Revenant (2 page)

* * *

“Time
to go to work.” It was Caleb. He was back.

I had no idea how much
time had passed. It was hard trying to judge time underground. There were no
windows and no natural light; I was surrounded by rock walls.

Caleb took out a key and
inserted it into
the lock.
A section of
the bars swung open.

I forced myself to my feet.
Caleb hated me. I could see it in his eyes. He never tried to hide his disdain,
but I had no idea what I’d done to deserve it. He frightened me even more than
Gage. I knew deep down that with the
way
he looked at me—the raw emotions I felt radiating off him every time he
was in my presence—that given the opportunity, he would
really
hurt me.

“Come on, I don’t have
all night.” Caleb reached in and grabbed a handful of my shirt.

He pulled me along with
him and then pushed me ahead. He began shoving me down a wide, familiar tunnel.
Torches lined the walls, spaced about six feet apart. The flames flared a bit
higher when Caleb walked by, which made me wonder, not for the first time, what
power he had that could affect the fire so. We finally came to a group of steps
cut into the rock. We climbed for a while, until we came to a dead end.
Attached to the rock wall was a metal ladder.

I looked up into the
darkness. I knew the ladder went up twenty or thirty feet. At the top of the
ladder was a metal covering. Every time, Caleb would try and get me to open the
covering on my own. Each time I would fail. I was too weak to muster the
strength it took to push the thing open. After watching me try and fail
miserably a half-dozen times, Caleb would laugh and push me aside, and with
little effort he would swing open the covering.
Why does he make me try each time? Does he get some sadistic pleasure
from watching me struggle
? I vowed that one day I would wipe that grin off
his face and make him pay for the way he treated me. And for the way he
tortured Luke every chance he got.

Once through the
opening, we were out in an open field. I took a deep breath of fresh air and
enjoyed the sensation of the wind hitting my face. I looked up. Clouds were scattered
across the night sky. I heaved a sigh and braced myself for what was to come.
Caleb was
right
—the moon was full.
It had an eerie, yellowish glow to it. A shiver went down my spine, and a sense
of foreboding filled my body.

And then Caleb’s strong
hand pushed against my back and I was being shoved again, this time through
tall grass. We went up a small hill and through a line of bushes. On the other
side were about two dozen metal garbage cans scattered around the clearing. Tall
flames burned in each one, illuminating the night and casting shadows on the
bodies.

I felt the mass of
swirling spirits before I saw the bodies. They lay motionless, stretched out in
neat lines and columns—men,
women,
and children all faceup on the grass. Gage said he killed three hundred. How
many have I raised? I’d lost count. I knew that Gage’s minions had laid them
out with their eyes
open
and with their
hands crossed over their chests. They were all dead,
killed by Gage and his men.

I’d been told all this back
at the asylum. Gage had slaughtered an entire community of death dealers and
brought them here so I could turn them into zombies. Gage murdered them so they
could become his powerful dark army, and now their spirits wandered this open
field along with countless others that had already existed here. I didn’t know
what he needed an
army for
. Honestly, I
didn’t want to know. It was bad enough that I was playing any part in his evil,
twisted game.

If Luke finds out what I’ve done, will he ever be able to
forgive me
? I paused to correct myself.
Not if, but
when
he finds out
. It was only a matter of time before Gage put his
undead army to use.

And when that happened,
how long would it take for Luke’s guild to find me? They were already hunting
me—they had been for months. Luke’s sister, Darla, had vowed that the
next time she saw me she would kill me herself.
The
Phoenix Guild pursued me for the wrongs I committed against Luke and his people—for
raising the dead and causing dozens of deaths, including Luke’s—in our
attempt to rescue Darla from a dark mage.
And the worst crime of
all? I’d released a demon. Admittedly
, it was magic I’d
unintentionally wielded, but it still had dire consequences. Because of my
actions, death dealers everywhere were being persecuted, and violence against
Luke’s kind—my kind—had run rampant. I’d done what was necessary to
survive and avenge my family’s murder, but at what cost?

And now Gage had
slaughtered a whole town because he wanted to use my magic. I looked around for
the familiar face of
the monster
who
orchestrated this atrocity.

“Gage isn’t here.”

My gaze shifted to
Caleb, not caring if he saw the relief in my eyes. However, any relief I felt
was short lived. Two
silhouettes
carrying
flashlights headed our way.

“Hope you brought
your
A
game, because tonight we have visitors,” Caleb said, giving me another shove
forward.

As they approached, I
could see that both figures were male. One of them was very short and very fat.
When he got closer I could see that his shirt
was far too tight and rolls of fat rippled over his wide, black leather belt.
His red hair was long on top, some of which
fell
down
in waves across his forehead, and shaved short on the sides.

“Is this the girl?” he
said, clapping his hands in excitement.

“It is,” Caleb answered.

The man turned to me. “I
can’t wait to see what you can do. I’ve heard so much about you.” His fingers
reached out and caressed my shoulder. I forced myself not to shrink back from
his touch. “You’re such a small thing. I thought you would be taller.” He
turned to his companion, a
dark-haired
man with so many wrinkles across his face that he resembled a Shar-Pei. “Didn’t
I tell you I thought she would be tall?”

When the dark-haired man
kept silent, the short one continued. “A seven-foot Amazonian woman by the way
Gage has been talking about you.” He squeezed my shoulder. “And what a location
you have here. Beautiful spot, and an ample amount of spirits to work
with—I can almost feel them. Quite convenient to be working on an old
battlefield, isn’t it?” He chuckled.

