Rain of Ash: Skydancer Book 1 (The Zyne Legacy)

by Gwen Mitchell

  As they shuffled to the kitchen, Bri stubbed her toe on the corner of a stack of books and barely saved herself from sprawling to the floor and taking Geri down with her. A stack of journals beside it toppled over and fanned across the dusty hardwood. A thin, flat, leather bundle slid free from between two of them.

  A wild buzzing echoed in Bri’s mind as Geri stooped to pick it up and unwrapped the bundle to reveal a round piece of glossy obsidian. The glass jar in Bri’s head shattered. Geri hissed when her fingertip grazed the razor-sharp edge. The obsidian flashed with white light, and she dropped it to the floor as if it had burned her.

  Instead of breaking, it stayed on its edge and spun like a quarter. Each whirl hit Bri like a blow to the body, lashing at her senses, especially the new, raw one she had no name for. The white light thundered until her ribcage felt on the verge of imploding. She gasped in breaths of burning, painful air and shoved Geri into the corner behind her.

  The disk kept spinning on its rim, faster and faster — flashing black, white, black, white. Bri clutched her chest, a silent scream she couldn’t release building. Then the disk slammed facedown to the hardwood with a sudden thunk. The throbbing in her head receded, like the whoosh of putting your ear up to a shell, and she could breathe again.

  On the floor, the edge of the thin slab still glowed. White cracks cut inward like miniature lightning bolts. It ground against the floor as it rotated, first one way, then the other. Finally, it stopped and laid still.

  “Dear Stars in the Heavens,” Geri whispered.

  Chapter Twenty

  What the hell is that?” Bri was surprised her voice didn’t come out in a panicked screech. She held Geri back when she tried to step closer to the possessed disk.

  “It’s a mirror…”

  Bri clamped down on her urge to stomp it to smithereens. She didn’t need any more bad luck. Geri pulled free and took two careful steps closer.

  Bri reluctantly followed, though only to protect Aunt Geri if the thing decided to go poltergeist on them again. Now that it was right in front of her, she had no doubt this mirror was the source of the buzz of magic that had been harassing her all day. It sat there, innocuous and inanimate, a snare trap waiting to spring and suck all the oxygen out of the room.

  “A scrying mirror — a true scrying mirror.” Geri reached out, but held her hand just above it. “Can ye feel the power of it?”

  “Yes.” Bri gulped. Icy fingers danced up and down her spine, and cold snakes coiled in her belly. She’d grown familiar with the feeling and didn’t trust the source of it one iota. “What’s it do?”

  Geri scoffed impatiently, never taking her eyes off the mirror, which still glowed faintly at the edges. A sub-audible hum hit her with every pulse. “It’s for seeing, child. This is no tarot deck or crystal ball — it’s a true relic of magic, from a time when the Zyne possessed the Mysteries of the Cosmos. It will let you see the future clear as day. Will let anyone see the future, the past, anything they want. In legend, one could even see into other dimensions.”

  Briana’s blood flashed hot, and her heartbeat kicked up.

  The secret. She knew it in her marrow. The mirror was what Ce-Ce wanted her to protect. This was what the demon in her regression wanted. But her grandmother was a fool. She was positive, with every molecule of her body, that nothing good could come from possessing something with such perverse power. It had caused her family nothing but grief. Generation upon generation of heartache. “What should I do with it?”

  Before Geri could answer, the dogs started barking in the side yard. Then came a knock at the front door. They stared at each other, both of their expressions bleak. Bri spun to take in the disarray of her family’s treasures strewn about. Geri tossed the leather cloth back over the mirror, then grabbed handfuls of books and started piling them back inside the chest.

  Bri cleared her throat, wiped her eyes, and made a futile attempt at smoothing her hair before opening the door a crack.

  Gawain stood on Kean’s front porch, wearing his muscle-tight brown uniform, wide-brimmed hat, and a grave expression. “Afternoon, Briana.”

  “Sheriff.” She tried to fill the doorway as much as possible. His eyes flicked behind her and she smiled to distract him, bright and fake.

