Revenant

by Catrina Burgess

  Luke moved closer. I could feel the heat of his body only inches from mine. “I tried to stop it. Gage imprisoned Mildred. We were supposed to meet before the whole thing started and when she didn’t show, I got suspicious that something was wrong. I found her down in the cells. She was being guarded by some of his men.”

  “You had to fight them?”

  He looked down at his hands again. “I had to kill them.” I could see a flicker of yellow and orange as hellfire slid across his skin.

  Luke had never wanted to use his magic to harm, but now he had killed men trying to get to me. Trying to protect me. I wanted to reach out and comfort him, but I was still conflicted. I still saw Caleb’s face when I looked at him.

  He had tried to get to me—and if he had gotten there in time, the ceremony wouldn’t have taken place. And I would not be married to Gage. But I was. The thought made me physically ill.

  I was desperate to change the subject, but thankfully didn’t have to come up with something to say—people were moving around. We’ll be heading out soon. “You really want to do this? We don’t have to. I know Darla thinks this is the only way, but there have to be people out there willing to help us go after Gage and the demon.”

  He looked at me for a long moment before he said, “We know where they are. We need to strike while we can.”

  “It’s too risky,” I whispered.

  “We have to do it,” he answered. His dark eyes blazed with so much anger and hatred. “I don’t just want to go after Gage for holding us hostage, for creating a zombie army, for being in league with the demon. I want to make Gage pay for what he’s done to you, Colina.”

  He wanted to get revenge for me? That was something the Luke I loved would say. I felt my heart give a tug. But then panic filled me. How could I convince him not to go through with it? I’d rushed in once before to kill a madman. I had not waited for help and I hadn’t cared what happened to me. Because of that, a lot of people died. Luke died. I’d promised myself I would never do something so rash again.

  But Luke’s expression was resolved.

  I was not going to change his mind. Gage had hurt me, and Luke was going to make him pay.

  If he was going after Gage, I was going with him.

  Chapter 18

  Luke, Darla, the death dealers, and I stood on the edge of the devastated town. What time and neglect had started, fire and violence had finished. The sun was up just past the horizon. I could see the flames and dark smoke rising in columns from the still-burning buildings. Some structures were standing—others lay in smoldering ash.

  My eyes swung to the middle of town, where bodies covered the ground. Were my friends out there amongst the dead? Had Dean, Wendy, and Mildred somehow survived? I prayed to the Goddess they had.

  We carefully began weaving our way through the carnage. It was impossible to distinguish between the human remains and the dead zombies. Everywhere I looked, bodies lay sprawled, limbs twisted in unnatural directions, blood, bone, and guts laying in piles. Those who died had done so painfully. Some were burned—others had been torn apart.

  The smell of death was overpowering. It filled my nostrils and my mouth. The copper and iron smell of blood mixed with the contents of voided bowels, smoke, ash, and the smell of the burned and still-burning dead. It settled on me like a cloud and clung to my clothes and hair. I felt bile rise in my throat, but choked it back. As bad as it smelled now, just a few short hours after the battle, tomorrow would be worse. I knew from experience that the flesh would begin rotting in the hot sun.

  Luke turned and addressed the line of people following behind us. “There are tunnels below the town.”

  Darla stepped forward, a look of annoyance clearly on her face. “They listen to my commands. I’m in charge here.” Before Luke could say anything, she turned and said to the crowd, “We need to spread out and search. They might still—”

  Luke interrupted her. “We need to stay together. Who knows if Gage and the demon are here, hiding, waiting to catch us by surprise? And if they’re gone, who knows what traps he might have left for us?”

  “You’re being paranoid,” she said, her voice getting louder as she became more annoyed.

  “I’m being practical,” Luke countered. “Darla, think. We are stronger as a group.”

  She looked out to the carnage before us. “But we’re slower as a group. Speed is of the essence. If they are still here, we need to find them before they flee.”

  “You’re making a mistake.”

  “It’s not your place to say.” She turned her back on her brother and said in a very authoritative voice, “Small groups. Don’t let your guard down. You all have a clear idea what Gage looks like—white streak through his hair—and the demon looks like a little girl. If you spot them, don’t engage. Come back and report to me.” The group split into smaller groups and began to spread out.

  Apparently we were going to do it Darla’s way whether Luke was happy with it or not.

  The center of town was a broken and twisted ruin—it was difficult to get enough of a bearing to begin a search for survivors. The courthouse still burned freely, only recognizable by the partially standing columns at the top of the stairs. Oddly colored flames rose from its center. The smoke it produced hung low; even though it was morning, the town remained oppressively dark.

  I looked at the charred remains of the huge thorn bush that had once dominated the town square. Most of it was burned away to ash, leaving only the largest of the vines in charred piles on the ground. A mangled corpse could be seen here and there among the blackened, thorny limbs. Some looked as if they’d been used as pincushions—hundreds of puncture wounds across their bodies leaked blood. A few bodies had thick thorn vines entering and exiting in disturbing locations.

  I shivered in disgust. Did anyone survive?

  Luke came up to me and covered my hands with his. He gave them a squeeze. “I need you to stay here while I go investigate the tunnels.”

