Dark Remnants (The Last Library Book 2)

by Jill Cooper

With three gongs of the bell, everyone sat back on their heels and then up to their feet. When Dani faltered, Timothy grabbed her arm to help her up. It brought an angry simmer into Evelyn’s heart.

  Dani didn’t deserve his help or kindness. Evelyn grabbed his arm and yanked him close. “Don’t help her. Make her pay, make her burn.”

  Timothy’s eyes widened with disbelief. Evelyn couldn’t believe how shocked he looked. Was he taking the whore’s side over his own mother? Would no one stand with her?

  The Minister of City Affairs stepped up on the front steps and called for them. “The wedding will now take place. The ultimate sacrifice of a mother and father who have raised this good boy who now will serve us all in Beantown. Step forward, all of you.”

  Evelyn watched the fear and loathing in Dani’s face as Timothy took her hand, guiding her to the front. So, marrying her son was something to fear, was it?

  Mitchell grabbed Evelyn’s hand, and she swatted it away. They stepped forward and stood behind Timothy and Evelyn. When the Minister told them to hold hands, they did. When they were told to turn, they did, but Evelyn kept her eyes on Sandra Taylor.

  The birds tore her flesh apart, and they might have taken her eyes, but she still hadn’t suffered enough. Look what she had done, look at what her family had sentenced Timothy to! Evelyn made tight little fists to keep from lashing out. So angry, so raged, she missed most of the ceremony.

  She only snapped back to reality as Timothy caressed Dani’s face and gave her a nervous kiss. Evelyn swallowed hard as the light applause that was allowed sprang up around her.

  The minister smiled at her. “Let thy work be done and bless this union to be fruitful and just. Congratulations, Mrs. Richardson. Your work is now done.”

  Just like that, it was like she was dismissed. In the back, she heard the call of horses and the stomping of their feet as they arrived. The wheels of the carriage they pulled stopped with a squeak.

  Oh God, they were taking her son away already. “No,” Evelyn called out and grabbed for her son. “I won’t let you go,” she whispered, gathering up the cloth of his robe to keep him close. “I won’t let you, do you hear me? You can’t take my son!”

  “Evelyn,” Mitchell whispered and wrapped his arms around her to keep Timothy free. “This has to be done. It’s for the best. The best.”

  Evelyn cried and screamed as she watched Timothy and Dani head toward the carriage. She fell to the ground and sobbed as they stepped into their awaited seats, and she listened to the sounds of the horses carrying them away toward the train station.

  Oh no… oh, by the workmen, they were gone. Her son was gone!

  Mitchell knelt by her and cradled her head. “I’m sorry, Evie. So sorry.”

  “Retake your places,” the minister said.

  Evelyn couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

  Another voice rang out to her. “Take the life of the one who hurt your family and destroyed your son. Remove a board and plunge Sandra Taylor to her death.”

  Startled, Evelyn glanced up at the Dark Lord Creighton and trained her eyes on Sandra. Her face up to the sky, her hands shook and her lip quivered.

  She had done this. Her and her damn daughter—that girl Abby. She deserved to go to Beantown, not her son.

  Evelyn rose up to her feet with clear intent. She took a deep breath and placed her hands on the board beside Sandra’s boots.

  “Oh, Evelyn, no,” Mitchell whispered and lay his hands on her shoulders. “You can’t do this. This isn’t you.”

  “You took everything from me.” Evelyn’s voice dripped with spite. “Everything, you and your family of librarians. Curse the arts! Curse the written word! How dare you bring your evil ways to our town?”

  She yanked on the board, but it didn’t come free. Evelyn worked on it, pulling and bending, listening to the sound of the Dark Lord Creighton unsheathing his long broad sword.

  The board was coming off. Splintering.

  Sandra sobbed, her head up high. She said nothing, but her cries were an admission of remorse, fear.

  “Go to your maker!” Evelyn screamed, slamming her elbow into the board to yank it free.

  It was in her hand, she did it. Really had done it.

  She backed up, watching Sandra’s face as she plunged, but only so far. Her arms held her up enough to keep the rope from killing her. Sandra gagged, her tear-stricken face twisted in pain, horror.

