Ashes Unwritten: Oblivion's Heir [Volume 1 Complete!]

"This has to be the last flight," Kess told herself as she climbed. Her legs ached, and she found that a couple of nights of rest had done very little to ebb the exhaustion from her ordeal in the dungeons. She fervently wished that the Ashfall had waited another week before slamming into Hillcrest.

The stairs were empty as she climbed. Anyone with sense had left the palace long ago to take shelter in its cavernous basements. She wasn't sure that there even was a place to shelter from something that ripped up the earth as it rose over the side of the mountain. And yet, the Uphill had fled into the basements alongside throngs of Downhill citizens. It was probably smart to go wherever the people with money went—it usually meant safety, if they were willing to let you in at all.

The storm was loud enough that she could hear it even from the interior of the palace as it ripped homes clean off their foundations to be thrown into the air. Kess rounded another corner, stared at another flight of stairs, and groaned. If her brother wasn't up on the battlements of the palace, she wasn't sure where he'd be—but then, Rowan's father had still been here. Perhaps, as a member of the Council, Oliver would be here too.

Kess willed her Fulminancy into her legs, using it to strengthen them as she climbed. She was met with an odd sort of resistance. Frowning, she pushed harder. A jolt of power sent her slamming up the staircase so fast she cracked into the wall of the landing above. Groaning, she stood. Fulminancy flickered around one boot, strong and fierce, but the other lay dormant.

We killed the Blockers without them even touching us, so why—Then Kess remembered what Mariel's voice had warned weeks ago as she sat in her quiet room with Rowan. It was something about not trusting the powers.

Kess's gut dropped where she stood. She'd spent so long convincing herself to trust powers that she'd been terrified of. How was she now supposed to both use them and avoid them at the same time? Surely Mariel hadn't meant for her to fight the entire Council without a drop of power.

Carefully this time, she willed Fulminancy back into her feet. It held—for now. She climbed several more flights of stairs tentatively, but without issue. As she reached the top of the palace—several floors below where she hoped her brother would be, but close nonetheless—her Fulminancy snuffed out again, sending her sprawling across a shining marble floor.

She straightened, then frowned at her feet, unsure what to do. Fulminancy had always just…worked. Perhaps too well, perhaps too easily. It was what Mariel had likely hoped for when creating it, but with three lockets gone, perhaps those powers were already unraveling. She got to her feet again, her legs sore now from both climbing and the cold marble floor—that's when she saw something dancing in the corner of her eye.

A faint shadow, playing about her fingers, trying to engulf them, one by one. A churning sickness began in Kess's stomach, and white-hot fear sent bumps up her arm. She pulled out the locket and double checked it.

Still in one piece. So why—

Her face went numb with panic as those shadows licked lazily around her fingers. She tried pushing them away, but there was no response. Frantically, she dug into her well of power, searching for any remainder of Rowan's Fulminancy.

Nothing remained.

She wiped at her fingers, shaking, but she already knew the outcome. Without Rowan, she'd lose control. Without him, she'd become like that woman at the gala—a conduit for the Ashfall. And with Kess's power, what would happen to the rest of the city?

Kess tore up the last few flights of stairs, as if she could outrun the shadows that crept towards her heart. Not now, not now, not now, she chanted. She didn't know what to do. Could she dump some of her power? If people were made Shadows from having too much energy, then maybe a burst of Fulminancy could save her—if she could release it at all, given its instability.

Kess burst out onto a walkway where rain and mountain wind slammed into her nose. The breeze sucked at her clothing as she teetered over the edge of a balcony, searching for a way out. She tore down the walkway, racing against the shadows creeping up her arm, fighting to keep them at bay. Without thinking, she snuffed out her Fulminancy, and the shadows abated tentatively.

She leaned against one of the battlements, chest heaving, but the scuffle of boots made her head snap up. Two figures stood on a large circular platform, overlooking the storm—Niall and Oliver. There was relief and panic as Kess realized that Rowan was nowhere to be found. At least Northmont isn't here, she thought. It might mean Rowan was still alive, at least.

Kess ran forward, knowing she was out of options. Her Fulminancy would eat her alive if she didn't use it, and though she didn't want to fight Niall or Oliver, she needed those lockets. Maybe the pressure under her skin would ebb after facing them, or maybe she'd be forced into a Shadow as she shattered all three lockets. Regardless, she had little choice but to deal with the two men. They turned towards her as she arrived on the platform, leaning against a railing to catch her breath.

Her hands shook as she watched shadows creep along them.

"Well," Niall called. "Looking a little worse for wear, are we, Kess?" Kess snapped her fist shut and marched towards him.

"Niall, I need you to listen to me," she said. "We need to destroy the lockets." Niall regarded her with something like confusion in his eyes.

