Iron Inheritance

by G. R. Fillinger

  Miranda appeared at my side, her face pale. “Eve, tell Ria to come back.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” I took a step forward

  “They’re Miracles,” Miranda said, her eyes stressed for the first time since I’d met her.

  “So? You are, too.”

  She shook her head and pointed toward them just as a bright flash of light lit up the night sky and Ria was shot-gunned twenty feet into the air.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Ria’s body went rigid in that millisecond of weightlessness at the top of the arc.

  My legs twitched forward.

  She closed her eyes serenely, arms crossed over her chest.

  My heart raced. I slipped between the onlookers, mouths agape in delighted wonder.

  Everything slowed, but gravity still beat my sprint stride for stride. A pang of despair yelped out of my throat when I knew I wasn’t going to get there in time.

  Her eyes were still closed.

  Then, all at once, she twisted and tucked her legs in so that her back would hit first.

  It did—right into a net of powerful, interwoven arms from the Miracle-in-Black crew. They all grinned.

  “Wow,” Ria said dizzily. “You guys are so coming to my next competition.”

  I sucked in a strained, rattling breath as I skidded to a stop at the edge of the circle, my back hunched like it was still waiting to convulse in a spasm of grief.

  “Did you see my extra spin?” Ria let her head dangle upside down as she looked at me. “That was for you.” She smiled like a three-year-old—all teeth.

  The men righted her, one of them handing her a broken high heel.

  I grabbed it from him and stretched out my hand for Ria’s. “It’s time to go.”

  “Oh, come on, Evey.”

  “Yeah, come on, Evey.” One of the guys smiled, his sandy hair and freckles dim in the low light. He reached around and glided his hand from my hip down the side of my butt, finishing with a firm squeeze. “You can be next.”

  “Uh oh.” Ria’s eyes widened.

  In one swift motion, I grabbed his hand and twisted it up behind his back until the tendons threatened to snap.

  It always amazed me how high boys could scream.

  “Eve!” Nate was at my side instantly, a puff of wind behind him.

  Miranda and Freddy jogged up next. The music stopped, and everyone’s eyes pricked at my back.

  Mr. Miracle-Cheer-Boy stood limp in front of me, bent over as I held his wrist to the center of his back.

  “Eve, it’s ok. Let him go.” Nate came closer, his arms out like he was approaching a wild dog.

  I loosened my grip, and Mr. Handsy sprang away. Everyone continued to stare, even when the music started up again.

  Ria walked through the crowd with her head down. I only managed to see her escape route because her caramel hair kept popping up and down with every other step—I still had her left shoe in my hand.

  “Ria! Ria, wait.” I ran after her, not having to find a way through the sea of people as they parted for me without command. “Ria, please.” I descended the stairs two at a time after her.

  She turned around in the middle of the narrow gray stairwell. “Why’d you do that? You had no right to—”

  “I—he grabbed my—”

  “Not that.” She shook her head, exasperated. “You know what I mean.”

  “What were you thinking? You’re drunk, and you do stunts on the edge of a cliff?”

  “It’s nothing new.” She folded her arms.

  My eyes bulged. “It is when you’re blasted into the air by equally drunk Miracles!”

  Ria took two steps up so our eyes would be even—hers still seemed cloudy. “I’m fine. Look at me. See?” She stood back, hands on her hips. “Eve, we’re Patrons now. We can take a few more risks than we used to. Freddy could have healed me in—”

  “You’re not a Patron!”

  Even in the middle of the music being blared all around us, it felt like everything went silent. Ria’s cool, hazy confidence turn to a cold scowl of treachery. “So I don’t take your stupid classes in the arena or Duke’s electric thingy. Big deal. Everything else is the same. I learn the same history, the demons, the Babylonians, everything that humans can’t see.”

  “But you’re human!” I said and immediately regretted it. I was really on a roll tonight.

  Ria’s cheeks reddened like I’d just slapped her, and she stomped down the stairs, only turning around to my pleas once she reached the front entry hall, no one else around. “What’s this really about? Just because now I’m getting a little of the attention, you’re jealous?”