  It still felt absurdly odd to have Caleb’s rough hands wrapped around my own, but this time I forced myself not to flinch away from his touch. “I want to go with you.”

  He gave me a firm look and said, “You’re our big gun. We need you to stay back and help protect the younger ones.” He looked over at his sister pointedly.

  I nodded before scanning the sea of bodies. “You think…” I started to say Dean’s name first, but I caught myself—I didn’t want to spark Luke’s jealousy and anger. “Do you think Wendy, Mildred, and Dean are out there amongst the dead?”

  “Mildred is powerful and Dean is hard to kill.” He gave my hand another squeeze.

  Maybe Dean and Mildred survived. But Wendy… She’s helpless. The possession rituals ravaged her mind.

  As if reading my thoughts, Luke said, “Gage needs Wendy to commune with the legion. He won’t harm her. It’s in his best interest that she stays alive.” He turned away from me, still grasping one of my hands, and said over his shoulder, “I’m going to go into the tunnels now.”

  “Be careful,” I whispered.

  Looking back at the following death dealers, he said, “Keep them safe.” He let go of my hand and walked away.

  I watched him go and then forced myself to move. I had to search among the bodies to see if I could find my friends. If there was a possibility that they were still alive in all of this carnage, we needed to find them and help them.

  And if they were dead, I needed to know.

  I walked over to the closest body. Careful not to touch it, I bent down and looked closely at the remains. Not one of my friends. I moved from body to body, mentally wincing as I looked at each face. Will I stare into lifeless eyes of a friend this time? I asked myself over and over again. Some of the bodies were ripped to shreds, while others still smoldered.

  Oddly, a few looked dried and shrunken, as though all the moisture had been sucked out of them. I’d seen Gage suck the power from another mage by drawing out his blood and using it to heal h
imself. Did this mean that Gage was still alive? Joy and fear tumbled together in a confused bubble in my mind. I hated that the spell still had power over me, making me care that the monster was still alive.

  One body after another… I lost count of how many I searched through. I combed through until I couldn’t take it anymore. My hands trembled and I fought not to be sick. I was physically exhausted and emotionally drained, and this fight was not over yet.

  Darla and some of her people were looking for survivors. So far, there were none. At least not here.

  I held back a sigh of despair. Where are Mildred, Dean, and Wendy? If they weren’t here, maybe they were still alive. Maybe others were, too. Maybe the death toll wasn’t as high as it seemed. A good number of these victims were probably zombies—old casualties of Gage’s insane plot. Survivors could be hiding in the tunnels or woods. They could have left. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. This had been a gathering of evil people, killed by the products of their own plans. And my friends and I had been caught up in all of it. Dean, Wendy, and Mildred might still be alive. I prayed with all my heart that it was true.

  An excited, angry yipping echoing from the edge of the square caught my attention, and I looked up to see a pack of coyotes fighting over the dead. My stomach turned and I forced myself to look away. But where could I look? I was walking in a living nightmare.

  I knew this is what Gage wanted—death, destruction, chaos. If he had his way, he would release a legion of demons into our world. This scene would be repeated all over the world, chaos and violence, again and again in ever-increasing scale. Whole towns—cities—would be destroyed, thousands of people would die, all to feed Gage’s hunger for chaos.

  * * *

  I was slumped against one of the few buildings still standing when Luke approached me.

  “Did you find anyone?” I asked without hope. I’d seen enough of the devastation myself to know there was little chance of finding anyone alive.

  His face was dirty and drawn, showing the same strain I felt. “No. We’ve searched the tunnels and all the underground quarters. If anyone is still alive, they hightailed it out of here a while ago. We haven’t found Wendy, Dean, or Mildred among the bodies. We haven’t found Gage. He must have made it through the battle.” He paused, looking at me to gauge my reaction before he continued. “The demon isn’t here, either.”

  Despite my fear of the demon, my heart sank. I wanted so desperately to try and destroy the creature. It was my fault it was loose on the world. If only I could right the terrible wrongs I’d committed. If I’d faced the demon during the battle, would I have been killed? Did Mildred save my life by stopping me? Had she been able to get away?

  And what about Wendy? Last time I’d seen her, she’d been knocked back by Mildred’s lightning attack and lay unconscious on the floor, surrounded by debris. I’d tried to search the building, but it was a collapsed ruin, a broken pile of wood and stone that stood higher than I was tall. There was no way to search it without serious manpower and equipment. I’d called out, hoping I would hear her cries for help if she were trapped inside the wreckage, but I was met with nothing but silence. As far as I knew, Jacob and Wendy’s bodies still lay under that pile of debris.

  Wendy’s words suddenly came back to me: You will escape. I’ve seen it. But not me.

  She knew that I would escape and she wouldn’t, I realized. Both guilt and sadness filled me at the thought.

  And Dean—he’d turned into a berserker. I knew his powers only lasted a short time, and as soon as he lost those powers he would’ve been defenseless.

  Where were my friends?

  Wait.

  Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? There was one place I hadn’t checked. Had anyone else? I pushed myself off the wall and started forward, picking up speed until I was running.

  Luke followed close behind me. “Where are you going?”