  Gawain was immune to her charm. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. Everything’s fine. What can I do for you?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Could I come in and speak with you for a minute?”

  Bri bit her lip and tried to look coy. Could he cross the wards without Kean here? Would he try? Could she really keep him out if he were determined to come in? “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Gawain. I’m not…well.”

  “Something is wrong.” He stood up straighter and hooked his thumbs behind his belt.

  “No! No…I mean I’m just very tired. Not feeling up to company.” A loud thump sounded behind her as Geri closed the lid of the trunk. Briana’s pasted grin waned.

  The Sheriff craned his neck. “Someone’s in there with you already.”

  “Heaven’s sakes, leave the poor girl alone, Gawain. It’s only me.” Geri huddled beside Bri. “I was just over to check on her and fix her a cuppa.”

  Gawain tilted his hat to Geri, but Bri saw his suspicious gaze scan behind them and settle on the chest. His nostrils flared, and his already thin mouth pulled tighter.

  Bri cocked her head and blinked questioningly.

  “What do you think you are doing?” he snapped at Bri, then turned a furious glare on Geri. “You should know better! That should not be here.” He slapped his palm against the door, as if to push it open further, but the air erupted in red sparks. He yanked his arm back with a grimace, which answered Bri’s question about the wards.

  “It’s really none of your business, Gawain.” She felt more confident knowing he couldn’t cross the threshold.

  “It damn sure is my business. This is my town, and my coven, and things here are done a certain way. That,” he pointed at the chest, “does not belong here. It should be in the Arcanum. Hand it over and I’ll see that it finds its way back there immediately.”

  Aunt Geri appeared just as appalled as she was, but Bri recovered first. She pulled on a scowl and straightened to her full height, at least an inch higher than Gawain’s. “If I didn’t know better, Sheriff, I’d think you wanted it for some reason.”

  Gawain’s pale eyes flashed with anger. He rubbed his hand over his mouth, rolling his shoulders back. “I already have enough to deal with in this town without you bringing your cursed family’s Legacy out into the open. I can’t make you leave, Briana, but you’re not making it easy for me to let you stay.”

  “Let me stay?” Bri arched one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

  Gawain looked to Geri, as if expecting her to help defend his point.

  “She has a right to do whatever she wishes with it,” Geri said, “and it’s no mind of yours. Or mine, for that matter. Briana, I’m going home to fix us some lunch. Ye can come over when you’re ready and we’ll see what can be done about those headaches of yours.” She winked before shouldering past Gawain, forcing him back from his threatening post in the doorway.

  Geri stopped before climbing into her old Buick, fixing Gawain with a beady stare that made Briana squirm just to witness. “I’d advise ye to be careful about laying claim to this town or the coven. People hate to be treated like property, Zyne even less so.”

  Gawain’s cheeks blotched with color as Geri drove away. He shook his head and sighed as he looked back to Bri. “I didn’t mean—”

  “Did you come for a reason?” Bri closed the door enough to shield the chest and the rest of the living room from his view. Her knuckles were aching from gripping the knob so hard. “Kean won’t be back until this evening.”

  “I’ve been looking for you. I went by your grandmother’s house already.” Gawain’s lips curled slightly as he took in her wild bedhead and Kean’s oversize ECFD sweatshir
t, which she was wearing without a bra. “The mayor received a call this morning, out of the blue, from the Prime Minister of Australia. It seems the Prime Minister’s son is very concerned about you.”

  She studied Gawain’s polished boots while her mind spun in panic. How had she completely forgotten about Eric? She’d left him a message saying she had more to say, but gave him no way to reach her. Her cheeks flamed at Gawain’s obvious disgust at finding her there, playing the part of Kean’s kept woman. How could she be so thoughtless? What if it had been Eric at the door?

  “The mayor agreed to deliver a message to you. Since I do as the mayor asks,” he barely held back a sneer, “here I am.”

  Bri met his scornful look with a callous one of her own. “Yes, here you are. So, what was the message?”

  “The Prime Minister’s son will be arriving at Sinclair Air Field at two o’clock today.”

