Revenant (18 page)

Wendy quietly watched us walk into the
room, her eyes darting over my clothing and the
sling
.
She started toward me, panic on her face. “What happened?”

I fell into the nearest chair. “Gage
shot me.”

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She
looked over at Jacob, aghast, and then back at me. “He tried to kill you? I
don’t understand. He needs you to raise his zombie army.”

I was exhausted. The walk from the
mummy room to the house had taken every ounce of energy I had left. “Gage was
teaching me the death dealer’s bulletproofing spell,” I answered. Even to me my
voice sounded shaky and weak. I looked around the room. “Where’s Dean?” Gage
promised Dean wasn’t hurt, but I wouldn’t believe it until I saw him standing
in front of me alive, breathing and unharmed.

Wendy shrugged her shoulders.

“Did they take him away?” I demanded.
When she didn’t answer, I turned to Jacob. “What did you do with him?”

Jacob said in a quiet voice, “Your
friend is fine. He’s not
hurt
. He’ll be
back with you in the morning.” Jacob gave Wendy a smile, turned, and left the
room.

Wendy watched him go and then faced me
again. “Jacob promised Dean wouldn’t
be hurt
.
I know what you think, but Jacob is not like the rest of them.”

My curiosity forced me to ask, “What’s
he like, then?”

“He’s kind…and caring,” she said, a
small smile on her face.

“He works for Gage.” What hold does
Jacob have on her? Why was she defending him?

Her eyes filled with anger. “Not
everyone who works for a monster is one.”

“What is it between you and Jacob?” Does
she honestly have feelings for him? Every time I looked into Jacob’s face, all
I could see was Caleb. They were identical twins. Caleb wanted to hurt me, make
me pay. I had a hard time believing his brother was any different.

She looked down at the ground. “He
cares about me.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “And
we don’t?”

Her eyes met mine again. Pain and hurt
filled them. “You and Dean are scared of me.”

“We’re concerned about
what’s happened
to you. What’s
still
happening to you—
”

She cut me off. “You think I’m becoming
one of them. You think the demons are consuming me.”

“I’m not sure what to think. You
attacked me.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know you didn’t, but you
threw me across the room
. Wendy, don’t
you see how you’re changing? I’m worried.”

She erupted in a burst of anger. “You
should spend more time worrying about yourself.”

“What does that mean?”

She stood in front of me, seeming to
tower over me from my seat in the chair.
I’m
too weak to fight her off if she attacks me again…
I tried to keep the trepidation
I felt from showing on my face.

Her eyes began to glow with a wild
look. “Gage has plans for you. It’s pretty clear he wants you by his side. He
needs you to raise a dark army to help him take over the world. But there are
other things he wants from you.”

She closed in on me, looming over me where
I sat, and I shrank back in the chair. “Like what?”

“He wants you to let them free,” she
hissed.

My mouth turned dry and it took me
three tries before I could get out, “W-who?”

As if someone had flipped a light
switch, a bright and cheerful smile appeared on her face out of nowhere. “The
others. The demons bound in hell. He wants you to bridge the gap. To open a
gateway to let the
legion
loose.”

My mind flashed back to the night of
the ceremony, to whatever spoke through Caleb’s mouth. It said
I
would release them. I felt my temples pound.
It doesn’t matter what it said. I will
never let the demons loose.

“Gage is working on spells and
searching through old books.” Wendy’s voice was rising, and
panic
filled her face. “He won’t be satisfied
until he’s thrown us back to a time when those evil monsters roamed the earth.”

“Wendy, I promise you I won’t do it. I
would never help Gage release the demons.”

“Even if he says he’ll kill Dean?” she demanded.
“What if he says he’ll kill me? What if he threatens to banish Luke?”

“I won’t let the demons out, no matter
what,
” I said with all the energy I could
muster. I’d done so much in the name of love. If Gage pushed me, would I cross
that line again? Would I do whatever it took to keep Luke safe? “I won’t do it,”
I said again. I wanted to believe it.

Her expression changed. Her eyes turned
cold, and an odd smile crossed her face. “There’s one way to make sure you
don’t.”

A cold sweat broke over my skin.
I’m alone in here with her. If she comes at
me, how do I stop her?
“What’s that?” I finally asked.

Her face softened. “Kill yourself,” she
whispered.

I rocked back in shock.

And then there it was again: something
else shining through, looking at me through Wendy’s eyes.
Her voice
came out in a harsh whisper. “
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINY.
YOU WILL RETURN
BALANCE
TO THE WORLD…TEST
IT IN THE CRUCIBLE OF FIRE. THE WORLD HAS LOST ITS
SHADOW,
AND YOU WILL RETURN IT, AND WITH IT ALL OF THE GREATNESS
THAT HAS
BEEN LOST
. YOU WILL OPEN THE
DOOR,
IT IS YOUR FATE AND THE FATE OF THE
WORLD. DO NOT TRY TO ESCAPE IT, THERE IS NOWHERE YOU CAN RUN.
”

She clenched her jaw, struggling against something unseen,
fighting for control of her words.
When she looked at me
again,
she pleaded in a voice that was
closer to her own. “If you’re dead, you can’t bring them back. If you’re dead,
there is no gateway opening to the other side. You could do it, Colina. You
could do it to save all humanity. Do it to keep Dean safe. Do it to save Luke.”

She’s
lost her mind
.

She grabbed my wrist.

“Let me go!” I cried, panicking, trying
to pull out of her grasp.

