Revenant (19 page)

* * *

I sat in the doorway
watching the sunset. Mildred never came back our way. Wendy stayed by my side
for a while. She didn’t say much. After a time, she mumbled something about
being tired and headed back inside. I didn’t want to go back indoors. It felt
good to be out in the open. I closed my eyes and felt the breeze on my face. With
every hour that passed, I felt better. My head stopped throbbing. My arm was
sore, but the sling now laid on the ground next to me. The healer had done his
job.

For the first time in a long time, I
couldn’t
see
or smell any zombies. I was
betting Gage decided to keep the zombies away from me, after seeing how they’d
come to my defense
. How did they know I
was hurt? How did I call them and command them to attack Caleb?
I had no
recollection of doing it. All I could remember was the pain I felt as the
bullet ripped through me, and then the flash of pure fury that followed.

I looked up at the sky and saw a shooting
star. I closed my eyes.

Maybe
if I wish hard enough, that maniac will realize my magic isn’t as powerful as
he thought. Maybe he’ll let us go. Maybe he’ll come to his senses and give up
his insane plan to raise a dark army.

I opened my eyes and gave a loud sigh.
If only wishing made it real
.

And then I felt it—my skin
prickle with the feeling of being watched.
Something
is nearby
. I glanced at the trees and spied two sets of red eyes peering at
me through the darkness.
Have the
hellhounds been watching me the whole time I’ve been sitting here
?

But I realized it wasn’t the hellhounds
that raised my internal alarm. Something else was out here with
me
—I was sure of it.

Someone cleared their
throat,
and my head swung to the left. It was
Sonja. She was standing at the edge of the house, a lantern in her hand. The
dress she wore tonight was tight, black, and short. She teetered on a pair of
six-inch red high heels.

“How is the princess this evening?” she
asked. “I hear you’re on the mend. News spread about your training accident,
but I see you’ve pulled through.” Her voice was full of disappointment.

“Your master let you off your leash?” I
asked, not trying to hide the contempt I felt for her.

I was expecting some angry response, but
instead she just stood there, watching me.

Her green eyes should’ve been full of
anger, but instead I watched in sheer astonishment as tears began sliding down
her face. “Gage has decided…he may no longer need me.”

I was shocked at her words. She now had
my full attention. I stood up and steadied myself against the doorframe. “What
does that mean?” I asked.

“It means he’s thinking about sending
me off at the end of the week to go work with Fintan.” She looked up at the
stars. “It means I might be leaving, and if I go, he’ll be all yours.”

“I don’t want him,” I hissed.

She looked back at me. “But you’re the
one he wants by his side.
He’s made
that more
than clear.”

I shook my head. “Gage just wants me
for my magic. He needs me to raise the zom—”

She interrupted me. “You’re such a
little fool. You have no idea what’s going on, what he has planned.” The anger
was there now, shining through her eyes.

I took a step toward her. “Tell me,” I
said in a quiet voice.

She watched me and then gave a harsh
laugh. “You’ll learn about his plans soon enough. He’s such a great man. He
needs someone with strength and wisdom by his side, not some useless girl who
can’t even protect herself.” She gave me a hard stare.
“Your magic was supposed to be
so
powerful.
You could raise
zombies,
you could raise demons… But look at you now. You can’t even manage a simple
bulletproofing spell.”

My cheeks colored in response to her
taunts. It was my turn to be angry. “You need to watch yourself.”

She laughed again. “Or what? Your magic
didn’t touch Caleb. Your animal
banshees
didn’t harm Gage.” She stormed right up to me until we stood nose-to-nose. “What
do you think you
can
do?”

She’s
right
, a small voice said in my mind. My
magic was useless against Caleb and Gage
.
I hadn’t even really started my training. I wasn’t a true death dealer. If I
was stronger—more powerful—I would be able to get out of here along
with my friends. Sonja could see her words had affected me and smiled victoriously.
I wanted so badly to wipe the smug look off her face.

I lifted my fist and said through
clenched teeth, “I don’t need magic to punch you in the face.”

She took a hasty step back, uncertainty
filling her eyes. After a moment, when I didn’t move, she straightened. “You
know, you’re about to get everything you ever wanted.”

I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t
explain further. I didn’t want to ask questions, but if Sonja knew what Gage
had planned for me, I had to try and find out. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, the princess doesn’t know? No one
told you?” She laughed in astonishment. “Tomorrow night Gage will release Luke.”

Panic filled me. “What do you mean, ‘release’
him?”

