Revenant (38 page)

I
was surprised by his answer. He was acting impulsively. Luke wasn’t thinking—
the dark emotions
Caleb harbored
ruled him
, emotions which now swirled through
him. I looked to Luke again and tried to reason with him. “Gage has powerful
magic and strong mages with him.”

“I’m
not afraid of Gage,” Darla declared.

“Then
you’re a fool,” I answered immediately.

Darla
was acting as impulsively as her brother. But her reasoning had less to do with
following her brother’s lead and more to do with her hatred of me.

Darla’s
eyes narrowed. “You can’t expect us to walk away. Not when you left those
things…those
abominations
out there.
I will not have someone else die because of your reckless, careless actions.”

How does she know about the
zombies?
It gave
her one more reason to despise me. My face burning, I looked over to Luke. He
was openly staring at me
. He must know
about the zombies by now
, I thought.
Gage
would have talked about them
. I decided not to address the topic and
instead turned back to Darla.

She
started to say something, but I raised a hand and interrupted. “Listen, I have
no idea how to destroy the zombies. Eventually they fall apart, or you can hack
them to pieces, but is there magic that can stop them? We don’t know. And going
after Gage is suicide. You can’t hurt him. Gage can heal himself. It’s no good
doing physical damage to him. I’ve watched his wounds close on their own.” I
turned my attention back to Luke. “Gage has a
vial
of something like…nerve gas and everyone in its path dies. I saw him use it. I’ve
seen what he can do.”

Luke
and Darla considered each other. He looked angry, while she looked determined.

My
words came out in a rush. “You can’t take him on—he has too much power, he
has zombies, and he has hundreds of followers.”

Darla
turned to her brother. “We are fifty strong. We’re all fully trained death
dealers.” At her words, her brother’s face filled with surprise. “That’s right,”
she continued, a hint of pride coloring her face. “I’m a death dealer now. I’ve
gone through the rituals.”

Luke
frowned. “But you’re only fifteen.”

Darla
straightened her shoulders. “I’m
sixteen
.
You’ve
been gone
a long time, brother.
You don’t know what it
’s been
like
.”

Luke
looked around at the faces in the crowd standing before him. “Where’s Uncle
Franklin? Where are the elders?”

“Uncle
Franklin is alive. But for how long? You have no idea how many death dealers
have died. Everyone has declared war against us. The most powerful of our kind
have gone off to try to and round up as many death dealers as they can and bring
them to the strongholds. That’s where your friend found us.” Darla waved her
arm to encompass the group of young men and women standing around her. “We
heard you needed help, so we came.”

Brother
and sister looked at each other for a long moment.

I
finally broke the silence. “Death dealers are in danger, which is why it’s
important you don’t waste the lives of your people going against Gage.”

“We
can take on Gage and his men.” Darla sounded so sure of herself.

“What
about the demon?” I demanded.

Her
gaze swung my way, and I realized by the look of apprehension on her face that she
didn’t know the demon was close. They obviously hadn’t been planning on facing
a demon.
Mildred told them where we were
and that we needed help, but she didn’t mention the demon?

“If
the demon is here, then…we’ll destroy it.” Her voice suddenly sounded younger
and vulnerable.

I
tried again to reason with her. “We have no idea how much power the demon has,
even in human form. “ I turned and looked at Luke. “You saw what that thing did
to Macaven and his men.”

Luke
looked away.

I
looked back at Darla and pleaded. “Trust me, you don’t want to do this. You
should wait—you need more reinforcements.”

“There
is no one else,” she explained impatiently. “It’s only us.” Darla crossed her
arms and faced me once again. “Whatever you say is not going to change our
minds. We have to go in and kill Gage
and
the demon. They’ll come after us eventually. How many death dealers has he
killed so far? How many more will die so he can create his zombie army? So
you
can create his army?”
She angrily flung those last words at
me.

She
looked so young standing there with an openly defiant look on her face. She
wanted to fight, wanted to rush in. I’d been that rash once, and Luke had died.

I
turned to plead with Luke. “It’s suicide. Don’t go.”

“She’s
right, Colina. We can’t let Gage or the demon get away. They have to pay for
what they’ve done,” he said.
He
started to reach for me, but changed his mind. “Colina, I don’t want to put you
back in danger.” He looked uncertain for a moment and looked at his sister, and
then back at me. “If there is any chance of success, any chance of us all
making it out alive, we need your magic.”

“It’s
madness,” I whispered.

“If
she’s too scared to go
, then
let her stay
here. We don’t need her,” Darla spat.

Luke’s
eyes never left mine as he said loudly, “You’ve just seen how powerful her
magic is. She can cross banshees over to the next life. She single-
handedly
destroyed hellhounds.”

Darla
looked at me as though I’d just sprouted two heads. “You killed hellhounds?”
Her voice took on an accusatory tone “How dangerous have you become?”

I
didn’t answer her. How could I? I didn’t even know
what
I’d become. I still didn’t have full control of my powers.

I
looked at the young men and women standing around Darla. They were going to
rush off to fight Gage, his
death dealers,
and a demon.
I had counted close
to one hundred people living within the tunnels and the mining town—there
was no way the battle had killed them all. Even if the zombies had taken out a
decent number, there would still be plenty of able-bodied men and women ready
and willing to fight Darla and her guild.

And then there was the demon.

I
looked over at Darla. Her young face was hard and set.
Nothing I say is going to change her mind
, I realized.

