MigTol: LOLH
Prophetess: ROTFLUTS
Prophetess: So what’s the bad news?
MigTol: R u psychic? Yeah ur right. Not xctly bad but complicated. He offered me a job
Prophetess:...wut?
MigTol: ikr?
Prophetess: Colonel Herrod offered u a job? He knows ur just 16 right?
MigTol: Almost 17 Don’t think he cares FWIW he can probably pull strings
Prophetess: I can just c u in the Special Forces...
MigTol: Independent consultant.
MigTol: I told him G wouldn’t go for it
MigTol: I don’t think he’s the type to give up easy tho. He’s sending us an...independent consultant. SF lieutenant. A nephew of Senator Santibanez.
Prophetess: Srsly? Sending this guy to us here? In Vermont? The main house? G ok w this? Wait I take that back. G cannot b ok with this. Not possible. DNC.
Prophetess: I mean YGTBKM. A spy? Y/N?
MigTol: N. A “liaison.” Y of course totally a spy. N zapped his tracker we’re pretty sure. Not the removable kind but now he’s got this rad brand over the place. N made a look-away marana out of nylon & E set it on fire
Prophetess: Poor dude must have been totes thrilled about that
MigTol: Yeah well he volunteered Or Colonel H volunteered him Not totally sure
Prophetess: Wait wait wait where exactly is this brand? ???
MigTol: … thigh
Prophetess: Thigh, riiiiight. Your little sister branded a hot ripped dude on the butt. ROTFL
MigTol: E was right there
Prophetess: Flexing his abs every second I bet. ROTFLMAO
Prophetess: This dude know he just stomped all over E’s toes?
MigTol: Not like he could have missed it
MigTol: There r Reasons he agreed. Reasons all the way around, for G too. He kinda had to agree. He was one up over H but then G killed this SF dude
Prophetess: Totally shocked. This is my shocked face.
MigTol: Don’t joke, it was not ok. Tell u l8r.
Prophetess: Sorry
MigTol: Yeah nvrmd
MigTol: FWIW Santibanez is a good guy. In for some culture shock tho.
MigTol: U can help me show him around
Prophetess: “Show him around?” Yeah right. U got a *plan*
MigTol: I always got a plan. U can prob guess the broad idea.
Prophetess: Maaayyybe I mgt have a guess.
MigTol: I gotta talk it over w u when I get back
MigTol: U can punch holes in it all until it’s solid
Prophetess: Lookin forward to hearing all abt ur plan. B glad 2 help hole punch.
Prophetess: Hey r u in the air? Tell G do not pass Go do not collect $200 just get your butts in the air.
MigTol: Not yet but soon
Prophetess: Well then c u when you get here What’s your ETA? ???
Prophetess: I gotta tell evbdy & dance a happy dance & bake a cake
MigTol: Tomorrow morning VDE. Cake for breakfast works for me. BG2CU
Prophetess: Back atcha I’ll be waiting. U had a rough time. But it’s done now.
MigTol: The demon’s still out there. It’s still out there and we don’t know any damn thing about it or how to deal with it
Prophetess: Shh. We’ll figure it out.
Prophetess: Transit umbra, lux permanet
MigTol: Yeah …
MigTol: Ur right
MigTol: How do u always know what to say? <3 Can’t wait to get home
Prophetess: Of course cause home is where I am
MigTol: That too
MigTol: Cor domi iacet.
-23-
Natividad couldn’t really believe it was over until the plane taxied down the runway, slowly gathered speed, and lifted at last into the darkness. As the plane climbed, everything that had happened seemed to fade into...not a dream, not even a nightmare, but a peculiarly jumbled haze of memory that seemed almost less real than either. Monsters and demons and witches and crazy senators...how impossible for any of that to have happened, to be real.
The lights of the city spread out below them as the plane banked and turned east. Denver looked so pretty and peaceful from above, surrounded everywhere by darkness. Like no one down there, dwelling among those lights, could ever have been touched by anything demonic.
Another time maybe she would have liked to see the lights fall away below them into the endless night, maybe she would have liked to look up and search for stars. Tonight...no. She slid the little panel down over the window, closing out the dark. Then she turned back toward the warmth and light inside the plane. It felt to her like only here was anything truly real.
It seemed bright inside only because outside was so dark. Actually the lights had been dimmed all along the passenger compartment. Everyone was tired. Beyond tired. Exhausted with fear and anger and uncertainty and outrage. Beside her, Ezekiel was already asleep. Not the deep, restorative sleep he needed; she knew that. Not in a plane flown by someone else, in company with so many other black dogs he could not fully trust. But leaning back with his eyes closed. That far, he’d acceded to Grayson’s order to rest.
Ezekiel and Natividad were all the way at the back of the plane. Grayson had taken the seat in front of them, putting Ezekiel protectively behind him, which she expected ordinarily might have caused an argument. Not this time. No, Ezekiel had made no comment at all when Grayson had sent him to the rearmost place.
