Dance of Ashes and Smoke (Age of Monsters Book 1)

by Harley Gordon

  Why wouldn’t she just kill me so I could join them?

  Blood spilled into my mouth, the salty taste of metal and iron coating my tongue. I gagged and choked, crying and shaking. It was embarrassing, but I didn’t care. I just wanted it to stop. I wanted the pain and fear and my nightmare of a life to stop.

  The sorceress straddled me, leaning over me until we were breast to breast, nose to nose. She sniffed deep and purred, her tongue flicking out and licking the blood and tears from my face.

  Her tongue was sandpaper scraping against the wounds. I tried to buck her off me, but it was like my body had been super-glued to the ground. No. This was not happening. I would not lie here and let the monster who killed my family to kill me too. I would not lie there and make it easy for her.

  Since she’d left my mouth free, I could still speak. I mouthed the words of a spell I’d forgotten, somehow sticking in my mind after reading The Book of Thoth. Even we mere mortals could use magic if we knew the right spell. Normally. I was against the use of it, but nothing was off limits for this bitch. So busy making out with my face, she didn’t notice what I was doing fast enough.

  At the last word, she blasted back from me, smacking into the ground with a satisfying crunch, releasing us from her freezing spell. Olivia rushed to me, helping me to a seated position. I swayed and fought back the vomit trying to rise in my throat.

  A pathetic whimper trembled on my lips as I started hallucinating.

  A white horse was flying towards us.

  I shook my head and blinked over and over, trying to clear my head, but it refused to go away.

  “I see it too.” Liv’s voice was coated in awe and hope.

  I didn’t have either left. While the chimera tried to wake her mistress, I hobbled to the house. I wasn’t going anywhere without my weapons.

  Thankfully the sorceress or chimera had very thoughtfully piled it all on the porch. I chose my sword and shoved the rest into the pack, throwing it over my shoulder as I hurried back to Olivia.

  She grabbed my arm as I walked right past her towards the monsters. “No. We have to go. Now. She’s going to wake up any second and we aren’t prepared for this.”

  I kept walking toward them. “This ends today. We didn’t come this far and go through so much just to leave.”

  The horse landed in front of us. A damn Pegasus. I was no hero, what the hell was he doing here? I tried to go around him, but he stayed in my way. I pointed the sword at him.

  “Move. Now.”

  He shook his head and whinnied, indicating annoyance.

  I was about to argue, but my knees gave out right about then and I hit the ground hard.

  “Screw this. I care more about saving you than I do about killing her.” Olivia grabbed my arm again and actually threw me onto the back of the horse. Before I could get off, she was behind me holding me down and we were in the air.

  I screamed and fought against her, but blood loss made me weak and terror made her strong. Once they were specks in the distance, I slumped over the Pegasus’s neck, staining his pure white coat with more blood and tears.

  We’d had her. I could have killed her. We could have been finished.

  I’d failed.

  The Pegasus left us by my motorcycle, snorting at Olivia’s thanks and took off into the fading light. Liv peered at my face. “Can you hold on until we get to Jax?”

  She was almost green.

  I nodded, wincing, then winced from the wince.

  She slipped the pack off my back and tied it to the bike. “Tap me if you need to stop.”

  I gave her a thumbs up. That didn’t hurt too much. Adrenaline was fading fast, the pain returning threefold. My body wouldn’t stop shaking even though I was covered in sweat.

  Liv helped me onto the back of the bike, her face calm but eyes wet and wild. I almost asked her to tie me on, but no. I’d been weak enough. I could handle a measly thirty-minute bike ride.

  We sped through the streets, Olivia pushing the limits on my bike, but Artoo held up fine, seeming to understand the desperation we dripped with. The wind was nice on my face, soothing the pulsing heat. The blood still ran from my face and dripped to my shirt, but I didn’t release my grip on Olivia’s hips to wipe it away. I was afraid if I let go even the slightest I’d end up a broken pile on the pavement behind us.