  I called over my shoulder. “Everyone was focused on checking the tunnels and the big buildings. What about the smaller residences?”

  I stopped in front of the house we’d all stayed in for the past few weeks and tried the door. Shrugging, Luke moved past me and yanked on the handle, then kicked open the door. I rushed into the house and looked frantically around the main room.

  “Wendy? Dean?” I called down the hall. “Are you here? Hello? Mildred?”

  All hope began to fade. The place was empty. My friends were really gone. They were either laying dead somewhere undiscovered, or Gage had taken them.

  It was then I noticed a drop of red on the living room’s plush carpet. A trail of small red dots led from the main room into the hallway. Sheer panic flooded through me. That’s blood.

  My heart pounded as I followed the trail. The drops of blood veered off into one of the bedrooms. I pushed open the door and my eyes settled on a piece of broken glass just beyond the doorway, laying in a pool of blood.

  Next to the blood was a body.

  A girl with long dark hair lay facedown, motionless.

  My heart stopped for a moment and my mind went blank. “Wendy?” I sank to my knees, my voice shaking. I knew I couldn’t touch her—she would reanimate as a zombie. “Wendy.” I sat there on the floor, frozen, unable to move as tears slid down my face.

  Luke, who’d followed me into the room, reached down and gently turned the body over.

  I gasped in relief as I stared into a face that wasn’t Wendy’s. It was a girl I’d seen at the rituals. Someone who I had occasionally passed in the tunnels. One of Gage’s nameless followers.

  Deep, uneven slashes decorated her wrists. It was painstakingly obvious that someone had sawed through her skin with the piece of broken glass.

  I wiped away my tears and looked up at Luke. He was looking off to the right, his expression pale. I followed his gaze, and that’s when I saw the words. Big, loopy handwriting was scrawled on the wall.

  FIND ME. SAVE ME.

  WE

  The red words bled down the wallpaper. My mind flashed back to an eerily similar scene—the asylum and the ritual room where Weatherton had written his spells on the wall in blood.

  I forced myself to my feet and walked closer.

  Directly below the words save me were the letters W and E. But the E wasn’t quite finished—the writing trailed off. It was Wendy. She’d written the message but wasn’t able to finish it. Someone—or something—stopped her.

  Relief washed through me. Wendy’s still alive pounded through my brain.

  Which meant maybe Dean was, too.

  Wendy’s s alive, but where is she? If Gage took her—took them all—where would he go?

  I raised a trembling hand to my temples. Another darker, more worrisome thought floated through my head. I knew at my very core that Wendy killed the girl laying on the floor. She’d used her blood to write on the wall. I’d watched her slowly become something primitive, something full of anger and evil. The demon’s dark tentacles were reaching into Wendy’s mind—into her soul.

  She was morphing into…I didn’t know what. How long before the transformation was complete? How long before my sweet, shy friend was lost forever? Would I be able to find her in time? Would the death dealers even let me try?

  Gage was still out there, and he wouldn’t stop until the demon horde was freed. I knew that other plans were in motion, and that soon Fintan or another one of Gage’s twisted cabal would figure out how to make it happen.

  Darla was intent on taking me back to the Phoenix Guild to face trial. While Gage raised the legion, I would be fighting for my freedom, maybe even my life, with people who should have been my strongest allies. The death dealers were unlikely to let me out of their hands now that they had me. I needed them to help stop Gage, kill the demon, and save my friends, but they weren’t in a mood to cooperate, or even listen to me.

  Unless I could convince Luke to run, I would be forced to stay and face the consequences.

  While I stood trial for my sins, my friends would be fighti
ng for their lives…and for their souls. Would I be able to save any of them?

  It’s time for Colina to face her demons—once and for all.

  Preorder the epic conclusion now:

  Legion

  Dark Rituals

  Book #3

  Coming February 2016!

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks, Full Fathom Five Digital staff for working so hard behind the scenes and for caring about my books as much as I do. Thanks to my editors, Kayla and Samantha. Both are incredibly talented and professional, but the best part? They have a sense of humor.

  Hugs and kisses to my writing/critique buddies: author Anara Bella, author Vanessa Jaye, and author Paige Holliman, and to my beta reader, Carol Huffman.

  Thanks to my best friends, Teri Chapman and author Marie Harte. They are always there to encourage me and listen to me rant, which you wouldn’t think is a big part of the writing process, but it really is. I love you guys!

  About the Author

  Catrina Burgess writes because it helps keep the darkness away and reminds her that there is magic in the world. She lives with one husband, two dogs, and a cat named Shitty Kitty in a small mining town in Arizona. At night the place is definitely spooky. She swears that she often hears the wind giggle and sometimes feels a very odd breeze. Luckily, Cat loves all things that go bump in the night.

  What’s Cat doing when she’s not writing? She turns into her alter ego, Chaoscat, the owner and operator of RomanceJunkies.com—a romance review site that’s been around since 2002.

  Other than that, Cat adores old movies, is a huge Joss Whedon fan, and has been known to eat pizza and Cold Chinese food for breakfast. She is the queen of the board game Stratego and has never been beaten. Never!

  Connect with Cat online at: