29. Ash
Chapter 29
Ash
Crisp winter air wrapped around my body as we slowly walked back to the estate. Not a word was said between me and Jerek as we went. Snow fell gently down from the heavens, leaving a thin blanket on the ground. I turned my face up toward the dark sky to watch the brilliant little white flakes make their way down in the glow of the outdoor lights. I imagined Nan sending the flakes down from heaven. The deep agony that lived in my stomach was all that remained of her.
Davis met us at the gates, and Jerek handed me off to him, murmuring something about finding Kane.
“This way, Princess,” Davis said, gently prodding me onward and back to the mansion. A snowflake twinkled down, landing on my cheek and melting before I turned and followed Davis. I didn’t feel the coldness of the snow or the tiredness that nagged at my body. The empty ache of sorrow replaced everything else.
The night was quiet except for the silent hum of the lights on the exterior of the buildings and our feet crunching through the snow. I wasn’t dressed for the harsh winter temperatures and hugged my arms to my chest not to stave off the cold but rather to try to hold myself together. Jerek’s coat did little to keep the icy breeze from snaking up through the bottom and chilling my skin. A few soldiers flitted about, hurrying back to the cover of the buildings.
When the mansion came into sight, someone leaned against the wall next to the back door. Davis’s steps turned tentative, and I pulled at my powers to see if I knew who it was and if they meant any harm.
The bald man from the party the second night. The King’s advisor…or one of them. I could see him, but I couldn’t read the words that came out of his mouth, only his actions, just as before. A sudden wave of weariness suddenly hit me, and I struggled to keep my ability thrumming.
We stepped closer, and the bald man raised his head, pulling his face out of the shadows. He wore a dark knit cap pulled low on his eyes to protect his head from the cold. Pushing off the wall, he moved closer until we were within speaking distance. Davis stood protectively in front of me, seemingly trying to hide me from view.
“Advisor Davis, can I help you?” Davis’s voice sounded weary. Advisor Davis?
“So formal, Son. Hurry, hand her over. We need to take care of the King’s mistake quickly.”
My eyes flew to the back of Davis’s head, but he didn’t so much as glance at me. I saw it then, Davis Sr. reaching for me, and I backpedaled away, altering the future. My gift sputtered, and suddenly I felt extremely exhausted, as if using it so much in such a short time had drained all my energy.
“Not here. It’s not a good time,” Davis Jr. said, and his dad looked at him like he had grown two heads. I let go of the thread of my power for a moment to try to build up the energy I would surely need if Davis Jr. didn’t win this argument. A breeze raced across my skin, and I shuddered from the cold.
“Sam, this might be our only opportunity to finish her.”
Sam, the answer to the question I hadn’t realized I still had about whether Davis was his first name. I stepped back further, wondering if I should run for more guards, only to see three soldiers step out of the shadows at our backs.
“Dad,” Sam growled. “This is not the right time. She might be the only one that can find what you have looked for all these years.”
“I don’t care,” Davis Sr. spat. “She needs to die before she can infect any more people with her ideas.”
The three soldiers moved closer to us, obviously under Davis Sr.’s authority. They all eyed me with angry glares, ready to end me at the slightest movement.
Sam glanced behind him and noticed I wasn’t there. He saw the soldiers that closed in behind us and quickly moved back until he stood by my side. His eyes moved around, wide with worry. I had seen the look many times before with my prey; he was searching for a way out.
“Dad, please. I’m telling you, this is not the right time.”
“Why are you still standing in my way, Sam? This is your last chance to do the right thing. Hand. Her. Over,” Davis Sr. demanded.
“You’re going against the King’s wishes; do you really think that is a smart decision?” Sam seethed .
My hands twitched for a weapon at my side that wasn’t there. Sam had a gun at his side, but that did me little good.
“I think Maximus will forgive me when he realizes how many people I have at my back,” Davis Sr. shot back.
“He does not stand for people who defy him. You’ll be dead before you can explain yourself,” Sam hissed, his shoulder bumping into mine as we got further boxed in. “I am her guard. Have you considered what would happen to me if she went missing on my watch?”
Davis Sr. stopped and contemplated his son’s words for a moment. He reached his hand under his coat at his back, and the glint of a gun shone off the overhead light. He inched closer to us, and I wasn’t sure if Sam could see it or not. Sam left his gun by his side. Davis Sr. wouldn’t shoot his own son, would he? Probably not, but he would most definitely shoot me. I tugged at the thread and could see mere moments in the future. He hadn’t acted yet, and I released it, feeling more exhausted than ever.
