Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy

by V. B. Marlowe

  Cadence moved over to her. “Rose, yours will be more complicated since I’m removing a heart. There’s valves and arteries involved. It’s cool though, I know what I’m doing. I’ll remove it and then close you back up.”

  Standing at the rolling cart in between our two beds, she poured some green liquid into two small paper cups. “It tastes horrible. It’ll be easier for you if you just toss it back.” I did as she said and quickly learned that terrible had been an understatement. The liquid burned my throat going down. Rose gagged and coughed from the other bed.

  “Don’t throw it up,” Cadence ordered.

  Whatever it was, it worked fast. My body numbed and tingled while my eyes drooped. Before I knew it, there was only blackness and the murmur of voices.

  I awoke to the worst pain I had ever felt coming from my midsection. A piece of white material was propped over my chest like a tent, blocking my view.

  “Uh-oh. She’s up.” Wes stood at the foot of the bed, holding bloody instruments for Cadence. My head spun at the sight of my own blood.

  Cadence glanced at me, her eyes wide with concern. I never knew she cared. “Arden, I’m so sorry. It’s taking longer than I thought. I’m almost done, then I’ll heal you right back up.”

  I wanted to say something, but my mouth wouldn’t work. I threw my head back, moaning as I clenched the bed sheets. Wes stood over me, shaking his head sympathetically. “Talk about taking one for the team. We owe you big.”

  I turned my head toward Rose where she lay very still on the bed.

  “Don’t worry,” Wes said quickly. “She’s still out, but she’s done. Cadence removed the heart and closed her up.”

  Before Wes could say anything else, Hollis burst into the room. “Guys, have you seen—”

  He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of us. “What the hell is going on in here?” He gestured toward Rose. “What is that doing in here? Cadence, what are you doing? Are you guys crazy?”

  Cadence looked at him for a brief moment and then went right back to work. “Hollis, you shouldn’t be in here.”

  I winced again as pain raced through my abdomen. Hollis’ massive frame hulked over me as he watched but I was in too much pain to be afraid of his anger. I just wanted it all to be over.

  He glared at Cadence. “This is for that stupid offering. I told you we weren’t doing that. Arden is lying here cut open like a piece of meat—and she’s awake. Don’t you see how insane that is?”

  “Hollis,” Cadence said testily. “I know what I’m doing. We’ll talk about this later. I’m kind of busy right now and I need to concentrate.”

  I wished he would leave too so she could focus on me.

  “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “You fix her up but I promise you that offering isn’t happening. You’ve done all this for nothing.” He stormed from the room.

  Almost fifteen minutes later, Cadence announced that she was done. She’d made an incision on my left side about ten inches long. She pressed the skin together gently with the tips of her fingers. Propping myself up on my elbows, I looked down at my side. A red, throbbing line ran from my navel almost reaching my back, but the pain was slowly going away. I looked at her gratefully. I didn’t die and that was the most important thing.

  Wes held up the tray with my blood-covered rib on it. It was strange to see my own bone outside of my body. “After I wash it off, I’ll get the chisel,” Wes said. “Then we can grind it and go ahead and place it in the box.”

  Cadence and I watched as he worked delicately. She picked up the platinum box which I assumed already contained Rose’s heart. Wes used a funnel to pour my bone dust into the box over the heart. He closed the box with the clasp and handed it to me. I held the box in my hands, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. This was finally going to be over.

  Just then the door flew open. Mr. Mason stomped in with Hollis on his heels. Cadence and Wes stood side by side as I pushed the box behind me, hoping Mr. Mason wouldn’t see it.

  “Are you kidding me?” His booming voice echoed off the walls. “I thought I told you specifically that this was out of the question. Then on top of that, you bring a Giver into this lair?” He focused on Wes and Cadence. “I expect this from her but you two should know better.”

  Wes and Cadence looked down at the floor. I knew the last thing they wanted to do was disappoint Mr. Mason, who they considered a father.

