It was me.
My afterbirth. Magic soaked through the placenta, which absorbed it like a sponge.
I turned back and saw life was not only given to me, but life was also taken away.
Both my mother and my aunt were dead.
Now a cry bellowed from my lungs. I jerked out of the nectar’s hold, the images of the past breaking as I yanked and tore my hand away, gasping for air. I collapsed on my ass, staring up at the bright stars overhead.
The cool night brushed at my skin, the remains of the high castle around me. Warwick was next to me on the ground, his hand on my lower back, keeping me steady.
“What happened?” he asked, his eyes still jumping to the necromancers, keeping his guard up.
I huffed, no words finding their way out of my mouth. I had learned so much but had even more questions than before.
BOOM!
Before I could even center any of my thoughts, I was ripped away again. This time it wasn’t the nectar or book that took me.
It was Scorpion.
Debris from a building billowed in the air, huge chunks of stone, plaster, and wood crushing everything around us. Shouts of panic and terror clogged the thick air.
“Scorpion!” I yelled at him, but he didn’t stop, running toward the devastation, not away.
It took me a moment to realize where we were through the cloudy smoke.
Vomit pooled in my stomach.
The explosion was Sarkis’s base.
“No!” I screamed, my legs tearing after Scorpion, our link keeping us close. Birdie, Wesley, Zuz, and Maddox were right on his heels.
“Fuck! Fuck!” He searched for any way to get inside, heading for the secret entrance.
The one under the rubble.
“Andris!” I screamed, though I knew he couldn’t hear me. Oh gods, what if he were dead? Caden? Hanna? Ling? They were all down there.
Tears rolled down my face as I watched as Maddox, Wesley, and Scorpion dug, pushed, and rolled large pieces out of the way until they made a hole, Birdie slipping through first, Scorpion after.
I was next to him, horror filling me, the dust crawling into my lungs as if I was actually there. Most of the top floor had caved in, blocking some areas. Debris and dead bodies were everywhere.
“Scorpion,” a man yelled, turning our heads. He was cut up and caked in dust. I’d seen him in passing but didn’t know him.
A relieved cry broke from my gut when I saw Hanna and Caden were behind him. Bleeding and wounded, but alive.
Scorpion darted to them, his eyes rolling over Hanna. “You all right?”
“Yeah,” the man answered, though I was pretty sure Scorpion was talking to her. “Busted up a little, but fine.”
I wanted so badly to hug my friends; they looked shaken and dazed, not able to bounce back as fast as fae.
“Get them out of here. Tell Zuz to help you watch them. There might be people trying to rescue these two.”
The man nodded, moving Hanna and Caden toward the exit.
“This wasn’t for a rescue.” I shook my head. Scorpion was the only one who could hear me. “This was meant to destroy.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “And kill.”
“Scorpion!” Birdie’s voice screamed. Her tone made my stomach burn.
We both took off, heading toward the direction of my uncle’s office, a sob nesting between my ribs.
Crawling over rubble, I spotted Birdie’s blonde hair... .and the figures she was leaning over.
“No!” I screeched, seeing Ling and my uncle covered in the wreckage as Wesley and Maddox tore through the rubble, uncovering their bloody, broken bodies.
Birdie felt Ling’s pulse. “Ling is still alive.” Her eyes filled up with tears. “But...”
I knew.
My uncle was dead.
His human body couldn’t withstand the explosion.
Every memory of him flashed in my head, the little things he would do, like the treats he would sneak me with a conspiratorial wink. The stories he read Caden and me. The stuffed animal, Sarkis, he gave me so I’d feel protected and safe when they were gone. The love he and Rita always gave me. Even though Mykel was my real uncle, Andris was my family. He was all I had left in this world.
I lost my mother, father, friends, and home. Finding Andris again was like finding a piece of my father. My heart.
The thought of losing him...
No.
Fuck. No.
Anger, grief, and fierce love built in my chest. I could hear my heavy breathing. I could feel myself sitting both next to my uncle’s body underneath the rubble and also far away in the cold night at the High Castle.
“Kovacs?” Warwick called me through the link, but my determination was drilled on one thing.
My uncle.
“We should get his body out of here.” Wesley’s throat bobbed with grief, all of them nodding with him.
They laid a hand on his corpse.
“Nooooooo!” Fire roared from me. My hand slammed down on his chest at the same time it grabbed for the nectar back at the castle.
I heard the last bell of the midnight hour strike in the distance.
An explosion popped behind my lids, funneling from the nectar, tangling with the thick magic still in the air. Electricity scorched up my throat and down my veins, burning everything in its wake. Energy surged my spine, the nectar’s force powering through me.
Then I knew what I was.
I was nothing and everything.
The bridge between life and death.
The in-between.
I was The Grey.
TO BE CONTINUED…
BONE CHURCH
Gothic church in Czech Republic city of Kutna Hora outside of Prague established around the 14th century. In 1511 a half-blind monk used the bones from abolished graves to pile into pyramids, which were later used to decorate the church.
While visiting this church in 2017 and learning its history, I knew I wanted to use it in my next series.
About the Author
Stacey Marie Brown is a lover of hot fictional bad boys and sarcastic heroines who kick butt. She also enjoys books, travel, TV shows, hiking, writing, design, and archery. Stacey swears she is part gypsy, being lucky enough to live and travel all over the world.
She grew up in Northern California, where she ran around on her family’s farm, raising animals, riding horses, playing flashlight tag, and turning hay bales into cool forts.
When she’s not writing, she’s out hiking, spending time with friends, and traveling. She also volunteers helping animals and is eco-friendly. She feels all animals, people, and the environment should be treated kindly.
To learn more about Stacey or her books, visit her at:
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