Salem's Revenge Complete Boxed Set (92 page)

I’m flabbergasted. “But they all rose,” I say, referring to the group of Reanimates I’d just witnessed.

“Yes,” he says, releasing my hand. “They all said yes, as they usually do.” He pulls away, striding after his Reanimates, raising a curved silver dagger.

That’s when I realize how wrongly I’ve judged the Necros. How wrongly I’ve judged Xave, the one person who I should have been open minded about. Feeling a fresh burst of energy, I lose sight of him as we dive back into the fray, stepping over bodies and cutting down our foes.

And yet, despite the unbelievable control I suddenly feel over the situation, we’re slowly being overpowered, the bodies of Necros and Claires piling up amongst re-dead Reanimates. I spot the Reaper amongst a pitifully small group of Necros and Reanimates. His sword is blazing, even as I see his lips uttering spells to control his undead warriors. Behind him, Xave is bent over a corpse, smearing black paste on its eyes, preparing it for reanimation. An elephant, its skin pocked with bullet holes and stuck with blades, blasts through the group, trampling them like crap under its enormous hooves.

Mr. Jackson narrowly escapes being crushed, grabbing Xave by the collar of his cloak and diving to one side. When Mr. Jackson looks up, his eyes find mine and he waves me into retreat. I shake my head no, and turn away. They can run—in fact, they
should
run—but I cannot.

Flora’s fanged grin meets me when I turn. “Going somewhere?” she says, waving the few magic-born away when they stop to watch. They scurry off, following the battle, which is moving away as the humans, Necros, and Claires flee toward the other side of the field, in full retreat now. Our only chance is to kill their leader and stop this insanity.

“No,” I say. “Never again.”

A bright form streaks from the side, pushing me behind her. Tara blocks my path to the panther. And she screams.

I feel a moment of pure exhilaration, where I know our enemy’s leader is dead-freaking-meat, but it passes when I hear the panther’s haunting laugh. Tara turns to me, her eyes wide, crystal blue springs on a summer day, her cherry red lips parting as she says, “I’m sorry I failed you.” A trickle of blood drips from her mouth and she falls, disappearing in a cylinder of blinding white light.

Blinking away the spots dancing across my vision, I’m stunned, motionless, trying to figure out what the hell could’ve possibly happened, who could’ve stopped the Claire’s scream from reaching its target.

My vision clears and I see her, strong and fierce and determined.

Rain Carter.

My sister.

Laney

W
e push through the thick tufts of brittle grass just in time to see Rain Carter step forward, face to face with Rhett. And Rhett can’t possibly know she’s his sister, that she’s more than just the third Resistor working with his enemy.

I have to tell him before he does something he’ll regret later. I start to move forward, but Hex paws at my leg, stopping me. “What is it, boy?” I ask.

Bil Nez says, “I think he wants you to follow him.”

I shake my head. Although I trust Hex with my life, there’s no time for this. Someone has to warn Rhett. “I’ll go to Rhett,” Bil says quickly. “It’s my responsibility.”

Bil’s willing to throw himself into the heart of danger? I force the shock off my face. In the short time I’ve known him, Bil’s changed for the better. “Be safe,” I say, squeezing his shoulder. “Hex and I will come when we can.”

Without another word, Bil strides from hiding, raising his voice. “Hey, buddy! You miss me?”

Hex doesn’t waste another moment, plowing through the undergrowth, wending a path that somehow keeps us away from danger, but close enough that I can hear everything that’s said.

Flora’s screeching voice says, “Bil Nez, how nice of you to join us. Have you come to your senses?”

“Bil? Thank God,” Rhett says, and I feel a swell in my chest. “Where’s Laney?”

Here!
I want to scream, but I remain silent.

“Safe,” Bil says. I can’t help peeking through the grass again, although Hex paws urgently at my leg once more. Bil turns to Flora, who’s prowling back and forth, her tail flicking around Rain’s stone-cold face. “And yes, I’ve come to my senses. I’m going to help Rhett kill you.”

I linger for one moment longer, just enough time to take in Rhett’s face, which is strong and defiant—the face of a hero. A hero who’s most likely about to try to kill his own sister.
C’mon, Bil
, I think.
Let the cat out of the bag before it rips it to shreds!

Flora laughs, and it sounds like she’s genuinely amused. I pull myself away from the scene to follow Hex, who’s found a clear path that circles around to the opposing corner of the main battleground.

The world seems to open up as the tall grass disappears. I shrink back, trying to hide from the enormous wizard we saw earlier, who is standing as still as if he’s been petrified by one of the Destroyers, his arms over his head. But no, he can’t see us, his eyes rolled back in his head, only the whites showing, like twin cue balls on a pool table.