  He moved forward swiftly and yanked the box away from me. I tried to resist, but it was no use. It only took him seconds to wrestle the box from my hands. “We don’t make deals with Givers, especially not those Archs, and we sure as hell don’t make them any offerings.”

  Once he had the box secured in his hands, he gave us all disapproving looks before heading toward the door.

  “Wait!” Cadence shouted after him. “Please, think about this, Mr. Mason. We’re dying too. How many Takers have to die before you put a stop to this? How many families have to bury their children?”

  Mr. Mason snarled at her and that said it all. He didn’t care. He didn’t care what happened to any of us. The sadness in Cadence’s eyes told me she was finally getting it.

  “Mr. Mason—” Wes began.

  Mr. Mason cut him off. “Those bastards killed my wife. They will never get away with what they’ve done.”

  So that was where his anger stemmed from. His wife’s death. I understood, but it wasn’t right for him to risk everyone’s life for his personal vengeance. Mr. Mason was going to get us all killed and he needed to be stopped.

  ***

  “Have you spoken to Fletcher?” Imani asked me on the walk home.

  I shook my head. I was worried. For all I knew, Fletcher could be dead. If he was, I didn’t know how I could possibly live with that. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.

  “What are you going to do about the offering?” Imani asked.

  “There’s nothing we can do. Rose doesn’t have another heart to spare.”

  Imani kicked a pebble on the side walk with her wedge sneaker. “It sounds like all these problems lead back to Mr. Mason.”

  I hadn’t known Imani long, but I knew how she thought. She was thinking the same thing I was, but she didn’t want to say the words out loud. I was glad for that because I didn’t want to hear them.

  I left Imani and took the bus downtown. There was one person I could count on to look at all sides of the story and tell me the truth—Dr. Scarlett.

  She’d been my therapist for over a year until my parents decided I didn’t need to see her anymore. They thought I was depressed, but my odd behavior was just a side effect of being a Banshee. I couldn’t help it.

  I leaned against the bumper of her black Mercedes reading a book so there was no way she would miss me. I wasn’t sure what time she would be leaving. I knew her last appointments were always at four o’clock. It was a quarter to five so she would be leaving at any moment.

  “Arden?”

  I jumped even though I had been expecting her. I’d been lost in the pages of my book right in the middle of a really good part. “Hi, Dr. Scarlett.”

  She opened her car door and set her leather briefcase on the seat. Then she rounded the car and wrapped me into a hug. “Honey, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. There was one hundred and sixty-one dollars there. “I don’t know how much you charge per hour. I can pay you more later.”

  I couldn’t talk anymore because a massive lump formed in my throat. My eyes burned with tears. I remembered all the conversations we’d had, and even though I would have never admitted it back then, they had really helped me.

  “Keep your money.” She pulled me close and hugged me again. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Why don’t we go to the coffee shop and talk?”

  I nodded and got into the passenger seat. The coffee shop was close, just two blocks over.

  Inside the syrupy scent of the coffee made me sick to my stomach.
Scarlett ordered some chamomile tea while I had a hot chocolate that didn’t taste so bad.

  Once we settled down at our table, Scarlett watched me with her eyebrows arched. “What’s going on? It has to be something big for you to come and see me.”

  It was bigger than big. She was right. I hated my therapy sessions when I had to go to them so for me to come to her voluntarily meant that I was desperate.

  I wanted her advice, but I couldn’t tell her everything. I just couldn’t. “I have to make a decision. It’s not something that can wait. It has to be done right now. There’s this person. He does horrible things and as a result of that, people are hurting and dying. If he goes through with this plan he has, more people will die. There’s no telling how many, but it will be a blood bath.”

  Scarlett stared at me wide-eyed, but she didn’t say anything.

  “I don’t like this person at all, but I don’t necessarily want to hurt them. They’re leaving me no choice. But, I promised someone I wouldn’t hurt this particular person. This person is special to them and I don’t want to go back on my promise. I don’t want to hurt my—well, I guess you can call him my friend.”

