Her final word caused the hair on my nape to rise as my uneasy feeling grew.I gulped while glancing around the room again; this time, I took note of another pile of clothes on the sofa and one near the sideboard.
“What?”Tucker asked.
The color had drained from Scarlet’s face when she looked at all of us.“It’s ashes.There was a pile of ashes in the dress… or on the dress… or maybe… under the dress.I don’t know where it was, but it’s on the floor now.”
Her voice held an increasing note of panic that echoed the feeling growing within me.The others all moved toward her, but I remained where I was.
I didn’t have to see them to know those ashes were the remains of whoever once lived here.
CHAPTERFORTY-NINE
Ryker
Though pulverized,bits of bone still poked through the ashes at Scarlet’s feet.There was no denying this was once an immortal; whether it was an amsirah or not, I couldn’t tell, but I assumed so.
“Shit,” Ianto muttered.
Movement drew my attention to Ellery as she walked over to the sofa and used the tip of her dagger to peel back a shirt there.It opened to reveal more ashes within.
“What could have done that andnotdestroyed their clothing too?”Tucker asked.
“Or the furniture,” Callan said.
“Or the whole town,” Ianto muttered.
I had no idea what could have done this, but… “It doesn’t look like they saw it coming.”
Ellery pulled her dagger away.A small cloud of dust puffed up from the fallen clothes when they settled back into place.
“How could they not know they were about to be eradicated?”Tucker asked.
“Fuck if I know,” I said as I strode closer to Ellery.
Her cyan-colored eyes were turbulent when they met mine.I settled my hand against her elbow, seeking to reassure her, but what I really wanted was to drag her out of this place and back to the safety of the tunnels.
Are they safe?
They’d been safe before, but that didn’t mean that whatever happened here couldn’t happen there.I had to get her out of here.
“We have to know what happened,” she whispered, as if reading my mind.
“Do we?”
“Yes.”
I ground my teeth together as she lifted her chin.We stared at each other before she rested her palm against my cheek.Some of my tension eased, but not all of it.
“We’re safe here,” she said.
“No, we’re not.”
“We’re staying.We’ve come this far, and we have to know.”
“At the first sign of anything going wrong, we’re leaving.”
“I don’t think these amsirah got a sign,” Tucker said.
The murderous look Ellery shot him sent his eyebrows into his hairline.