Is this our mission?
I wonder. To kill the dark wizard? Why us? Why him? My eyes search Hex’s, and he motions with his head, not to the wizard, but past, beyond, to where Rhett and Bil stand across from Flora and Rain.

Rhett says, “I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” his words clearly directed at Rain.

“The world must be reborn,” Rain says, her voice distant, like the echo of a thunderstorm.

Rhett points his sword at her. “I’ll kill you if I have to,” he says. His wording is strange, as if he doesn’t really want to do it. But why? Because she’s human? I don’t know why it would matter to him if she’s helping Flora. Unless…

“Rhett,” Bil says, “there’s something you need to know about her.”

…he already knows.

“She’s my sister,” Rhett says, confirming my guess. Bil fires a surprised look his way, but Rhett’s concentration is completely on the girl he somehow knows to be his sister.
Mr. Jackson
, I realize. He must’ve told him. It’s the only way he could know. Would he really kill her? Even if it helps us win this battle, this war, will he be the same afterwards? Will he be able to live with himself? All of these questions rush through my mind in a shattered instant, sparkling like shards of glass under direct sunlight in my mind’s eye.

The questions are obliterated when Hex barks, pulling my attention back to the wizard.

The truth hits me like a slap in the face. Why the wizard is always hovering nearby Rain Carter. Why her voice sounds so robotic and distant. Why Rain is doing what she’s doing. It seems impossible because she’s a Resistor, but being a Resistor doesn’t mean you’re invincible to magic. Bil Nez taught me that, when he told us his story of how he was nearly enslaved by a Siren.

The wizard, finally sensing our presence, turns, his emerald green eyes sparking as they seem to cut me to the core.
Human filth! Betrayer! You disgust me! You are the vomit that spews from the mouths of the guilty!

Although I’m dimly aware that his sharp rebukes are in my head and are meant as some kind of an attack, sending daggers through my skull, I can’t move. I’m frozen, powerless against his dark magic. I try to move my lips, to shout a warning to Rhett, but they’re frozen, too. I can move my eyes, but only barely, twitching them to the side to watch Rhett take a step forward, his sword glittering menacingly in the moonlight.

“Yow’d kill yowr own sister?” Flora asks. “And you call me the sick one.”

Rhett’s teeth are grinding, and I’ve seen that look of determination before. It’s the one where he can’t be denied, where he’ll do whatever he has to do. He’s going to kill his sister, not knowing that the dark wizard is controlling her.

Remembering one time when Rhett described how he’s able to Resist magic, I strain against the wizard’s spell with my mind, with my soul, with every muscle and bone and blood cell in my body. My body feels as if it’s breaking in two, snapping like a twig—I’m no Resistor. I’m just a weaponless, pathetically weak human. An ant to be stepped on. A fly to be swatted.

My lips quiver and then move. My tongue rolls from side to side. And then I scream.

“Rhettttttt!” And again, even louder. “Rhetttt Carterrrrr!”

The wizard’s eyes widen with surprise at the same instant that Rhett’s head snaps around, finding me. I fall to my knees, no longer frozen but exhausted, my arms and legs like rubber. “Laney?” Rhett says, and I manage to blurt out, “The wizard is controlling your sister.”

“What? No?” Flora says, but it’s already too late to deny it.

Rhett drags his gaze from me to his sister. “You can fight it,” he says to her. “You are strong.”

Flora bounds forward, claws flashing, but Rhett swipes his sword and she’s forced to dance just out of reach, snarling.

“The humans must die,” Rain says, her voice like ice. Rhett’s efforts are futile—the wizard’s grasp on her like an iron fist compared to the mere pinch he used to control me for a moment.

“Rain, please,” Rhett says, continuing to hold Flora off with his blade. “Look at me.” The concentration on his face is so complete it’s like a mask, as if he’s sending her his own strength, his own Resistance. Slowly, her eyes seem to zone in on his, and her face twitches slightly.

“I—I—” she stutters, her voice sounding confused. Confused but normal. Like a teenage girl and not a brainwashed psychopath.

“You are strong,” Rhett repeats.

The brief flash of light in her eyes dissolves and she says, “The Master is the only strong one.”

Flora howls with laughter and victory, but then suddenly stops, her mouth contorting in surprise. “Yow!” she says. “Yow should be dead!”

I drag my tired eyes in the direction of her gaze.
No
, I think.
Please, no.

Martin Carter limps toward us, using a gnarled branch as a cane, leaning heavily on it. His appearance is even worse than when I left him sleeping, like he’s a hundred years old, his skin sagging from his face, which is covered with dark, tired bruises. His hair is completely gone. He looks half-starved, his once strong arms and legs as thin as the knobby stick that’s supporting his weight.

“Dad?” Rhett says, his face filled with horror. “You’re—you’re—”

Martin Carter tries to croak out a word, a contorted whisper from the back of his throat, but it’s indistinguishable. He coughs, a hacking sound that feels as if it could bring up a lung.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Rhett says, his voice rising. “Get away! You have to get away NOW!”

