Rise from Ash

by Fleur Smith

  “What is it?”

  With a great effort, I turned toward him and pulled myself off the ground. I took a step in his direction, but my injured ankle buckled under me as I did. Clay ignored my request and ran the rest of the way to my side, holding my side to keep me upright.

  “You’re hurt,” he murmured. His gaze trailed over my body, mentally cataloging every scratch and bruise on my skin. He turned to give his brother a stern glare, but I couldn’t focus on Ethan. Even though he was a threat, my instincts screamed that he wasn’t the biggest risk we faced. Something else, something close, had even him terrified.

  “Clay, there’s something in there,” I said, looking back to the cave.

  He gathered me into his side so that he supported my weight before turning his back on the fissure. As he led me away, I glanced back over my shoulder at the opening, waiting for whatever had been behind me to burst through. I needed to know what it was, needed to escape.

  Clay didn’t ask any questions about why I didn’t come out quicker, but I figured he realized it was to do with his brother.

  “Are you okay?” he asked under his breath. The look in his eyes told me that the question wasn’t the one he really wanted to ask.

  I nodded. “I will be now, but we have to get out of here. I don’t trust—”

  Movement in the dark crevasse caught my eye. The sight sent heat racing through me and silenced my words.

  Clay misconstrued my statement and glared at his brother. “You are going to let us go.” His tone allowed no room for argument. Still holding me upright, Clay shoulder charged Ethan as we passed.

  I glanced backward again, not trusting the thing in the cave to stay in the cave. As if my thoughts called the creature to me, it emerged. It started with a hand—long, pointed fingers, the bones barely covered by the thin, stretched gray skin, reaching out to caress the rocks on one side of the fissure.

  “Clay,” I whispered, pointing back at the rocks.

  Holding me steady, he looked back at where I was gesturing.

  Inch by inch, a creature emerged from the dark cave. The sight was one I would never have imagined, even in my worst nightmares. Bony and gaunt, with skin almost as gray as the rocks around it, the creature twisted and contorted its body through the small fissure until it stood before us. Even though it was probably only a foot or so taller than me, the horrific nature of the thing made it appear to loom over us in my mind.

  It stood, appearing to stretch its body; each muscle on the beast twitched in time, a ripple visibly rushing over its thin, graying skin. Its face was almost human-shaped, except it lacked everything that made someone human. Its eyes were sunken—deep wells of nothingness covered with a thin layer of skin. Its nose was absent—just two wide nostrils that contracted each time it sucked in a breath. The thing’s lips were thin and receded.

  The emaciated beast sprung forward, and I was pinned, frozen in place, horror-struck as I watched its rapid movements. Its skin was barely able to stretch across its skeletal frame. Each step appeared to pull its muscles taut to the point of snapping. I had never seen something so completely not human. The fae were otherworldly, but majestically so. The creature before me looked like a culmination of nightmares.

  Both Clay and Ethan swore at the sight, but I couldn’t drag my gaze away from the monstrous sight ahead of me to pay them any attention.

  The creature stalked toward us, leading with its head and leaning forward slightly as if to reach us first with its mouth. Its dull and lifeless gaze shifted between Ethan and Clay with small shifts of its head, wordlessly weighing up the choice over which would be the better prey. It tilted its head, lifting its nostrils and sniffing at the air. The creature’s tattered lips twisted into an evil smile, revealing a strip of teeth that leaned and twisted in all directions like a row of condemned houses.

  “Wendigo,” Clay muttered as he shifted away from me a little.

  I missed his support the instant it was gone. I was able to stand on my own, but I wasn’t sure how far I could walk—or how fast I could run—if it became necessary to move.

  I turned to him to find out what he meant, but he was talking to Ethan and not me.

  “The flares are in the car,” Ethan said in response. “We won’t get to them in time.”

  Despite everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, the appearance of this creature—this wendigo—had forced the two of them back into their natural relationship. Just as I began to process it all, the wendigo disappeared into thin air.

  “Where is it?” I asked as I looked all around the area. It had moved so quickly, it was like magic.

  “It could be anywhere,” Clay said, all traces of hatred, anger, and even sorrow washed away by the protective instinct that was clearly ingrained deep within him. He turned to me and held my face in his hands, meeting my eyes with a piercing gaze that pinned me in place. “So stay close. Trust us. This is what we do.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “A wendigo,” Ethan answered. The fact that his tone was almost cordial came as a shock to me, but he was clearly acting on instinct. In that instant, I was the lesser threat, and he was most likely falling into a familiar pattern of protection just as Clay had.

  “But what is that?” I asked. I’d never encountered anything like it—never even dreamed such a creature was possible despite what I was and what I knew.

  “They are evil creatures,” Clay said. “Legends say they used to be human, but they chose cannibalism and became—”

  The creature appeared right behind us and smashed its arm across the back of Clay’s head. His words cut off, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

  I screamed and threw myself at the back of the wendigo as it bent down to reach for Clay’s prostrate form. I may not have known exactly what a wendigo was, but with the hungry gleam in its empty-socket eyes, I could guess at its intent. The beast dodged out of my grasp at the last second and disappeared again.