Sonja saw the anxiety in my face and
rolled her eyes. “He’s not banishing him into the ether sea, you little idiot.
Gage found
a spell
that can transfer
Luke’s soul into another body.”

A half-dozen questions swirled through
my head.
So it’s true? Can Gage actually
do it? Will Luke finally stand by my side during the day and night? Why is he
willing to bring Luke back? Is the spell some
kind
of
trap? What plans does Gage have for us?

Sonja’s sniffling brought me back to
our conversation. “You get to have everything you ever wanted, and I’ll get
shipped off to help that creep, Fintan.”

Great,
here come the tears again.
“Help Fintan do what?” I asked.
What was Fintan’s project? He’d
mentioned something about collecting readers during Gage’s party…

Sonja sneered. “You would like that,
wouldn’t you? You would love me to answer all your questions.
To fill you in on all the secrets it took me
years
to learn.
I worked hard to
be indispensable to Gage. I’m more than his assistant. I’m someone he can
count on
. Someone who truly cares for him.” She
crossed her arms indignantly.

Had she
really
just stood there and declared her love for Gage? I honestly couldn’t believe
what I was hearing. “You’re in love with that madman?”

“I am. And he loved me back until
you
came. But now he only has eyes for
you. He thinks
you’re
the one he
’s been
waiting
for
. He thinks
you’re
the one
who’s going to help him fulfill his destiny.” Her voice contorted in anger
again and she pointed one manicured finger at me accusingly. “But I know deep
down, you aren’t the one. You don’t have
any
magic that can help him. You aren’t all-powerful. Look at you—weak,
barely able to stay on your feet… You’re a pathetic girl
who’s been
lucky to survive this long.”

And with those parting words she spun
on her heels and walked back into the night.

I watched her go, and a small part of
me wondered if she was right.
Am I only
alive because of luck?
I forced the thought away.
I’m not weak and pathetic
.
I’ve
pulled spirits to the other side. I forced Weatherton into the depths of hell.
I can raise the dead.

I looked out at the trees and saw the
hellhounds still watching me. An interesting thought popped into my mind as I
studied them.
I might not be able to harm
the living, but I have
power
over the
dead. Does that mean my magic would work on creatures
created
by magic?

I heard a howl on the wind. My spirit
pack was out
there
. They would come to me
when I needed them. Another howl sounded close
by,
and I watched the two pairs of red eyes sink back into the shadows.

I was standing before
the abyss. There were no red eyes watching me, and no unearthly noises or
growls filled the air. It was quiet—almost peaceful. Dean walked out from
within the darkness. A smile filled his face. His arms
opened
and he beckoned to me. I was happy to see him. I didn’t want
to be alone. Not in this place. But another part of me wished desperately that
Dean was someone else. I wanted Luke beside me.

As if powered by my thoughts, Dean changed.

The way he stood, the expression on his face—it
was no longer Dean looking at me. It was Luke. Dark gray eyes stared at me
filled with passion, with love. With just that one look, I felt like someone
coming out of the cold. A warm blanket of happiness spread through me. Luke had
a wide smile on his
face,
and he began
walking toward me. I started forward, but before I could make it to his
side,
a dark figure rushed out of the shadows
behind him. I tried to cry out a warning, but no sound came from my lips. My
voice and
body
were frozen.

I saw the glint of a blade move through the air. I
watched in horror as the knife came down and sliced brutally across Luke’s
throat. Luke’s hands went to his neck. I could see the blood pooling out from
between his fingers.
LUKE!
His name
screamed through my mind, but still no sound left my mouth. I tried desperately
to move, to go to his side, but something held me immobile.
No, Luke!
My heart pounded in my
chest
and tears streamed down my face as I
watched the shimmering blade
rise
again.

The dark figure turned and faced
me.

It
was Gage.

He had a wicked smile on his face. His eyes
glimmered with excitement as he lifted the knife high above his head and
brought it down hard into Luke’s chest. I watched Luke crumple to the ground. His
head fell to the side, and with a flash of confused recognition, I saw that the
eyes staring at me in pain and shock were not dark—they were blue.

Dean?

It was Dean who lay motionless on the ground. It
was Dean whose blood streamed out onto the dirt. I stood by helplessly as those
blue eyes begged me to help him, but I could do nothing. Slowly the light left his
pleading eyes and
a dull
emptiness came
over them. A chill shuddered through my heart.

Whatever spell had bound me
unexpectedly lifted
. I rushed forward,
stumbling, falling to my knees and crying out Dean’s name.

