Of the Ashes

2

Chiron sighed and rested his hand on Nico's forehead.

"Tell me again what happened," he asked me.

So I again recounted for him the shadow leaping from the tree for Nico, the knives, the mist.

Where he couldn't seem to get over was the fact that I was the only one to have ever seen the shadow.

"No one else even glanced up?" He said. "No disturbance at all?"

I shook my head. "There's something else, sir."

"Speak, child."

"I saw the shadow before when I was being chased by Conner. I saw the shadow above me. I tried to stab it, but it disappeared before I could. Conner couldn't see it, and..." I hesitated before admitting more. "And neither could my ghosts."

Chiron was silent as the implications of that sank in.

"How does that even work?" He asked. "If your 'ghosts' are just parts of your mind, then the shadow couldn't have been...of course, I guess we already knew that considering the very real effect its knifes had on Nico..."

The door to the infirmary opened and Will Solace poked his head in.

"Any change?" He asked hopefully.

My heart just about broke at the look in his eyes as he looked at Nico's unmoving form. I crossed the room and laid a hand on his arm.

"Nico is a tough guy. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Will looked at me gratefully. "Chiron," he said. "I actually came to show you something. The team you had analyzing the wispy mist stuff found something. A knife."

We raced out, Chiron picking me up and plopping me on his back.

When we reached the clearing where Nico had fallen, I dismounted and ran over to see. There were still traces of the mist. Dark, obscuring fog that sought to kill, to destroy danced around people's legs. The bushes and grass were wet with dew from the oncoming morning. Everything glittered in the warm sunlight.

And then I saw the knife. I walked forward to get a better look, Chiron at my heels, but when I crouched down to study it, I gasped. The knife was one of my own.

My knives were long, about 12 inches, with a lean, thin design, made mostly for stealth. The knife lying at my feet was exactly like the ones hidden in my bracelets, except it was black. And they seemed to be emitting black mist. Chiron backed away from the mist and Will tried to pull me out of their reach, but somehow I knew they weren't going to hurt me.

"Ash!" Will said harshly. "Don't get to close to the mists. What if what happened to Nico happens to you?"

"It's okay," I told him. "I'm going to try to pick up the knife."

"Like Tartarus you are," Chiron said. "Ashely Liu, if you touch that knife–"

I grabbed the knife. It was cold on my skin, but not uncomfortably so.

The clearing went quiet as everyone held in a shocked breath.

Nobody spoke.

I turned the knife over in my hands, trying not to blush. "Well, nothing happened."

Silence.

I turned. "Chiron?" He wasn't there.

"Will?" I said louder. "Anyone? I'm sorry I grabbed the knife..."

There was no answer.

And then I saw the shadow. All heard edges and straight lines, it reminded me (quite inappropriately) of a creature in a video game I had played once: an ender somthing-or-other. It walked up to me, calmly and relaxed. I brandished the knife in front of me.