  Now my cheeks stung. “You’ve always had the attention, Ria! Always. And that’s not even—”

  “You are jealous. Even when you have Josh and every other guy fawning over you, you still just want Nate to follow you around like some sick little puppy.”

  “I—I don’t—Josh? Nate?” I closed my eyes to keep back the tears I hadn’t known were there. “Ria, this is stupid.”

  “What are you so afraid of? Afraid I’ll be better than you, like you were better than me in everything? Every subject, every day. Everything this year has been about you. Now we’re on an even playing field, and you can’t take it.”

  I stepped back. I couldn’t believe it. That wasn’t the way it was at all. I’d been an outsider trying to find my way into her group of friends.

  But that didn’t even matter. If she kept going like this, trying to prove herself around these people with talents that she’d never have, she’d…

  “Ria, you’re already better than me at a billion things. But you can’t be what I am.”

  Her eyes filled with tears as she bit her lower lip and nodded. “And that’s why he’ll never love me like he does you. He’ll never put me first, protect me, look at me the same way.”

  My mind struggled to shift gears. “You still think Nate and I? Ria, he’s my Guardian. It makes sense that he stares at me so much.”

  She chewed her tongue and glared at me like she was considering tearing my eyes out.

  My body tensed in anger. This was so stupid! “Maybe if you want him so bad, stop fawning over every other guy that comes into our lives. You can’t blame him for getting mixed signals.”

  “I already asked him out,” she spat, like it’d been on the tip of her tongue so long that it’d become bitter. “Last year, right before you came to school one day, I got the guts and told him how I feel—he sure wasn’t going to do anything. How many signals have I given him? And you know what he did? He just stood there and looked at me like I was some stupid little child who couldn’t take care of herself. He just kept staring, then he shook his head and said, ‘No, thank you.’ We went home, and you talked his ear off, and he listened to it all. Never lost focus for a second.”

  “Ria, I—” A lump stuck in my throat. I couldn’t believe she’d actually done it—asked him and never told me about it. How could she not tell me?

  “I saw you and Nate today.” She stepped closer to me so her eyes were six inches from mine, her teeth bared. “I saw you. All this time, you knew I liked him, and you just couldn’t keep your hands off.”

  “You didn’t see anything. It was for my essence, that’s it. He put a shield around me my whole life and that—we would never—”

  “Everything ok?” Nate approached slowly.

  Miranda and Freddy stood behind him like small children who didn’t want to see Mommy and Daddy fight.

  My face went pale. How much had he heard?

  “We should go,” I said without looking anyone in the eye.

  “Ok.” Nate nodded, taking a step forward to get us moving.

  “I’m staying.” Ria flicked her hair back, hand on her hip.

  “Ok.” Nate nodded again and smiled, completely oblivious. “Make sure you get a ride from someone who hasn’t been drinking.”

  “Ever the gentleman.” Ria huffed and knocked past my shoulder to lead th
e way out, apparently changing her mind.

  I stared at her, then back at Nate. How could I not have see that before? It was always happening. Nate would do anything for me even though Ria was the one who liked him, deserved him.

  But how could she really think he and I…? He was like an overprotective brother.

  “Come on.” Nate sighed. “Before she tries to hotwire the Jeep.”

  We stepped out onto the driveway to find the Jeep already pulled around and waiting near the door, the engine running. Ria was in the backseat, Josh outside leaning against the door.

  “Sorry, gang. Saw an old friend and had to catch up.” His eyes lingered on me. “Really sorry. What’d I miss?”

  Nate glared at him for touching his baby and marched to the driver’s door.

  I shook my head warningly when Josh raised an eyebrow. We all crammed ourselves in without another word.

  The awkward silence persisted for another fifteen minutes until Miranda asked to stop to use the bathroom. Nate pulled into a liquor store parking lot without objection.