  My head was thick with fuzz and clouds. I wanted to go to sleep for a week. Olivia screamed back at me, but the wind whipped her words away before they reached me. I didn’t really care anyway. I was starting to float and it was delightful.

  A harsh pinch on my thigh ripped me back to all my agony and sharpened my vision. I strengthened my grip—my arms had all but let go. I had to hold on a little longer. We were almost there. Then I could float away as much as I wanted.

  Jax raced over to us when we screeched to a stop underneath the dripping tree. Adele was nowhere in sight and I was glad. I didn’t want to scare her. She’d been through enough, seen enough violence in her short life.

  He caught me as I pitched off the side of the motorcycle, carrying me with ease over to the fire, hissing when he got a good look at my ravaged face. Judging by his expression it looked about as good as it felt.

  He’d already gotten his herbs and things prepared. At Olivia’s questioning glance, he explained. “I figured it would be needed. You were gone longer than expected.”

  “You jinxed us.” I could barely understand my own words.

  A startled laugh sprung from him. “Of course. It’s all my fault. I’m very sorry.”

  I passed out as soon as he tried to drown me in vodka.

  I woke wrapped in arms, clasped against a hard chest. I snuggled deeper into them before I remembered everything from the day before. I sprang to my feet, reaching for weapons that weren’t there.

  “It’s okay. You’re safe.” Jackson jumped up beside me, his voice quiet like I was a wild animal. Tears pooled in my eyes as I realized it was what I must have looked like. What I’d become. Feral and scarred and broken. The bandage on my cheek was stiff, the still-fragrant poultice numbing half my face. There was no pain. Yet.

  “Why were we sleeping together?”

  He blushed. “You...well, you came to a little after I dressed your wounds and you...uh...well, I didn’t want to leave you alone so I must have fallen asleep beside you.”

  Olivia emerged from the tent. “Don’t lie to her. You wouldn’t let him leave you. You grabbed onto his arm and babbled nonsense until he lied down next to you.”

  “Liv!”

  She scowled back at him. “She’s not broken or an invalid. She’s a wounded soldier, and that’s exactly how we’re going to treat her.”

  I was grateful to her even as my entire body turned the color of a cherry. I hissed as the pain smacked into me, making me stumble to my knees.

  Jackson and Olivia rushed to me and helped me back to the still glowing fire. Jax handed me a tin cup filled with something truly foul-smelling.

  “Drink this. All of it. It’s best to chug it all really fast and not breathe. It smells disgusting and tastes even worse, but it’ll help with the pain.”

  It hurt too much to argue or question. It slid down my throat like mushrooms and mold were thrown together into a blender. I threw the empty cup at him and covered my mouth, forcing myself to keep it down.

  Liv gagged in sympathy.

  Adele poked her head out, smiling with concern and relief at the sight of me. I opened my arms, biting back a groan when her tiny body rattled mine as she attached herself to me.

  “I’m okay, little one. I’m okay.” I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.

  Jax eased her from my arms. “Let’s get you some breakfast. I think we have a can of fruit left.”

  I stood up, ignoring the splinters of pain shooting through me and searched and checked through my weapons.

  Olivia hovered beside me. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Gearing up. I have to
go back. They won’t stay there long; they may already be gone. I’m hoping they don’t think we’d dare return.”

  “Have you lost your freaking mind? There is no way in hell you’re going back there today.”

  “Why? I’m fine. It’s just a little cosmetic wound and Jax’s magical herbs have mostly numbed my face.”

  “Don’t lie to me. You can barely stand, much less fight. And neither can I.”

  “I didn’t plan on taking you with me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You don’t need to put yourself in that sort of danger again. It’ll be better if it’s just me. Then I won’t have to worry about you getting hurt and I can focus on killing her.”

  Olivia threw her hands into the air before crossing them across her chest. “So, what happened is my fault? You could have handled her if I hadn’t been there.”

