down his face from his nostrils.
“Does anyone ever…die?” I gulped. “How do they know when to stop?”
Kane didn’t meet my eyes. “Yes. Men have died before. The only way out is unconscious, dead, or winning.”
“Is that how you got to the top? You killed men to get there?”
He turned away and put his hands on the windowsill, staring out intently at the fight. “I did what I had to.”
I shook my head in disgust.
He met my eyes, searing me with granite intensity. “The world is not black and white, Ash. There is only gray.” Just like those eyes that saw so deeply inside of me. “I’m not a good man, but I do what is necessary.”
“Necessary for what? To protect a man that murders…” I left my words hanging between us. He knew what I meant. To protect a King that murders people just like him and me.
Crack.
I’d been too distracted by my conversation with Kane to watch the fight. One of the men stumbled back from the blow to his face, with fury in his features and eyes on someone in the crowd. He regained his footing and was on his toes again, like the hit knocked some sense into him. Then, the fallen man went for blood. He attacked with a fury of flying fists. Lethal rage shone in his eyes. He ducked under a punch and landed a solid blow in the other’s gut. The one that wasn’t bleeding balked and stepped backward, leaving his face vulnerable. The fallen man took the opportunity to rain down blows on his face before the other kicked out with his black boot, landing a kick to the fallen man’s thigh.
“What did he do wrong?” Kane asked next to me.
“Put his guard down because of pain.”
“Never let your guard down. Even if you have been sliced from your stomach to your throat. You never, ever let your guard down.”
I saw it then, the cold calculating eyes. The way he dissected every slight movement of the battle before him. There was no wonder in my mind as to how he demolished everyone he fought. It may not be brute strength, though he seemed to have plenty of that, but the way he thought quickly and calculated everything. Like his brain worked faster than everyone else’s.
The fallen man resumed his offense and kept landing blow after blow to no-blood’s body, finally landing one on his head hard enough to send him sprawling onto the cold cement floor, not to get up again .
Some soldiers cheered with bloodlust and others with hate at the fallen man taking down no-blood, who I suspected was a very competent fighter.
Kane moved then, pushing himself off the windowsill and stripping off his coat. “Stay here. Whatever you see, do not come out the door. I have to go referee,” he said before giving Jerek a look and leaving. I’d forgotten Jerek even stood there. It seemed Kane’s presence was the only one that completely derailed my frazzled brain. I watched Kane’s back as he moved through the soldiers and to the center of the circle, all of them giving him a wide berth.
As he walked, I glanced around the room, taking in more of my surroundings. This room wasn’t just any room. There were chairs behind us, one too fancy to be in this dreary room, with plum red cushions covered in velvet and intricately carved wooden arms. A table stretched out next to the chairs, and on it sat an assortment of refreshments. The scent of roasted meat and sweet fruit wafted into my nose for the first time.
“What is this place?” I asked Jerek.
“The King enjoys coming here and watching. The room is often set up for him by the maids who work in this building. Kane told them we were coming tonight.”
“Is the King…”
“No, he will not be here. He is preoccupied in a meeting with the advisors.” That must be the same one that Gabe had to attend.
Kane caught my eye again from where he spoke with soldiers in the middle of the ring, and he glanced in our direction like he could feel my stare. “Is he in charge of these underground fights?” I inclined my chin toward Kane.
Jerek nodded. “They don’t fight without his permission. ”
“So, the King knows of the underground fights?” I questioned, shuffling my feet until I leaned on the windowsill with my elbows.
“He encourages them. What you just saw is only a precursor of what’s to come.”
“What are you…” My voice trailed off when I looked past Kane to where two soldiers dragged in a blonde woman through another door. I instantly stood ramrod straight as they pulled her to the center of the circle where Kane stood. “Jerek, what’s going on?” I asked urgently.
“Underground fights are called that because they are against blondes. They bring them from the Pit,” Jerek said nonchalantly.
Shock prickled my skin. But she was a woman! And a tiny one at that. This couldn’t be. Kane glanced our way again before unlocking the cuffs around the blonde woman’s wrists. She was so small, but she looked older than me. I tried to decipher the look on her face, and the only thing I could think was that it was a look of pure determination. Kane moved away once she was released, and went to a chair at the edge of the circle and sat down with a bored look on his face. The fallen soldier who’d won still stood on the other side, preparing for the fight. The blood was wiped clean from his face, and he danced on his toes, staring down the woman.
I pressed my hands against the glass. “Jerek…please, this can’t be right,” I whispered.
He only shrugged and looked on as the woman and man began circling each other. I noticed Kane glance toward us once more. What was he doing? Why did he bring me here? How could he sit there and watch with no emotion on his face?
“It’s how the King ensures we are prepared should we encounter any blondes, and how Kane finds some of their abilities…other than the arena that you were in. ”
Then, the fallen man attacked, but the woman darted out of his reach with unusual speed, racing under his arm. She smiled ever so slightly as she jumped behind him and sent a fist flying into the back of his head before bounding away. The fallen man looked utterly shocked. His expression matched my own; she was fast. Extremely fast and agile. She may be small but made up for it with her quick feet. Maybe she did have a chance.
