Revenant
Authors: Catrina Burgess
Revenant
The Dark Rituals
Book Three
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By Catrina Burgess
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For Mom.
You showed me through example that during our darkest days, we
must always endure and, at all costs, keep moving forward.
I
lay on a dirt floor. Mud matted my hair and covered my filthy, torn clothes. I
kept track of the time by scratching out marks on the cavern ground with my
fingernails. I’d been here ten days. Gage St. Clare had kept me alive, but
barely. He gave me just enough food and water to function. Gage, the minion of
a demon that I’d released. Gage, who’d taken me so I could create an undead
army to do his bidding. I was now a prisoner of a man more mad than the serial
killer I’d faced back at the asylum.
So far, the demon hadn’t
made an appearance, but I knew it was only a matter of time. The creature had promised
me that our fates
were intertwined
. It told
me we would meet again. It made the declaration before morphing into a young
girl and skipping out of a burning ballroom, a hellhound at its heels. The plan
that I was being forced to carry out was the demon’s doing. And I had no choice
but to serve at its bidding.
I heard footsteps in the
distance. I slowly forced myself to my feet and leaned against the rock wall.
This was
the one thing I
lived for
. My only moment of happiness in this
dark and desperate existence. I shuffled forward until my fingers wrapped
around the steel bars.
Any moment now…he’ll
be
here
. I realized I was holding my
breath. I closed my
eyes
.
When I opened them
again,
he stood in front of me on the other
side of my cell door.
Luke
. His eyes blazed
with anger. His wrists were bound together by chains, and a dark metal collar
wrapped around his neck. If I summoned any of my magic within a hundred feet of
the collar, it would
collapse inward
and
Luke would suffocate. I looked down at the chains—the metal cut into
Luke’s bare flesh. A drop of blood slid down his hand, hitting the dirt floor
beneath him.
“Let him loose. You’re
hurting him,” I cried out. I reached through the bars, but before our fingers
could touch, rough hands pulled him away.
Two men stood on either
side of Luke. They were identical—blond hair, brown eyes, both dressed in
black, both Gage’s henchmen. They were brothers. Twins. The only difference
between the two was that Caleb had hair that came to rest on his shoulders. His
brother, Jacob, wore his hair shaved close to his head.
My whole focus was now
on Caleb. He was the one I had to watch. He was the one who seemed to get the
most pleasure out of causing
me
pain.
My eyes met his.
Caleb gave me a wicked smile and then feigned sad
regret as he gestured toward Luke with a lazy wave. “Sorry, boss’s orders. Lover
boy has been bad. He tried to escape again. I like the other one—he’s
more docile. This one comes out every night and tries to make my life hell.”
Caleb jammed his elbow hard into Luke’s rib cage.
Caleb was dealing with not one prisoner, but two in
Luke—and it was my doing.
After I had
unleashed the demon and caused Luke’s death, I’d committed myself to an insane asylum
with the sole purpose of finding an empty vessel—a living body I could
use to bind Luke back to earth and the living.
And it worked. I found a
young man who was once a death dealer. He’d become mentally lost during his
training while performing the second ritual. It was only after I had done the
spell and Luke possessed Dean that we realized Dean’s soul was still in
residence, and that I’d mistakenly allowed two spirits to inhabit the same body.
The second death dealer ritual trapped Dean’s spirit deep inside his body long
before I met him—so deep that even his guild had been unable to revive
him.
But my powers had somehow woken Dean. He’d been
able to come back and claim his body during the day while Luke had full use of
it at night.
But now it was only at night that I had any
contact with anyone besides my
prison guard
.
I
hadn’t seen Dean since
Gage brought us
here, but I knew he was in there somewhere,
listening to our exchange. Caleb said that Dean was docile, but I didn’t
believe it. Neither Luke nor Dean would sit idly by while some madman bound
them in chains.
Caleb hit Luke
again,
and Luke grunted, bending over in pain.
For a moment, I forgot
my exhaustion. I could feel the rage rising inside me. “Leave him alone!”
“Or what?” Caleb rushed
forward and put his face inches from the bars. “
Sorry,
little bird—they’ve clipped your wings. You try any of your magic, and
you know what happens. And let’s not forget the others. What about that dark-haired
friend of yours? She’s a pretty
one,
she
is.” He motioned to his brother, who was standing silently by Luke’s side. “She’s
a quiet one, but I think Jacob here has taken a real shine to her. Haven’t you,
Jacob?”
“Don’t you lay a finger
on Wendy,” I growled. I moved to grasp the bars of my cell and gave Caleb my
most intimidating glare.
“More threats? And here
I thought we were starting to become friends. If you don’t want to say hello to
your boyfriend, I’d be happy to drag him away. I didn’t realize you were so
eager to start tonight’s work. There’s going to be a full moon out. Should be a
pretty sky full of bright stars. I bet you can’t wait to see them.” Caleb
grabbed Luke’s arm, pulling him toward the door.
“No! Wait,” I begged.
“That’s more like it.
See how she changed her tune?
She tries to look
all tough, but when it comes to this one—” he yanked on Luke’s chains,
causing Luke to moan in pain, “—she’s all soft inside like a marshmallow.”
Caleb gave me another wicked grin. “You have ten minutes. But no touching. The
boss wants to make sure you
two
keep your
distance. I think he’s worried about what kind of magic the two of you might do
if you ever get together.
Me? I’m not so
worried.
Whatever Death Arts you can muster up don’t scare me. Soft like
a marshmallow,” Caleb chuckled as he shoved Luke forward.
Luke fell to his knees
on the ground just shy of the bars.
“Luke,” I cried out.
