Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tayler Read Free Book Online Page B

she feels. My grandfather’s steady pressure keeps me in place.
    Hands reach upward for Alex’s mother with each step she takes. Hands that want to soothe her and take away some of her grief. She will not have it. She pushes them away and does not stop until she gets to Lucy. Lucy seems small and delicate next to the raw emotion and I see why Alex loved her. I remember the way he looked at her and the wistfulness that came over his face when he mentioned her name. With her dark-as-night hair and pale skin, her beauty is ethereal. Her lashes are long and lush and as she blinks back the tears, I see that her eyes do not shine with the same intensity as mine. She works above and the time she’s spent in the light has made them fade.
    Alex’s mother does not care about any of these things. She strikes Lucy’s cheek with her open hand and the slap of skin against skin echoes in the sudden silence of the cavern. Lucy puts her hand to her cheek, covering the large red welt left by the slap. “I’m sorry.” Her eyes glitter with tears. “I didn’t tell him to go.”
    “Sorry doesn’t help him now.” The words are vehement and spat out as if they are bitter and rotten to the taste. Alex’s father wraps his arms around his wife and leads her away. Her sobs fill the cavern and the people shift uncomfortably as they disappear into their homes.
    Once more all eyes are upon me. My grandfather nods his head and six men and women, Adam among them, break off from the group, all of them moving to a small cave across the stream. It is time for me to speak of Alex’s death. So much has happened and now Lucy’s words confuse me. She didn’t tell him to go, yet Alex did. What went wrong between them?
    The rushing water of the stream fills my ears as we cross the narrow wooden bridge. If I fall in, where would it take me? The water courses under the thick rock walls and eventually joins the mighty river belowground, but where does it go after that? Does it eventually lead to the outside? I would be dead and drowned, long before I got to wherever it goes, but my body would move onward. The Bible speaks of the seas. It is something I cannot comprehend, but I am certain the river would go there. My thoughts flow as quickly as the stream, tumbling one upon the other until one thought alone comes forefront to my mind.
    Will a boy ever look at me in the same way that Alex looked at Lucy?
    The sky is blue …
    There will be questions.
    Silence greets me as I walk into the meeting with my grandfather. I know all of the people gathered there. They are our elders. They have been elected to represent the shiners’ dealings with the royals. But furthermore, they settle our disputes and keep shiner business private from the rest of our world. The last thing we want is the bluecoats among us. What is law above is not necessarily law below.
    It is my first time in this cave that sits high on the wall opposite our home. No one is permitted to enter unless you are summoned. The series of stone steps that lead up to the entrance is always guarded to keep the curious away. The elders are seated in a circle upon a continuous bench of stone that is carved into the sides of the cave. I am not surprised to see another passageway that leads out. The most important rule for every shiner is to always have an escape route. Becoming trapped in a tunnel is a sentence for certain death. My grandfather leads me to the center of the circle, to a well-worn wooden stool, and I sit. A chill comes over me and I cross my arms in hopes that somehow it will warm me.
    Is this how Alex felt? Is this why he ran? The elders’ eyes condemn me and I do not know why. They look at me as if I am responsible for what happened.
    “What did you see?” Jasper, who is our leader, finally speaks. I tell them what I saw, from the moment I entered the promenade until Alex’s death.
    “You saw him burned?” a woman, Mary, who is nearly as old as my grandfather asks.
    Oh my God I