Ashes (Fire Within Series Book 3)

by Ella M. Lee

  “Since my escape, he’s done very little to get me back. He doesn’t want to ruffle Claudius’s feathers if he can help it, nor does he want to deal with Water turning against him. Water relies on me, and he knows that. He and I have largely ignored one another for the past fifteen years, but very occasionally, Stephan reappears in my life with some sort of message or offer. He usually sends one of his lieutenants to track me down and annoy me.

  “This time, he sent Katherine Page. Katherine was promoted to lieutenant after I disappeared. She likely volunteered herself for today’s because, well, what Stephan doesn’t know is that Kate is one of my informants within Smoke.”

  My eyes widened. I reviewed their interactions earlier, trying to reconcile Katherine being an ally with Nicolas’s taunting and myriad threats.

  “You nearly killed her,” I said.

  “No,” he said. “Kate broke her circle at the last second. She’s likely injured and in pain—as I am—but there wasn’t truly a risk of her dying. She and I drew out the conversation so that she could pass along some crucial information.”

  “Stephan is behind all of the recent attacks?” Ryan guessed. “Flame? Derek?”

  “He is,” Nicolas said. “But that isn’t the most important part. Kate needed to see me in person because she didn’t want to risk putting the key point in writing.” He sighed. “Stephan knows about our plans for Shatterfall, and he’s poised to reveal them to the world.”

  Everyone around the table froze, their expressions in varying states of surprise and alarm.

  “I don’t know how he learned of what we are doing,” Nicolas continued, “but this is some of the worst news we could receive. It means that we are all in danger. Daniel, whose magic is unique, will be wanted by Smoke. Water would take exception to our plans and consider it a betrayal. Sky and Wind would consider it an upset to the current order, and they would likely kill all of us in an attempt to stop our plans. Shatterfall makes us a threat to the magical community, and we wouldn’t be safe if they knew.”

  “Does Kate know when he plans to reveal this?” Ryan asked.

  “She didn’t say, but I imagine it will be soon. We have to strategize as though it could be any moment.”

  “But… why?” I asked. “What does Stephan gain by revealing this to the world? Your death?”

  “He doesn’t want me dead,” Nicolas said, shaking his head. “He’s needling me for some reason with these attacks. He likely wants to make some sort of deal or offer and wants to use his knowledge as leverage.”

  “How can you be sure?” I asked. “He’s tried to kill you indirectly several times now.”

  “He was likely confident none of those attempts would succeed,” Nicolas said. “He’s putting pressure on me, enough to make me act, but truly—he doesn’t want to kill me.”

  My eyes narrowed. There was something he wasn’t saying. Nicolas minced his words unless he was absolutely certain of his opinions. He must have a reason to so confidently believe Stephan didn’t want him dead.

  “Out with it,” I said. “What are you not saying?”

  Nicolas sighed. “How many of you have ever seen Stephan Wong-Lau, even merely in a photograph?”

  Ryan was the only person who put up his hand. Nicolas nodded as though he had expected our response. He plugged his laptop into our AV system and turned on the huge television at the end of the conference room table. With several fast clicks, he brought up a picture on the screen.

  “This is a photo of Stephan, taken several years ago at the G20 Summit,” Nicolas said.

  A collective gasp arose from around the table as we studied the man in the picture. He was dressed in a suit, standing on a stage with his hands spread before him, mid-speech.

  And he was the spitting image of Nicolas.

  Chapter 18

  Stephan’s eyes were darker than Nicolas’s, but they had the same perfect tilt, set deep under long lashes. His nose was the same, narrow and arrogant, between the exact same arch of Nicolas’s high cheekbones. Stephan’s skin was a shade or two darker, and his hair was straighter, but all of his long lines were an echo of Nicolas, who stood right now watching us impassively.

  Nicolas had just said he’d been in Smoke for nearly sixty years.

  “Stephan Wong-Lau is… your father?” I guessed.

  My whisper rang through the silent, tense room.

  “Yes,” Nicolas said.

  “You told me you didn’t know who your father was,” I said, recalling a conversation during our first week together.

  “No,” he said. “I told you I had never asked my mother for his name. A technical difference, but an important one.”

  “Your father locked you in a cell and experimented on you for a year?” Irina asked.

  Her quiet question hung over us as we grappled with the gravity of that. She looked horrified. The rest of the magicians at the table wore similar expressions.

  “Indeed he did,” Nicolas said.

  There was no anger in his tone, no bitterness or condemnation. It was like he was talking about someone else entirely.

  “Does he know you’re his son?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Does he know that you know?” I asked.

  “Yes, although the exact words have never passed between us.”

  “Who else knows?” I asked.

  “Any person who has seen us in the same room together, I imagine,” Nicolas said dryly. “Luckily, that isn’t many people. Some subset of Smoke magicians. Ryan and Teng have both known for ages. Claudius knows but has wisely refrained from mentioning it. This is the first time I have personally confirmed it aloud to anyone.”

