Kelly Gay - The Better Part of Darkness

Charlie? Carreg’s voice swept through my mind all harsh and commanding. You need to get—

I’m a little busy right now, I said in my mind, rolling back to stare at the ceiling. The sound of the shouts and fighting suddenly seemed so far away.

Listen to me.

I didn’t. Instead, I rolled to my uninjured side, onto my stomach, and then pushed up using my hands and knees. Fuck. I hurt.

Where are you? I asked him. You should be here. Oh no, wait. Let me guess. It wasn’t to your benefit to be here.

I felt his huff and frustration more than heard it. I met with Mynogan. Get everyone out of there now, Charlie. You don’t have much time.

I pulled one foot from underneath me and used my hands braced on my knee to stand. Not without Emma .

Emma is already gone.

Glass crunched under feet. I lifted my head to see Bunhead sauntering toward me, victory gleaming in her black eyes. Carreg’s words settled in my empty stomach.

Emma was gone. I was too late.

My nostrils flared. Failure and rage stung my eyes and sent a new batch of adrenaline surging through my system. With an angry scream I rushed her, tackled her, and we both went flying to the ground. I recovered before she did, sitting on top of her stomach and wrapping both hands around her throat.

“Where is she?!” I shouted, the pain forgotten in favor of desperate frustration and wrath. “Where is my daughter?!”

Amusement made her dark eyes glitter. I eased my hold on her throat so she could speak. Her lips curled. “Get off me, you stinking human.”

I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband and rested the nozzle between her startled eyes. The familiar zing of the building nitro charge sounded in dead silence. I cocked an eyebrow. “Where is she?”

“Fuck you.”

Coldness settled over me. I shoved the gun into her mouth. “I’m going to ask one more time. Where’s Emma?”

She flipped me the bird, waving it in front of my face.

I pulled the trigger.

Her face froze in a mask of hard, horrified ice.

I rolled off of her and stumbled to my feet, eyes going in and out of focus. Everything inside of me was racing too fast—blood, heart, lungs, thoughts, emotions … I had to slow down, had to concentrate. I rested my palms on my knees and let my head fall, eyes closed and counting until some semblance of calm entered me.

We weren’t quick enough. Someone had called for help, and Emma was gone.

But the Bleeding Souls were still here.

I was without the help of Aaron and Bryn’s magic to destroy them, so I looked around the ground level until I found a water valve. There were two large ones on either side of the back wall. Glass and dirt ground into my palms as I turned the heavy wheels to release the water and flood the chamber. Then I made my way down the cavern and up the ramp to the boiler room. It was empty and quiet. My apprehension heightened. My legs trembled badly, and dirt scratched my eyes as they moved.

I had to pull myself up the steel steps, my hands a mess now. My hips ached and began to stiffen. My shoulders, elbow, and arms were drenched in blood. And my side, oh God, my side … I held my hand over the wound, but it didn’t help to stop the flow of blood. Weakness stole over me as I opened the door to the main floor and then rested against the wall, using it to help me stay on my feet as I went toward the lobby.

Heal . I commanded over and over again, knowing I had done it once. Knowing I had it in me. But I was so weak and dizzy. Depleted. There was nothing left. I wondered what Aaron would say. Probably something like You fucked up big time, Charlie . No, that would be more like Rex.

I made it to the lobby, falling to my knees at the unbelievable scene before me. “No,” the word whispered out of my cracked lips. I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping it was all a hallucination, but when I opened them again, nothing had changed.

They were all there. Rex. Hank. Zara. Aaron and Bryn. On the floor, lying entangled. “No, no, no …” I crawled to Bryn and pulled her onto her back. Her eyes were wide open. And opaque.

Ash .

“Bryn.” My voice broke as I shook her gently. “Wake up.” I knew I shouldn’t have let her come! What was I thinking? My throat closed. I rested my head against her shoulder for a long moment. “Please, wake up …”

No one was waking. No groaning or moving.

I tipped back onto my ass, too weak to move, too shocked to cry. Somehow they’d been exposed to ash . Confusion and exhaustion made my eyelids heavy. How could this have happened?

I pressed my bloody palm over my nose. It had to be airborne. I glanced down and my hand trailed a line in a faint shimmering powder. It dusted everything. Oh, God. I crawled, holding my breath until I was in the foyer and couldn’t hold it any longer.

Carreg! You have to come. They… I need your help.

No answer. I’d probably pissed him off with my comment earlier. I had to get the car, get them to the hospital. Grabbing the front doorknob, I pulled myself up and then stepped out into the night.

Bright, white light flared. I shielded my eyes.

“Put your hands behind your head and get on the ground!” a voice called through a bullhorn.

What the—

My arms were too heavy to lift behind my head, but I raised my hands and saw through squinted eyelids the flashing red and blue. It looked like the entire precinct had mobilized. Thank God. I stumbled down the two front steps. “I’m Detective Charlie Madigan,” I shouted, my voice slurring from pain, exhaustion, shock … “We need medics and—”

Guns clicked. A red dot caught my vision and splayed over my heart.

“Don’t move. Get on the ground now!”

“But I’m an officer, I—”

“Ma’am, you’re under arrest for three known counts of murder. Now get down on the ground or we will use force.”

I blinked in slow motion. The red and blue lights blended together. Murder? Ah, yes. The jinn who’d attacked Auggie. A sharp, ironic laugh spurted through my lips. I swayed on my feet. Guess Otorius had gotten out of the closet and gone over the chief’s head to have me arrested. No surprise after what I’d done to him.

Just wait until they saw the damage inside. I laughed again and then my knees gave out …

I hit the ground as blissful darkness surrounded me.

I was lost.

Dreams and images and bursts of semiconsciousness ricocheted through my fuzzy mind. Mynogan and Mott stood before me under the full moon picking pieces of my flesh like children doling out marbles. I couldn’t move. My knees sank into the soft earth and my hands lay limp at my sides. I burned everywhere as they pulled me apart.

One piece for me. One piece for you.

Then, images of the fight flashed through my mind. My friends and my sister on the floor. Falling from the window. The glass in my side, a side that ached relentlessly.

The ash .

Voices drifted like echoes, bounding off walls and hovering above me just out of range. I tried to listen, but as my consciousness finally returned, I prayed to fall back into sleep. The pain had a stranglehold over every inch of my body.

The voices became clearer. I cracked my eyes open. I was in a white room, lying on a bed and covered with a white blanket. An IV dripped steadily into a line attached to my vein. Whatever pain medicine I’d been given was wearing off at a startling rate.

A massive form in blue regalia began to take shape. “Chief?” I moaned. Speaking even hurt.

The form turned to me and leaned down. It was the chief, and the anger and concern on his face had caused a deep red blush to appear under his dark skin. “Charlie.”