  Hollis had gone with me to find Rose. Hollis had spared Imani’s life at my request. I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to take his only living parent away from him, but I didn’t see any other option.

  “Arden, exactly what are you talking about? Killing people and blood baths, I don’t—”

  “This is just hypothetical. I know this is a lot but I guess my question is, could you kill someone if it would save the lives of thousands of people? This person can’t be reasoned with. They won’t listen to anything.”

  Scarlett frowned. “Hypothetically, I would say yes, sometimes people have to be taken down if it’s for the benefit of others. It’s happened all throughout history. I think sometimes it needs to be done, but only if there is no other option.”

  That was all I needed to hear. There were no other options. One person was standing in the way of Fletcher being okay. My father, Imani, and Scarlett had all said what I’d always known deep down in my gut. I’d been trying to find another way around it, but there was no other way. I was going to break my promise to Hollis. I was going to kill Mr. Mason.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The shrill sound of Coach Rosa’s whistle pierced through the air, signaling the end of the soccer game. Thank God. I couldn’t wait to get out of my sticky, sweaty PE uniform. Coach always chose the hottest days to make us have class outside.

  “Clear the field, girls!” Coach ordered. That meant to collect the flags and cones and deliver them to the storage closet.

  I had picked up a few flags when Marley Madden and I bent to pick up the same cone. I pulled away, allowing her to grab it. She tousled the red mop of curls on her head and pursed her lips. “Hey, Dust. Long time, no see.”

  I rolled my eyes because she saw me every single day, she just didn’t speak to me. Marley was one of Lacey’s bees, so she had been ignoring me as usual, until she had spent the entire game yelling at me for not moving fast enough.

  Marley was easily the best soccer player in our class, but she took the game way too seriously in my opinion. Outside of PE, there would never be another time I would play soccer or any other kind of ball, so I couldn’t relate to the passion she had for the stupid game. I sighed and turned away from her as dark clouds moved across the sky and a rumble came from afar. It was going to storm again.

  “Hey, Dust,” Marley called from behind me. “Will you tell Imani that we’re going to be meeting at the mall at seven instead of six.”

  The wind suddenly picked up and I was grateful for the breeze. “Tell her yourself,” I called over my shoulder. “Do I look like a carrier pigeon?” Several girls walking beside me gasped because I usually never said anything when people messed with me.

  Marley fake laughed. “Aw, don’t act like that, Dust. Anyway, we’re going dress shopping for Amber T’s party. She’s having a huge Sweet Seventeen at a fancy hotel. Do you have your dress yet? Oh, wait. You probably weren’t invited.”

  No, I hadn’t been invited to Amber’s party and Imani hadn’t mentioned it. I was fine with being left out because the last party I had gone to had ended with someone dying. I was done with parties—at least until I could move away from Everson. I walked a little faster. but the gym suddenly seemed miles away. Marley wasn’t getting under my skin and I wanted her to know it.

  She jogged past me, ramming her shoulder into mine. Once she was halfway across the field, the sky boomed and a bright, white flash struck the ground just a couple of feet from her. For a moment we all froze. Marley dropped the cones she was carrying and everyone shrieked with panic. Girls raced past Marley, who seemed to be stuck in place until another bolt struck the ground just inches from her feet. She yelped and followed the others.

  Coach Rosa blew her whistle from where she stood at the gymnasium doors. “Drop everything! Everyone inside now!”

  We did as we were told, sprinting toward the gym. I wasn’t afraid like the others because something told me only one of us was in real danger.

  The entire way, bolts of lightning continued to strike the ground, barely missing Marley. The air smelled like burnt matches. About ten feet from the door, Marley tripped over her own feet. The ground vibrated beneath me as a bolt struck the ground right between her legs.

  Marley’s eyes widened as a stream a smoke rose from the ground. She managed to get moving again, making it through the doors.