  Everyone clambered out. Ria grabbed Miranda in a side hug as she walked through the swinging glass doors. Miranda patted her shoulder. Freddy and Nate followed silently. Josh and I stood outside the Jeep, leaning our heads back so we could see the stars.

  “So, is anybody going to tell me what happened?” Josh turned his head toward me with a sideways smirk.

  “Some ugly thing finally popped its head above the surface.” I sighed, looking from one insignificant star to the next, not really seeing any of them.

  He pursed his lips in a mock scowl and arched an eyebrow. The effect was more humorous than curious. I laughed and wiped my eyes. He continued to look at me like that until I told him about the Miracles and the fight about her not being a Patron. I left out some of the other things.

  Nate.

  Him.

  “Give her some space,” he said sagely.

  “She’s family,” I said, reimagining her death a hundred times over as she plummeted toward jagged rocks in my mind. “Doesn’t she know that? If I lose her, I won’t have anyone.”

  “She knows what she is to you. How else could she know just what to say to get you this upset?”

  I scowled at the store’s windows, a rainbow of candy bars and magazines gleaming through.

  “When I was younger, I had to leave my family.” Josh looked up at the sky again. “My brothers were getting into a peck of dealings they shouldn’t have. Every time I tried to stop them, they’d know right where to hit.”

  I glanced at him, the way his jaw squared his face, the way his shoulders took almost the entire width of the door.

  At least she wasn’t mad about Josh and me—if that was even a thing.

  It’s not. Stop daydreaming.

  He sighed and dropped his chin to his chest to look at a murky puddle with a ring of oil floating around the edge.

  “Were they Patrons? Your brothers.”

  “No.” His eyes wrinkled into some semblance of a smile. “They aren’t Graced, thankfully.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out like I was extinguishing a candle. I looked down too, my hand only a finger’s width from his.

  I moved my pinky closer—hoping.

  His whole body tensed, and I pulled back.

  “Look at the puddle,” he whispered.

  “What?” I asked, trying to follow his gaze. I scanned the busted-up asphalt toward the puddle, smooth as a sheet of glass.

  Until a ripple ran across the surface. The oil glimmered purple and gold with the yellow streetlight overhead.

  “What the…?”

  It rippled again—concentric half-circles starting on one end and sloshing toward us.

  I looked up to see what was coming at the same time as Josh.

  My whole body tensed in a silent scream as a shadow in the darkness adjusted a shimmering wing around a massive, scaly body and took another thunderously silent step forward.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “Where’d it go?” I whispered over the thump of my heart in my ears. The creature’s wings had folded back over its body, and the whole thing disappeared fifty feet from us.

  Josh stared at a fixed point in the distance. “Still there. I can only see the essence now.”

  I forced a deep breath into my lungs and tried to clear my mind. When I opened my eyes again, there was still nothing. I shook my head and tried to focus. This was ridiculous. How could I have so much essence pent up inside of me and couldn’t even see straight?

  “What’s it doing?”

  Josh pointed to the puddle without breaking eye contact with the invisible threat.

  The murky water was a sheet of oily glass. I kept my eyes pinned to it and was about to say something again, when a roar stampeded into the night like an entire herd of bison. The surface of the puddle cringed.

  I backed up into the car door.

  “Hold on.” Josh put his arm out to stop me.

  “What?” I continued to stare at the puddle. Ripples beat through it every three seconds now. “It’s running or—”

  “Trust me,” he said, his voice deep and resolute, his hand tapping a beat in the air—counting the thuds that sloshed the puddle from side to side.

  I grasped Josh’s tensed forearm, the muscles underneath pulsating quicker and quicker.

  “Now!” We lunged to the right.

  A metal-on-metal screech cut through the air as I landed on my side, gravel digging into my skin. I looked back at two holes punched through the Jeep’s doors. Another otherworldly bison roar bellowed through the air, and the whole car bucked as the doors bent.

  “It’s stuck?” I said, dumfounded.

  Josh nodded. “By its horns.”

