Only Ashes Remain

*Only Ashes Remain* is the second book in the Market of Monsters trilogy written by Rebecca Schaeffer. It was released on September 3, 2019 and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The cover art shows the imprint of a switchblade in a pile of ash on a red background. The tagline reads: "Vengeance is a vicious vice."

## Synopsis

***Dexter*meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who seeks revenge on the boy who betrayed her, a sequel to the critically acclaimed *Not Even Bones*.**

After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market. There’s only one way to keep herself safe. Nita must make herself so feared that no one would ever dare come after her again. And the best way to start building her reputation? Take her revenge on Fabricio, the boy who sold Nita to her kidnappers. But killing Fabricio is harder than Nita thought it would be, even with Kovit by her side. Now caught in a game of kill or be killed, Nita will do whatever it takes to win.

## Plot

Nita shows up at INHUP, a police organization who protects innocent unnaturals and eradicates ones on their List of Dangerous Unnaturals. She hides her mother's identity (for obvious reasons) and meets Fabricio.

Fabricio, also hiding his father's identity, that of which is for unknown reasons, and the two pretend that they've never seen each other before to protect their identities. Outside, in private, Fabricio acts like the victim, not knowing that Nita knows that he sold her out. After gruffly threatening Fabricio, Nita decides that she will be leaving INHUP soon---though not without Fabricio dead.

*"**Ah there it was. The veiled threat. The reminder that he knew exactly who she was, and if he wanted to, he could destroy her chances of getting a plane ticket home from INHUP. Well, two could play that game."***

Poisoning Fabricio with orange juice mixed with a floripondio flower, Nita leaves Fabricio to die and leaves with her "aunt", who is really her mother.

**"*What have you done?"***

***"What I should have let my mother do." Nita's voice scraped against her throat, trying to block out the memories of his screams when her mother cut off his ear. "Saving you was the one good thing I did in my life, and i've paid for that kindness with blood and screams. I learned my lesson well. I won't make the same mistake again."***

 ***Fabricio jerked forward, trying to reach her. "Nita, please, I'm sorry for everything you went through, believe me when I say I understand!"***

***"Oh, I know you do. That's what makes it all the worse."***

Enraged when her mother tries to take her back home, cage her again, Nita leaves to meet up with Kovit, who was previously in Detroit. She does not tell her mother about Kovit, knowing she would like nothing better to cut up and sell him.

## Important Quotes/Excerpts

"Nita, stop...Stop justifying me. Henry didn't make me who I am. My mother didn't make me who I am. *I* made me who I am. i can see the justifications going through your brain. If Henry hadn't praised me, I wouldn't have done awful things. If Henry hadn't brought me people and enabled me, if henry hadn't taken away consequence for crime...if if if. If everything were different, who would I be? But the plain fact is, no matter how many *ifs* had changed, I'd still be me. Maybe not this me, here with you. But I'd always be a zannie, Nita. I *like* what I am. I *like* hurting people. I know so many people...make excuses for everything I do. They blame it on a tragic past. On what I am. As though *who* you are is defined by *what* you are. You once told me I could get my food from hospital emergency rooms. Or maybe palliative care wards. You're right, I could. And it's a choice not to...I am not a *good person*. But I am *a person*. I make my own choices."

-Kovit

Adair leaned back. "I'll rephrase my earlier question: who *profits* from the Dangerous Unnaturals List?"

Nita's stomach began to flutter as things began to click together. Her mother profited. The people buying body parts, killing the creatures on the list. The crazy dictators who sheltered zannies and used them as torturers.

"The black market," Nita finally answered, the words heavy on her tongue.

Adair's smile as sharp and thin. "Exactly...Have you ever noticed, that every creature on the list is also profitable? Unicorn bone is used as a drug. Zannie blood is used for pain relief, and zannies themselves are popular pet torturers for dictators. Kappa organs are a powerful poison. Vampire bodies can extend your life by decades...But other dangerous ones? Ghouls eat people, but they're not on the list. Their corpses do absolutely *nothing*."

...But when it came time for the true acts of monstrosity---luring strangers into buildings to kill them, demanding that Kovit murder the man who raised him---it was Nita, not Kovit, who pushed for it. Her throat closed. The monster in the room right now wasn't Kovit. It was everyone else. Including Nita.

Nobody fell for Kovit hoping to reform him. He was too evil for those people to want, and too good for the people in the market. What would it be like, everyone despising you for being a monster, but also wanting you to be more of a monster? Wanting you more ruthless on one thing, less on another. They wanted to mold him into the person most convenient for them at the time. And that was impossible.

No one is perfect. No one is exactly who you want them to be. There is something in every person, even your closest friend, that you don't like.

Kovit was loyal. Kovit tortured random people. Kovit went above and beyond to help his friends.

Nita thought about Diana, and how she couldn't get her vengeance because she kept thinking about what was going on in the head of the boy who killed her family. She thought about Adair and how he refused to get revenge because it caused more problems. And about how Nita had let him go, had chosen to let him survive betraying her. She thought about how poisoning Fabricio out of vengeance had started a chain reaction that had led to more chaos and death than she'd ever wanted.

And she though about how she'd decided that her one rule would be not to hurt people simply for the pleasure of it.

"Kovit?"

He looked up at her over Fabricio's head, his eyes a question. "Yes?"

Nita met Fabricio's huge blue-gray eyes, the tears falling from his cheeks and redampening the drying blood on his face, coloring his tears pink.

Nita pocketed her gun and handed Kovit her scalpel.

"Make him scream," she hissed.

Then she turned and left the room.