"Kess, I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot. You might think of me as the enemy, but I'm trying to destroy that storm as much as you are." Kess shook her head. How much time did she have? She had to convince them before—

"You can't destroy it with Fulminancy, Niall. I know you're not going to believe me, but I spoke with Mariel. The powers are flawed. They're designed to be given up—to expire."

"That's only because you tampered with them, my dear. You've destroyed at least a few of those lockets now, haven't you? And already Fulminancy is on the fritz." He scowled at her. "Destroy any more and I'm afraid we won't have the power or the stability we need to stop that thing."

Well, that confirmed her suspicions, at least.

Niall reached out, trying to snatch the locket out of Kess's pocket, but she was faster. Without thinking, Kess slammed it onto the ground, clicking her staff together and smashing it with one fluid motion. She leapt back, trying to get away from the Fulminancy, but some of it slammed into her, a white-hot heat that made her nauseated. Turning, she immediately threw up over the side of the railing.

One more down, she thought grimly. But how many more could she destroy alone? Already that locket had been a gamble. And yet, Kess wasn't sure Rowan or Rae could destroy them at all—not without her help. Rowan's Fulminancy wasn't quite the same, and Rae's…she glanced at her brother, who was fidgeting nervously as he gazed at the storm. Kess shook her head, shakily pushing herself away from the railing. The shadows had inched forward slightly, but they held steady, for now.

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"What are you doing?" Niall snapped. "Do you want this city to burn? Maybe you or I can't stop that thing, but a few of us can together—it's been done before."

Kess leaned on her staff, watching the two of them warily. Oliver avoided her eyes—he was hiding something. So Niall's words weren't entirely true. The Ashfall crept closer, inching through neighborhoods, an otherworldly siren song.

"Why didn't you stop it at the wall then, Niall?" she finally asked. "Why here?"

He hesitated, just for a second, but it was enough. "Because I needed to gather the rest of the Council."

"Because you didn't know it was coming," she murmured. Her words nearly died on the wind. "Not one this big. You were ready for the Archives, but not for that." She crossed the distance towards her brother, her gait unsteady. Oliver took a tiny step back when he saw the shadows crawling over her skin.

"Oliver, listen to me." She grabbed the front of his shirt, though he towered over her. "Give me the locket. They aren't your powers. They're not even mine. We need to give them back." Oliver kept his eyes on her hand for a moment, something distant in his eyes. Considering. Weighing her. For an agonizingly hopeful second, Kess almost believed that she'd been right about Oliver—that he'd done everything for a reason. Indecision wavered in his gaze, then evaporated into something harder as he dislodged her grip from the front of his shirt.

"No, Kess." The world slipped away, the storm quieted, and everything retreated as he spoke. "Do you know why they took me that night?" Something groaned and cracked in the distance. Oliver watched it, then continued. "All those years ago, when I first moved in with you, I agreed to watch you."

"I know that part," Kess snapped. "You spied on me for the Council. Clouds, you were probably doing it at our Aunt and Uncle's long before Downhill."

"It's more than that, Kess. I was there to temper you—to sharpen the Council's weapon for this storm."

It made so little sense that at first Kess thought she'd misheard.

"You—What?"

"They knew the Ashfall was coming, though their timing was admittedly off. It's been predicted since Mariel packaged up Fulminancy—even Mariel knew it. They knew that without an inordinate amount of power, they could do nothing to stop it. So they honed you, like a weapon, Kess."

Kess shook her head, backing away from her brother. He was lying, he was—

"That Fulminancy you bottled up, they could use it to stop that storm—to feed it and satiate it."

"It doesn't work like that," Kess protested. "That storm consumes Fulminancy. If you feed it, the mountain is the least of our problems. There's more out there than Hillcrest."

"And what would you have us do, Kess?" Oliver snapped, advancing towards her. Kess leveled her staff at Oliver, halting his progress. "You want us to listen to a woman who died hundreds of years ago? That you've only spoken to through some sort of—of ephemeral dream or vision you've had? We're supposed to listen to you as your Fulminancy eats you alive, and assume that you're stable? Have you ever been stable, Kess?"

His words hung in the air, thick and damning. Kess ignored them and tried another tactic instead. "Rowan and I did the research," she said. "Everything Mariel said was sound—vision or not. Getting rid of Fulminancy is the only path forward."

Oliver barked out a humorless laugh. "Kess, it's always absolutes with you, isn't it? We can keep the powers and still—"

"Maybe no one should have these powers," Kess snapped. "Maybe concentrating it into a few choice people isn't the right way to do things. And while we're having a philosophical discussion about all this, that thing is destroying the entire city. We need to do something now." She lunged for Oliver's locket, but he stepped back. "If you dump my powers into that storm, you'll have nothing left."

