Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) Read online

  OUT OF THE ASHES

  book three of The Ending Series

  by Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsey Pogue

  Copyright © 2014 by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events are products of the author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

  Editing by Sarah KolbWilliams

  www.kolbwilliams.com

  Book cover design by Scarlett Rugers Design

  www.scarlettrugers.com

  L2 Books

  101 W American Canyon Rd. Ste. 508 – 262

  American Canyon, CA 94503

  MORE BOOKS BY

  LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH & LINDSEY POGUE

  THE ENDING SERIES

  After The Ending

  Into The Fire

  Out Of The Ashes

  Before The Dawn (2015)

  THE ENDING BEGINNINGS

  Omnibus

  I: Carlos

  II: Mandy

  III: Vanessa

  IV: Jake

  V: Clara

  VI: Jake & Clara

  MORE BOOKS BY LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  ECHO TRILOGY

  Echo Prophecy

  Resonance, a novella

  Echo Queen (September 2014)

  Echo Gods (2015)

  DEDICATION

  For the Endingers. Your love of the series and its characters make writing it so much more fun than it already is!

  CONTENTS

  More Books by Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsey Pogue

  Maps

  Chapter 1: Jake

  Chapter 2: Zoe

  Chapter 3: Dani

  Chapter 4: Zoe

  Chapter 5: Jake

  Chapter 6: Dani

  Chapter 7: Zoe

  Chapter 8: Dani

  Chapter 9: Zoe

  Chapter 10: Dani

  Chapter 11: Zoe

  Chapter 12: Dani

  Chapter 13: Zoe

  Chapter 14: Jake

  Chapter 15: Dani

  Chapter 16: Zoe

  Chapter 17: Dani

  Chapter 18: Zoe

  Chapter 19: Dani

  Chapter 20: Zoe

  Chapter 21: Jake

  Chapter 22: Dani

  Chapter 23: Zoe

  Chapter 24: Dani

  Chapter 25: Zoe

  Chapter 26: Dani

  Chapter 27: Jake

  Chapter 28: Zoe

  Chapter 29: Jake

  Chapter 30: Dani

  Chapter 31: Zoe

  Chapter 32: Dani

  Chapter 33: Zoe

  Chapter 34: Dani

  Chapter 35: Jake

  Chapter 36: Zoe

  Can’t get enough of The Ending?

  About the authors

  MAPS

  MARCH

  1AE

  1

  JAKE

  MARCH 23, 1AE

  Colorado Springs, Colorado

  Body tense and heart racing, Jake scoured Zoe’s face for any inkling of recognition. He couldn’t allow himself to believe she had no memory of him or all they’d been through together. She’d admitted she loved him only hours earlier. Now, she was scared, casting furtive glances around the room at friends and family she clearly didn’t remember—including him.

  In the dying moonlight seeping through the undressed windows, Jake watched her, desperation making it hard for him to breathe. Her eyes…he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her teal eyes.

  Zoe studied the two women in front of her, taking in Chris and Dani before settling her gaze on her brother, Jason. Her wide, appraising eyes narrowed and her chest heaved, like she was frantically trying to remember him. Her gaze lingered a moment longer without a hint of recognition, and then landed on Jake. He could see the confusion and fear warring within their depths, making his heart ache and his conscience cloud with an undeniable guilt.

  He shouldn’t have left her alone on the golf course.

  Her head tilted slightly as she considered him, and he prayed there was even the slightest nagging familiarity. Remember, he silently pleaded. But seeing no recognition of him—of them—reflected in her eyes, he knew the Zoe standing in the room, looking at him like he was a complete stranger, was only a shadow of the woman he’d fallen in love with.

  His grip on the doorframe tightened so hard he thought the wood might detach from the wall. Zoe was terrified, and for the first time since he’d met her, there was nothing he could do to help her. He fought the instinct to go to her, knowing that if he did, he would frighten her more, and then he might risk losing her completely.

  Unable to stand the tension any longer, unable to bear the feeling of loss and his encroaching devastation, Jake turned and strode out of the suffocating room. Each step provided distance, and the more distance he put between them, the easier it became to breathe. He couldn’t get away fast enough.

  Cooper, his loyal-friend-through-it-all husky, trailed behind him, panting and trotting to keep up as Jake made his way down the hall. He needed space…needed air. Continuing toward the kitchen, he hoped the fresh air beyond the sliding glass door would give him a clearer head. But regardless of how quickly he strode through the house, the image of Zoe’s fearful eyes remained, permanently projected in his mind, a constant reminder of his failure to protect her.

  His hands fisted at his sides. He’d known something wasn’t right when she said she felt strange outside the Colony, and if he’d have just stayed with her instead of leaving her side to help Harper, she might not have run off…she might still be her.

  With a roar, Jake spun toward the wall. His fist met the hard, textured surface in unbridled anger. His knuckles cracked beneath his skin as they barreled through a layer of drywall, but he barely noticed. Bracing his hands against the wall, he tried to catch his breath, to stop his mind from spinning out of control. They’d already been through so much…why was this happening?