  Her breath halted in her chest. It was already past noon. She nodded curtly. “Thank you, Sheriff.”

  “Miss Spurrier,” Gawain said tightly, tipping his hat. He took a step down the stairs, but paused just before she shut the door. “And Briana?”

  She slanted an irritated look in his direction, expecting some other lightly concealed cut at her moral character.

  “Some rules are in place for good reason, especially in our world. Be careful you don’t stray off the path, where the wolves are waiting.”

  A chill shimmied up her spine. “I’ll consider myself warned.”

  “Good.”

  Bri leaned against the door with a heavy sigh. Her gaze dropped to the only thing left on the floor — the oiled leather cloth covering the mirror. The real cause of everything the people of Evergreen Cove were so up in arms about. She didn’t blame them. They were right in part: it was a curse. At least now she knew why she was all that remained of her family. She didn’t know why the demon wanted it so bad, but nothing good could come from it falling into his hands. Everything depended on not letting that happen.

  Protect the Legacy.

  She knelt on the edge of the rug, grabbed the very corner of the cloth, and pulled it aside to reveal her black-tinted reflection between the faintly glowing lightning bolts. Her breath hissed over her teeth, making them ache. What if the mirror could show her who harbored the demon now? Could she use it for that? Just once?

  As if in answer, it pulsed with an entrancing white light. Bri rubbed her fingers together, feeling the itch to touch the phosphorescent edge like sandpaper against her bones. The light ebbed again.

  What will it cost me?

  Tentatively, she laid the pad of one finger on the edge. The vision took hold with razor sharp teeth, as clear and vivid as if it were really happening.

  Eric was sitting in a dark corner of a crowded room, his face drawn with sadness. Then he was dangling upside down. Flies buzzed from his open mouth…Geri’s head spun towards Bri in slow motion, streaks of bloody tears streaming down her face…Kean’s ashen form lay on the ground, still and lifeless. A shadow loomed across his body — angular shoulders and a wide-brimmed hat… Flames swarmed her vision, and the demon drew up from them, an unformed face flickering in the orange light. Chilling laughter unraveled into the eternal emptiness surrounding him.

  Bri yanked her hand back and threw the cloth back over the mirror as a faint sizzling noise echoed in her ears. The dogs were barking and scratching at the back door now. Just as she’d suspected — nothing good could come of something like the mirror. Whether the vision was a true premonition or just a sick joke by a demented relic with a mind of its own, she couldn’t be sure. All of her visions so far had come to pass.

  Her heart seemed slow to beat, weakened by the thought of such a future. She couldn’t bear to lose anyone else. She would break. Shatter into a million irreconcilable pieces. No way could Fate be so cruel. What could she have done to earn so much misery?

  She hadn’t been given a lot of breaks in her life. She’d fought against unfair odds for every success. Then she’d found herself turned into the wild of this new world, naked and unarmed, except for her unpredictable — and so far useless — powers. Again, when Fate could have taken pity on her and given her ass-kicking energy blasts or fading, or even mind-reading, they gave her nerve-grating, nausea-inducing visions of death, which might be her one-way ticket on the Crazy Express.

  She couldn’t exchange her Cosmic gift, and she certainly couldn’t change the past, but the future hadn’t happened yet. That gave her a head-start, however narrow. She would begin with the first person in her vision, and work back from there. Eventually, she would run in to the demon. She accepted that as an obvious part of her destiny. She’d brought this curse on her bloodline. It was up to her to put an end to it.

  She drifted to the kitchen and let Max and Maggie inside. The clock on the microwave reported 1:15PM. The first and most pressing matter was hiding the mirror somewhere else, especially now that Gawain had seen the vault. Something about the way he’d reacted to it unsettled her. She’d never seen Gawain be so… ugly. The thought of the raw hatred in his eyes made Bri’s mouth go chalky.

