Path of the Horseman (30 page)

If he knew what I was thinking, he couldn’t
have cared less. In fact, the only person who seemed to care less
was Logan, who was looking from Maddy to me with all the emotion of
a rock. They each carried saddles in their hand, though Logan
carried a third one and a slim grey messenger bag at his side
because he was taller and had more muscle than Simon.

“What are those for?” Maddy asked, nodding to
the saddles and acting like I hadn’t just tried to kiss her.

“Trying to revive the plants I kill isn’t my
only hobby,” Logan said. “I also have a small herd of wild horses
that I look after.”

That was all he said before he handed me a
saddle. He turned his head and clicked his tongue at Orcus, who was
patiently waiting behind my brothers. The tall, strong animal
snorted and followed Logan. Simon rolled his eyes at me and walked
after his brother.

“I think I’m in trouble,” I muttered,
trudging after them.

“Why? We didn’t do anything wrong,” Maddy
defended. She glanced up at me. “We just came close.”

She winked at me and walked after Simon and
Logan. I swear there was a spring in her step.

Even with all my implanted memories, I still
didn’t understand human women.

***

The walk to Logan’s horses wasn’t far. Once
we cleared the mess of branches surrounding my brother’s home, we
were led through the rocky terrain to a low patch of sand in front
of a cave. Three horses– one black, one brown, and one white– stood
in front of the cave, their ears perking up when the light from our
torches illuminated them. They seemed healthy, if a little thin.
They didn’t seem alarmed at the sight of Logan, but they neighed
and kept their distance from Orcus. Logan’s horse stood like a
statue, his pale tail swatting against his flank.

Logan approached the wild horses with the
saddle in one hand and used the other to lift the messenger bag
over his head. He tipped the bag upside down, piles of oats and
dried fruit spilling onto the sand. The horses moved on the food
eagerly, forgetting about everything else. While they were eating,
Logan walked over to the black horse and began placing the saddle
on his back. The animal snorted, but never lifted his head.

Simon approached the dark brown horse and put
the saddle on his back. Which left me the white horse.

I walked over to him, saddle clutched in my
hand, telling myself he wasn’t Bacillus. But he looked enough like
him that I couldn’t stop another memory from creeping into the back
of my mind…

I stood at the foot of the derelict city,
pressing my forehead against Bacillus’, knowing this would be the
last time I saw him. I smoothed my hand down his long neck, feeling
the supernatural strength powering through him.

My power, for Bacillus was a conduit to me.
His strength became mine, a reservoir that helped me complete my
mission.

A constant reminder of all the horror I had
wrought.

“
I’m sorry,” I whispered to my only
friend.

Bacillus nudged my head with his, as if to
tell me that he understood. He would accept whatever fate I
bestowed him. He was loyal to me, and no one else. Which caused
this sacrifice to shatter my heart.

I held my hands on either side of Bacillus’
head, pushing out the power that dwelled within my mortal body. The
black smoke churned around the snow-white Horse, shielding him from
my vision. It was not long before the tendrils of smoke had fully
encased Bacillus, turning him into a shadow of his formal self. I
could still feel him beyond the smoke.

Then I sent out a jolt of power, and
dissolved him.

Bacillus was a manifestation of my powers. A
fragment of me held by my masters until they unleashed us in the
Tribulation. In essence, Bacillus was not a real animal. But that
did not mean I had no care for him, or that drawing him out of
existence and back into me was not painful.

The humans would have claimed that I was
honoring his memory, that he would truly always be with me. But
they did not know Bacillus. My Horse desired freedom. His greatest
thrill had been racing through the cities with me, fuelled by my
power as I spread disease like an assassin spreading death. He
accepted that one day the thrill would end, and he would return to
me. But I wanted him to be free.

When Bacillus was absorbed back into me, I
let out a heavy sigh. The power of the Horse taking root in my
human body was enough to bring me to my knees. I clutched the dirt
and hissed, wishing he had fought more. With a powerful enough
surge, Bacillus could break out of my mortal shell and destroy me.
It would be a release for both of us.

But of course he would not do that. He had no
defiance in him. Only the deepest devotion.

Something I did not deserve.

“Avery?”

I tuned out the memory and followed Maddy’s
voice. She was standing by her already saddled horse, the black
one, watching me with a concerned expression. I smiled weakly at
her.

“I’m good,” I told her.

I took a step closer to the white horse,
holding out my hand to show that I meant him no harm. The horse
looked at me, ears flicking back and forth. I gently touched his
muzzle, rubbing my hand up and down it. The horse snorted and
leaned into my hand, accepting that I was a friend.

After petting the horse, I moved to its side
and tossed the saddle onto his back. When he didn’t freak out and
bolt, I patted his shoulders and hauled myself onto his back. I
shifted to get comfortable, looking over when I saw Maddy swing
herself onto her horse.

“Nice,” I commented. “I wasn’t sure if you’d
get up on the first try.”

Maddy grinned. “I might not be a horse-master
like you three, but I do have some hidden talents.”

She winked at me and dug her heels into the
horse’s flank, urging him forward. I watched her ride away,
grinning like an idiot. Simon eased his horse after her, and I
followed him. Logan turned Orcus in front of me, causing my horse
to stop. He backed away, not liking the creepy pale horse, but
respecting the man who rode him. I stared at my brother, sitting
bareback on his horse, not sure what he was waiting for.

“Stop getting so close.”

What?
Then I figured it out.
Oh.

“I said she wasn’t in my sights, and she’s
not. But she will be someday, Avery. I can’t see when, but she’s
mortal, and she will die long before you. Even with our fading
powers, we will outlive every human on this dying planet. Spare
yourself pain, and let her go now.”