Her grip tightened. “Do it. Sacrifice
yourself for the ones you love
.
”

“Get off me.” After a few more moments
of struggle, I ripped my arm out of her hands.

She stood motionless for a moment, her
eyes searching my face frantically—

And then her expression went blank.

Did
Wendy just try to goad me into killing myself?
Her voice had sounded more like her own when she’d said it, and the demons wanted
me alive—they want me to open a portal so they can crawl into this world.
So were those truly Wendy’s words?
Does she
really
want me to kill myself?

A faint voice floated through the space
behind me, distracting me from Wendy and my worries. I peered around the
chair’s back, but we were still alone. The blank expression left Wendy’s eyes
and a cautious look came over her face.

I heard it again. Someone was singing,
which was very unusual. I headed on unsteady feet toward the door and pushed it
open, not sure what I was going to find.

The last thing I expected to see was
Mildred.

She was walking near the
house,
steadily pouring something white from a
glass jar onto the ground.
She quietly
sang a beautiful melody in a language I didn’t recognize. It sounded a little
like the
Gaelic
spoken by the older
members of my clan, but I couldn’t make out any words. I listened in silence
for a moment, entranced by the soothing song. Somehow it made me feel loved and
protected, and a small amount of warmth tried to creep into my chilled soul.

And
then she stopped singing and the spell faded, allowing me to remember what this
woman did to me.

She looked up and gave me a bright
smile. “Good morning. I hope I didn’t wake you, child.”

It was well past morning. The sun was
setting low in the sky. Pretty soon it would be dark out. She was as unstable
as always. I honestly didn’t know what to say to her. We stood staring at each
other in silence.

She raised the jar. “Sea salt. The way
things have been going, I thought you could use a little protection.”

“You want to protect me
now
?” My voice dripped with disdain.

She moved toward me, her eyes sad, and
then seemed to think better of it. Shrugging, she murmured, “I guess sorry
isn’t going to cut it.”

“How could you do it? How could you
betray us?” Frustration bubbled up in me, but I was too weak for it to come to any
kind of
fruition. My legs began to
shake
and my head began to pound. With an
unsteady arm, I braced myself against the wall for support, my legs and body
shaking as I watched Mildred.

She looked off into the distance for a
moment and then turned back to me and whispered, “The creatures are hungry. He
doesn’t take care of them like he should.”

I followed her gaze. There it
was—a small glimmer of red out by the trees.

Hellhounds.
She’s talking about the hellhounds
.

“The poor things. He only feeds them
every other day,” she said.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’re
feeling sorry for the hellhounds?”

“They only harm because he commands
them to.”

Is
she serious?
“Mildred, I watched a demon create one
of them from
ash
. I’m sure that evil
thing brought
these
forth, too.”

“True evil created them, yes. It is
hard to shake your nature, but you of all people should know it can
be done
.” She paused for a long time and then
whispered, “
I never
meant to hurt you.”

“
Did
you care about us at all
?
Was it all an act?”

She
looked away and then back at me. “I tried to protect you as best I could.”

Mildred
betrayed me because Gage promised to bring back her daughter. She crossed
the line
in hopes of getting the one she loved
back. “Mildred, what if he’s lying to you? What if he can’t bring your daughter
back?” I asked.

“I
thought you would understand. I had to try. Gage is powerful. He’s preparing to
do a spell to bring my daughter back from”—her voice quivered—“from
the awful place she’s been. And you’ll have the one you love back. Luke will
walk the earth again by your side. He’ll
be tied
to a brand-new body.”

“Will
he? You
really
believe Gage can transfer
Luke’s spirit into another body?”

“I
do, child. The man does magic I’ve never seen before.”

“He’ll
want something from me,” I replied drearily.

“Of
course. There is always a cost. There is always a price. I’m willing to pay it,
and so are you.”

I
knew she was right. If I could
transfer
Luke
to another body, if he could be back at my side day and night…my prayers would
be answered
. I would do anything to see that
happen.

Wendy
stepped up beside me. “Traitor,” she hissed at Mildred.

Mildred
gave me a long, sad look and started walking again. She carefully poured out a
thin line of sea salt as she went.

After
a moment’s observation, Wendy said, “She’s circling the house with sea salt.
It’s a protection circle.”

Was
she
really
trying to help us? I honestly
didn’t know what the old woman was up to, but I knew I would never trust her
again.

We
watched as Mildred slowly came to a stop at the corner of the house. She shook
the last of the jar’s contents out onto the ground, then dropped the jar and
started walking toward the trees.

I
watched, horrified and fascinated, as two dark forms broke away from the
shadows of the trees and started to move toward her.
The hellhounds!

Mildred
seemed unaware of the danger she
was in
.
She skipped along, singing loudly to herself as she went.

“The
old bat is going to get herself killed,” Wendy said.

My
heart lurched in my chest. Mildred was walking toward the beasts without any
fear.

Mildred
suddenly dropped to her knees and called out, “Got a treat for you.” She held
out her hand, and the hellhounds raced forward before stopping just short of
her.

I
watched in pure awe as the creatures slowly crept to Mildred and gently ate
from her hands. What was she feeding them? I’d only seen the beasts consume
souls. When it seemed she had nothing left to feed them, Mildred stood up and
brushed the dirt off her skirt.

She
patted both the hellhounds on the tops of their heads. “Good doggies,” she sang
out before turning and skipping down the road.