The Hour of Dust and Ashes

bottle on the counter, leaning back against it to cross one ankle over the other and my arms over my chest. “You were really in the Great War … It’s hard to imagine.”

“Not hard if you saw my original form. A bit taller than Tennin. Leaner. Meaner. To be honest, Charlie, I still can’t believe it, either. I spent thousands of years roaming as a disembodied spirit, losing my memories, forgetting how I came to be a Revenant … And I lived so long ago that now when I do remember, it doesn’t matter because there is no one left.”

“I’m sorry, Rex.” That had to be difficult, to finally remember and realize everyone you knew, everyone you ever loved, was long gone. Tennin’s words came back to taunt me. “Do you want to be a jinn again?”

Rex weighed his answer, appearing conflicted either way. He took another drink. “Sometimes, I guess. Other times, no. I remember who I was, but I’ve also changed. I like who I am now. Not sure my personality would fit well in a jinn body.” He shrugged, still looking undecided. “I don’t know …”

He did have a point. I couldn’t imagine a hulking jinn standing in my kitchen wearing a cherry-print apron and stirring a pot of soup. “Have you had any luck remembering that day?” I asked, changing the subject. “That day” was when Rex’s jinn body had died. The day he’d been exposed to the biological warfare the nobles had concocted to win the Great War.

“Bits and pieces. It’s coming back slowly. I remember the sensation of leaving my body and watching it die on the battlefield. Of watching so many others drop like stones and the nobles celebrating their victory. I wanted to kill them, tried to get back into my body, but it was already too late. There was nothing I could do.”

The solemn tone in Rex’s voice struck a deep nerve in me. I’d never thought I’d have compassion for a jinn, and here I was sympathizing with an ancient warrior who’d fought in the legendary war against the nobles for control of Charbydon.

The war was ancient history to the nobles and the jinn, but it had created the Revenants and Wraiths, those lost jinn spirits able to roam all three planes, casualties of war, slowly losing their identities until they had no idea who or what they once were, only that they craved a body to live in once again. And eventually they’d found a way to have what they wanted. One by force. The other by contract.

“So the nobles put this formula into vials, right?” I asked, remembering an earlier conversation I’d had with Rex over Christmas.

“Yeah, they threw them like grenades.”

“So no peculiar smells or tastes when the vials exploded in battle?”

“No. Just a cloud of white and the honeysuckle smell.”

The same as ash. The formula the nobles used to Wa war had been derived from the rare, bioluminescent flower Sangurne N’ashu, a Bleeding Soul. They’d found a way to use it to rip the spirit from a jinn body. There was no way the jinn could fight that. After the war, as the years passed, the Bleeding Soul became legend, just a myth. But it was very real. Mynogan and Tennin had rediscovered it, cultivated it, and used its properties to create a new formula that wouldn’t rip a spirit out, but could subdue a human’s will, leaving them vulnerable and open to even the weakest of spirits. Ash.

Emma and Brim came inside. The hellhound was out of his armor, and the tap of his claws on the hardwoods was starting to become a welcome sound. “What are we talking about?” Em said, grabbing a yogurt from the fridge.

“The Bleeding Soul,” Rex said. “How to get me out of your dad. The usual.”

I rolled my eyes as Em pulled a clean spoon from the dishwasher. “Maybe all we need is straight Bleeding Soul,” she said, pulling out a chair to sit. “If there’s only a little bit of the flower in the ash for humans, then maybe the nobles needed all of it for the jinn. You know, like, full concentrate to yank a jinn spirit from his body.”

“She gets the smarts from me,” Rex said.

I gave him a twisted smile that told him exactly where she’d gotten her intelligence. Emma’s words could, in fact, be right on the money; it was a thought both Rex and I had discussed in the last week.

Titus had identified the properties in ash in order to make a synthetic replica for the victims to take in small, regulated doses. Without it they would die from withdrawal. But during this process, he’d discovered that just a small amount of the Bleeding Soul was actually in the drug. So it might stand to reason that a larger dose of the flower might do more than make a spirit docile—it might very well make it separate from the body entirely.

In order to get Rex’s jinn spirit out of Will’s body and restore my ex-husband to his former self, using the flower seemed like the only viable option.

“I need to get into Charbydon,” Rex said.

With a mouth full of yogurt, Em said, “That’s crazy.”

“Not really. Think about it. The nobles must have that formula somewhere. It’s not going to be here; it’ll be somewhere in the City of Two Houses. You know, in their library, the arsenal, their hidden stash, whatever you call it. Heck, it’s probably in with their crown jewels.”

Emma’s eyes grew round. “The nobles have crown jewels?”

“A double set, since they have two rulers.”

She pointed her spoon at Rex. “It’s called an oligarchy. Means a country ruled by two kings or queens. One is from the House of Abaddon and one is from the House of Astarot. They each contributed a ruler.”

“Very good,” Rex said, pleased. “And when disputes arise between the rulers, how are they settled?”

“Council of Elders, made up of old royal dudes from both houses.”

My eyebrow lifted. “I hope you didn’t answer like that on your last test.”

Emma smirked playfully. Off-world Studies was obviously one of her better subjects in school, and Rex had taken it upon himself before Christmas break to help her with midterm exams. I’d been relegated to mere math and science.

“Have you been to the City of Two Houses? It’s supposed to be thousands of years old,” Emma asked.

“Not inside, but I’ve been to the gates. The nobles built their city above Telmath during their siege of the city.”

“So all their valuables are there.”

“The formula being one of the most valuable. It’s the only reason they’ve ruled for so long without contention from the jinn again. The jinn know they have this formula; they know the nobles can use it again and wipe the jinn out for good.”

“So fat chance of us getting it, then,” she said, glumly.

Emma spent a lot of time thinking about her father being trapped inside of his own body, of a Revenant being in control. She was determined to save him and find a way to make everything right. She had the unrelenting optimism of a child, and it worried me because I knew better than anyone that things didn’t always turn out the way we hoped.

“Well,” I said. “It’s not like we know for sure that the formula would work anyway. We’d have to be sure it would only pull Rex out and not Dad.”

“I don’t think it would pull Will,” Rex said. “I’m the dominant one, and it was designed to work on the jinn. Theoretically, it should yank me right out.”

No one spoke after that. I tossed my bottle into the recycling bin and reheated the soup again. Sure, we all loved Will. We all wanted him back. He’d made a terrible mistake by contracting with a Revenant to begin with.

Getting around the issue of reversing this possession was going to be tough. Once a Revenant was in, he couldn’t get out unless the host body died. If Rex wanted out, he could commit suicide or stop healing and regenerating his host body and let it die naturally. Only then was his spirit able to leave. And, of course, losing Will was not an option. The only reason my daughter had not had a major break was because her dad was still here where she could see him. If we lost Will, she’d be devastated.

But losing Rex was not something she wanted, either.

Emma wanted to fix things. She wanted her father back, and she wanted Rex to stay in her life. She might not have said that last part out loud, but she didn’t need to.

The microwave beeped. I returned to the table with my soup.

“Before I forget,” Rex said. “Em and I were invited to help decorate the League for the New Year’s Eve party