I scowled. “There are two people in this
relationship you think is happening,” I informed him. “And you must
have realized by now that Maddy makes her own choices.”

“Oh, I gathered that,” Logan replied. “I like
that about her. But ask yourself this.” He tilted forward, jet
black hair dangling in front of him.

“When it’s her time, will you accept that I
have to do my job and take her away from you, or will you fight me
and force her to endure more suffering?”

The first thought that crossed my mind was
how hard it would be to reach over both our horses and smack him.
The second thought was that Logan was older, faster, stronger, and
way more deadly than me on my most ruthless day.

The third thought was that he made a
crushingly good point. I liked Maddy. Cared about her, way more
than I should. If I kept these feelings up, would I be able to let
her go when it was time for her to die?

I wasn’t so sure about my answer.

Logan leaned back and clicked his tongue,
gripping Orcus’ mane with both hands to turn him in the proper
direction.

I hesitated, trying to tell myself that I
would deal with it when the time came. I had more important things
to deal with right now.

Too bad I couldn’t remember what any of them
were.

***

For the entire slog to the campground, my
mood was bitter to say the least. I stayed at the back of the
column, putting small sentences in conversations to make it look
like I wasn’t in a mood. Simon didn’t notice, but Maddy was
suspicious. I faked smiles at her, forcing myself not to remember
the feel of her hair in my fingers, or the way she’d listened to my
confession on the hilltop. How we both wanted to kiss each other,
even if it was just to see what happened. It all seemed tainted
now, memories of what could have been aching my heart.

I spent half the ride glaring at Logan’s
back. At least until he and Orcus trotted to the front of the group
and led us to another rocky hill. He stopped at the base of the
hill and jumped off his Horse. We copied him, though Maddy was
hesitant about leaving the horses in the dark.

“They’ll be safe with Orcus,” Logan assured
her. He looked at Simon and me. “Turn off your flashlights. You
won’t need them.”

We did as he asked. Logan never made requests
like that without a damn good reason.

Darkness cloaked us again, most of the light
coming from the stars dotting the sky above us.

Most of the light, but not all of it.

The hill Logan was climbing had a dull orange
glow to it, as if there was a huge fire just beyond it. My gut
tightened, and I hurried to follow my brother. Logan got on his
stomach just before he reached the hilltop, then crawled the rest
of the way up. Reaching his destination, he went into his jacket
and pulled out a set of foldout binoculars. I lay on my stomach
beside him, Maddy and Simon settling down beside me.

Because of the orange glow that had shone
above the hill, I expected a huge fire. Sure enough, there was a
massive blaze dancing in the middle of the campground. But there
was more to what I was seeing. I yanked the binoculars out of
Logan’s hand. He didn’t try to take them back. My heart
plummeted.

I hadn’t expected to see a circus for the
damned. I hadn’t expected to see the humans we were seeking out
being tortured by the demons I was trying to stop.

There was so much going on I could barely
comprehend it all. Rusted, dirty RVs circled the bonfire, each one
them surrounded by a group of Soulless and humans. It looked like a
Soulless party, and the humans were the main attraction in the
horror show.

A cluster of Soulless were shoving a man back
and forth, shouting taunts at him. When he fell, the monsters
kicked him and demanded that he get back up. Beside them, a nervous
woman was walking over to a trio of Soulless with a tray of
glasses. She handed them out, but had nothing to fill them with.
That was when one of the Soulless men grabbed her and sank his
fangs into her neck. She screamed as he drank her blood while his
two friends bit her wrists and poured her blood into their
glasses.

Across from them was a small fighting pit.
Soulless shouted and encouraged two burly human men to fight each
other. Both humans were bruised and bloody, and from the way the
crowd of vampires closed in, I knew the fight wasn’t going to have
a winner.

Two Soulless women were dragging another
woman with long hair toward the bonfire. The woman dug her bare
heels into the sand and screamed. One of the Soulless slammed her
fist into the victim’s stomach, doubling her over and taking away
her fight. The Soulless women laughed and hit her again, forcing
her onto the ground. They grabbed the woman’s hair again and yanked
her across the dirt toward the fire. The human woman kicked,
screamed, and cried, but none of it stopped her captors from
pulling her hair into the bonfire.

It wasn’t easy to pull my eyes away from the
barbarity, but I forced myself to. When I did, I noticed the cages
on the far left of the camp. Each one looked like it had been taken
from an animal pound, barely able to fit a large dog, let a full
grown human. But in every single cage huddled a cramped, barely
clothed mortal. In front of the cages were even more Soulless, and
a man in a black cowboy hat pointing to the terrified humans.

Rage boiled in my chest when I saw Vance. I
would have growled if I thought it would do any good, or keep him
from unlocking the cage so the Soulless could grab the young man
inside and drag him toward one of the RVs. I didn’t want to know
what was going to happen to the man in there, only that it would be
horrible and that he would probably be meeting Logan soon.

A rumbling engine caught my attention. I
looked at the north end of the camp, seeing another well-dressed
man standing by a big rig with a blocky trailer. He stood back,
folding his arms over his chest as he commanded strong, Soulless
men to drag a chain gang of humans into the back of the rig.

I could almost see Ciaran’s smug expression
from here.

Once the chain gang was loaded up, Vance
joined his master. The demons spoke to each other, though what they
were saying was anyone’s guess. While the big rig spun its wheels
and drove away, Vance beckoned another man with a long black braid
over to him. This man carried himself differently, and something in
my gut told me he wasn’t Soulless. Braid Guy nodded after Ciaran
spoke to him, and then both he and Vance burst into ashy snowflakes
and vanished from sight.