  “Help him!” I screamed at Ethan.

  Ethan’s gaze traveled between his fallen brother and me. His uncertainty about what to do next was clear on his features and his heavy-set brow. He seemed to be reassessing which was the greater threat—the wendigo or me.

  I realized I was going to have to prove to him that I wasn’t a threat—or at the very least that I could never hurt Clay.

  “What will kill that thing?” I asked as I checked Clay’s pulse. “What did you need from the car?”

  Ethan stared at the serene expression on Clay’s unconscious face for a moment, before his eyes snapped back to me. “Flares. I have a flare gun in the trunk.”

  “I’ll watch him. You go and get the gun.” It was highly likely that Ethan would turn a gun on me after everything was done, but in that moment, it didn’t matter what came next. I needed Clay’s safety above everything else, including my own.

  Ethan looked between Clay and me again, as if debating whether to trust me or not.

  “You might think I’m evil,” I said through clenched teeth. “But you have to know I love your brother. Surely it’s obvious that I won’t let anything hurt him? Not even me.”

  “It’s not that.” Ethan shook his head as his gaze flicked between Clay and I once more.

  I cast him a skeptical glare.

  To my surprise, he actually grinned slightly. He looked so much more like Clay when he did, his eyes even crinkled in the corners in the exact same way.

  “Okay, so it’s not only that,” he corrected. “You’ve got no way of stopping the wendigo. If I leave now, I’ll be handing both of you to that thing on a platter.”

  I growled in frustration, “And if you don’t go you’ll be damning all three of us.”

  Realizing the truth in my words, he turned on his heel and started back the way he and Clay had come, only to stop when the wendigo appeared directly in his path. The creature swatted at him with one arm, no doubt trying to incapacitate Ethan as it had Clay. With reflexes faster than any
one I’d ever seen, Ethan managed to duck out of the way at the last second.

  They continued the pattern of ducking and weaving, and the beast forced Ethan backward until he was only a few feet away from Clay’s motionless body. This thing was herding us together, and with the speed it had, it was unlikely anyone would escape the ring.

  “Tell me more about those things,” I said with urgency.

  Ethan didn’t hesitate. “They’re insatiable. No matter how much they eat, they’ll always crave more. Humans are their prey of choice.”

  “And flares are their only weakness?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not flares as such. Fire. It’s the only thing that kills them.”

  I grunted in frustration at his idiocy.

  “Well, why the hell didn’t you give me that little nugget of information sooner?” I couldn’t believe Ethan didn’t realize that they didn’t need the flares—they had me. Even if he didn’t trust me, I was the perfect weapon for him. “Idiot,” I muttered under my breath.

  Ethan looked back at me in confusion and the wendigo took its advantage, grabbing him from behind and twisting his arms behind his back. The beast’s tattered lips drew back as if the creature was preparing to take a bite.

  “Hey, you!” I shouted while pushing myself to my feet. I took a step toward the monster. “Care for something a bit sweeter?”

  With the vacant space where it’s nose should have been, it sniffed the air again before turning its attention back to Ethan.

  “I don’t think it recognizes you as its food,” a voice from beneath me said as a hand gripped my ankle.

  A happy grin spread across my face at the sound of Clay’s voice. Despite the danger, I took a moment to celebrate. He was alive. At least, he was for the moment. And I would do whatever I could to ensure that he stayed that way. He stirred groggily, staring between the monster and me.

  “Well, maybe it will recognize me as a threat,” I said as I broke free of his hold and began to move toward the beast.

  “Don’t!” Clay sat up and grabbed my arm to stop me. He winced at how hot my skin already was. “I’ve already lost you once in the last twenty-four hours. I don’t think I could handle it again.”

  I turned back to him and leaned over to brush the hair off his face.

  “You won’t lose me again,” I promised. “I’m in this for life.”

  “Guys, I don’t mean to break up the love fest, but if you have a plan, now might be a good time to put it into action,” Ethan said through gritted teeth. He struggled against the hold of the wendigo, and it was fast gaining the upper hand again.

  I nodded to Ethan. “When I say run, you run.”

  Again he shocked me by nodding in agreement.

  I pushed myself toward the creature, using my momentum to carry me forward, despite my protesting ankle. My skin prickled and burned; the sunbird was seconds away from taking control. I didn’t know whether my body would cope with her intrusion, considering I still hadn’t fully recovered from the last time, but I had to try. I had to do whatever I could to save Clay . . . and Ethan too. Pushing all thoughts of the agony that burned over my body out of my mind, I allowed the invisible flames to dance across my skin.

  The creature seemed confused for a moment as I barreled toward it. At the last second, it dropped its arms away from Ethan and turned to flee.

  “Run,” I shouted at Ethan right before I launched myself into the tiny space between him and the creature. “Help Clay!”

  I fell to the ground right where the creature had just been. At first I thought I must have missed with my leap for the wendigo. But then triumph flooded through me as something hard and cold fought against my hold. Despite its supernatural speed, I’d managed to grab onto one of the wendigo’s legs. Just. I held on for grim death, knowing that if I let my hold loosen for even a second it could cost Clay his life.