  Hearing Dani and Zoe’s muted voices in the bedroom down the hall, Jake turned away from the hole his fist had made and continued into the small kitchen, then stopped. With a heavy sigh, he leaned against the Formica countertop, not ready to go outside with the others. Not ready to answer questions.

  Almost immediately, Jason came through the doorway behind him. In two steps he was at the counter, gripping the ledge, and in the dim light pouring through the sliding glass door, Jake could see the hard set of his features.

  “I can’t blame the Colony this time,” Jake said. “I knew something was wrong.” Zoe was infuriating and stubborn, but she wasn’t stupid; she wouldn’t have just run off for no reason. But without her memory, there was no way to know why she’d done it.

  With a yawn, Cooper lay down on the linoleum floor, his eyes angling up to Jake and then to Jason, ensuring that, even in their silence, they were still standing there.

  After what felt like a few minutes, Jason grunted and shook his head. His shoulders were tense, and Jake could almost feel the apprehension rolling off him in waves.

  Jake couldn’t help but wonder if Gabe—his best friend turned traitor—was to blame for all of this. Despite their friendship as children, Gabe had brought soldiers into Jake’s home, ready to take his sister, Becca, away from him, and then he’d lured Dani into the Colony for the General. Had he been involved in what had happened to Zoe, too?

  “What a fucking mess,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I guess I’ll just keep nulling her, at least until—”

  The sound of footsteps approaching brought both men’s
attention to the hall doorway. Chris spoke softly, Zoe’s hand resting in hers as they entered the kitchen, Dani and Jack, her German shepherd, close behind them. Though Chris and Zoe were both grown women, the image of them walking hand in hand resembled that of a mother and child.

  Jake’s eyes met Zoe’s as she was led past him; hers were shrewd and penetrating. They were the same eyes that had affected him so intensely the first moment he saw her, their brilliance and expressiveness capturing his attention—his soul—in a way no other woman ever had. Regret and anger gnawed at him; he’d never told her any of that, and now she might never know how he felt.

  Her eyes fixed on him. He could tell from the way Zoe walked—with less fortitude and more uncertainty—that she was a poorly made replica of his Zoe. But she was a version of her, nonetheless, and like always, the bottomless depths of her eyes housed her every emotion: embarrassment—curiosity—confusion. Jake was grateful she didn’t seem to be afraid, and he knew he had Chris’s Ability to curb Zoe’s unease with a single touch to thank for that.

  Chris whispered something inaudible, and Zoe’s gaze shifted to the sliding glass door. They stepped through and outside, heading toward the rest of the group and the horses waiting in the early morning shadows, Dani’s dog traipsing after them.

  Dani, however, hung back in the kitchen. She moved closer to Jason, her gaze darting between him and Jake. With her broken arm, swollen and bruised face, and hunched shoulders, she looked like she’d been the General’s punching bag while held captive in the Colony. She gave him a sidelong glance.

  Jake’s blood ran cold. “What is it?” he asked.

  “There was a letter,” she said tentatively, fingering the edge of the sling holding her left arm. “It’s from one of my Colony contacts. She brought Zo here after finding her in the golf course…with Clara.”

  Jake stopped breathing. His anger drained from him, his stomach knotting with fear.

  Clara.

  He exhaled slowly and rubbed his hand over his face harsher than was necessary, fighting to maintain what semblance of composure he had left. Clara’d had it out for Zoe from the first moment they’d met. Back at Fort Knox, she’d poisoned Zoe in a desperate attempt to get rid of her, then attempted to kill them all in the barracks fire that had claimed several lives. And now she was here, in Colorado, trying to hurt Zoe again.

  White-hot rage and self-loathing scorched through Jake, and he clenched his shaking hands into fists. He should’ve left Clara in the hospital where he’d found her, pleading and scared.

  “She’s dead now,” Dani said, but Jake’s anger lessened only slightly.

  “Dead,” he repeated hollowly. Clara might’ve been dead, but not before managing to strike one final blow.

  Dani’s eyes met his for a brief moment before settling back onto Jason’s. “Did you tell them about the T-Rs and the memory wiping?”

  Jason nodded.

  “It looks like that’s what happened to Zo…sort of. Clara started the process, got interrupted…at least now she’s gone for good.”

  Jake studied Dani. “How do you know for sure?” he asked.

  Dani smiled weakly and shook her head, wisps of her curly red hair escaping the braid it was gathered into. “My contact said so,” she said. “I trust her…at least with this.” She glanced between them once more, like she wasn’t quite sure of something. “There’s more, but we should probably get going.”

  Jason reached for her, lacing his fingers with those of her good hand, and nodded. “We’ll figure the rest out on the way to Colorado Trails,” he said. “We’ve got to get moving or Ky and the others will think something’s happened to us.”

  The sliding glass door opened, and Becca stepped into the doorway. She glanced between Jason and Dani, and even though she still didn’t seem to believe that Jake was her brother, her eyes found and locked with his. “We should go,” she said, her voice raspy, as it had been since she was young. “I have had a vision. If we do not leave soon, the General will find us.”