I sat up in bed, my heart pounding and my
screams still ringing in my ears. I looked around the room and a wave of relief
rushed over me.
I’m in bed.
It was all just a nightmare
.
I reached up and wiped tears from my eyes.

But I couldn’t draw my thoughts away
from the dream. If Gage kept his word and transferred Luke to another body,
what would happen to Dean? Would Gage let Dean go? Would he keep Dean prisoner?
Maybe he would use him as a hostage to keep me in line. Or worse—could my
dream somehow be prophetic? Gage sacrificed someone before. Would Gage use Dean
as a sacrifice during Luke’s transfer ritual?

I cared for Dean and I didn’t want to
see him hurt; my heart ached at the thought of him dying at Gage’s hand. But it
was
Luke
that I truly loved. If I
lost Luke again, could I survive it? The memories of losing him were never
completely out of my mind. Like an echo, the despair, the loss, the
heartache—all that pain still resided somewhere in the corner of my mind.
When I lost Luke I felt as though a piece of my soul had
been torn
away.

So many questions and conflicting
emotions swirled through my mind—questions I may never find answers for,
emotions I may never unravel. With a sigh of frustration, I pushed the covers
off and got out of bed. I made my way down the hall and into the kitchen.

I jumped when a voice spoke from a dark
corner. “I couldn’t sleep, either.”

It was Wendy. Her hair
was disheveled,
her eyes wide and a bit
unfocused.

“I had a bad nightmare,” I explained
quietly. I reached for a glass on the counter and dipped it into the bucket of
well water sitting on the stovetop. I took a long, deep drink.

“I haven’t been able
to sleep since
…since the first time that
thing
was forced
inside me,” Wendy whispered.

I turned and
really
looked at her. There were purple bags under her eyes. Her
pale skin was, if possible, even more sallow than normal. There was such a look
of weariness in her eyes. Nightmares had often kept me up, but I could tell something
worse plagued Wendy’s dreams, something that even now affected how she acted,
what she did. I gave her a hard stare.
Wendy
doesn’t
really
want me dead, does she? I
trusted her with my life in
the insane asylum
.
Can I trust her now
?

Of course I could. She was as much a
victim in this whole situation as I was. I decided to let her in on what Sonja told
me earlier—what plagued my dream. “Sonja told me… She told me Gage found a
spell to transfer Luke to another body.” Even as I spoke the words out loud, my
fingers trembled against the glass I held.

To my mild astonishment, Wendy didn’t
look surprised by what I said. I waited for her to say
something,
but she just watched me in silence.

After a few heavy moments, I couldn’t
take the quiet any longer. “Gage—he’s doing the ritual tomorrow night.”

“During the witching hour,” Wendy said.
It wasn’t a question—it was a statement.

A thought unexpectedly struck my mind. “Wendy,
when you’re around Gage, can you read his thoughts?”

She looked down at the floor. “Sometimes,
but not always. Often there’s only—not words, but—” She looked up
at me and shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t explain it.”

A shiver of premonition ran through me.
“I’m worried about Dean.”

“You think Gage might hurt him.” She was
reading my thoughts.

I nodded. “Gage made what he thinks
pretty clear. Dean is useless to him.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “But…Dean
has
power
. When he
’s hit
with magic, the thing he turns into…” Her words faded away.

My mind went back to the night we
watched Dean turn into a monster. He’d killed Andrew and attacked Wendy, and
they’d both been innocent. I wanted to believe he wouldn’t have hurt me—that
somewhere inside him he’d realized who I was and stopped the attack—but I
couldn’t be sure. Maybe the magic had worn off; maybe the berserker power was short
lived. The only one who seemed to know anything about it was Mildred. Even Gage
was asking Mildred’s advice about it.

There
must be a way that Dean’s power can help us escape
.
If I’m alone again with
Mildred,
I’ll ask her what she knows
. I
still didn’t trust her, but she owed me any info she had that might be useful
to get all of us out of this mess. A smile spread across my face as I imagined
Dean in full berserker mode, going after Gage.

“Gage isn’t scared of anything,” Wendy
said.

My eyes met hers as I swirled the water
around in my glass. “Everyone is scared of something.”

She smiled grimly. “Not Gage.” There
was
a tinge
of anger in her eyes.

Not for the first time, I wished Wendy
and I weren’t alone. If Luke
were
with
me,
I wouldn’t feel panic each time I watched
Wendy try to control herself. Now that Gage realized my magic wasn’t strong
enough to hurt him, would I be able to convince him to let
Luke
and me be together?