Étienne Lumondière was flying the plane. That was probably the Master’s way of showing he still trusted Étienne and meant to give him an important place in Dimilioc even though they were abandoning the western sept. Abandoning it for now, anyway. Too many people had known about that house by the end: the Special Forces and who knew who else. Maybe other witches, maybe even that demon at Copper Mountain. No one had any idea. Natividad hadn’t been consulted about the decision to pull everyone back to the main house for the present, but it seemed wise to her. Cold had prickled down her spine every time she thought of what Alejandro had described finding at Copper Mountain. Even worse, what if there were other witches, what if Gregor Kristoff had a friend—well, that seemed unlikely—a colleague, then, who might try again where Kristoff had failed.
Anything might be out there. But, thankfully, that was not a problem for tonight. Nor tomorrow. She was so glad to be flying east and north, out of this country haunted by witches and demons.
Frédéric had taken the copilot’s place. Absolon and Steven Knauer, and Théo and Stéphanie Callot occupied the front part of the passenger compartment, right behind the pilots. Natividad hoped Stéphanie would be all right. She seemed better now that the plane was in the air. Even if the Master sent people west again, probably he would not send the Callots. Natividad could not imagine Stéphanie would agree to go.
There was a little gap after Étienne’s black dogs; then Carter on one side and Rip on the other, with Alejandro and Carissa behind them. All of them were silent, wary of one another or too tired for the ordinary black dog dominance issues. Alejandro was very aware of Carissa, Natividad could tell, but Carissa was just staring out her window at the blank darkness.
Then behind all of those black dogs sat Miguel and the Special Forces lieutenant, Santibañez, who was a hostage or a liaison or a spy, Natividad wasn’t sure. Maybe all three. Miguel had Kristoff’s bag tucked protectively under his seat. She wasn’t sure she liked him having that, all the witch’s black magic things, but she hadn’t said anything. She didn’t know who else would be better to figure out what everything was and how it was used.
Her twin wasn’t asleep. He had his iPad out. Santibañez was looking over Miguel’s shoulder, but her brother must know that and wouldn’t type anything he didn’t want the lieutenant to see. Actually, he was probably typing up a little pamphlet or something about black dogs. How Not To Get Your Head Ripped Off: Ten Important Tips for a Human Guest of Dimilioc. With illustrations. Yes, from the way the lieutenant nodded now and then, that was pr
obably exactly what Miguel was doing.
James was behind them, and then there was another little gap and then Grayson. And finally Natividad and Ezekiel at the rear. It was kind of crowded, but every single black dog was minding his manners. Or hers. For once, not one of them seemed to be looking for a fight, and Natividad was grateful. Not just for her own sake. She looked over at Ezekiel, pared down to bone and fire and honed fury, and wished he were already back in his Dimilioc apartment, in his own bedroom and his own bed. With her. She had never yet shared that bed with him. First she had been waiting to turn sixteen, and then waiting for his exile to end, and now at last they were going home together. It warmed her to know he would sleep more deeply and peacefully with her in that bed than he would alone.
Thinking of that warmed her in a different way too.
Natividad worried about Grayson, though. Both of them would do their best to take care of Ezekiel, but who would take care of the Master? She knew that last part with Kristoff must have been especially terrible for him. Though he was pretending not. Like Carissa, he was staring out at the darkness. He wouldn’t sleep at all until they were home, Natividad was sure. Maybe not then. From the bleak expression in his eyes, she wasn’t sure he ever planned to sleep again.
The Master had directed Étienne and James to burn and abandon the sept house. Not just the main house, but all the other buildings, the trees, everything. To burn and salt all the ground the demon-monster had touched. Colonel Herrod hadn’t said a word to object; not then. Later, as all Dimilioc’s Denver holdings burned down to ash and nothing, Natividad had seen Colonel Herrod talking to the Master, maybe arguing. But she had been too exhausted and preoccupied to wonder what they might be saying to each other; only glad when the colonel had gathered up his people and gone away without further violence or bloodshed.
She hadn’t even realized Santibañez was staying with them until all the other Special Forces people left, and left him behind. Her twin hadn’t seemed surprised or upset or worried about that, so she had put it out of her mind as something that somehow made sense.
And for all that time, Grayson had looked just the same as he did now: bleak and impenetrable.
Impulsively, Natividad unfastened her seatbelt, patted Ezekiel’s hand reassuringly when his eyes slitted open, and moved carefully through the cramped aisle to take the seat next to the Master.
He slanted an unreadable glance at her when she sat down beside him. She didn’t speak at first, just leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. After a while, she felt some of the hard-held tension behind that imperturbable facade ease.
“It was terrible,” she murmured, very low, just for him. It was something he couldn’t say for himself, so she said it. She knew Ezekiel would hear her, maybe James, but she hoped no one else.
The Master did not answer her. But he didn’t send her away.
“Everything happened so fast, there at the end. I thought all those people might die. I should have known you wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Their survival can hardly be laid to my account. The only one of them that died, I killed.”
Natividad leaned against him. “You trained everyone. You made everyone understand what it means to be Dimilioc. So at the end all the rest of them lived. Does Colonel Herrod blame you for anything that happened?”
“...No. Evidently not.”