  “Shit,” Jason muttered, and Becca turned slowly and exited the kitchen, leaving the door open behind her.

  Dani led Jason toward the sliding glass door, his imposing form dwarfing her petite, battered one. Part of Jake wished Zoe’s wounds were as straightforward as bruises and broken bones; those wounds would heal. What Clara had done to her might not.

  Feeling deflated, Jake followed after them. Once again, Zoe was right in front of him, but as unreachable as though she were miles away; it infuriated him. While Clara’s first attempt to kill the only woman he’d ever loved had inevitably brought Zoe closer to him, Clara’s final attempt might have succeeded in tearing her away completely.

  2

  ZOE

  MARCH 24th, 1AE

  Rocky Mountains, Colorado

  “Potty break,” Dani said, halting her paint horse, Wings, in the middle of the highway just ahead of me.

  I’d been riding a brown mare named Mocha since leaving the house in Colorado Springs, the others taking turns staying close to me, since I had no clue what I was doing. Tavis was my current companion, riding on my right. I liked him; he was a funny Australian man who didn’t talk much, but when he did it was playful and put me at ease. Becca, the woman sharing his saddle, seemed nice, though she hadn’t said much to anyone during the five-plus hours we’d been on the road. She seemed almost as lost as I felt.

  Dani struggled to dismount Wings using only her right arm, since her left arm was cradled in a sling. She was obviously in a lot of pain, despite the medicine the doctor, Harper, had given her.

  I glanced up ahead at Jason, assuming he’d be charging toward us to help Dani in her flailing attempt to dismount and chastising her for attempting it on her own. But he was at the head of our parade line, talking to Chris and completely oblivious to Dani’s self-dismount.

  When Dani’s boots hit the ground, she glanced toward Jason, then looked up at me, a sheepish grin on her face as she brought her index finger to her lips. “Don’t tell him…”

  I smiled and shook my head. I liked Dani, a lot. She was fiery and peppy, and the ease with which she spoke to me made it easier to cope with what was going on, like I had a friend who would stay by my side no matter what. When she’d tried to explain to me what had happened to the world, that we’d grown up together and had spent the last three months trying to get to one another only to be separated by the Colony again, I’d begun to freak out. The weight of reality and my lack of memories and sense of self were all too much to bear at once.

  But Chris had been quick to wrap her arms around my shoulders, telling me that it would be alright, I just needed time to readjust, and for some reason, that had made me feel better. Dani had later explained that it was because Chris had the innate ability to comfort people. Although I got the distinct impression there was more to Chris than that—a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind—I liked the way I felt in her presence and savored the reprieve of unwanted emotions when she was around me.

  “Come on, Zo,” Dani said, holding her good hand up to help me climb out of Mocha’s saddle. “Let’s go pee. You never know…” She scanned the tall aspens on either side of the road. “We might not find another woodsy spot before we stop for the night. Might as well take advantage of the privacy while we have it.”

  I considered the image of the two of us standing side by side, best friends who, I’d been told, were so completely altered from the last time we’d seen each other. Tiny little Dani, with her bruised pixie face framed by wild, red curls, and me, tall, with an unmarred exterior but hollow interior. I wish I could remember… But having been found inside the bedroom closet of an abandoned house the night before was as far back as my memory went.

  “Zo? You okay?” Dani’s brow furrowed. “Do you need me to get Harper?”

  I shook my head. I had a million and one questions, but a pee break wasn’t the time to ask them. Instead, I offered her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “No, I was just t
hinking.” I waved her proffered hand away. “I got it, Dani, but thanks.” I didn’t want to hurt her by jerking her body around as I dismounted. “It’s only a couple feet.” I’d decided it was much easier getting up into the saddle than it was getting down, an art I was determined to master if this was going to be my spot during our several-day journey.

  While the others seemed all too excited to meet up with the rest of our group, it meant that I had even more people to “reacquaint” myself with. Dani had spent part of the morning filling me in on my relationships with them. Now I just needed to remember all that she’d told me: Sarah, apparently a friend I’d traveled with from the East Coast, was pregnant; her boyfriend, Biggs, was a military man we’d met up with along the way; Mr. Grayson was my high school history teacher and had been traveling with Dani for months; and Jason’s best friend, Ky, and Ky’s older brother, Ben, were waiting for us deeper in the mountains.

  I stood up in the stirrups, prepared to fling my leg over for an awkward dismount.

  “Here,” Tavis offered kindly as he strode up beside Mocha. I hadn’t even noticed him dismount his own horse. He wore an easy smile, and his blue eyes crinkled in the corners where his smile touched them. His dirty-blond hair was a little long and mussed from running his fingers through it so frequently.

  Caught off guard, I felt my heart flutter a bit.

  “Fling your leg over, and I’ll help ease you down…”

  Flashing him a brief smile, I did as Tavis instructed. With one hand gripping the saddle horn and the other gripping the edge of the saddle seat for leverage, I swung my leg over Mocha’s rump, just like Dani had shown me. As I was about to lower myself to the ground, Tavis’s hands grasped my waist, firmly but gently, and he helped lower me the rest of the way down.