  I looked at Ryan. He had his arms crossed, studying Nicolas with concern. Of course he had known. Although it might seem like Daniel was the person Nicolas was closest to within Water, it was Ryan who had known him the longest and most intimately. He was Nicolas’s confidant, and Nicolas considered him to be true family.

  Family.

  Fuck.

  “You can’t see Stephan’s actions, can you?” I asked. Nicolas had told me that he couldn’t see himself or anyone related to him by blood in visions.

  He shook his head. “No. I can’t see his future, his decisions, or events that center around him. I only have my knowledge of him to guide me, but he is far from predictable. I can’t read his mind either.”

  This was just getting better and better, wasn’t it?

  I put my head in my hands. “What do we do now?”

  For almost a solid minute, no one said anything. Finally, Sylvio spoke.

  “We run,” he said. “We get clear of Water and accelerate Shatterfall. We close on the Osaka property in a week. After that, we can move there and form the new clan.”

  I shook my head. “We aren’t ready…”

  “We’re close,” Sylvio said. “We just need to get the rest of the way there.”

  I looked at Nicolas. His eyes held disdain as they lingered on Stephan’s image. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking, or how he could stand here so calmly.

  His father was a pinnacle member of Smoke. Instead of guiding him and protecting him, his father had tortured him for months to test his abilities. His father had continually toyed with him for years, nearly assassinating him several times.

  “Do you have any idea how Stephan knows so much about us?” Ryan asked Nicolas. “His interest in Daniel isn’t a surprise—you are interested in Daniel, and the entirety of Water Clan knows that. That Daniel is talented isn’t much of a surprise to anyone. But how would Stephan know to connect that to something like Shatterfall? Our plan is far too obscure for a simple guess.”

  “And was he the one guiding Derek?” I chimed in. “How did Derek know you’d be in Shenzhen last week, or in Singapore today?”

  Nicolas pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Stephan has many things he can rely on—money, connections, power, influence, minions who worship him, and an extensive history within t
he magical world. In that regard, he is far superior to me. If he wants to find something out, it doesn’t stay hidden. He’s been covertly tracking my life for years, just as I’ve done to him, and he knows me better than most others. He is in a perfect position to guess my ideas and attempt to construct proof of them.

  “If he had even so much as a single person in Water on his payroll—and he must—he could collect enough information about me to surmise my plans, and he could watch my movements and pass those along to Derek. Derek, too, has connections in Water. I didn’t like him, but there were others who did.” He paused, sighing. “The damage is done. It’s not worth racking our brains to understand Stephan—it’s not possible. We will have to be doubly careful from here on out, and we will have to assume he’s genuinely interested in impacting our plans. Another fun side effect of knowing him.”

  Nicolas’s life was all manners of fucked up, and I was impressed that he could exhibit the aplomb he was demonstrating right now.

  He sighed again and turned to face us, crossing his arms. “Fiona, tell me about our preparations in Osaka.”

  I sat up straighter. “Sylvio is right—we close on the Joushin-ji property in a week. Keisha has already lined up contractors to do the preliminary work on our living quarters: roof replacement, insulation and glass replacement, floor restoration, and installation of appliances. We were planning on that work taking approximately one month, but we could probably accelerate it to two weeks. All the rest can be done in later phases.”

  Nicolas nodded. “Ryan, how is our Shatterfall research?”

  “Coming along,” Ryan said carefully. “I have the plans for the final physical sanctum, based on our experiments with Dan and the prototype, and I was going to craft it in Osaka. Dan has been working on transfer and inversion of his lightning magic. We are coming to the limit of what we can research without a true attempt.”

  I thought of Daniel lying upstairs, drained and unconscious, because he had overextended. I was worried he would jump into something too fast and too soon and hurt himself.

  “Raise your hand if you think we are prepared to move to Osaka,” Nicolas said.

  Everyone’s hand went up, including mine.

  “Keisha, see if you can accelerate the closing and the work on the property,” Nicolas said. “I don’t care how much it costs. Cameron, Farhad, watch our networks. I want to see what rumors are coming out of Smoke. Athena, Chandra, start packing our things and getting them ready to move. Be discreet. Ryan, Irina, I’ll need you with me to fix Mark. Sylvio, we need to figure out what’s going on in Meteor, so I’ll need you to work with Evie on that. Fiona, take care of Dan. We need him well again as soon as possible. Our goal is to keep Shatterfall a secret for as long as we can.”

  Everyone pushed their chairs away from the table and got up, murmuring to one another. I remained seated. I had no idea what to do with myself.

  “Ryan, Irina, meet me at Teng’s place,” Nicolas said as everyone filed from the room.

  When the two of us were alone, he collapsed heavily into the chair across from me and put his head in his hands. He looked completely shattered.

  “I’m worried about you,” I said quietly.

  “I know,” he said.

  “Do not hurt yourself, and do not risk anyone’s life for Mark.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “I have a plan. I need some of Daniel’s blood. Everything will likely work out with very little risk. At least one thing will go our way.”

  “Do you need my help?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I need you to make sure Dan is all right, and to keep the others on track while I’m tied up with Mark. We truly need to focus if we’re going to outmaneuver Stephan.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “Thank you, lamb,” he said.

