The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (62 page)

“Then we’re the luckiest men in the entire dead world,” Elish said in a voice that could freeze even the white flames outside.

“What if it’s Reaver?”

“I do not know,” Elish replied in the same tone.

The plane touched down, and when Elish opened the sliding door they were all assaulted by an overpowering heat. They all stepped out, Reno, Caligula, and Nico the three mortals, staying behind the group.

It was hell on earth, though in all respects it had been hell on earth for over two hundred and thirty-six years now. This was a different hell though; a three mile radius seemed to be engulfed in white flames. Dangerous still, unlike the usual orange and yellow flames of fire, these ones seemed to need little to thrive off of. They burned metal, concrete, even the greywastes ash was consumed for fuel. It ate all, and send the remains into the sky to continue to cloak the sun and coat the world.

Jack looked around in awe, the black smoke was blocking out that very sun. No more did it hold a cloak of grey ashes, it had turned as black as Jack’s own eyes. Black above, thick and encompassing, and white below, an almost transparent fire that seared and devoured everything.

A lethal radiation that, when in concentrated doses, could bring the opal flames of hell. With King Silas on chariot and Perish and Sky behind him, they road on dead horses and cast the earth into permanent grey.

The Fallocaust, the Apocalypse, the End Times.

They showed the world their hurt.

And it looks like someone was trying to show it again.

Though this time – where was the audience?

They all stuck near each other and headed towards the inferno. Jack noticed right away that his boots were sticking. He looked down and saw a trail of black streaks behind him.

The rubber on their boots was melting, each step was like trying to pull two pieces of glued paper apart. The black desperately trying to cling to the bottoms of the boots, leaving sticky strings in between.

Jack wiped his face, feeling like he was inside of an oven. The fire held nothing back; he could practically feel it baking his flesh.

“Garrett... it’s too hot,” Elish finally said, sweat beading down his forehead and his face flushed from the heat. None of them were any better. “We need to turn back.”

Garrett’s face was redder than all of theirs; he was in agony. Jack himself was concerned about Silas’s fate but his brother could never hide his emotions well.

“Elish... I can’t leave him there to burn. What if... what if Reaver is in there too?” His hand rose to his mouth, though any tears he might have would be sacrificed to the heat before they ever showed moisture. “Killian?”

In a rare display of emotion, Elish’s face creased with a deep frown. He turned from the scene. “I’m afraid if Killian was with Perish, and if they are here... there is no way the boy could survive.”

Reno beside Garrett let out a choke; he shook his head back and forth.

Elish put a hand on his shoulder.

“It would have been a quick death, Reno. The boy wouldn’t have suffered.”

Reno ripped his shoulder away from Elish and to everyone’s shock he pushed him.

“He fucking suffered! Ever since you put us on that fucking plane, he suffered!” Reno suddenly screamed, the timber of his voice booming from intensity. “This is your fucking fault! This was your selfish plan; this was your doing! Was it fucking worth it, Elish? Was it? Jade is going to be a fucking vegetable. YOUR HUSBAND! Killian could be dead. Reaver might be burning alive for the next twenty-fucking-years! For what? FOR WHAT? Leo and Greyson died for this. You’re the fucking monster! It’s YOU! YOU ARE THE MONSTER, NOT SILAS!” Garrett grabbed Reno as he stumbled. The greywaster turned away.

Elish was still; his eyes staring. He didn’t move or even make an attempt to defend himself.

Reno turned around, his face twisted in agony. “Was it worth it?”

Elish was silent.

“WAS IT WORTH IT?” Reno screamed.

Elish still wasn’t looking at him, instead, with the roar of the fires ahead of them drowning out a lot of his voice, he said to Garrett, “Take Reno back to the plane.”

Garrett put a hand on Reno’s shoulder but, to Jack’s shock, Reno whirled around and tried to hit him. “And you! You fucking told Silas he was here. I don’t give two shits you should’ve let Sanguine kill me before you gave that information to Silas.”

Now Elish did look at him, before his eyes shot to Garrett.

“I would... would never –” Garrett stammered. He took one look at Elish and visibly shrunk down. “Elish... I’m... I’m sorry. He was going to... to kill, Reno.”

“You should’ve let him!” Reno sobbed. “You should have let him.”

Suddenly in front of them there was a small cry of Elish’s name. Everyone whirled around and stared in shock at a figure stumbling down the street.

“Killian?” Reno’s voice caught in his throat. Elish sprinted over to the figure. They watched as the chimera picked him up carefully and ran back with him.

It was the king. Jack ran to meet him but slowed his pace when he saw the state he was in.

Silas had been roasted alive, his skin was charred black in most places, carbonized and still smoking. His hair was charred off and his left eye a leaking piece of coal in its socket. He was so seared and blackened that when he opened his mouth to talk, his teeth seemed unworldly white and glaring.

“Elish... Elish, they destroyed my Sky,” Silas cried as Elish lowered him onto the ground. “Killian and Reaver destroyed my Sky. They killed him. Perish is dead. Perish killed himself. Perish is dead.”

Reno took a step back and turned towards the street Silas was stumbling down, with a cry of pain he started running down the street towards the heart of the flames. Garrett chased him.

“Perish is dead?” Elish’s eyes widened. He looked towards the road. Garrett was forcefully trying to restrain Reno as the greywaster tried to run towards the flames. Caligula and Nico appeared behind Elish to try and help hold Reno back.

“He’s dead, I saw it with my own eyes,” Silas said faintly. “I never wanted him to die; I never wanted him to be gone forever.”

Reno screamed so loudly even Silas looked towards him.