This was part of training, or at least that’s what Kane said, but why did he want me to see this? I peeled my eyes away from the fight to glance at Kane, who sat in his chair, presiding over the event like he didn’t have a care in the world. He leaned back with his legs spread wide and his arms resting on the sides of the chair as we watched the fight unfurl. Then, like he knew I was watching him, he glanced our way again, and I didn’t miss his tight jaw and slightly wild eyes.
Both of our attentions were pulled back to the fight when the blonde woman raced up to the fallen man, darting under his fists and landing blows of her own without him getting so much as a scratch. The fallen man was far larger, and her blows seemed like throwing pebbles at a bear, not affecting him in the least, but I could tell he got more annoyed with every jab. His anger skyrocketed by the moment.
“Jerek,” I said again, my voice wavering. “This isn’t right, please stop this.”
That was when it all went terribly wrong. The blonde woman was faster than anyone I’d ever seen, but the man managed to get a hold of her wrist when she attacked once more. Without the ability to dart away, she was trapped. The fallen man began to reign blow after blow on the blonde woman. No. I’d had enough. I had to help .
I surged forward toward the door, and Jerek grabbed a hold of my wrist, stopping me in my tracks.
“Don’t,” he said. “You can’t help her.”
The pure rage that came alive in my body and thrummed through every nerve ending was like nothing I’d felt before. My eyes whipped back to the blonde woman as she fell to the ground, the man continually pummeling her until blood leaked from her face. I searched for Kane’s eyes again. How could he let this happen? But he didn’t glance my way. A tear streamed down my face as the blonde woman fell unconscious in a heap on the ground.
Suddenly, I couldn’t look any longer. I jerked out of Jerek’s hold and stumbled over to the table, my mind racing for ideas. How could I use my ability to help? I could feel it, thrumming in the back of my mind. My hands landed on the refreshment table, and my chin fell to my chest as I breathed hard. It suddenly seemed so clear to me why I was here. Kane wanted to prove to me that I would lose in the end, just like the blonde woman, and by the way I could feel Jerek’s eyes on my back, they thought I might snap and show my ability, too.
Well, they were correct. A wooden skewer sitting on the table, covered with meat, caught my attention. I gradually moved my hand until I reached it, pulling it back toward me and ripping the meat from the wood. I peeked over my shoulder, and Jerek still stood, staring at me. Behind him, soldiers dragged the blonde woman from the circle and back out the door. If I could disable Jerek for only a moment, then I could get out the door we came in and maybe around the building to intercept the soldiers taking the woman back to the Pit. Then, we’d run. I didn’t care what previous plans I had; I wanted to leave. I wanted to get out of this hellish place. I couldn’t stand to watch anything else like what I’d just seen .
Jerek stepped up behind me. “Princess,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes for a moment, steeling my nerves and watching the future play out in my head. Then, I attacked. I produced the wooden skewer and drove it into the side of Jerek’s thigh. In the moment, I didn’t care about any kindness he’d previously shown me. Right then, he was the enemy, willing to sit by and watch a soldier pummel a blonde woman into oblivion. His blue eyes registered shock that quickly morphed into pain. He was only stunned for a moment, like I knew he would be. In that moment, I fled. I opened the door we’d come in and raced out the back while Jerek yanked the skewer out of his thigh, like I knew he would.
The door slammed shut behind me, drowning me in darkness and cold. My thoughts bubbled up from my heart rather than my head, like they had far too many times, but I didn’t care. All I could see was the fallen man’s fist repeatedly ramming into the blonde woman’s face. I had to save her. I rounded the corner as the door opened behind me.
“Ash!” Jerek yelled, but he was too late. I was already gone.
Outside of the dark alleyway, people milled through the street, and I yanked my hat lower, ducking my head as I slowed to a walk. A group of people gathered at the front door of the building, where the soldiers guarded the door. They yelled profanities about killing the blondes inside, while the soldiers stood unphased. Kane brought me here to show me how weak I was, but that is not what overcame me. Powerful. That’s how I felt. I had been practicing in my room during all my spare time. The place where the visions originated was like a buzzing in the back of my head. I never realized it was there before, until my time in the arena with the cougar. I could feel it now, tug on it when I needed to. Like a thread running between my eyes and my brain, bringing the ghosts to real life. It wasn’t only there when I was in trouble or feared for my life. It was always there—a constant, thrumming companion that I could rely on and watch the future unfold before time caught up.
A careful step over a foot that wasn’t there a moment ago, a quick sidestep to avoid a jostle had me feeling invincible, walking through the people and soldiers milling about. I couldn’t see more than a few seconds ahead, but it was enough. I was untouchable and strong, something that I hadn’t felt in a long time. No one would ever lay hands on me again unless I wished it so.