I thought of my meeting with Sonja. Was
it possible Gage could
really
pull it
off? Could he successfully perform a transitioning spell and guarantee Luke
could be with me all the time? But there was a more important question—why
would he do it?

“Gage
wants you by his side…”
The memory of Sonja’s words whispered
across my brain. What if it were true? What would Gage do once Luke was in
a body
of his own? Gage knew the feelings I had
for
Luke,
had relied
on them
to make me do what he wanted. Why would
he even consider transferring Luke to another body? Maybe because he wanted
Luke to join his ranks, and the only way Luke would be useful to Gage is if he
was in a magically capable body.

Gage made it clear many times that he
surrounded himself with people he could use, and Luke in his current state was
of no use to Gage. Inside another fully initiated death dealer body, Luke would
have his full power. But once Luke was free, would Gage consider him a threat? Luke
was a powerful death dealer. How powerful was Gage? I needed to find out more
about Gage and the magic he was
capable of
.

I asked a question that had been lurking
in the back of my mind. “Is Gage…human?”

“Gage is human,” Wendy answered. “But
he wants to be like one of
them
.”

“Like the demons?” I felt my blood turn
cold.

The violent emotion I’d seen before left
Wendy’s face and her eyes filled with panic. She retreated backward until her back
was against the wall. “He wants to fill his soul with darkness. He wants to
kill off any humanity still inside him.”

What was worse? A man killing someone
because he was insane? Or a sane man killing so he could try and become like
the demons he worshipped? But then again, Gage wasn’t playing with a full deck.
I’d seen the mad glitter in his eyes when he talked of letting loose a zombie
army in the middle of Times Square.

Wendy slid down the wall until she was
sitting on the floor. “He hopes to gain strength and magic from the demons when
they come.”

When they come.
She said it with
such certainty, as if she believed without a doubt it was going
to happen
.

“I told you, I won’t do it,” I
whispered, my grasp tightening around the lukewarm glass.

She watched me for a long in silence
before she finally said, “You may not have a choice.”

She was wrong. Letting Macaven’s demon
loose had been an accident. Now that I knew what Gage wanted
from me,
I would refuse.

Even
if he says he’ll kill Dean? Threatens to banish Luke?
A
nasty voice echoed the words Wendy had thrown at me earlier.
If Gage threatens to kill the ones I care
about, will I
really
be able to refuse
him?

I looked down at Wendy. “I don’t have
the type of power to do it even if I wanted to.”

She gave me a small smile. “You know
that’s not true.”

“My power has limits.” I moved my right
shoulder and flinched when the pain hit. I was still sore despite Ian’s help.

Wendy watched me. “Your power has
limits with the living. But not the dead.”

“Yeah, I can do things to the dead, but—”

She cut me off. “
That’s
what Gage is
interested in
.
What you can do to the dead.”

“Like raise him a dark army,” I spat
out.

“No—like releasing the legion
from the gates of hell,” she whispered.

I slammed the glass in my hand down onto
the counter, shattering it. I looked down, numbly observing as blood flowed
from my palm. I stood in stunned silence and watched it drip onto the floor.

A few moments later Wendy was by my
side. She handed me a towel, and I wrapped
it
around my hand. “Thanks.”

“You have
power
over otherworldly things,” she said quietly. “You’re
dangerous, Colina.”

Am
I? Or was Sonja
right,
and I’m just a
foolish girl who got lucky and survived
?

“What do you think Gage will do to
Dean?” I asked, gingerly tightening the towel around my palm.

“I don’t know, but we have to warn him.
He needs to know Gage might be gunning for him.”

“And even if he knows, will that help?”
I wondered. My voice shook as I asked the question. The image of Dean laying on
the floor, lifeless, flashed before my eyes. I felt my heart stop for a moment.
It wasn’t real. It was only a nightmare.

“Maybe Dean can escape. He could get
away before the ceremony.” She looked at me and gave me a sly smile. “But if he
does, you won’t get your heart’s desire—Dean will take Luke with him.”

It was as if she’d pulled the thought
from my head.
Am I willing to sacrifice
Dean so I can get Luke back?
“I have to tell Dean. I have to warn him.”

“He can’t make it past the hellhounds
by himself. And even if he could, he won’t leave you behind.”

She’s
right. Dean won’t leave without me.
Dean had never hidden
that he had feelings for me, and even though I had made it clear I was with
Luke, Dean had not given up on his quest to win me over. There was no way he
would abandoned me when I was in danger.