“Maybe you’re right, son.” I didn’t believe him, not for one second. I took another step backward, the snow crunching under my feet. Sam planted his feet, and his father stood so close his foggy breath dusted over Sam’s face. Like a flash of lightning, Davis Sr.’s hand whipped out to hit Sam over the head, and Sam deflected with a grunt and a blow to the arm.
I pulled at the thread with my remaining strength and didn’t like what I saw. I bolted in the next instant, leaving Sam and his father battling for the gun. I moved through the soldiers at my back with ease, knowing the door to the mansion was locked, and I didn’t have a key. I ran back into the shadows of a building and pressed myself against the wall. I could see the back fence from there, but no one else was in sight. I knew what I had to do in order to survive. Get tough or die.
Two soldiers flew around the corner, and I surged into action, using my gift to see everything. I stuck my foot out, tripping the first soldier and grabbing a knife strapped to his thigh. I moved before they even knew I was there, sinking the knife into the second soldier’s leg, leaving him rolling on the ground in pain.
I pulled the knife out before the first soldier regained his footing, his next move obvious in my eyes. He went for his gun, and I swiped out, landing a cut on his wrist, the gun thudding to the ground. I picked up the weapon and aimed it at him but couldn’t find it in me to end a life. Instead, I aimed low at his leg and pulled the trigger before he could make another move.
My gift faltered, and I didn’t see the third soldier come around the back of the building before he was on top of me. He crushed me to the ground, knocking the gun from my hands. I tugged and tugged at the thread, wishing to see what he would do next, but all I could see was blackness. I was too weak to use it anymore. Exhaustion clouded my mind as my face pressed into the snow, stinging from the cold.
My eyes locked on the outer fence as the soldier gathered up my hands to tie them up. Movement from inside the fence caught my eye. It appeared to be a white blob moving through the snowflakes until the weight was knocked off my back, and I took a deep breath of chilly air that burned my lungs.
I jumped to my feet to see the white wolf attacking the soldier with jaws clamping around his throat. Crimson bled onto the white skiff of snow. The soldier screamed, and I raced back toward the mansion before the wolf had a chance to devour me next. The soldier’s screams melted into nothing as I ran. I swore I could hear the wolf racing behind me, but when I glanced back, nothing was there. The screaming and gunshot would draw more people there soon enough.
I got back to the place where Davis Sr. attacked us and found Sam in a lump on the ground. Blood leaked from a wound on his head, but he wasn’t dead, only knocked out cold. Davis Sr. was nowhere around, probably taking off after me. I needed to hurry. It wouldn’t be long before either he or the wolf came back.
I searched Sam’s pockets until I found the keys to the door. I couldn’t leave him out here in the snow with a feral wolf on the loose. He tried to protect me. Not everyone was like their relatives, if my grandfather and I were any indication of that. I hooked my arms under his shoulders and pulled him to the door, my body running off pure adrenaline on the verge of passing out.
When I made it to the door, my fingers felt like they were made of ice. I fumbled with the key until I eventually found the right one. I opened the door and dragged Sam inside, resting his back against the wall. He would have a massive headache when he woke up, but he would live. What was I doing saving a soldier, especially one whose father was out for blood? My blood. I couldn’t think about that now. I forced all the feelings down, deep inside, and locked them up.
I shook my head and threw Sam’s keys at his chest before rushing back to my room. When my door finally shut behind me, I rushed to the bathroom and yanked off Jerek’s coat. My hands landed on the counter, and the vault my emotions were in was suddenly too weak. I was too weak. It cracked open, and every emotion I had came rising to the surface. Tears sprang from my eyes, and I peered at myself in the mirror and hated the girl I saw. The dirty orphan girl, the one whose father left her behind, the one whose sole family member was now gone. The foolish girl who was too naive and infatuated to see the betrayal right in front of her eyes, and yet somehow still loved the man who’d done it to her. I loathed every single thing I saw in the mirror.
I frantically turned on the water, scrubbing my hands clean of the blood that covered them. I felt drunk on misery and exhaustion. My head was too light, and my heart was too heavy. I stumbled over to the window and collapsed on the floor in an exhausted heap. Tomorrow was a new day. Tomorrow I would make them all pay. I let the tears flow until there was nothing left but numbness, my emotions bled out of me until I was only a shell of a person, filled with hate.