  “No, that’s not—”

  She cut me off with a slice of her hand. “Get over yourself. She was way too powerful for a damn army, much less two nineteen-year-olds with a year of training. We need to have a better plan than kicking in her door and shooting her. That didn’t work out so well last time.”

  “Well, obviously I wouldn’t—”

  She sneered. “No? So what’s your big plan this time? Hobble over to her and let her slice you up some more? That’s brilliant. I understand now why you’re the planner in this little trio of ours.”

  I stumbled back a little from her. “What do you want me to do? Let her go? She killed my family.”

  “She killed mine too. You aren’t the only one hurting so stop acting like a martyr. I want her dead as much as you, but I’m not willing to lose the last fragment of family I have left to see it happen. Or my own life. That’s no way to honor them. So we are going to find a library in Savannah that wasn’t destroyed and hole up there while you recuperate and we are going to research every little thing about witches, I don’t care if it takes rereading Harry Potter. And once you’re recovered and we have a good plan, we will go back there and end this. Do you understand me?”

  I gaped at her. She’d never yelled at me like that before. Usually she manipulated and used logic to convince me I was wrong. Or went along with me because the same rage and pain fueled her.

  “Monet, do you have any idea what it was like for me to watch her do that to you? To listen to your screams, see the blood, and be unable to move or do anything? I can’t go through it again.”

  And there was the manipulation, even though I knew she meant it. I dropped my bag and wrapped my hands around her shuddering frame, and we held on tight to each other in the eye of the storm raging through us.

  “Okay. Okay. We’ll do it your way.”

  “Thank you.”

  She sniffed and pulled away from me, mopping her eyes with her sleeves. Jax and Adele watched us wide-eyed, Jackson’s brimming with awe.

  “So, that’s how you get through to her. I need to take notes.”

  His words broke the tense spell cast over the camp and I kicked dirt and leaves at him, scowling. He skipped away, chuckling.

  “Come eat your breakfast. I’ll pack up camp while the two of you eat.”

  He was being way too nice and cheerful. It annoyed me.

  I brightened when he handed me a can of beets. My favorite. He winked at me and sauntered away to the tents and started tearing them down, his jeans riding low on his hips. I flushed at the memory of his bare behind flashing in my mind and busied myself with my beets. Olivia raised a brow, but kept her mouth shut like the bright girl she was.

  We left our motorcycles hidden in an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the city, arranging old moldy boxes around them and our stuff, hoping and praying no one or nothing found it. Our weapons and most important possessions were strapped to us in case we had to abandon everything.

  In case we had to run.

  There were no words between us as we slunk farther into the city, kept to the shadows, staying against the sides of structures, ears perked for any unnatural sound. Wind whistled between the buildings and sent trash dancing through the streets and my pulse into overdrive with each scrape and flutter. Adrenaline was a strong force pumping its way through my body, magnifying my senses almost too much. It made everything louder, brighter, smellier.

  With each step the stench grew worse, a rotten fish corpse type of smell mixed with old socks. Olivia gagged and moved her scarf to cover the lower half of her face. I copied her good idea, but the stink had crawled into my nose and attached itself inside like a parasite. Jackson blew breath out of his nose, making a weird horsey sound.

  This place used to be vibrant and brim with life and sounds and laughter and love. Now it was a barren wasteland haunted with the ghosts of the dead, echoes of their lives still imprinted along the streets, making it even more depressing. Bits of clothes, the random toy, ripped and damp books, crushed DVDs, shredded photos. It made a strange graveyard, a sort of memorial to the lives that used to flourish here.

  The uprising of the humans had been so strong in Savannah, the monsters hadn’t bothered turning it into a camp. Instead, they killed everyone. Just like our hometown.

  I memorized everything, let it soak deep into my soul, more ammo for my grievance against the monsters. The hatred I nurtured like a newborn lion, feeding and training it to come bursting out of me fierce and proud.

  Once I was ready.

  Once I went back for her.

  Once I had killed her. And her little creepy chimera familiar.

