Chapters (79)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for Destroy All Monsters
- Books by Sam J. Miller
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
I was dry. There was no rain. No thunder. The smell of cold stone and chrysanthemums was in the air.
The Palace. The High Tower. Four years ago. Ash knelt on the floor of the central training area, twelve years old.
Ash’s voice was in my ear, back in the here and now. “My nine guards had spent that whole day, walking me through a seventy-two-movement martial arts routine, to focus the flow of energy through the body and awaken my ability.”
Twelve-year-old Ash stood up. Shut her eyes.
“I felt so powerful. Like I could finally save my city. Show everyone what was really happening.”
Twelve-year-old Ash stood in front of her guards.
“I looked, and saw this.”
She showed them. And she showed me. Screaming in the streets. Fires burning in storefronts. Fists flying. Daggers pulled. Bodies. Bloody puddles. Broken glass.
“The Night of Red Diamonds,” I said.
“I saw it all. The army of goons gathering at that very moment to go out and bash some heads. Me and my guards, we were going to stop it. I wanted to go with them, but they said it was too dangerous.”
The guards held hands. One of them teleported the whole group of them away. Ash’s vision shifted again, showed me the scene in Raptor Heights. No cops in sight. The goons arriving, brandishing sticks. A lot of them: thirty, maybe forty. Led by a woman in ultramarine. When Ash’s soldiers showed up, the hooligans laughed at first. They had them so outnumbered.
Then the mayhem started. Fire arced through the air. Lightning descended from the sky. Windows shattered. People screamed.
Both sides were angry. Both sides were afraid. Everyone was out for blood.
In the morning, the crowds came. I saw the Shield standing on the sidewalk. Indistinguishable from all the other gawkers. Looking young; looking scared. One of the corpses was the woman in ultramarine; his mother.
The dark returned, and the rain. Ash and I were both crying by then.
The night that split our city wide open. The moment everything went wrong.
“It was me,” Ash said. “I’m responsible for the Night of Red Diamonds.”
“You weren’t,” I said. “Those jerks came to start trouble, and they got it.”
“No,” she said. “You don’t understand. I thought I could stop it from happening, but I caused it to happen.”
Thunder made her jump. I opened my mouth, but there was nothing I could say.
Forty-Five
Ash
Thunder made him jump. He stiffened, stood up straighter.
“Shhhh,” I said. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” he whispered.
He was right, of course. But I couldn’t let him know it. “It’s going to be okay,” I said. “You’ll be okay. Whatever he did to your mother—”
Solomon pulled back from me. Looked at me. His eyes were wild, haunted. “Did . . . to my mother?”