  The Dark Lord Creighton swung his sword, cutting the rope that bound her hands. Sandra plunged further, now gagging, and a moment later, nothing. Sweet nothing, she swayed back and forth like a child’s play thing.

  Like a game.

  Evelyn dropped the board and backed up further. Horrified, she shook all over. The dark lord might have been what killed Sandra, but Evelyn needed to claim ownership, too. Oh, what had she done?

  What had she done!

  She crawled through the dirt and vomited, her decisions and grief swirling in her stomach. She felt Mitchell’s hands stroking her back, and the chanting started again. Just like that. Like nothing had just happened… like no one cared at all.

  Up at the podium, the Dark Lord Creighton raised his hands up to the sky. He chortled with the sound of growing power, the medallion he wore around his neck glowing red. Everything grew so dark, Evelyn sat back on her heels and looked up at the sky.

  An instant storm had grown, clouds circling as water went down the drain. What was this?

  “Mitchell?” she whispered in fear, and he grabbed her shoulders.

  The sky opened up with a giant snap. A whirlwind portal parted the clouds, and inside was nothing but darkness and fear. The screeching of death hunters grew so loud, Evelyn groaned and grabbed her ears.

  They bled, and the portal gave birth to death hunters, first ten, then twenty, then Evelyn lost count. They circled, kept the townsfolk from moving, and stood guard, ready for—well, Evelyn didn’t know what they were waiting for.

  “Let her be a lesson to you!” The Dark Lord Creighton pointed his sword at the swaying body of Sandra Taylor. “Treachery won’t be allowed. Freedom has gone out of Rottenwood. Now you will all learn what hardship really is.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Tarnish Rose

  “Hey!” Ella scolded as Sebastian pulled her off the horse and dumped her onto the ground. She rolled over with her hands still bound tight. “I thought we were a team? One for all and all for one, right?”

  “Sebastian,” I muttered under my breath and shook my head.

  We had decided to make camp for the night to rest up and arrive at the Temptress’s fortress tomorrow. Camp wasn’t much except a patch of dirt behind an old metal locomotive of some kind. Its sleek design was futuristic, and I wondered what life had been like.

  When I poured some water for the horses into a makeshift bowl, I tripped over something. Using my hand, I brushed some dirt away and found old train tracks buried beneath the ground. What had this place been like before the ministers came to power? I had to wonder and used my imagination to see it in its glory.

  How the engine had shined and beautiful people dressed in the finest clothes had gathered to bid their loved ones goodbye. Maybe it smelled of coal, or maybe it smelled of fresh popcorn; I read about popcorn in one of my books. The sky would be blue, and the sun would cast down golden sunlight... oh, what a world it must’ve been.

  “Tarnish?” Sebastian called with a slightly elevated pitch to his voice. “You okay?”

  His voice startled me and I jumped.

  Ella glared at me. “Little girl lost in one of her stories?”

  “Knock it off,” Sebastian shoved her, “or we’ll leave you tied up for the wolves to find.”

  “You need me, remember? Only I can find the fortress,” Ella sneered as she lifted her head over toward me. “Little princess isn’t going to let the big meanie talk to me that way, is she? You’re all about second chances and saving people, right?”

  I wouldn’t let her get a rise
out of me. I knew that was just what she wanted. “I’m going to head inside the train car and see if there’s a spot to sleep. Sebastian, do you mind keeping first watch over her?”

  “What, you don’t trust me?” Ella stuck her bottom lip out. “Ouch, Tarnish. Whatever your name is.”

  I wanted to hurt her. She knew how to push every single one of my buttons, and I wanted to push, shove, hit her buttons back. Could I really hold her behavior against her if her story was true about being captured by the ravengers, bred for food for the Temptress? No, I couldn’t, but I also couldn’t tell if she was telling the truth.

  All this time, and every story she told me turned out to be false. This time, I hoped she was telling us the truth because if she wasn’t, we were riding right to our deaths.

  ****

  “Why do you goad her?” Sebastian asked as he sat across from me, but Ella paid him no mind. Instead she watched Tarnish Rose as she headed into the train car for her beauty rest. She’d leave Ella out there defenseless with the likes of Sebastian? He’d kill her in a heartbeat if he thought Tarnish wouldn’t find out or they didn’t need the intel she had.

  “It’s fun,” Ella said with narrow little eyes and tried to scratch her nose, but her bonds wouldn’t allow her the luxury. “This is ridiculous. Can’t you just untie me? I promise I won’t run away.”

  “Like we’d trust anything you say. You’re a charlatan.”

  Ella laughed. “Careful with those fancy words around scavenger scum like me. We don’t understand half of what you pretty boys say.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Sebastian sighed and sunk down into a comfortable position and crisscrossed his legs. “You understand more than you pretend, and I don’t know why. Maybe it protected you with whatever happened in your past, or maybe you do it to be sneaky, but you know more than you say. You know what we’re up to, and more importantly, you believe in it, yet you hate it.”

  His words might as well have knocked Ella over. “Well, if you and Miss Goodie Goodie are involved, I want nothing to do with it.”

  “Except here you are.” Sebastian pointed his finger at me.

  Her face flushed. “Put your finger away, or I’ll bite it off. Who do you think you are pointing at me? You’re not Temptress. I answer to no one.”

  “But her?” Sebastian asked, and I saw the hint of softness around his eyes. “What’d she do to you in her fortress?”

  Ella didn’t like him or his questions. It made uncomfortable feelings and memories bubble to the surface. “Bug off, creep. I might have to show Tarnish the way, but that doesn’t mean I open my life like a book to you. Especially you.” Ella tried to lay down, but it was so uncomfortable with her short bonds tied to the train car; everything felt awkward.

  “Can you bring us to Temptress and the ravengers? Or is it just a story?” Sebastian asked and leaned in to me. “Do you really have an all-knowing compass?”

  Ella resisted the urge to push him away. “I can. We’re getting close to where it’ll appear in the morning. East toward the shore, or what used to be the shore. Now it’s a dried bed, used to be the ocean current. I can see it.”

  “I haven’t seen this compass you talk about. How do you know that?”

  “I just do.” I swayed slightly from side to side, as if riding an old-fashioned boat back when the world had things like boats.

  Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “You can see it?” Sebastian asked.

  Ella took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “Before the lava fires of DC, the fortress will sprout up tonight. We don’t have long before we can reach it before it moves again. Could go anywhere.”

  Not exactly true, but what Sebastian didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

  Ella could hear the Temptress’s thoughts. Ella knew what she wanted, and what she wanted more than anything wasn’t so much Tarnish Rose but the remnant shards she carried. She’d gladly give up the children, any of them, if it meant taking the crystals for herself so she could… well, that part wasn’t clear.

  Did she want to defeat the Dark Lord Creighton and put the world back together? Or did her heart simply crave world domination? All that mattered was Ella delivered Tarnish Rose like promised, unspoiled and full of life, able to complete her quest.

  So, Ella rested her back against the train car and closed her eyes, feeling a long blade of grass tickle her cheek. She startled when something covered her, and she was surprised to see Sebastian covering her with his robe.

  “Why?” Ella demanded, feeling offended. No one wanted to take care of her. No one!

  “Why not?” Sebastian shrugged. “You’ll get cold, and I can sit here out of the wind and the dew.” He sat on the stairs of the wrecked train car, resting his elbows on his knees. His kindness was unwelcome. What was his real game?

  Tarnish was easy, but Sebastian, not so much. Most of the time, Ella felt like if Tarnish would allow it, he’d murder her, and now this kindness was out of place. She’d figure out his angle. Ella just hoped it happened before they reached the tower in the capital wreckage, or else her little act, for lack of a better word, was going to be up.

  And Ella really would meet her death.

  ****

  I stared up at the ceiling of the train car after a few hours’ sleep. Now my mind raced and spun at everything we'd been through in the last day. From meeting Henry and Claire to fighting to protect their homestead. Now we raced toward saving their children and getting the last remnant. I would need to find the lost library.