  The mirror had to be kept safe, and only Geri could help with that. She couldn’t risk revealing it to anyone else and possibly mucking up the future. She regretted even dragging Geri into it, but she was beginning to realize that being an Oracle put one in the business of secrets. That left her forty minutes to get herself pulled-together and get the mirror hidden away before meeting her would-be fiancé. Then she had to get Eric back off the island and out of harm’s way before Kean expected to find her home waiting for him.

  She intended to keep at least that one promise. Even if it killed her.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Bri went ten over the speed limit on her way back to Ce-Ce’s. She couldn’t stop looking in the rear-view mirror, anxious that the demon from her vision would pull on its cloak of shadows and appear to destroy her. She held her breath from the car to the house, anxious to get the mirror safely over the blood wards. She made herself presentable to meet Eric, opting to smooth her hair down with gel rather than wash it. She had been living in clothes borrowed from Tara’s closet, so all of her nice blouses and skirts were still neatly packed in her suitcase. Twenty minutes later, she ran across the street to Geri’s with the leather-bound bundle tucked deep in her purse.

  Geri ushered her inside. “What are ye all gussied up for?”

  “I have some errands to run in town.” Bri followed her up the stairs.

  “Do ye think that’s wise, given the circumstances?”

  She paused at the doorway of Geri’s boudoir. “Suppose not, but I don’t really have a choice.”

  Geri scooted Briana into the room and plopped her down on the bed. She handed over a small flask. The contents smelled like herb-infused whiskey.

  “Drink some of that down. We don’t want you tipsy, it just helps take the edge off. I put the last few drops of my strengthening tonic in it.”

  Bri removed the mirror from her purse and laid it out on the quilt beside Geri’s open spellbook. She set her bag on the floor and let out a long, jagged breath. “I don’t have a lot of time, Geri. I’m sorry.”

  “Better drink up then.” Geri pulled out two candles from the drawer of her bedside table and slid it gently closed.

  She took a generous swig and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “So, what exactly are we going to do?”

  “The mirror cannot be left exposed. An object of so much power will only draw the wrong sort of attention. The longer it stays on this plane, the more trouble will follow.”

  “I know.” Bri rubbed a hand over her chest. Her heart had been thundering ever since her vision, and being out in the open with it had spiked her adrenaline, making her woozy. She took two more long swigs from the flask and grimaced. “But it will be safe if I return it to the Arcanum, right?”

  “Aye, it’d be safest there. But in the meantime, it must be hidden.”

  “Okay. Fine with me
. Should we dig a ditch in the backyard? Or do you have a top hat around here somewhere?”

  Geri took the bottle away from her loose grasp and took her own swig. “It’s no’ a top hat, but I found a spell we can use.”

  She pointed to the book and had Bri study as she gathered the tools they would need. Under Geri’s patient guidance, Bri set a small circle in the middle of the bedroom floor, balanced the elements, and tapped into the Conduit, all while the older woman sat on the bed and ground herbs in her mortar and pestle. It was more magic than she’d ever done in her life, and it came…naturally. Power flowed into her, from her, and through her as she performed ancient rites she had done the same way in so many lives before. If it hadn’t been for the gravity of the situation and her imminent face-off with Eric, she would have reveled in something going right for once.

  When Geri said to, Bri pricked her finger, and the magic of the circle fused with hers and locked in place. It wasn’t the same as when her father had trapped her in the circle to remove her binding. She could see and hear everything outside clearly. The candles on Geri’s dresser danced to her heartbeat. She let out a slow, steadying breath and watched their flickering slowly calm.

  “Now, have ye focused on the password, dear? It must be a word and image you and you alone can summon. The feeling behind it must be strong. Do ye have it?”

  Bri nodded, her eyes pressed tightly closed. “Yes, I have it.”

  “Good, now focus on that image. Open your hands, lass.”

  Geri tucked the wrapped mirror into Briana’s palms and sprinkled salt and her herbal mixture on top. “Now hold on tight and try to be aware of nothing but the mirror, my voice, and the password. Shut all else out of your mind.”

  When she had cleared her mind the best she could, her fingers tightened in answer.

  “Good. When I get to the last line of the spell, you’ll say the password in your mind three times, then let go and wish the mirror away. Ready?”