Revenant (22 page)

I murmured the words that would bind the
spirit and watched with a sick feeling in my stomach as the woman’s body in the
bag began to sit up.

It
opened its mouth and a voice I recognized raised the hairs on the back of my
neck. “I knew you could do it, girly! If I followed you long
enough,
I knew you’d figure out how to give me
a body that would last.”

Wanda?
Somehow her spirit followed me
here.
Wanda—a spirit determined to
live again.
I noticed suddenly that, of all of the zombies I’d raised, Wanda
was the only one able to talk. What made her special?

She
found me near a death dealer cemetery. Maybe she was one of Luke’s ancestors—a
death dealer with power over the dead and an understanding of the rules that
govern life and death. That cemetery held some of the Phoenix Guild’s strongest
ancestors.

Wanda
continued to chatter on about how good it was to be back, and how lovely it
felt to be in a body—she was seemingly oblivious to the stunned audience.
But then she lowered her voice so that only I could hear over the roar of the
wind. “I killed those nasty mages for you, didn’t I?
I
am going to be your best ally, girly. I’m someone you can depend
on, and someday you are going to figure out how to put me in a breathing, blood-pumping,
heart-beating body.”

Wha
—
?
My mouth opened, but I had no idea what to say. Her words were such
a surprise, such a shock, that I was speechless.

Gage
motioned to some men who were standing nearby. One of them came over and pushed
Wanda
down
while the other man zipped the
bag closed.

I
could see Wanda struggling within the bag. Her feet
kicked and
her arms struck out, but the bag
held. I could hear Wanda’s muffled voice coming from the bag, protesting that
she wasn’t fighting back and didn’t need to
be
treated
this way.

Gage waved his hand and the two men picked up
the body bag, carrying it across the field.
He watched their retreating forms.
“It’s not an ideal situation, but for
now I need them to stay put. We can stuff them and then set them free once they
dry.”

Another drop of rain hit my face.

“My dear, I don’t mean to rush you, but you really
do need to hurry,” Gage said.

I
forced myself up. My knees were trembling. I felt weak as I stumbled to the
next body and dropped down. I reached
out
and unzipped the bag. My fingers touched the skin of the dead and I raised
another mummy. I did it again and again, and when the last dead body sat up,
filled with a new spirit, the sky opened up and the light sprinkling of
raindrops changed into a torrent of water.

I was only half aware of strong hands
grabbing me. Someone hoisted me up into their arms and carried me through the
field to the edge of the forest.

I could see lights twinkling from within the
trees.

Gage
spoke, and I could see the outline of his body in front of me
.
“Because of the rain, I moved the
party into the forest. The trees will give us some added shelter from the
storm.”

It was then I realized it was Caleb who was
carrying me. “Put me down!” I shouted, struggling to free myself.

Without a word, Caleb dropped me directly
into a mud puddle.

“Son of a—” I screeched. When I looked
up at Caleb, he shrugged his shoulders and turned away, but not before I saw
the smile on his face.

Gage
didn’t seem to notice Caleb’s
ill treatment
of me. Or, if he did, he let it pass without comment. Gage stopped and looked
back at me, then turned around, reached down, and offered me his hand.

I ignored his offer of help and instead
forced myself to my feet. I
was soaked to the
skin
. Water plastered my hair against my face, and mud covered my jeans.
I felt sore, bruised, exhausted, and cold.

“Come, my dear, the others are waiting,” Gage
said as he started walking into the trees.

“Coming, princess?” Caleb asked as he started
after Gage.

I looked back at the field. I could make out
people moving in the wavering firelight. They were carrying the bags away. As I
watched, the rain slowly put out the fires and threw the field back into
darkness
.

I headed off into the woods, picking up my
pace until I caught up with Gage. “What’s happening to the zombies I raised so
far?”

“They’re falling apart—completely
useless. But I think this time we’ll be successful. I can feel it in my bones.”