  But then what? I didn’t know what would happen once we found the library, and it scared me, the unknown. Maybe it was best not to think about it until it happened, until I stood against its towering bookcases and could stare at and touch all the books it held.

  I rose from the makeshift bed, and outside was still in total darkness. Sebastian sat with his head against the train car, and his soft breathing indicated he had fallen asleep. His arms were huddled around himself without his cloak, and I wondered where it was until I saw it on Ella’s sleeping frame.

  That had been nice of him, maybe too nice. He hated Ella with everything he had from the moment we met her, so this act of mercy made admiration swell in me. I stroked his forehead and smiled when his brow furrowed.

  “Does he know you’re harboring desires for him?” Ella asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

  I walked over to her delicately so as not to wake Sebastian. Putting my hand on my hip, my eyebrow arched. “I harbor nothing. I care only for a friend.”

  Ella laughed with a snort. “Please. Guess you think I’m some sort of fool.”

  “You’re just trying to get under my skin, but it won’t work. I’m to be married to someone else. George.”

  “And where is this George?” Ella asked, glancing around. “Maybe he’ll cut me free.”

  “He was taken by the ravengers when we crossed the barrier. Now Temptress has him.” I swallowed hard and squatted down beside Ella so she could see my face, but I wasn’t prepared to see the shock and horror on hers.

  “Well,” Ella shifted with discomfort, “ain’t that the pits?”

  I nodded. “Trust me, not a moment goes by I don’t think about him.”

  “At least you’re alive. You shouldn’t feel guilty.”

  “No?” My lips twisted into a frown. “Stay alive by any means necessary no matter the cost?”

  “It’s called survival. I’m not a monster.” Ella watched my face. “Is that what you think? You think I’m a monster because of the children I sold to the ravengers?”

  That was a good start. “They were defenseless. You’re not. You’re anything but.”

  “I did what I had to. I won’t have you judge me. I’m trapped over here in the forgotten lands, the wilds, whatever you choose to call it. It sucks. Land of the free, my ass. I had the misfortune of being born here, you didn’t. Maybe I’d be you if I was born where you were. Maybe then I’d sit and judge you.”

  Ella pouted like a child, crossin
g her arms and staring at the ground.

  “A lot of anger for someone who feels she’s done nothing wrong.” I stood up, and Ella kicked her legs out at me.

  “Go then! Go back to your cushy train car while I’m stuck out here tied to the--” A noise growled off in the distance, and Ella turned her head toward it. Fear flooded her face, and I grabbed the knife from my boot.

  “Untie me!” Ella hissed. “I’ll help you.”

  Help me? She’d only ever tried to kill me.

  “Tarnish, you can’t leave me tied up like this with whatever is out there.”

  She was right. I hurried to cut the ropes from her wrists as something leaped at us from the dark. I pulled my staff free in time to swat at the creature and sent it back toward the bushes and trees.

  It was fury. Some sort of animal, large and stocky with long fur and spikes coming off its back. It jumped up onto all fours, its mouth open and growling at us. Arching its back, it howled, lifting its head up into the darkness.

  An arrow Sebastian fired flew overhead. It hit the animal in the side. It whined but caught itself before it fell over, and leapt through the air at us, coming straight for my neck.

  I held up my staff defensively and hadn’t been prepared for Ella to jump in front of me. She screamed, just a simple scream, but the sound punted the beast in the stomach like a powerful kick. It was like a sound barrier surrounded us, and it forced the beast further back than before. The wind from the noise she generated blew the trees and howled through the night’s air.

  I stared at Ella in disbelief as Sebastian ran toward us.

  “Its howl will bring more. We should move.” Ella headed toward the horses, but I grabbed her arm.

  “Have you done that before?” She was full of secrets, more than I could’ve guessed.

  “No more prying questions. I have no more answers for you,” Ella said. She shrugged me off, walking away. I noticed her hands were shaking with fear—or adrenaline. It was impossible to say which.

  Sebastian and I exchanged a worried look. “Watch your back, Tarnish,” he whispered.