His eyes narrowed.

“Help me stand,” Silas suddenly said, his voice switching from weak to stone-cold.

Elish helped him to his feet and the king started limping towards Reno.

“Killian is dead.” The tone was one born in darkness; Jack had never heard such a cruel sound even from Silas. “Reaver will burn beside his corpse. He will burn for twenty years in agony and in the fleeting moments of lucidity he experiences, he will get to gaze upon Killian’s scorched bones.”

Reno stared at him for a moment, seemingly stunned into a catatonic state by Silas’s cold omission.

“The radiation would have killed him, ripping his body apart with invisible razors. Reaver would’ve seen it happen. Killian is dead and Reaver is dead. What a pity you didn’t tell me where he was sooner. I would have had them.”

“Y-you’re lying...” Reno managed to say before the weight of Silas’s words sunk him to his knees. “No... they’re not in there.”

Silas’s eyes shot to Jack. Jack withered under his intense gaze. Even with only one eye he had lost none of his intimidation. “Jack was with me when I came to the plaguelands. He knows I was with Reaver, who was in pursuit of Killian and Perish.”

All eyes turned to Jack. The Grim could only swallow hard before he nodded.

“Reaver was…yes, Silas met up with Reaver. I was there.”

The world heard Reno’s screaming. And if the man was a born immortal like Silas... the world would have seen another Fallocaust.

Jack turned, feeling a grip take his heart into its hands. Oddly the space on the bridge of his nose burned and he realized on top of that, his hands were trembling.

Reno was in agony, the flames baking their skin a cool ocean compared to the gut-wrenching screams falling from the greywaster’s lips. Jack closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath, but the sound of this boy in utter agony seemed too much to bear – even for the Grim.

There was a shadow in the corner of his vision; he glanced to his side and saw Elish walking with him. The immoveable chimera’s eyes were staring purple stones and his jaw was locked tight.

“As such is the fate of any man who challenges Silas Dekker,” Jack said coldly to him. Elish’s lips pursed under his words. “I do hope you learned your lesson,
brother
.”

Jack turned from his brother and started walking back to the plane; the sound of heartbroken screaming behind him.

Elish was silent and Jack knew it was because Elish had no words to say to him. His oldest brother, one he respected and loved dearly, had screwed up. And like always the person who would punish him the most for his foolish dream – would be Elish himself.

“Let’s just get to the plane then,” Jack said. They both rounded a corner, stepping over twisted metal barriers, and headed towards the awaiting Falconer idling behind a large hardened mound of metal.

Wait.

Why is it idling.

Nico had turned it off.

The realization hit Jack and Elish at the same time. They both broke into a run, rounding the corner and pouring on the speed as they saw the black Falconer in the distance. Its motor a high-pitched rev as it got ready to take off.

Someone was in there? Someone had the plane?

“Wait!” Jack yelled. His heart suddenly thrashing inside of his chest like he had just gotten an electrical shock. “Who’s in there? WAIT!”

Elish got ahead of him, his scorched cloak smoking from the heat of the white fire they had left behind. Jack trailed. His eyes fixed on the plane, trying to will it with his mind to not take off before they could reach it.

Someone is stealing our plane… how? HOW!? We’ll be stuck here, stuck in the fucking plaguelands on the other end of the greywastes!

And if we are… if we are… all the chimeras who could come and get us have been evacuated to the Dead Islands on Silas’s orders. All that is left in Skyfall are sengils and cicaros.

My god, we have no way of reaching them. Silas told them to wait for his order and his order only.

No, no, the plane won’t take off. It must just be a greywaster. Oh you idiot, no greywaster could survive here.

“Elish… that has to be a chimera. Who the fuck – What’s going on? Is it Reaver? Check!” Jack couldn’t control his own voice. The reality of being stranded here was hitting him like a freight train and taking with it all the calmed resolve the Grim chimera had prided himself on having.

“No, it… it’s impossible. Reaver can’t fly a plane, fool!” Elish snapped.

“Then what!? Then what, genius!?” Jack snarled back.

“You are about to steal Skyfall property!” Elish suddenly bellowed to the mystery thief. “By order of King Silas…”

There was a slam and Jack knew that slam was the Falconer’s sliding door on the other side of the plane. He looked desperately at the pilot’s window and saw with his own eyes a dark figure sit in the pilot’s seat.

The small side window opened just as the plane’s motor switched to a different octave. As the greywaste dust blew up around them, the plane started to rise. Too far away to do anything, Elish and Jack both stopped and watched, dumbfounded, as it rose vertically up into the air.

And because they were watching so intently, they saw a pale hand slip through the small opening in the plane’s side window…

A hand that promptly flip them off.

Elish bellowed with rage before drawing his gun and shooting several shots at the plane. But Jack was still looking at that middle finger. He could see a small silver band. A silver band engraved with a little raccoon that Jack knew had sapphires for eyes.

Kiki.

The End of Book 2 of The Fallocaust Series: The Ghost and the Darkness.

You did WHAT to Killian?

Yes, yes, I did. Why did I do it? A lot of the books have been about Reaver saving/finding Killian and that is awesome and all… but I think it’s time those two take it to the next level. It’s time for Killian to come into his own, and it’s time for Reaver to let him! Which has really made me excited to start Book 3. I have a lot of plans for that book already, and it will definitely be something else. Not only will we see Reaver and Killian have some much needed ‘couples time’ (though of course it won’t be boring, they
are
in the plaguelands after all), we’ll also see just how King Silas, Elish, Reno, and the others fair stranded in the northern greywastes.

And of course just what Kiki has planned…