  The holes grew bigger with each passing moment. Bone pried and twisted the metal.

  “You can see it now? What is it?” I said.

  “Minotaur…sort of.” Josh cocked his head to the side for a better look. “Essence is flowing through its whole body. Hmm.”

  My eyes bulged, and the side of my neck held the beat of my pulse. “What?”

  “That Jeep’s not going to hold it much longer. Think we can play the matador one more time?”

  I laughed despite the panic screaming in my mind, and in that instant, some of my sight came back. The beast still had its wings wrapped around its body, but black liquid twisted and writhed like blood through its veins.

  I was really going to regret this.

  “Toro toro!” I sprang forward and ran to the far side of the parking lot.

  Josh’s eyes widened like he had been kidding. “What’s the plan?”

  “Plan? What plan?” I spun around in a desperate search for something, anything—

  A block wall. That could work.

  Josh caught my eye and nodded. “How do you feel about going 100 mph?

  “What?”

  “I could run us both out of here at the last second. Lot less diving into asphalt.” He raised an eyebrow.

  I nodded and slung one arm around his neck, his thick arms cradling my back and legs. Normally, I would have scoffed at this, punched a guy in the gut just for suggesting it, but Josh had already shown that he knew I didn’t need his help. This wasn’t a hand-out to some poor, weak woman.

  It was a simple fact: super speed couldn’t hurt right now.

  The butterflies in my stomach might have helped a bit too.

  “Toro!” He grinned and squeezed me closer to him, my lips pointing toward his cheek as I clasped both arms around his neck.

  Nate’s Jeep skidded ten feet into the light pole and was still. The beast turned, finally free, and stared at us.

  I think.

  Hoofmarks dug into the asphalt.

  “Five seconds,” Josh mumbled.

  It roared and came straight at me, the darkness under its skin swirling and spitting, gliding just above the ground with thunder pounding through the earth.

  “Three, two—”

&n
bsp; The world blurred in the span of a millisecond and my stomach came up into my throat. We stopped five feet away, Nate suddenly appearing where we had stood.

  “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Nate grunted, his arms stretched above his head three feet apart.

  “You really take the bull by the horns.” Josh grinned and set me down. My legs wobbled slightly as the world continued to spin.

  “Oh, shut up,” Nate spat, his feet sliding back two feet.

  The darkness became more concentrated in what I assumed was the beast’s head. It writhed like the demon essence I’d seen on the subway, except much bigger.

  “So are you going to take it from here?” Josh continued. “We were going to let it smash its head on some concrete, but your plan seems to be working.”

  Nate skidded back another four feet, his toes digging through the asphalt and leaving bits of shoe behind. “A little h—”

  “Thought you’d never ask.” Josh grinned again, his large red hammer suddenly appearing in his hand.

  “Eve, get Ria and get out of here,” said Nate suddenly, his arms bending, sweat dripping down his face. His hair was being blown back repeatedly by stinking hot breaths. The beast let out another below of rage that shook the ground.

  “Just tell me where to hit it.” I stepped closer. There was no way I was running away to let him get trampled.

  “No!” Nate twisted his whole body, lifted his hands over his head, and smashed the invisible beast into the ground like a pro wrestler.

  The ground shook and sprayed gravel up at me.

  “Dang. Guardians are stronger than I thought,” Josh said and disappeared, his hammer smashing into the sides of the beast like a high-speed whack-a-mole mallet.

  “Get Ria,” Nate huffed, his arms seeming to press the horns down into the ground even as he started to go pale.

  I set my jaw and started toward the other end of the parking lot—the brick liquor store just fifty feet away—when the beast revealed its true form. Wings unfurled from around its body twelve feet on each side. Black scales like chain mail wrapped around the legs and torso, huge muscles shifting underneath, every tendon a bridge cable. Its front legs grew talons at the end instead of hooves and left deep scratches in the ground. The black horns that Nate clutched were spiraled and finished with needle-thin points. Puffs of steam pumped out of its snout even in the warm night air.