“You see?” Natividad paused. Then she said softly, “After I realized our enemy had taken Ezekiel again...I thought I’d freed him, you know. Then, when it was too late, I figured out I hadn’t done it all the way, I hadn’t done it enough. There was still that horrible corpse powder in the air, on the ground, scattered on the porch. Everywhere. I hadn’t allowed for that.”
His arm curved around her shoulders, drawing her closer. “So you made something else, and came out to face our enemy so that you could free Ezekiel. And the rest of us.”
“I had to,” Natividad said simply. “I was so scared. But I had to do it. I made a way to...to share my own free will with Ezekiel, and with you. To share it and keep sharing it, so it didn’t matter about the corpse powder. Except I didn’t even know if it would work.”
“You were very clever and very brave.”
Now that Grayson had moved to protect and comfort her, some of the bleakness finally lifted out of his eyes. Natividad said softly, “Everyone was so clever and so brave. Rip, James, Étienne, Carissa...even Carter did all right at the end. I wasn’t sure. But you know whom to trust.”
Whatever Grayson had expected her to say, that hadn’t been it. A little more of that tension unknotted.
“You won’t send Ezekiel away again, will you? I know his year isn’t yet over...”
“No. It’s over.”
Natividad nodded. She had known he wouldn’t, but she was still relieved to hear him say it. “Good. Will you send Étienne west again?”
A slight pause. The Master did not generally discuss such things with Natividad. She didn’t generally ask, or even care; she always just assumed he knew what he was doing. But this time she actually wanted to know. She couldn’t help but feel maybe everyone would be safer if they stayed closer together for a while.
“Eventually,” Grayson said at last. “Not immediately. But I don’t wish to simply abandon the western part of the continent to stray black dogs and remnant blood kin.”
“Or witches.”
The Master let out a slow breath. Then he raised his voice just a little and spoke clearly. “Indeed. These black witches must be our priority for the next little while. We will tear them down and rip their hearts from their bodies and spill out their blood on the earth. All of them. From the most ambitious and powerful to the most ignorant of disciples. All.”
Every black dog in the whole compartment heard him. He’d actually meant those words for them, Natividad knew. She thought she could practically feel the slow, general easing of taut pressure through the whole plane. Carissa finally put the shade down over her window, closing out the dark, and leaned back in her seat. Up at the front, Absolon stretched and reclined his own seat. Behind her, she heard Ezekiel sigh, and when she looked, found he had closed his eyes again.
A pentagram couldn’t have done that, not with the best will in the world. But somehow, even after everything, Grayson could sound so assured, so determined, that everyone believed the destruction of their enemies was not just possible but inevitable.
Besides, black dogs just naturally found the idea of spilling their enemies’ blood comforting. Of course they did. She actually found it kind of comforting herself, this time.
So she answered just as clearly. “I’ll make something that will protect you when you go after them. Something that will protect us all. Even before the last of the witches die, they’ll learn to fear Dimilioc. No witch will ever touch a Dimilioc wolf again. Never.”
Grayson knew she had deliberately made that promise out loud and at this moment, and also that she’d tried to phrase it the way a black dog would have. He smiled down at her. “We shall look forward to the hunt.”
“Good,” Natividad said. “That’s good, then. Good.” And she tucked herself down against the Master’s broad chest and closed her eyes, and drifted to sleep surrounded by warmth and safety even in the midst of the infinite dark.
Endnotes
I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of the Black Dog series! As you’ll see from the “other works” section at the end of this book, this series will continue with Black Dog Short Stories III later in 2018. If you’re wondering what was distracting Cassie during the events in this book, pick up that collection and find out.
My intention is to eventually complete a series of five novels in this series, with short stories set between each novel and the next. For news about the Black Dog series and about my other fantasy novels, please visit www.rachelneumeier.com. To make sure you don’t miss a new release, and to become eligible for giveaways each time a new book is released, sign up for my newsletter w
hile you’re there.
If you enjoyed this or any other book of mine, I’d appreciate it if you would leave a review at Goodreads or Amazon or any other site you prefer.
Also by Rachel Neumeier
Black Dog Series:
BLACK DOG, Black Dog volume 1
BLACK DOG SHORT STORIES I, Black Dog volume 2
PURE MAGIC, volume 3
BLACK DOG SHORT STORIES II, volume 4
SHADOW TWIN, volume 5
BLACK DOG SHORT STORIES III, Black Dog volume 6, forthcoming, Summer 2018
THE CITY IN THE LAKE (Knopf)
The Griffin Mage Trilogy (Orbit):
LORD OF THE CHANGING WINDS
LAND OF THE BURNING SANDS
LAW OF THE BROKEN EARTH
THE FLOATING ISLANDS (Knopf)
HOUSE OF SHADOWS (Orbit)
DOOR INTO LIGHT, forthcoming, Fall 2018
THE KEEPER OF THE MIST (Knopf)
THE MOUNTAIN OF KEPT MEMORY (Saga)
THE WHITE ROAD OF THE MOON, Spring 2017 (Knopf)
WINTER OF ICE AND IRON, Fall 2017 (Saga)
BEYOND THE DREAMS WE KNOW, forthcoming, Summer 2018
Shadow Twin Page 42