The Hour of Dust and Ashes

“What the—Stop!”

Her eyes went narrow. “So you deny my gift, then?”

“What? Yes. No …” Jesus. Okay. Calm down. Gift, she’d said gift. “What are you doing?”

“What I’m doing is not fooling around with some stupid test of worthiness like my backwoods sisters. You want it or not?”

My eyes fixed on the syringe. “Want what exactly?”

“Air. A hundred mils of it, pulled from yours truly, clean, blessed, and ready for the joining. Snagged this big boy”—she nodded toward the syringe—“from a horse farm in Conyers.”

“I thought that was just a myth, that air couldn’t—”

“Kill you? Sure it can. In big enough doses. Look, you don’t have to accept death to accept a gift. That’s my sisters’ deal.” She shrugged. “If you’re big enough to take the risk, then it’s fine by me. So, are you?”

“And the risk would be?”

“Brain damage. You in?”

“Brain damage,” I repeated numbly.

“Yeah. See,” she snorted, “you’re already halfway there.” When I didn’t laugh, she rolled her large, slanted eyes.

It was like I’d just woken up in some alternate never-never land, where Peter Pan was a smart-ass little female floating above me.

“My gift will move slowly because I told it to. Once you accept all the gifts, and use them for your purpose, you’ll be fine, and what I just gave you will be used up. Should you fail to accept the other gifts or don’t use them within four days of receipt of the first one, then mine is free to make its merry way into your brain. So, what’ll it be?”

These tests were all about worth and sacrifice. If you were willing to show you meant it, you were given the gift: the element.

I knew my heart, and because of that I wasn’t afraid.

I met her eyes and nodded, tensing as her grip on my arm tightened. She still hadn’t removed her other hand from my chest.

“Once I have all of the elements inside of me, how do I use them to see inside of my sister?”

“I’m not sure how it works. It just does.” A lethal grin spread across her face. “Don’t worry. I’ll try not to hit an artery.”

And then she shoved the needle into my skin.

I gasped at the sting and the instant bloom of hot pressure as air forced its way into my tissue. The sylph drew back and finally lifted her other hand off my chest. “It should only hurt for a little while.”

I sat up, rubbing at the burning skin. My arm was beginning to numb.

She glanced around the room, saw my small trash can, and tossed the syringe inside. “Later.”

“Wait!”

But she was already spinning into … nothing but air. And as air, she had no problem going wherever the hell she wanted—through cracks, under doors, through window screens … Nice power to have.

I fell back onto my mattress, heart pounding, and pressed my palms to my eyes and cursed. Great. I was a walking air embolism, and I had no idea how to use the elements inside of me to see inside of Bryn and the other ash victims.

Brim stood, stretched his long body, and then began circling again several times before lying back down.

I’d received the water gift first, so I had roughly three and a half days left before I needed to use what was inside of me or die. Funny, Alessandra never mentioned that part.

Two more tests to go. And the next time I saw a sylph, she wasn’t going anywhere until she told me exactly what to do with my s. Not if I could help it.

* * *

“Mom.” I was shaken so hard, my teeth clattered. “Momma, wake up!”

I groaned in protest, trying to turn over and pull the comforter over my head. “Stop, Em. Not time to get up yet …” The alarm hadn’t even gone off.

“Momma, get your butt out of bed. Miss Marti is on the phone. Something’s wrong with Amanda.”

I rolled over to see my daughter leaning over me in her pajama tank, hair in a cloud of wavy tangles, with the phone in her hand. I took the phone, my stomach already knotting. “Hello?”

“Charlie,” Marti’s unsteady voice came through the speakers. Please, don’t let this be bad. Please … “We’re at the hospital. Mandy”—she broke off with a sob—“tried to kill herself this morning.”

Amanda was one of the ash victims. She was also supposed to be under guard like the others.

“Where?”

“We’re back at Grady.” The same place Amanda had been taken a couple months earlier when ash had begun making its way into the population, when she’d ingested it out of teenage curiosity, and was later found lying on the bathroom floor of Hope Ridge School for Girls. My daughter’s school. My daughter’s good friend—older, yes, but those two had developed a sisterly relationship in the years since Marti and I became friends and carpoolers.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I ended the call and got out of bed. Em stepped back and watched me jerk my shirt over my head. “Get dressed,” I said. “I know you’ll want to see her.”

The breath she’d been holding released in a long whoosh. “Come, Brim.” And then they were gone.

I stepped to the bedroom window, praying my SUV had been dropped off like Hank promised. Thank God, it was there. I dressed quickly. I could hear Em’s racing footsteps on the stairs, the sound of the back door as she took Brim outside to the kennel, and then her heading back to her room to dress.

Twenty minutes later, we hurried into the hospital and up to Amanda’s floor, passing a nurses’ station and heading a few doors down to where a plainclothes officer stood against the wall. He straightened as we approached.

“You were the one guarding her?” I asked.

“Who are you?”

Badge out. “Madigan. What happened?”

Red tinged his eyes. Unshaven. Dress shirt wrinkled. The guy could use a coffee or two. He stared over my shoulder for a moment, gathering his thoughts, and then opened his mouth, but the door to Amanda’s room clicked and Marti poked her head out.

“You’re here. Come on in. Titus is here, too.” She stepped back, opening the door wider. Emma went first. Marti gave her a gentle smile and a hug.

“Give me a sec,” I said to the officer and went side of the room.

Atlanta’s resident genius, the man who’d discovered the alternate dimensions of Elysia and Charbydon, stood as we entered. I could tell he’d come from the lab, most likely working all night as usual. Titus also happened to be Amanda’s uncle, and with his brother, Cassius, having fled the country after his involvement in the production of ash came to light, Titus was the only one left to help pick up the pieces and lend support to his abandoned niece and sister-in-law.

He was a better man, by far, than Cassius had ever been. The incredibly wealthy scientific empire Titus had built on the foundation of his discovery over a decade ago hadn’t gone to his head. He was constantly working, constantly trying to invent better things and help our world deal with the influx of off-world immigrants and the crime factor that came along with it. Titus had invented every single one of our weapons, and he’d streamlined a better portal device to compensate for growing inter-world travel. The terminal here in Atlanta was the biggest and busiest, but there were terminals now in all the major U.S. cities.

Marti returned to the chair by Amanda’s bed. She still wore her pajamas, a matching set of soft pink silk pants and top. I didn’t know how she managed to look put together even here in this situation, but she did, as always. Only the tight line of her lips and the haggard look in her eyes gave her away.

It was easier to focus my attention on them first and not the girl who lay in the bed—Amanda.

But it wasn’t so for Emma. She went right to her friend and placed her hand over Amanda’s. “Is she going to