Page 29 of Ash Fall

Her sobs wind down slowly, her breath evening out against my chest. When she finally lifts her face, her tear-soaked eyes come up to mine and the glow bleeding off her skin dims, softening from a blaze down to a shimmer. Hope rises in me so fast it's dizzying.

Then she pushes back out of my arms, one step, two, three, and stops.

Those few steps put a mile between us. I watch it come into her eyes as the softness closes over and her guard goes back up. When she speaks, her voice is hoarse from crying but completely steady.

"You've made and broken promises to me before, Mars. I’ve lived through what that costs." She swipes the heel of her hand across her cheek. "Keep your promises to yourself because I don't fucking believe you anymore."

Every word stabs into my heart but I stand there and take it, because taking it is the only thing I can do to start making it up to her.

I watch as she lifts her hands and light pools into her palms, gathering strength, bright and liquid. She waves them at the wall of darkness wrapped around us, and my whole understanding of this new magic I have tilts sideways because her light, it wipes my shadows away.

She doesn't fight them or burn through them, she wipes them, cleanly and effortlessly away. The kitchen and the shouting and four furious faces come rushing back in as my darkness dissolves under her light. I thought I had control of those shadows, that they would only answer to me, but I was very wrong. They just answered to her without asking me at all.

Chapter 13 - Gage

My fists slam against a wall of solid darkness without a sound or dent for my efforts.

"Mars, let us in!" The shout tears out of me raw and full of rage. "Open this up right now or I swear to God, I will tear it down myself!"

Beside me, Torrin, Jules and Reid are pounding on the curved black surface, all of us shouting over each other. The wall just sits there, cold under my hands, swallowing our voices and giving nothing back. Luna is trapped in there. She's having a panic attack behind that wall with the one person in this house she doesn't trust. I need my hands on her, need to see her face, need to fix whatever broke loose in her. Instead, I'm locked out by a man I’ve already hit once today.

I'm going to kill that motherfucker for this.

The worst part is how fast it all went wrong. One minute she was smiling beside me at the counter, spreading peanut butter and stealing crusts for Penny. The next her whole body seized up and her light whited out the entire room, sending Penny whimpering away. My head is still spinning trying to find the cause between those two moments. Under the floor my power stirs, ready to peel the ground open with a thought, and makes the hardwood hum against my boots. I shove it back down hard, because she's standing on that floor, and there is no version of tearing this dome of shadows apart that doesn't risk her.

"What in God's name is going on in here?" Elenor's voice cracks across the kitchen as she comes in off the deck with Kara right behind her, wet hair soaking the shoulders of Luna’s borrowed robe. "Why is there a giant black egg in my granddaughter's kitchen, and why are the four of you hitting it?"

Before anyone can answer, the wall of shadows disappears.

There's no unraveling to it, no fade. Between one blink and the next the darkness is simply gone, wiped out of existence with nothing left behind, and my eyes flash to Luna so fast I almost get whiplash. She's standing a few steps back from Mars, upright, breathing, and dry-eyed. The relief hits me hard enough to stun, because she looks steady and recovered. The only thing left on her face from whatever happened inside that dome of shadows is an expression of anger and it’s pointing right at the motherfucker who deserves it.

Jules gets to Mars first. The punch snaps Mars's head sideways and staggers him into the island counter. I don't move one muscle to stop it, and neither does anybody else.

"Luna, hold on." Mars ignores the blood at the corner of his mouth completely, his eyes locked on her, one hand reaching. "Please, just wait."

"I'm fine, Mars." She bites the words off around a frown, looking at all of us and none of us. Then she turns and walks out of the kitchen without another word.

Nobody speaks, and nobody moves. Her footsteps climb the stairs, measured and even, and the whole room stands there listening until her bedroom door slams hard enough to rattle the last of the glasses in the cupboard. Then the kitchen erupts.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jules is in Mars's face, shoving him back against the counter. "She's terrified, and your genius move is to lock her in a box?"

"She was having a panic attack, and you sealed her away from us!" Reid's voice cracks up an octave, wet curls flying as he throws both arms wide. "Do you understand how backwards that is? Can you even imagine what that could have done to her?"

"I just told you to fucking stand down." Torrin doesn't yell it, which makes it worse, every word coming out cold and precise. "Minutes, Mars. You couldn't even give her one."

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I spit, furious as I step in close enough that he has to look up at me. "Coming into this house and doing this? You don't get to wall her off from her family, and you don't get to decide what she needs. You lost that right, left it behind two years ago, and every single one of us stood in the wreckage and watched what it cost her."

Mars's jaw is tight, his eyes flat, taking the hits without swinging back, and that lack of fight only feeds mine. The four of us are all talking over each other again, louder and louder, until the sound of metal-on-metal cuts through the room.

Elenor stands at the stove banging a frying pan with a metal serving spoon, over and over, until every last one of us shuts up and turns to look at her.

"Good, that's better." She sets the pan down with terrifying calm. "Now all of you be quiet. Except for you." The spoon swings around and points straight at Mars. "What exactly just happened in this kitchen?"

Frustration rolls across Mars's face, visible and hot, and then I watch him wrestle it down, breathe through it, and answer her in a level voice.

"She was having a panic attack, and it was sending her power out of control." He straightens off the counter, wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. "The light was building with nowhere to go, so I contained it, and I held the rest of you back with my shadows because you crowding her was making it worse, not better." His eyes sweep the room, daring anyone to argue. "She was losing control and I was afraid of what might happen. She might think it's nothing but a light, but it’s more. There's cold heat in that glow, and it could hurt someone badly if she's not careful with it. I've seen what it does."

Every argument in my head surges up at once, and I open my mouth, but Elenor's hand comes up flat in my direction stopping me without her eyes ever leaving Mars.