His head
was bowed
, and for a moment he didn’t say
anything. Then he slowly lifted his
head,
and his eyes met mine. “Colina.” He said my name through dry, cracked lips.
Tears streamed down my
face, leaving muddy tracks on my filthy cheeks. “I’m so sorry I got you into
this mess.”
Luke murmured something
I couldn’t quite hear. He was only a few inches away, and I wanted so
desperately to feel his arms around me.
To put
my lips against his.
My whole body strained against the metal cage, but
the solid bars didn’t budge.
Luke leaned closer and
whispered, “If you have a chance, I want you to make a run for it.”
He wanted me to save
myself, but I wasn’t going anywhere without him. “I’m not leaving you.”
“If you get the chance,
you run.”
I raised my voice. “No.”
There was anger in his
eyes. “You
escape.
You get free. Do you
hear me? I don’t know what this sick bastard wants with you. Colina, why won’t
you tell me what he wants?” The anger left his face, his eyes now full of
concern. “What does he have you doing?” He asked me the same question each
night.
I sat back on my heels
and wiped the tears from my eyes. Luke kept asking me why Gage had taken us and
what plan he had in store. But each time I refused to answer.
How can I confess to him the terrible evil I’m
doing? Worse, how will he react if he ever finds out?
I knew he would tell
me his life wasn’t worth the unnatural acts I was committing, but there was
nothing anyone could say that would change my mind. I would do whatever I had
to in order to keep Luke by my side. I had already broken nature’s laws by
bringing him back to me the first time. I would not risk losing him again. I
would do whatever this madman asked
of
me
if it meant keeping Luke safe.
I wanted so desperately
to tell him, to confess my wicked deeds, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the
words out loud. Because of me, dozens—no, hundreds—of undead now
roamed the earth. They were zombies, walking creatures formed from carcasses of
the living. Luke had once called them
draugrs
—creatures
pulled from his people’s myths and bedtime
stories
—but the term “
zombie”
fit them better. They were bodies raised
from the dead, inhabited by wandering souls and used as slaves by the living in
the worst voodoo tradition.
Each night I raised the
dead and then bound them to my will. But I was just a puppet as well;
Gage was
the puppet master. Gage was the one in
control, and he could make me do whatever he wanted. He knew I would do his
bidding as long as he continued to threaten Luke’s very existence.
I looked away, unable to
meet Luke’s eyes. I knew they were full of hurt and sadness. He didn’t know why
I was keeping secrets from him.
“Mildred came to see me,”
he said, finally breaking the silence.
My head whipped around.
Mildred
. A woman I’d thought was my
friend,
but who turned out to
be aligned
with my enemies. I asked the
question that had been haunting me since the beginning of my captivity. “Why
did she do it?”
“She told me she was
sorry. She never meant for us to get hurt. Gage promised to bring back her
daughter.”
Mildred’s daughter died
years ago.
I knew the loss still
tortured her.
“Can he do that?”
“He’s powerful. He’s
using magics not seen for a hundred years. Who knows what dark and twisted
spells he
’s been
working.”
“But her daughter must
have crossed over.” I was almost sure of it. I’d never heard, nor seen the
daughter’s spirit. If she’s roaming the in between, surely she would have come
to her mother’s side during the time I was in
the
asylum.
“Gage says the
daughter’s spirit
is trapped
in hell. He
says her daughter’s death wasn’t an accident.”
“The girl didn’t drown?”
Luke paused for a long
moment before answering, and then he spoke slowly and carefully, his eyes fixed
on me with concern. “She
was killed
…sacrificed.”
Sacrificed like my family
? My mind flashed back to the horror I had witnessed as I watched a
group of madmen kill my loved ones. I had watched the blood pour from my
father’s neck as their leader, Macaven, slit his throat. I watched, helpless, trapped
inside the pantry, bound by a spell and unable to escape, as my mother was
shot. The image of her face as the bullet tore through her skin was still
burned into my brain. And then the dark mage had torn my brother James’s spirit
from his body and turned him into a banshee to do his bidding.
My family’s death had
set in motion this dark path I now found
myself on
.
A path that so far had caused more misery and heartache than I could have ever
imagined.
Was Mildred’s daughter an innocent child scarified like my
father?
The thought filled me with an
incredible sadness. My eyes were full of tears as I asked, “What kind of
monster would murder a young child?”
“Someone without a
conscience
. Someone without a soul.” Luke looked over his shoulder.
“Someone
not unlike the people working for
Gage. I’ve seen people become corrupted with the need for power. Once you start
down that
path,
once you cross over the
first line…it’s
easy
to cross over the
next one. Then you lose yourself. You lose all hope.” Luke reached out for me
again.
In response, Caleb kicked
the cage, laughing harshly as I quickly dropped my hands from the vibrating
bars. He jerked Luke back by his collar, but Luke no longer seemed to notice
the manhandling. He focused on me. “Colina, what’s the work Caleb is
talking about
? Why are they taking you to the
surface every night?”
I looked away, unable to
meet his eyes.
I can’t tell him. I won’t tell
him
.
“Whatever it is, you
can’t trust Gage. Whatever he promises you, whatever he says he’ll do…he’ll
go
back on his word. He’s truly evil.”
And so am I. I’ve crossed one line and now another. I’m raising
the dead so Gage can have a zombie army at his beck and call
.
“Time’s up,” Caleb announced.
“Promise me that if you
see your chance, you’ll take it. Run!” Luke said, this time
not
caring if they heard him.
I watched in silence as
Caleb and Jacob marched Luke out of the room.
My strength left with
Luke, and I fell back onto the floor. The tears
came,
this time fast and hard. I pulled my knees into my chest and rocked myself back
and forth on the dirt.
I’m not just creating
monsters…
I’m becoming one.