The
desire to move away from him was so strong I could taste it, but I forced
myself to stand still.
I could tell by the
look on Caleb’s face that he was enjoying my discomfort.

The man let go of me and
gave me a sly grin. “Gage is impressed with your power. He’s not an easy man to
impress. I can’t wait to see you in action.
You’re
going to do it now? I didn’t miss anything, did I? You’re going to start making
zombies?”

Caleb answered him when
I didn’t. “Yes, she is. You didn’t miss anything. She’s going to start right
this minute.”

The short man clapped
his hands again. “Most excellent!” He turned and walked toward the bodies.

I stayed rooted in
place. I didn’t move until Caleb gave me another hard shove. “Don't worry,
sweetheart—your little boyfriend will be just fine. He’s tucked away in a
cozy cell, safely out of range. Now get to it.”

With each step, I felt
nausea rising up from my belly. Then the wind shifted and the smell hit me straight
on
. The dead were rotting, and the stench
of it filled the air. This time I couldn’t keep the bile from coming. I stopped
and emptied what little I had in my stomach.

Caleb stood by, stone faced,
but I watched the muscles of his jaw clench and his nose twitch. He had to be
affected by the smell.
It was so strong.
It filled my nostrils and spilled down my throat. I knew that even after I went
back to my cell, the smell would cling to my skin, hair, and clothes. I vomited
again, but it was only dry heaves this time—there was nothing left to
come up. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and started forward.

There were imprints in
the grass under my feet. Places where dead bodies had once lain—bodies I
had raised on previous nights. Bodies that had been whisked away as soon as I
had filled them with spirits.

The short man stood a
few feet away. He took out a piece of cloth and covered his nose and mouth with
it.

I moved until I came
upon one of the dead. I looked down the line of bodies. Every time I saw them I
felt the same—disgusted and ashamed. I forced back those feelings and
filled my mind with images of Luke. For a second, I imagined he was here with
me, his arms around my waist.
I have to
do this or Gage will kill Luke.
I opened my eyes, steeled my mind, and
braced myself for what would come next. I knelt down in the dirt and reached
out to the closest corpse. Her skin was starting to peel away from the bone. It
hung in chunks from her arm, exposing yellow muscle and white tendons. I
swallowed hard to force down the hot bile that tried to rise and brought my hands
forward again with sheer will.
They touched the slimy, cold surface of
her skin.

There was a bright flash of orange, and the air was
sucked out of my lungs.
My
body rocked
back,
and a strong jolt of
electricity rushed through me. For a moment, my mind went blank and there was
only darkness before me. Then my vision cleared and air flowed back into my
lungs. My heart pounded in my chest as if I’d been running. I leaned back and
watched as the woman very slowly began to rise.

There was a loud shout
of excitement. The short man was clapping in perverse delight.

Each time it was the
same. Each time I felt the energy drain from my limbs as I forced an
unsuspecting nearby spirit into the body on the ground. But even though I knew
what to expect, I never got used to watching them rise. I would shudder as their
eyes rolled back into their heads. Their
limbs
moved in
jerky,
uncoordinated
motions
at
first,
and then they would turn to me like a moth to a light. Whatever awareness they possessed
seemed to direct them to seek me out. This one was just the same. I shouted out
the Latin words Gage taught me that would bind her will to me, and then gave her
a mental call to stay put, to stand still. A man clad all in black would
come guide
the zombie off the field. To where,
I had no idea. I wondered yet again,
What
is Gage doing
with the undead once I raise them
?

I used my magic again
and again. I raised one dead after another. And when I thought I could no
longer go on, I stood on shaky legs and looked down at the bodies before me. The
faces bore no resemblance to the souls that I’d forced inside. An
angelic-looking young woman almost untouched by rot turned and looked at me
with old, angry eyes full of malice once I’d woken her. I hugged my tattered
clothes around myself and shivered. But even worse than those faces filled with
anger were those who looked at me with fear or hope in their eyes. They were my
victims twice over: once for the body, and once for the tortured and bound
soul.

I’d often thought about
using my magic to make the dead help me escape—I controlled them, I
could
send them off to fight against
Gage’s people. I’d done it once already, back when I faced Macaven and his men.

But every time I toyed
with the idea of fighting back, the image of Luke in chains flashed through my
mind. I had never seen Luke unguarded. If I tried to use my magic, even if I
were out of range of the collar, how far would I get before Caleb or Gage
brought me down? Caleb made it clear that if I misbehaved—if I tried to
use my magic for any purpose outside of helping Gage with his projects—Luke
would be hurt.

But it really wasn’t just
Luke who would suffer—Dean shared his
body,
so
he would
be hurt
, too, and
Wendy could also be harmed. If I didn’t do as Gage said, all my friends could be
hurt or killed. I had to follow Gage’s wishes.

A feeling of overwhelming
despair and helplessness filled me. I was Gage’s prisoner. How long until that
would change? How long until we could escape?

The short, fat man was
beside me all of a sudden. “This is so exciting! I never imagined such magic.
You truly are a wonder.” His hand came up and touched my arm. “Why did you
stop?
Gage told me
the exhibition would
last at least an hour.” He turned to Caleb. “Isn’t she going to raise any more?”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. I
knew he expected me to keep working. So I did. Again and again, I forced myself
to touch each body. I did it until exhaustion set
in
and I could no longer stand. I slumped down, weak and
shaking
, onto the cold grass. As I fell, my
mind began to slip into darkness. A great sense of relief filled me as fatigue
swept me away…far, far away from this horrible madness.