Kelly Gay - The Hour of Dust and Ashes

He darted from Rex’s hold, past me, and straight into Carreg’s immovable form.

He stumbled one step backward and Carreg used the momentum to turn Matsul away from him, grabbed his head, and snapped his neck, wrenching the head free from the body in a blur of speed that left me stunned, the sound of breaking bone echoing in my ears.

“Oh God.” I turned away and grabbed my stomach, forcing the bile back down my throat. “What the hell are you doing?” I gasped. “He was our witness!”

Carreg turned to me. “You believe the truth will matter to the House of Abaddon, Charlie?”

Panic and frustration formed a combustible mix inside me. I didn’t know what to do next, how to fix this, how to explain, how to—A hand landed on my shoulder. Warmth spread from my mark through my torso, dimming some of the panic.

“He’s right,” Hank said, as though somehow understanding Carreg’s sudden and gruesome action.

A lump welled in my throat as I turned on him. “I don’t—What just—How am I supposed to fix this?” I asked in a high, hopeless voice. Totally rhetorical question on my part. We were screwed.

“How you fix it isn’t important,” Carreg said evenly, totally unaffected by having just decapitated someone with his bare hands.

I spun on him with a disbelieving laugh. “Oh, it’s not? We’ve got two bodies—Brim, no!” Oh God. The hellhound was sniffing the headless neck of Matsul. Rex groaned sickly and managed to whistle him off. My stomach did a nasty roll. I turned away as quickly as possible, back to Carreg. “Everyone saw us come in here …”

“And they won’t see you leave.” Carreg crossed the distance until we were face-to-face.

I froze. “What are you saying?” I asked slowly.

The sardonic tilt of his mouth deepened. “I’m saying that I will be a hero.” Before I could blink, his hand shot out, delved into my jacket, and snatched my Nitro-gun.

Then the Astarot noble shot himself in the gut.

Immediately the nitro went to work, spreading through his organs and freezing everything in its path quicker than my ability to process what he’d just done.

Carreg’s jaw tightened. His nostrils flared. Pain swept across his face. “I will say that your bounty was in the room, but as a weak human, she did not have the power to kill the Father. The spirit of Solomon jumped into Matsul for the kill. Matsul killed the Father. I, in turn, killed him, but not before Solomon was able to jump back into your human and fled, shooting me in the process. And you went after him …”

Carreg fell to his knees. He grimaced and let out a long, controlled breath of pain. “After the shock wears off, they will question it, but with me as their only witness and corroborating Solomon’s possession, they will accept it long enough for you to escape and get back to your city. Be prepared, as they will come to you all for questioning. Make sure your story never wavers … or I will kill you myself.”

He tipped forward, palms bracing against the marble floor. His head hung low between his arms.

I bent down. “All this to be a hero?”

He lifted his gaze, black hair falling over his brow. Intensity brightened the silver flecks in his eyes. “All this … to be … king .” His head dropped. He gasped. “Main chamber. Wall relief. Warrior. Press the jewel in the hilt …”

Carreg fell onto his side.

I couldn’t move.

“Go!” Carreg hissed.

Spurred, I swiped my gun from the floor, took Bryn’s shackled hands, and pushed her quickly toward the main chamber. Solomon couldn’t jump from person to person. He was stuck inside of Bryn until she died, or an exorcist pulled him out, but the nobles didn’t know that, and they didn’t know what he was capable of. Carreg’s story might actually hold water for a little while. But not long.

We hurried into the main chamber to the wall reliefs I’d seen earlier. The black marble was covered in identical warriors, line after line of them. Way too many of them. Shit. “Start pressing hilts.”

I forced Bryn to the wall and started pushing on the small marble jels of sword hilts. My hands were shaking. I repeated this several times, my desperation building until I thought I might scream.

“I got it!” Rex whispered loudly.

A slight hiss of air sounded. I scanned the chamber and saw a small, narrow opening in the marble. Hank snagged two ceremonial short swords from one of the walls and shoved them through his belt loop, one at each hip.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We filed into the tunnel. Once inside I searched for a mechanism to close the door, knowing there had to be one. I found a small, round knob nearby and pushed it in. The door slid closed, leaving us in pitch black, surrounded by black marble.

Rex cursed. Our movements were quick but careful as we started at a fast clip through the narrow tunnel. At least the floor was smooth and the walls kept us going in one direction. Our footsteps, heavy breaths, and Brim’s claws echoed in the space.

I lost all sense of time, so focused was I on moving, getting away.

We didn’t stop until Rex’s face came into contact with a door, his whispered curses filling the passageway. I put out my hand to steady Bryn as she bumped up against Rex’s back.

“I’ll feel for a lever or a button,” Hank spoke up from behind me, so close my hair moved with his words. “Be ready. We don’t know what this will open up to.”

Or if Carreg had set us up.

I pulled my gun.

The sound of stone cracking told me Hank had found the release mechanism. Rex whispered a command to Brim. “Brim goes first,” he whispered. Light filled the tunnel, blinding us for a moment, but it didn’t take long to acclimate and see that the light was actually dim and gray.

Brim stepped out slowly, alert for signs of danger. Rex went next. Then me with Bryn, and Hank behind us.

“Holy shit,” Rex breathed. “Is this going to hold us?”

We’d come out on a small ledge in the rock that supported the nobles’ city above. I glanced up and saw the sheer walls of palaces shooting into the air. Below us was Telmath, but just a very small edge of it, since we were facing away from the city and toward one of the rock walls of the cavernous city. Hank searched for a way to shut the door, found the depression, and pushed. The door slid closed.

Rex inched closer to one side, his back flat against the rock, and glanced down. “Looks like … some steps … oh, hell no …” He straightened, eyes wide, turning his head toward us. After a steadying breath, he attempted a nonchalant shrug. “Well, if we were a bunch of Munchkins going down the yellow brick road, this would be a piece of cake.”

“Tiny steps or not,” I said, trying not to look straight down, “we need to keep going and I don’t see another way down. Let’s move and try to be careful.” I gripped Bryn tighter lest Solomon try to throw her off the rock and “release” himself that way. She’d been oddly compliant so far and it made me wonder if Solomon had exhausted his strength escaping from the cold cell, traveling—however the hell he̱d done it—to Telmath, and getting inside of the nobles’ city … Or he could be lulling us into a false sense of security or resting up for another suicide attempt later.

Whatever the case, we needed to get as far away from the city as possible.

We started moving, falling back into our focused silence, going one by one down the small footholds carved into the rock.

Step after step, story after story. And I knew far above us, they had to know by now. Carreg was probably being healed and telling his tale. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face. My clothes were damp, and I longed to take off my jacket. I would’ve given anything for a gust of cool air or a drink of cold water. But we were close to the bottom. The scents and sounds of the city grew heavier and heavier.