  He met my gaze finally, his tawny eyes shadowy and serious. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to comfort him. I wanted us to not be in danger at every turn, and I wanted things to settle down long enough for us to take a breath.

  I was sick of emergencies, and I was sick of finding out startling new facts about Nicolas every single day.

  “If you’re going to reproach me for not telling you these things about myself sooner, could I kindly ask you to wait until later?” Nicolas said. His tired and broken tone alarmed me.

  “I wasn’t going to,” I said gently.

  “You are annoyed,” he said. “You have questions.”

  “They can wait,” I said.

  “Is there anything urgent I can clear up?” he asked.

  He was still anxious about our relationship. I knew he was afraid I would decide at any moment that I no longer wanted him. I appreciated that he was taking time out of this emergency to focus on me—it told me exactly how important I was to him.

  I hesitated. “Who was Frederick?”

  I wanted to know if the story he told Katherine was true, that he had someone tortured and killed in front of him.

  “Frederick was one of Stephan’s lieutenants,” Nicolas said. “He predated me, and he despised that I climbed through Stephan’s group and earned more prestige than he had. We did not get along even when my standing in Smoke was good. What I told Kate was all true. Frederick came after me at Stephan’s behest, and I killed him for it.”

  “You were okay with that?” I asked.

  He frowned and closed his eyes. “Frederick’s team was in charge of experimenting on me when I was in captivity at Smoke. He watched almost all of my torture. He watched them shock me, and drug me, and beat me, and vivisect me, and many other horrible things.”

  I flinched.

  He took a deep breath. “I tried to temper almost all my desire for vengeance, but… I do not feel remorse for what I asked Teng to do to Frederick.”

  Nicolas’s eyes on mine asked a silent question: Do you hate me for that?

  I reached my hands across the table and grasped his, stroking my fingers across his knuckles.

  “I love you,” I said. “Magic changes how we live our lives. It makes the choices more dangerous and the consequences of failure much worse. We all know that and accept it. Frederick knew that and accepted it. Sometimes we end up tortured and dead. If it wasn’t him, it would have been you. I can accept that you made choices that put you on top. That’s what we all do. I’ve done it, too.” I paused. “I can also accept that you are human, with human emotions and human reactions to what happened to you. As long as you are trying to be better now, I will support you.”

  Nicolas’s expression was completely amazed as he studied me. “I have so many things I want to say to you, lamb, but the very first one is thank you.”

  “There will be time for the rest later,” I said, kissing his fingers gently as he bowed his head and closed his eyes.

  I went out to the market after leaving Nicolas and returned to the clan house soaked from the afternoon rain. I had bought juice and herbal tea and congee for when Dan woke. He likely wouldn’t be able to eat solid food, and Nicolas, who had never cooked a day in his life, didn’t keep many options in his apartment.

  Dan was shivering on the couch, so I collected him in my arms and held him, tightening the blanket around him carefully.

  He murmured something in Cantonese, and I smiled. “Sorry, darling, I don’t understand.”

  His dark eyes opened to meet mine for just a couple of moments. They were dull and unfocused.

  “Fi,” he murmured.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Is… everything… okay?” he asked groggily.

  “Yeah, mostly,” I said. “We may have to get going a little faster on Shatterfall.”

  “Cool.”

  Of course that wouldn’t bother him. Daniel had been excited about Shatterfall since the moment he’d discovered his lightning transmutation.

  “You missed Nicolas fighting a metal lion and shattering a Smoke circle and giving himself brain damage,” I said.

  Dan laughed weakly against me. “Tell me… the whole st
ory…”

  Daniel listened to me recount what had happened with his eyes open but unfocused. By the end of my story, he was slightly more alert.

  “His father?” Dan repeated, his eyes wide.

  “Yeah.”

  “I can’t believe… he never mentioned it,” Dan said. “I knew he worked under Stephan, but I had no idea… That’s rough.”

  “It’s hard to tell how he feels about the whole thing.”

  “I’m sure he’s okay,” Dan said. He closed his eyes.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “That depends…” he said. “How mad will you be if I punch your brother in the face?”

  “I already punched him in the face for you,” I said. “Several times. You don’t remember?”

  Dan laughed. “Sort of. I was a little distracted. Thanks.”

  “I really would have killed him if you had died.”

  “Nicolas would have stopped you,” Dan murmured, leaning into me.

  “Nothing would have stopped me.”

  “That’s my lieutenant,” Dan said, the words barely audible. “Ugh, I hate this.”

  “I know, Commander Darling,” I said. “Would you like me to distract you? I could recite poetry.”

  “Please,” Dan said.

  “You like American poets, but my favorite poet is Austrian,” I said. “Rainer Maria Rilke. Late 1800s to early 1900s. His work was very powerful and lyrical. Let me give you a small part of my favorite Rilke poem.”

  I didn’t think Dan could focus on anything for too long, so I picked something short but impactful, because Dan took strength from poetry.

  “Everything that touches us, me and you,

  takes us together like a violin’s bow,

  which draws one voice out of two separate strings.