  Without releasing my grip, I forced the fire that raced over my body into my fingers. The papery skin under my fingertips ignited like tinder and the creature screamed. It kicked its leg to shake me off, but that only made me tighten my grip even further.

  The wendigo fell to its knees in front of me, and I reached out with my other hand, planting my fingers against its back. Arching away from my touch and trying to dodge my grip, the creature twisted and writhed beneath me. It turned and attacked, fighting me viciously with a series of snarls and snapping jaws.

  As it moved over me, pinning me to the ground in an attempt to bite my face, I wrapped my legs around its waist and locked my ankles in place behind its back. I grabbed at the beast’s face, forcing my fingertips into the hollows where its eyes should have been and pressing my palms against the tattered skin around its cheeks.

  I held on tightly, focused on forcing all of the heat and flame in my body into the creature. If I failed, the price would be too high. The cries coming from the wendigo were blood curdling, so loud and pained that I wanted to shrink away from the noise, but still I didn’t let go. I couldn’t.

  Its nails dug into my sides and its teeth sunk into my cheek, but the harder it fought, the tighter I gripped as I forced more and more heat into my skin. I was on the verge of losing control to the sunbird, but I fought her back as desperately as I battled with the wendigo, so that I didn’t lose control and endanger Clay or Ethan if she took hold.

  The fight left the wendigo as the flames consumed its body. When I the strength of the creature dipped, I rolled us over so that I was in completely control.

  Anchoring myself over the wendigo’s hips, I pressed my hands against its chest. The flames ate away at the sheer gray flesh that stretched thinly over its ribs as if it were paper. Glancing up as the body burned, I sought out Clay to ensure he was safe. Both he and Ethan stared at me with identical expressions—a mixture of awe and disbelief. Clay glanced from me to his brother and back again before the corner of his mouth lifted in a small, secretive smile.

  The fire in my hands burned hotter, and the wendigo’s bones crumbled to dust beneath my touch. Eventually, the creature’s terrible shrieks stopped and the whole area fell silent except for the steady crack and pop of the flames burning through the remains of the beast.

  Pulling my hands away from the wendigo, I left the flames I’d already set to consume the rest of it. Trying to step away from the creature, I stumbled. The struggle and the fire had taken every last ounce of my strength, and I couldn’t concentrate for a moment more.

  The sharp, stabbing sensation in my ankle stole my sight and dragged me into the darkness for a moment. When I resurfaced, flames overtook my vision. I tried to draw a breath, but acrid smoke poured down my throat instead of oxygen.

  The fight left my body.

  I heard Clay shout my name as I slumped down over the burning body of the creature.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CONFUSION RUSHED THROUGH my body, chasing away all conscious thought.

  I didn’t know where I was. All of my senses were lost to me.

  There was only darkness and heat.

  Then flickers of light.

  Someone calling my name.

  Over and over.

  Always my name.

  It might have been my mom, or my dad, or even Clay. It was possibly all of them at once. My mind struggled to make sense of the mess of sounds.

  “Am I dead?”

  Not quite, but you are close. Do you want to die? It was the sunbird talking. Louder than I’d ever heard her before.

  Peace. The word reverberated around my mind, not from the sunbird but from a place of hope and longing. I smiled. It was the one thing I’d been searching for. For so long, I’d longed to live without the worry of being hunted hanging over my head.

  Death is all it would take to be free, I thought.

  I wondered whether this was what it would be like at the end of my life, or at the end of my current sunbird cycle at least.

  Time passed.

  I burned.

  As I did, I saw the past. Generati
on after generation of protector all lined up before me, welcoming me into their ranks. I’d served my purpose—I’d saved a life.

  Clay’s life: I could think of no worthier sacrifice.

  Not only that, but I’d destroyed a threat that had already killed twelve people and had the potential to kill many more.

  “Maybe it is time for the next generation to take over.”

  The fire burned through my mind, and I understood more in that moment than I ever had before. We were all connected. Each new body offered the sunbird another chance at life. A foreign spirit born intertwined with each of our souls. We were individual but collective—shared and unique.

  My mother’s voice drowned out all of the rest. Despite never having heard her speak in all my life, I knew in my heart it was her.

  “Evelyn, I’m so proud of you,” she said.

  “I wish I’d had you beside me, Mom,” I tried calling back, but my voice was lost even to my own ears. Still, she understood. I spoke to her through the connection the sunbird provided, linking us all back countless generations.

  “I’ve been with you the whole time, watching over you, and I’ll stay with you until it is time for you to join me here.”

  “It is time,” I said. It’s peaceful here.

  “It’s not time yet,” she replied. “The sunbird will know when it’s time. She’ll guide you, just as she has before. Trust her, and trust your instincts.”

  “But I want peace.”

  “What about Clay?”

  “Clay?” Whom I’d only found again so recently. Whose life I’d saved. Whose side I wanted to be at for everyday of the rest of my life however long or short that might be. At the thought of him, I struggled through the darkness back to the light.

  Clay was worth more than the peace of death, he was worth everything.

  “You have to go back.” My mother’s voice was firm, but I didn’t want to argue with her any longer anyway.