Rhett’s father shakes his head, as if resigned to whatever fate he has planned for himself.

He stands next to his son and it looks as if Rhett wants to hug him, but then stops himself, as if worried his father might crumble under his touch. The pain on the old man’s face is evident, tears leaking from his eyes, his mouth knotted in a perpetual grimace. Under the power of his curse he won’t last long in the presence of both his children.

He extends a hand to his daughter, as if beckoning her to him.

Flora laughs again when Rain sneers at him. “How touching,” the panther says. “Can’t say the same about yow. But she’s not yowr daughter anymore—she’s mine. Isn’t that right, Rain?”

“Yes,” Rain drones.

Martin Carter shakes his head firmly, clutching Rhett’s hand, wincing from the unbearable pain he must feel upon touching the very object of his curse.

Rhett seems shocked by his father’s grip, but he obeys, following Martin’s lead as they focus on Rain.

“What are yow doing?” Flora screeches. “Leave us. LEAVE US!”

She rears back on her haunches, preparing to leap, but then stops when Rain says, “My father…” Her voice sounds thin and confused, but seemingly aware of her surroundings. “Where am I?” she says. “What am I?”

The wizard cries out, “I’m losing her!”

Near me, Hex bursts from thin air, having apparently disappeared into his Here-but-not-Here, clamping his teeth, which are glowing a bright, searing red color, around the wizard’s neck.

I try to push to my feet, fighting the swirling urge to throw up. I get to one foot, but I’m too tired to manage the rest of the way up, my head spinning and sleep beckoning like an old friend. I start to slip away…

My head jerks around when a hand clutches my arm, roughly hauling me to my feet. His hair sticks in a million directions. His glasses are cracked and slightly misty, like he’s been breathing on them. Tillman Huckle holds me steady as I sway like a toddler learning how to keep its balance.

When I say, “I’m okay,” he hands me a purple Glock. Then he slaps me across the face, which stuns me out of my stupor, the fuzz seeming to retreat from my brain like a fungus under the spray of harsh chemicals.

“Thanks,” I say, and he says, “Go get ’em.”

I turn toward Rhett and Bil, who are closing in on Flora, who’s spitting and hissing at them. Rhett takes a swipe with his sword, but Flora’s too quick, leaping high above him, raking at his face with her claws. She lands softly and he clutches the bloody lines on his face, turning to face her once more.

I stride toward her, my Glock extended, trying to keep my hand steady even though it wants nothing more than to drop to my side, my muscles trembling. “Die, witch,” I say, pulling the trigger.

There’s a burst of purple flame a moment after the streak of black. The magical bullets send up a purple mist as they thud harmlessly into the ground. The panther growls as she bounds away, in the direction of the sounds of the battle still raging somewhere across the field.

We’re not done yet.

~~~

Rhett

My first instinct is to go after Flora, but then my dad collapses to his knees, the last of his energy expended, his body rebelling against him.

I cradle his head in my hands, but he shrinks away, groaning in agony. I’m killing him with my touch; I have to get away, Rain too. Frantic, I lay him gently to the ground and release him, sprinting away, dragging Rain, who seems confused, after me. Although she still looks stunned, dazed and confused, she follows me, her strides long and powerful. We stop a hundred feet away and turn back.

Hex, standing over my fallen father, barks. Tillman joins him. “We’ll watch over him,” he says, stroking my dog’s back.

“Thank you,” I say, waiting briefly for Laney and Bil to catch up with us, before racing through the field, which is burnt to a crisp and littered with the dead, both human and magic-born from both sides. It’s not so much my urgency to return to the battle, but my desire to get Rain and I as far away from my father as possible, thus lessening the destruction the curse will wreak on his weakening body. All I want to do is hug Laney, to fold her body against mine, but this is not a world where I can do that—might never be again.

But she does grab my hand just before we reach the edge of the fight. “Don’t die,” she says, and I say, “You, too,” which is pretty much the best we can do in terms of encouragement at this point.

“What the hell is going on?” Rain asks from beside me. “I don’t know how I got here. I don’t remember anything after…” Her words trail away.

Turning to my sister, I say, “Flora’s wizard was controlling you. You weren’t being yourself.”

“You don’t know me,” she says, and I’m surprised at the bitterness in her tone. “You don’t know what I’ve done.” A fog seems to be slowly lifting from her eyes, and she doesn’t like what she sees.

“That doesn’t matter now,” I say. “We can talk later. Rain, you don’t have to fight. Find somewhere safe to hid—”

“That’s not me,” she says, cutting me off. “I’m not a hider—never was. Flora has to pay for what she did to me. Point me toward her friends and I’ll do what I can.”