"Maybe if you were the one wielding it," he replied. "But it won't be you." Too late, Kess realized she'd lost track of Niall during the conversation. She dodged into Oliver, narrowly missing Niall's fist. Oliver stumbled back onto the balcony, most of Kess's weight on him.

With Oliver's back bowed over the balcony, Kess panicked. Anyone with fighting experience would have thrown Kess off by now, but Oliver wasn't a fighter. She hesitated, her brother held over the railing, frantically grappling for purchase on something. Then she saw his locket twinkling on his neck and snatched it, rocking him backwards to force him to regain his balance before running after her.

Kess rolled past Niall, fumbling for her dagger. She would destroy these things with or without their help—Shadows be damned. She raised the dagger over her head, aiming for the locket, but Rae's stolen gray Fulminancy slammed into her hand, nearly dislocating her arm.

The locket skittered away, and Kess scrambled after it, Oliver's gray lightning following her with bolts that shouldn't have been possible. They narrowly missed her, singeing her clothing and leaving the smell of burnt skin to mingle with the acrid smell of Fulminancy.

"What's the matter, Kess?" Oliver asked, humor in his voice. "Didn't bother to learn this while you were slaughtering garrisons of innocent men? I told you the truth that night about the Stormclap pin—having something to channel it through helps when you're learning, but Seats don't need that kind of crutch." Another strike took out a chunk of the wall next to Kess as she snatched the locket. She rolled away from another blow, leaving the locket behind. A few lunges in that direction were met with bolts of Fulminancy so persistent that Kess was forced to back away. Kess had never been able to get her Fulminancy to travel more than a few inches, and yet Oliver was—

She had no time to think. She kept moving, keeping her distance from Niall and Oliver both, though she knew she'd have to close that distance eventually. Shadows continued to crawl up her arm lazily.

Kess begged her Fulminancy to remain stable for a little longer, and charged at Niall, using the man partially as a shield to block Oliver's attacks. Niall was a tall, broad man, but none of that mattered—he was Fulminant, and unlike Kess, had spent a lifetime honing that power. Kess was driven back with blow after blow. The strikes were uneven, but it seemed that even Fulminancy's added instability did little to weaken Niall or Oliver. She met each blast of energy with the Fulminancy in her staff, but each strike was hard enough that it flung her staff backwards, forcing her to regain her balance. Oliver, at least, was forced to temper his barrage with Niall in the way, though he inched closer to his locket, scattered near the railing.

Frustrated, Kess tried a new tactic. She ran straight at Niall, then, and when the man had charged a blast of Fulminancy so wide she was afraid it might cleave her into two pieces, Kess dropped to her knees and slid past his legs. She threw as much Fulminancy as she could muster into her staff, and the blow slammed into Niall's shins with a crack.

Niall swore and fell. Kess scrambled to her feet and stumbled towards him, reaching for his locket, but her hand froze there, unwilling to move. She strained, gritting her teeth, but her arm refused, locked in place, paralyzed.

Footsteps clicked, and Kess spun to face her brother, standing over her, an impassive look on his face. Still, her hand wouldn't move. That paralysis spread to her whole body, and as she sat there, helpless and sick, her brother placed a single hand on her shoulder and sent Fulminancy snapping through her body.

White-hot pain lanced through her every limb, and Kess was blown back from Niall, her body snapping into the railing with a crack and a cry of pain she couldn't stifle. Oliver walked over to her calmly, even as the storm tore up another city block from far away. He crouched in front of Kess, regarding her with eyes she'd fought for a year to see again. He shook his head.

"Kess, you don't understand, do you?" he asked. "You have an inordinate amount of power, but still no idea about how to use it. This is why Fulminancy was made in the first place—it was better to concentrate it in the hands of a few chosen people, rather than let fools tamper with it. Did you know that Fulminancy responds to blood ties?" He held up a hand as Kess tried to sit up, and she found herself frozen, locked into place again. "It might be in your veins, but with the right amount of control and practice, it's just as much mine as yours. I imagine this isn't something you worked on while you were running through Hillcrest like a barbarian."

Kess watched, straining, as her brother took his locket back and sliced his palm open. She tried to pull her hand back, but it was like it was pinned under a building—nothing she tried worked. Even Fulminancy deserted her now, refusing to cooperate, a slow-moving sludge of useless power.

It was over.

Oliver took her hand and sliced it open. He met her eyes, and in that moment, Kess realized she'd never had a brother at all. Only a man who used her as a tool—who found her no better than a weapon to be used. She searched for a shred of humanity in her brother's eyes and found none.