The Hour of Dust and Ashes

screamed at him in a piercing string of curses. I ducked down, out of her hold, gasping.

Once Aaron and Rex drug Bryn away, I started sweating.

“Name’s Melki. Do you accept my gift?”

“Yes.” I flicked a glance to Emma. “It’s okay.”

Melki followed my gaze. “That your kid?” she asked without taking her eyes off Emma. “Nice dress.”

“Thank you,” Emma responded politely. “And if you hurt my mom”—her tone went flat, completely devoid of emotion—“I will kill you.” Her big brown eyes stayed on the sylph, harder than I’d ever seen. My chest grew tight with emotion.

Melki chuckled. “Kid’s got a little fire in her.”

She turned her attention back to me and lost the smile.

I tensed as energy built around her. The temperature increased. Her hand lifted, palm up. A flame burst from the skin. Her irises glowed fire. Her hand went higher, making a swirling motion with her wrist, which her body followed, turning her into a spinning flame212;one that shot toward me before I could even blink.

It hit me square in the chest, tunneling into my body and burning a path straight to my heart. My back hit the floor. A gasp froze on my lips as the familiar pain/shock of a sudden burn seared a path through every limb, every vein, blood vessel, cell … My eyes stayed open but my vision was lost to a glaze of orange fuzz.

Accept my gift.

I’d become my beating heart. I could see it as though I stared outside of myself. Pumping. Contracting. Expanding. A muscle that frantically worked, that burned, fueled by fear and pain, causing it to speed up at a wild, dizzying rate.

The muscle burst.

There was nothing but silence. No heartbeat. No pain. Nothing.

Water. Air. Earth. Fire. They exist in their purest forms inside of you.

I saw into the dead husk of my body where four tiny lights began to shine.

They are the very essence of Earth, the gifts of this world, and together they create power, that which cannot be seen, but exists all around you. The true power of this world. Nwyvre. The Hidden Element.

As Melki spoke in my subconscious, I watched as the lights came together from different parts of my body and met in my brain, bursting into a rainbow of color, intensifying until a ball of white glowed in my head directly behind the center of my forehead.

Now you see. Open your mind, Charlie Madigan, and see the truth.

I sat up, pulled like a puppet on a string, and opened my eyes. No. That wasn’t quite accurate. My eyes didn’t physically open, yet I saw the ballroom through the white glow in my mind. My vision was filtered through this hidden eye and everything was ringed in white, ringed with the truth.

I searched the wall, finding Bryn as she stood wrapped in Aaron’s hold. Poor Bryn. Inside of her was a haze, the gray shadow of a man—a seething, angry soul lashing out against the barrier of Aaron’s amulet.

Solomon’s shadow stilled and I knew he saw me. He bared his teeth. He cursed. Then, beneath him, tired and worn, a shriveled light that was my sister’s spirit stirred. Still there. Still hanging on. Oh, Bryn …

The people before me, the ballroom, everything seemed stuck in slow motion, the white of my vision moving dreamlike from one person to the next as I saw not only into them but also what they were made of, their characters or the true nature of their spirits.

Emma: Purity. Hope. Strength.

Brimstone: Devotion. Loyalty. Sacrifice.

Aaron: Determination. Honor. Conflict.

The white flared as I came to Rex. Rex with the indomitable jinn spirit. A big personality. I saw him as he used to be thousands of years ago: large, powerful, confident, but now shaped by time and circumstance. Changed so that creativity and vitality glowed around him. How he loved life.

My breath caught. Oh God. Will!

Beyond the spirit of Rex was my ex-husband, his dormant soul stirring, as though waking up from a long slumber. His form so thin, like a wisp of smoke. But it was him. It swirled and turned and saw me like Solomon had. He had become a shadow of his old self.

Charlie. His voice. In my head. I’m sorry.

I was crying, though I felt no tears sliding down my face in the strange state I was in, but I knew my body was shedding tears. It hurt too much not to.

Set me free, Charlie.

No, Will.

I’ve seen beyond. I’m not meant to be here. Please. Please give me peace. Rest. Freedom.

But … Emma.

Emma will understand. I’m not meant for this world. Not anymore.

I don’t know how.

He lifted a hand, and smiled gently. Yes, you do, wife.

A sob stuck in my throat. Eleven years I’d been his wife. And I’d loved him, had been happy for so many years and envisioned growing old together. I still loved him, just not in the same way as before.

And now he was asking me to set him free. I wasn’t sure I could.

Take my hand. Please.

At the edge of my vision, I saw my hand ringed in white lifting; saw it moving toward him. Our fingers touched and white glowed brighter from the tips.

And then my hand slid into his. He smiled; the old Will Garrity smile that could melt snow.

Tell Emma I love her and will be watching over her always. She must understand I cannot come back whole and full like I was before. No matter if Rex leaves, I will not come back … right. Tell her this, Charlie. Make her understand. I never meant to hurt her. Never meant to hurt you.

I nodded, pulling back slightly. He slid gently and effortlessly from his physical body. I didn’t want to let go, but I found myself releasing him anyway. His form grew dimmer and dimmer, though his smile remained until he simply vanished.

Pain squeezed a heart I no longer had.

Grief wafted through my subconscious. So much regret, so much lost … He was gone. Will Garrity, the man I married at nineteen, the father of my child, the one with whom I’d made so many memories, was gone.

I watched with heartbreak and fascination as Rex’s spirit filled out Will’s body, settling into every part of him, making links, forming new connections. Tiny sparks flew from these new links as though Rex’s jinn spirit was finally free to extend all of what he was …

With a sudden thought, I turned back to Bryn. Again, I reached out my hand. Take it. Take my hand and I can set you free. Solomon glared at me. It’s over. You had your revenge. Release my sister.

The glow around my vision dimmed. I understood immediately that the gift of Nwyvre was fleeting, that it was already leaving me.

Hurry! Take my hand!

Solomon cursed me, the stubborn fool. It was there, the desire to be free, I could see it clearly, and yet he wouldn’t take my hand, wouldn’t reach out to me.

Solomon!

Finally he lifted his hand, but I was moving backward, away from him. I reached anyway. No!

Goddammit! I hadn’t gone through all of this to fail now. I was not moving another inch. With sheer, stubborn determination, I went deep into my mind, into this beautiful white glow in my head, and I forced it to remain, holding the elements together just a little bit longer.

I lost all sensation in my body. Everything in me sharpened in complete and utter focus. I became light. No longer did I look through it. No longer did my subconscious work outside of it. This light, this beautiful, white, healing, truthful light, encompassed all of me. Or I encompassed it. I wasn’t