  The screams of the dying still rang in my ears, a constant din at the back of my mind.

  By the time Olivia and I made it to the town square, the sorceress and her chimera were finished and dematerialized right in front of us. The other monsters wandered away to find more fun sources of violence.

  The piles of dead bodies we sorted through, searching desperately for our families, were stamped into my brain, playing through my dreams like a horror film every night for months. My mom, my dad, Liv’s parents right beside them. Tangled in one another’s arms as they tried to protect each other from death. Alcott had dragged me away from them, holding me while I shook with shock.

  And now he was gone too.

  I fought to keep my face expressionless, actually a little glad of the bandage helping to hide my tortured emotions. Adele had been through more than enough. I already looked bad enough and didn’t want to scare the kid with horrific emotions decorating my mangled face.

  We reached the mall with no problems, slipping in a sporting goods store, and loaded up from still quite stocked shelves of ammo. We had enough weapons, but the bullets and arrows were a welcome addition to our arsenal. We grabbed new sleeping bags too, the ones we had were pretty rank after being hidden in the vent for so long. And every battery we could hold was shoved into each pocket and crevice we could make fit.

  Olivia dragged us towards the door. “Come on. You said we could go to Hot Topic.”

  I pulled out of her grasp, forcing a laugh past my aching face, not wanting to waste time shopping. “All right. All right. But let’s be fast. I don’t like the feel of this part of the city.”

  Her head bobbed. “Too many ghosts. But I still want a couple new tees. What’s the point of the apocalypse if I can’t have free stuff?”

  I appreciated her attempt at distraction and played along. “It’s the one real perk.” I stroked the butt of my gun with fond fingers.

  “Not exactly what I meant, but whatever.”

  “I’d like to make a quick trip to a drugstore. Herbs are harder to come by with the winter upon us,” Jax took Adele’s hand.

  “Good idea.”

  Surprise stained Jackson’s face at my quick agreement, his thanks a question.

  “I’m not stupid. I know stocking up on medicine and bandages is a good idea. I’d prefer stronger pain meds.” Not liking the strut in his walk, I add a slight jab. “Besides, I want you to feel useful now that you’re here. And it’s pretty much all you’re good for
.”

  He shot me a wacky grin, completely unoffended. He’d been impossible to get a rise out of. But I’d keep trying.

  Olivia hissed in my ear. “Are you not going to be happy until he’s as miserable as you are?”

  “Nope.”

  She shook her head, but was distracted at the sight of Hot Topic and too busy sorting through the racks to keep bugging me about him.

  I ran my hands over nerd gear, missing the shows I used to love, the bands I used to dance to. I was unable to resist pocketing a pair of Harry Potter socks. I didn’t have many in my pack, so it wasn’t a waste of space. I also grabbed Adele a couple pair of Star Wars socks and an adorable unicorn necklace. Her eyes lit up when I showed them to her and tucked them into her pack.

  My eye caught the bookstore across the hall and my heart literally ached with longing. I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in there for days or even move in and never leave, but I was already carrying as many books as I could, sacrificing room for more practical items, but unable to leave certain favorites behind.

  Liv appeared beside me, arms toppling with a pile of shirts. “We can go in if you want. You can always get a small mass market sized one that would fit in your jacket pocket. Just so you can have something new to read on guard shift.”

  “No, we need to go. Besides, we’re planning on spending our time in the library. There will be plenty there to choose from.”

  Our arms were full with our new things and the almost empty bags we’d brought weighed heavy on our backs as we emerged into the waning light of the day. We’d spent way too much time in the mall.

  My breath caught at the beauty of the library. Live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss framed the huge white historic structure with majestic columns holding up the roof. Before all this, I would’ve loved to explore the city, still gorgeous even though it looked like the zombie apocalypse ravaged it.

  I couldn’t believe it still stood.

  My eyes closed to slits to read the words etched on the top of the building. “This eternal court is open to you with its society wide as the world. The chosen and the mighty of every place and time.”