Kelly Gay: The Hour of Dust and Ashes

A welcome spike of adrenaline surged through me.

Rex let out a huff and his arms dropped limply to his sides as he glared at Tuni and me. “You guys are like two little old ladies over there talking. Shut up already and let’s kick some oinker ass.”

“Rex,” I warned, as the argument between the Pig-Pen and the fae continued, “stay behind me. I don’t want anything happening to Will.”

An incredulous snort came out of his mouth, just as one of the Pig-Pens shoved a fae.

And that was it.

I ignored the thrumming vibration of power stirring inside of me and whipped my Nitro-gun from the holster under my arm, flicked the setting to stun, and fired as Rex engaged with his chair legs.

“Damn it, Rex!” I yelled at him.

He didn’t have to fight, siem">

odds were in our favor to begin with. Sure, there were eight of them, but the sidhé fae were preternaturally efficient and could dispatch ten times their number with ease.

“Charlie, duck!” Rex shouted. I dropped to the floor and rolled, barely evading the bolt of power that surged over my shoulder. “Damn it, Rex! What the hell are you doing?!” I pushed to my feet, angry that he put Will’s body in danger, no matter how good he was.

“Again, with the saving your ass!” he shouted back.

One more attacked him, and the black mage went down swiftly. “Come on! Who’s next?! Here piggy, piggy, piggy! Soooo-eeeeey!” Rex’s voice rang with laughter as he faced another.

I never knew a human body could move that fast and beautifully. Rex had tapped into his former self—the jinn warrior he used to be before his spirit had been forced from his body during the Great War in Charbydon. He’d said he was the best … and watching him now, I believed him.

A boot connected with my kidney.

I flew forward, gun tumbling from my hand as hot pain burst through my torso. I fell to my knees, gasping. Fuck. I’d allowed Rex to distract me. Stupid mistake.

I rolled onto my back as the electric hum of power began to flow through my limbs.

The Pig-Pen attacker stood over me with a leer, his hands cupping a bright red ball of energy.

My chest swelled and my arms and hands went numb—a searing, painful numb like the pricking of a thousand red-hot needles. A scream built in my throat and all I knew was that I had to get rid of it. I sat up, overwhelmed and blinded, and threw out my hands, releasing my chaotic energy.

It all happened so fast. Once second I was flat on my back and the next, a bolt of blue energy slammed the Pig-Pen square in the chest, sending him flying across the room and through the drywall.

Jesus. I sat there panting as the faint hum of power receded. The room had gone quiet.

The sidhé fae calmly sheathed their weapons. They hadn’t even broken a sweat. I put my palms on the dance floor, about to push to my feet and approach the leader of the fae, when a deafening report tore through the club.

I bent over, hands pressed over my ears. An enormous vibration rang through the club, as though some kind of sonic boom ripped the air apart. The shock wave shook the ground and my surroundings, every bit of glass in the club shattering.

What the hell?

As the roar diminished, I let my hands fall from my ringing ears. Glass pinged the floor, the lighter bits rebounding and hovering in the air for a split second before being whisked sideways as if caught in a freak current. Another shock wave?

Other things were picked up in the strange current—paper, napkins, credit card slips …

Warnings darted under my skin like tiny fireballs. I crawled a few feet to retrieve my gun and shoved it back into the holster under my arm.

“Rex!”

More debris began to tornadoback und the club.

“Charlie!”

There. He was hunkered down behind an overturned table. “Run!” I shouted. “Get out of here, now!”

Rex stood to yell back at me, but a flying bar stool hit him in the back of the head. He landed motionless at the feet of the sidhé fae leader. The fae’s gaze went from Rex to me, and in that grim, knowing expression, I understood. He knew exactly what was happening.

The fae shouted a stern order to the others in his old language.

And then it dawned on me—nothing close to me was moving. While debris spun around the perimeter of the club, I sat in the center of an eerie quiet.

The eye of the storm.

Fear threaded into my psyche. I swallowed hard, slowly standing, wary of the circle of spinning debris. Stay calm. Balance. Be ready. I bent my knees, centered my weight, and crossed my right hand over my chest, poised to grab the gun under my left arm.

Something darkened in the spinning debris, catching my eye. A shadow. Then it simply glided out of the chaos.

A tall mass of gray. A suggestion of a tall, cloaked being. Yet it swirled and moved, becoming so thin at points that I could see straight through it.

It was in front of me in less than a second.

I stayed rooted to the spot. A shot, a kick, a punch, would go right through this creature. Still my fingers flexed over the grip of my weapon. A comforting gesture, because the more I looked into this … thing, the more darkness I saw—a terrifying, empty void.

It leaned closer. My pulse thrummed like a freight train.

A deep voice spoke, and there was so much power in it that I swayed on my feet. Primal. Ancient. Frightening as hell.

And then it enveloped me.

One gasp was all I had before it flew at me, passing completely through my body and coming out the other side.

Invaded. Turned inside out. Violated.

I dropped like a stone.

I awoke to Rex’s tiny, repetitive taps on my cheek. For a moment, all I could do was stare in shock as my brain scrambled to make sense of my last coherent memory—the terrifying shadow passing through my body. All five senses came flooding back with the memory, leaving me feeling exposed, raw. Weak.

I honed in on the worried face above mine.

But in my disoriented state, all I saw for a moment was Will. Will’s face. Will’s body. Handsome. Tall. Athletic. The concern shining in those stormy blues and the gentle smile was so much like him … But it wasn’t him. It was Rex in control now. I let my head fall to the side, irritated that my mind had gone there for even a second.

The club was in utter ruins. Employees and bodyguards picked over the rubble, righting chairs and tables …

“Come on, sunshine,” Rex said. “Time to go.”

I grabbed his outstretched hand and let him pull me to my feet. My vision swam and my stomach gave a sickening wave. The groan was out of my mouth before I could stop it.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said through gritted teeth. “Let’s get out of here.” Before Alessandra got there and started assessing damages.

I started moving toward the exit until her last words struck me still.

Do me a favor and don’t summon your power tonight, ’kay?

“Charlie?” Rex was a few feet in front of me, his brow wrinkling.

I’d summoned my power. The loud crack. Then … that thing had come. And she’d known . I turned and marched toward the tunnel, my strength and fortitude returning.

“Oh man, here we go again …” Rex muttered from behind me, shoving debris out of his way to catch up.

Alessandra was already striding through the tunnel toward me, her angry steps matching my own. The light from the temple behind her lit the veil over her head and shoulders like a halo. Her eyes glowed in what could only be called Pissed-off Green.

We met in the middle of the archway. I’d never seen the oracle so angry before, but the implications of her wrath—and their consequences—were lost on me at the moment because I was just as steamed.