Ash
SIX MONTHS AFTER THE WAR
“Get him out of here!” I felt hands lift me up, the world blurring and moving around me until my gaze caught on a familiar face.
My lids narrowed, anger bristling, seeing the disappointment and frustration on her features.
Not that anyone could tell. Her expression always came across as unemotional, but I knew her too well.
I had seen that look for centuries, only used on me once before.
When I ended our friendship because my ego couldn’t take the rejection.
Kitty’s finger pointed to the door. “You aren’t allowed in here anymore.”
“Fuuuckk off.” I wiggled out of the grip of the huge bouncer Kitty had at the club now. A whole new section of entertainment and alcohol. One I had frequented a lot until she tossed my ass out, but she could never stay mad at me, and I wormed my way back in.
Though tonight she hit her limit.
Get in line.
Warwick, Brexley, Scorpion . . . shit, the brownie and imp wouldn’t even come near me anymore.
I was even sick of myself, but I couldn’t climb out of the darkness.
It had wrapped around my soul, seeping violence and rage into every pore.
The only way I could deal was to not be part of reality.
The moment I surfaced, the pain was too much. It killed any light.
“Get out, Ash,” Kitty lifted her chin.
“Come on . . .” I slurred, staggering, the room not staying even. “This is a whorehouse!” I tossed up my hands. “I just cut out the going upstairs part. Saved you a room.” By getting a blowjob right at the bar, not aware enough to care that it was in front of everyone.
Fury scraped across my memory, me yelling at the girl to go deeper, though it didn’t do anything for me no matter what she did. Her hair was too brown, her eyes not dark enough blue. It wasn’t her . . .
Or him.
“I run a respectable establishment.” Kitty motioned to the door again.
I snorted, lowering Kitty’s lids into slits.
“Get out.”
This time, the huge ogre practically picked me up, hauling me to the exit.
“Ash?” Kitty’s voice curved my head. “I lost you once. Don’t force me to lose you again. I want my brother back.”
Her words hit some place deep in me, like spikes in my gut before the bouncer threw me out, my face hitting the pavement with a smack.
Fuck.
I lay there, feeling people walk right by me, no one giving a second glance to a drunk lying on the ground in the middle of the path. This place was full of losers like me.
I want my brother back.
The echo of her sentiment was the same as Warwick’s.
And their disappointment in me, and my own, only dragged me down more.
They were all thriving, all doing something to help this city move on from the destruction and years of suffering.
Killian had officially opened the Parliament building today.
Hordes of people were there, awed by the new House of the People, while I stood outside in the exact spot my loves had perished.
Their blood could still be seen soaked in the asphalt.
Where I should have laid down with them.
Their smiles and laughs echoed in my head, never giving me peace.
I found myself at Kitty’s, trying to forget the pain.
It was in my nature to help, always being the one everyone leaned on for support. I could hold nothing and no one up, though. It was me, for once, who needed the help. I needed to be saved.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t function. I couldn’t stand myself sober. The nightmares pounced on me the moment I started to come down. Reenacting Lukas and Kek’s murder over and over.
I dulled every sense with drugs and alcohol, finding my way to seedy opium dens where I’d have moments of clarity, realizing someone was sucking me off or fucking me. Man or woman, it didn’t matter because none of them were right. None of them cured what my heart was crying for.
The three of us had never put labels on what we were.
At first, we were just enjoying it for what it was, but the more we all got to know each other, the deeper we fell.
We just worked. I was happy. Very happy.
It felt like something that would last, which was not something I ever had before.
The only other person I thought I loved had been Janos.
It didn’t hit me until I met Kek and Lukas that I had fallen in love with someone who didn’t even exist—an idea of someone.
Lukas and Kek opened me up again, made me feel again.
I couldn’t let that go. I couldn’t let them go. The best times were when I forgot they were dead, that my skin hadn’t soaked in their blood. That my two lovers hadn’t died right in front of me. We would see each other later at home.
I wished it had been me instead.
“Get the hell up.” A woman’s voice tangled in my ears, wrapping around my heart, lifting my head with hope.
“Kek?” I blinked, my vision blurry, but I saw blue hair and a male figure standing beside her. “Lukas?”
“What are you doing?” Lukas squatted down, his face hazy, but those blue eyes looked sadly into mine.
“I don’t want to be here without you guys.”
“Tough.” Kek put her hands on her hips. “It’s time to stand up and sober up. Take a shower. You smell like shit.”
A snort coughed up the back of my throat. Kek was always to the point. No time for bullshit.
“I miss you guys so much it hurts.” I rolled onto my back, my lids squeezing together at the movement.
“Hey?” A hand nudged me. The voice was all wrong. “Get up.”
When I opened them this time, two strangers peered back at me. A girl wearing a blue wig, and a young fae man, trying to push their cart past me.
I blinked, feeling the dagger stab into my heart. The loss all over again. Slowly, rolling up, I moved out of the way, letting their cart pass me.
Sorrow filled my bones, and I staggered forward, stopping where a crowd was building up.
My attention went to the girl twirling fire sticks while doing acrobatics on a hoop swing.
Her features caught my eye, sobering me up slightly.
They were split down the middle. Two different color eyes and hair, reminding me of Ember.
A Dae. They were very rare. To the point I wondered if more than a handful existed in the world. They had been brutally hunted down by Aneira and killed.
Now it was Ember hunting down the monsters.
Like you should be doing. My mind went to Sonya, who gladly let her son be killed by her other son. She murdered Kek.
Sonya and Iain. They took from me. They ripped my world apart. They were still out there. Alive. In hiding. But they were still free.
As the girl flipped and performed, something filled my chest, dissolving all the pain and sorrow and growing my anger into something else.
Something stronger. Something that drove hate into my muscles and poured acid into my veins, but for once I didn’t shun or try to escape the feeling. I wanted it. It made me feel alive.
It tasted like . . .
Revenge.
I would do it for Kek and Lukas.
They deserved everything. They deserved someone who would bring their killers to justice, not get drugged up and pass out on the street.
Pulling back my shoulders, I took in a huge inhale, my hands yanking out the drugs in my pocket. Staring down at them, I paused.
Do it, Ash.
Quickly, I chucked them into the trash, strolling out of Carnal Row.
Whatever I had to do, wherever I had to go, I would track Sonya and Iain down.
I would avenge Lukas, Kek, and all the loved ones she took, the lives she destroyed.
I knew this was what I had to do. Bring justice back into balance.
Tree fairies were known to be calm and even-tempered, in harmony with nature and magic.
And when you fucked with nature, we fucked back.
We rained down in fury and blood.
Until you were Ash . . .
The End of One Story Is Merely the Beginning of Another . . .