  By the time we’d all made it inside, and Coach shut the doors, Marley was white as a ghost, hunched over and struggling to catch her breath. “What . . . the . . . hell?”

  Sarah Daniels rubbed Marley’s back. “That was crazy. That lightning just came out of nowhere.”

  “Not only that,” Haley Dobbs said, “it seemed like it was only trying to strike Marley.” She gazed at Marley with a super-serious expression. “You must have done something really, really bad.”

  Marley scowled at her. “What? Don’t be stupid. It was just a freak incident.”

  Still, everyone took a slight step away from Marley. I knew exactly what had happened and Haley wasn’t completely wrong. It hadn’t been some freak incident.

  ***

  Before I dealt with Mr. Mason, I had to know where the box was. There was a good chance he had hidden it somewhere and not destroyed it. I knew the perfect person to ask for help.

  I found Violet sitting against the side of the school building bouncing a ball off the wall and catching it. She was always alone and once again out in the open where she wasn’t supposed to be.

  I sat beside her, tucking my legs underneath me. “Hey, Violet. What’s up?”

  She held the ball in her hands. “Hey, Arden. Not much. Just the usual, I guess.”

  “You know, something very strange happened earlier today while I was in school.”

  Violet looked down at the ball, pressing her fingers into it. “Really? What?”

  I took the ball away from her so she would look at me. “A girl almost got struck by lightning. Quite a few times.”

  She shrugged and reached for the ball. “Stuff like that happens all the time. Blame Mother Nature.”

  I held the ball out of her reach. “Violet, look at me.” She stared at me with clear blue eyes. “We both know Mother Nature had nothing to do with that. It was you. I know you can control the weather. You’re the reason it’s been storming so much.” I finally understood why she was a Taker.

  Violet started to shake her head. “Don’t lie to me,” I said firmly.

  She scrunched her face at me. “So what? Yeah, I did it. I was listening from the trees. That girl was being mean to you the whole time you guys were outside. She deserved it.”

  “Violet, you could have killed her.”

  Her face relaxed to the point where it was almost emotionless and scary. “If I wanted to kill her, she would be dead. I was just trying to scare her . . . for y
ou. What’s the big deal? She’s fine.”

  I took her hands into mine and squeezed them. “Violet, I appreciate you trying to look out for me, but I don’t want you doing things like that anymore. I can take care of myself. The things those girls say don’t bother me anymore. No more stunts like that, okay?”

  Violet narrowed her eyes at me. “Sometimes bad things need to happen to bad people. That’s the only way they learn.”

  I couldn’t argue much with that, especially considering what I was about to do. I would have to deal with Violet and her storm-causing emotions later.

  “We’ll talk about this another time. Right now, I need you to do me a huge favor.”

  Her eyes lit up and she sat up on her knees. I felt horrible for asking what I was about to ask. “Sure, what?”

  “It’s kind of risky,” I warned.

  “That’s okay.”

  Taking a deep breath, I let it out. “I need you to get something very important from Mr. Mason’s office.” Cadence and I had already worked things out. She would lure him from his office with a false emergency and Violet could use her sneaky skills to get into the office and find the box. Wes thought Mr. Mason had hidden it in a safe built into one of the walls.

  She looked up at the sky for a moment. “Yeah, I could do that. You guys will make sure I don’t get caught?”

  I nodded. “Yes. You’ll definitely have a look out.”

  The door of the janitor’s closet banged open. “He’s gone,” Cadence whispered, staying hidden. Violet and I made our way inside. I found Cadence leaning against a wall. “What happened?” I asked.

  “We told him a Ghoul got loose. He and Hollis went to catch it.”

  Violet gave me a captain’s salute. “I’m on it.” She disappeared down the hallway.

  “Wes is keeping an eye on the underground entrance that Mason uses to get in and out,” Cadence told me, then she and I waited outside of Mr. Mason’s office while Violet searched for the box.