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I pursed my lips, unsure of where to go from here. I needed all the help I could get, but leaving Abby and Pario City just wasn’t an option. On the other hand, without backup, I was useless.
“I could spare some men, however,” Ash continued, alleviating some of my concern. “If that would be helpful.”
“Yeah?”
Ash chuckled. “I’d send you an entire army if I could, but I don’t have an army to spare. I will send who I can.”
I nodded gratefully. “I’ll repay whatever expenses you incur,” I promised. “If you get me set up.”
Ash’s smile diminished. “Seeing you alive is repayment enough,” he told me solemnly. “I couldn’t believe it when you died, Elijah.”
Reluctantly, I drew in a breath and asked him.
“What did happen that day? How did I become lost?”
A grave expression crossed over Ash’s face, a faraway look overtaking his crystalline eyes.
“It’s hard to remember just how it happened,” he admitted, turning to look out the window.
The car remained in place on Abby’s street, and I wondered if she was watching us from her window, wondering if we were ever going to move. I hoped it would encourage her to open the door and come back out.
“There was so much going on, attacks from all sides. I can’t even remember what we were fighting over that time… can you?”
I grimaced. “There were so many pointless battles,” I recalled. “Who can tell one from the next?”
“You were there, at my side,” Ash went on, his voice lowering, forcing me to lean in to hear him better. “Magic was working around us. Avalon cast spells to keep us protected, but they were wearing off against the Caramine.”
“Biological warfare.” I tensed, vaguely recalling the cry from the field.
“Something like that,” Ash agreed. “We were all affected by the Caramine, hallucinating and out of it. So many of us were injured. And then you were just dead, limp on the ground. You had no pulse, no life. I slapped your face so hard. I wanted you to bleed, you know? To wake up.”
He shuddered at the memory and faced me.
“I tried to drag you off somewhere safe, but another explosion of sorts sent me flying. I ended up in some trench, somewhere a mile or so off from where we were. I went back for you, of course, but you were gone—dead. Or, at least I thought you were dead. I always assumed that someone had buried you appropriately, but you remember how things were back then. We did the best with what we had at the moment.”
We merely sat in silence for a few minutes, pondering the horrors of those times. Despite all that had occurred between then and now, it was still a fresh trauma that would haunt us for eternity.
“I thought it was strange at the moment,” he admitted. “But there was so much magic, the wizards, witches, and fairies going crazy with their concoctions. I figured your weakness had been enacted inadvertently.”
He exhaled shakily and laughed. “I should have known that you’re far too stubborn of an asshole to die, anyway.”
I shifted onto my hip and stared at him directly. “Do you think that it was premeditated?”
For the first time in my life, Ash seemed surprised. “Your death?”
I raised my shoulders in agreement. “Sure. It seems a little… convenient, doesn’t it?” I went on, unsure I knew where I was going with the idea.
“Not for me—or Abby,” Ash replied slowly. “Why would anyone do that?”
“Maybe Orson?” I suggested, spit balling just one of the many notions that had popped into my mind over the past few days. “To take over my territory.”
Ash nodded thoughtfully. “He did fight with us,” he agreed slowly.
“Did he seem distraught when I was dead?”
Ash shook his head. “Honestly, Elijah, I don’t remember. I was in my own head and not looking for suspects back then. We were all a mess, dealing with our own problems. It’s a good theory, though.”
Ash clapped me on the shoulder and tapped on the glass again. His driver once more lowered the partition.