Luke
turned and spoke to the crowd, effectively ending our argument. “We need to
keep moving. As I’m sure Mildred told you, Gage and his people are set up in a
town about three miles from here.”

Darla
moved next to her brother and called out to her people. “We’ll stop and camp here
and make our way to the town at dawn—that’s only a couple hours from now.
Take a break and eat some food before we head out.”

I
could tell by Luke’s expression that he didn’t like the delay. He started to
open his mouth to say something, but the withering stare Darla had given me
earlier
was now directed
at him.

Luke
closed his mouth, obviously deciding not to press the point. He turned to
Freddy. “Can you keep an eye on Colina? I want a word with my sister.”

“I’ll
keep her safe,” Freddy answered as he gave me a wink. He straightened up,
puffed out his chest, and gave the crowd a cold stare. Freddy, who didn’t have
an ounce of magic, had suddenly taken on the role of my
bodyguard
. Freddy, whose loyalty and friendship had brought him to
this place of danger.

Without
another word, Luke motioned to his sister. He turned and walked into the trees.
Darla slowly followed, her body tense and angry, but she turned back before
following Luke away. She glared at me with obvious hatred. “Don’t even
think
of running away. After we deal
with this—clean up
another
one of
your messes—you are going back to my people to stand trial. You will pay
for what you’ve done, and after my brother hears all your crimes, he will
happily leave you to your fate.” She turned and marched away, dismissing me
with disdain.

I
wanted to hate her back, but instead I just felt shame. I looked around at the
group still circling us. How many of their family and friends died because of
me? They all knew their people were
targets because of what I’d done. How many of them wanted to see me hang for my
crimes?

Freddy
gave me a wide grin that faltered into an embarrassed expression as he looked
me up and down. He patted a backpack slung over his shoulder awkwardly. “I’ve
got some extra clothes you can change
into if
you want
. And I’ve got chips and cookies. I’m happy to share.”

“Terrific,”
I said with a shudder, very aware of my barely there silk slip.
I’m standing in front of everyone in my
underwear
. “What does she mean by a trial?”

Freddy
looked uncomfortable. “I’m sure she’s not serious. Don’t worry about it.”

I
sighed, suddenly very tired. “Freddy…just tell me.”

“Well,
when a death dealer does something so bad that the family can’t deal with it,
they form a tribunal of elders to hear the evidence and pass judgment.”

“What
kind of judgment? What ever happened to ‘trial by jury’?”

“The
death dealers have been taking care of their own justice since before the Constitution
was written.” Freddy started, ready to give me a speech about the history of
the Phoenix Guild, but I cut him off.

“What
kind of judgment?”

He
paused for a moment, obviously trying to decide whether to tell me the truth or
a comforting lie. “There isn’t
really
a
limit. They could put you on kitchen duty for a decade…or they could sentence you
to death.” He looked at me with trepidation, waiting for me to explode, but I
wasn’t
really
surprised. I just nodded
and gestured at my slip awkwardly, effectively changing the subject and giving
him a way out of the conversation.

Freddy
walked toward a group of trees away from the group, and I followed, thankful to
get away from their angry stares. He found a fallen log, sat down, put his pack
on the ground, and opened it, pulling out some clothes and handing them over to
me.

I
gratefully took them and Freddy turned away while I got dressed. I stepped into
a pair of green pants and pulled a camouflage T-shirt over the slip.

When
I put on the shirt it caught against something. I looked down. The red ruby
necklace still hung from my neck. I reached around and unclasped it and it fell
into my palm. I slid it into the pocket of my pants.

When
I was done, Freddy grabbed a bag of chips and threw them at me. “From what I’ve
heard, you guys have been through quite an adventure.”

“We
have,” I answered.

“The
old lady who brought us news that you guys were alive—”

I
interrupted him, “Mildred. Her name is Mildred.”

“Right,
Mildred. You should’ve seen the commotion she caused. The minute she came and
told us you guys needed help, Darla scrambled together a rescue party.”

“A
rescue party to save Luke, not me.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “We
both know Darla and her people only came because of Luke. She told me herself—she
wants me to die.”

“She
was just angry when she said it.”

“And
she’s not angry anymore?”

He
laughed. “No, she’s still angry. But she won’t hurt you.” He saw my skeptical
look and put his hand on my shoulder. “Seriously, she won’t. If she did, Luke
would never forgive her.”

“You
really think that would stop her?” I asked.

“I
know she loves her brother. She would do anything for him. She’d never
intentionally do anything to hurt him.” He handed me a chocolate chip cookie.

“And
what about the rest of the group?” I could see flames through the trees—someone
had started a small campfire. I could see young death dealers milling around it,
far enough away that we could talk without being overheard. But even with the
distance, I still felt the pressure of being watched, and I knew that Darla had
set guards that observed us from somewhere in the darkness. One of the death
dealers had already sent their banshees at me. How long until it happened
again?

Freddy
took a bite of cookie and chewed on it a while before answering. “You can trust
these people.”

“How
did Darla end up in charge of the rescue party?” I asked, opening the bag of
chips. “She’s awfully young, isn’t she?” Many of the mages within the group
were older than she was. How powerful was she?

“The
death dealer guilds aren’t monarchies or anything like that, but Luke and Darla
are from a very old family. Their family has led the Phoenix Guild for generations;
their uncle is the current guild leader. They’re a powerful family, yes, but
the guild really follows them because they’re natural leaders.” He shrugged. “When
Mildred came into our camp, most of the adults were out trying to save as many
of the other guilds as they could and bring them back to their old bolt-holes.”