There was a large open-walled tent
set up
between the trees. Lanterns hung down
from black chains at each corner of the shelter. There were a couple dozen
people inside. They all turned in unison as we approached. When I stepped
inside, the bodies parted to reveal a gray boulder in the center of the tent.
The boulder’s surface sparkled with crystals, and the top of it was perfectly
flat.
Next to it stood a black candelabra
decorated with a half-dozen red candles, their flames flickering in the wind.

It was then I saw two bodies on the ground in
front of the boulder.

My heart lurched in my chest, and I pushed my
way through the crowd, not caring whether I dirtied anyone with my mud-covered
clothing.
Don’t be Dean, don’t be Wendy.
I
didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to see a familiar face laying on the ground
before me.

I looked down into the faces of two complete
strangers.

They were boys my age. Their eyes were closed
and their hands crossed over their bodies as though they were dead, but I could
see their chests slowly rising and falling. They were alive.

Gage came up next to me. “Now, then. You have
two bodies to
choose from
. If they are
not to your liking, let me know, and I will rustle up another one. I want to
please you.”

I stared at him in horror, unable to keep the
shock off my face. “I…don’t understand.”

“Come, come, you have to have a say. I want
you to be happy. Which one pleases you?” Gage pointed to the dark-haired boy on
the left. “How about this one? He’s a handsome fellow.” When I didn’t answer,
he pointed to the other. “Hmm, maybe you’ve had your fill of brunettes? This
one has
golden
hair—the
color,
I’m told, of Luke’s.”

I looked at Gage as though he’d gone mad.

Then, the image of Dean sitting motionless in
a wheelchair in the asylum slid across my mind.
Didn’t you do the same thing, Colina
?
sneered
a mean voice in my head.
Didn’t you once venture out looking for a body Luke could possess?

The smile left Gage’s face; he looked
annoyed. “I insist you pick.”

The boys on the ground before me were empty
vessels
chosen by Gage for the ritual.
Had he found them? Or had he done something to push out the souls that used to
occupy the bodies? I shoved the sickening thought away. I’d been looking for
a spell
to transfer Luke’s spirit into another
body for so long, but until this moment I’d honestly never thought about the
new body Luke would take over. Up until now, it had been a distant, abstract
concept, and now, as I looked down at the boys, I realized what this all meant.
Luke will jump into one of these boys.
Soon one of them will sit
up,
and Luke will
be inside him.
Luke would hold me in his arms, but I would once again be
looking into the face of a stranger.

And if it worked, would Luke be safe inside
another body? Then what could Gage use against me?

As if reading my thoughts, Gage said, “I can
still hurt them. Luke, your friends…they live or die at my whim. Never forget
it. Now pick.”

I took a deep breath and pointed to the blond-haired,
fair-skinned boy, looking down into his face. His eyes
were closed
. I wondered what color they were.

Soon
I will look into those eyes and see Luke staring back at me.

My knees buckled and my stomach lurched. I
couldn’t believe this was happening. Both hope and terror filled me.

Mildred was suddenly beside me. She wore a
long black dress. Her white hair hung free, swinging gently back and forth as
she moved. She put her hand on my arm. “You look ill. Do you want to sit down?

I shook off her hand. “Don’t touch me.”

She gave me a small smile.

“Mildred is the one you should be thanking,
Colina. She helped me find the spell. She’s not your enemy,” Gage said. He
motioned to the blond-haired boy and two men moved forward, picked him up, and laid
him on top of the boulder.

“I hope that by giving you what you want most
in the world, you’ll realize I’m on your side,” Mildred whispered.

I was speechless.
She betrayed us. She made us prisoners
,
and she thinks I’ll believe she’s on my side?

Someone handed Gage a small, black
leather-bound book. He flipped it open. “Don’t worry, my dear. If this spell
doesn’t work, we’ve found a couple others to try. We’ll keep looking until we
find a way to transfer Luke into an appropriate body.”

That’s when I saw Dean—no, Luke
.
He was standing between Caleb and
Jacob. His eyes met mine and he leaped forward, but Caleb and Jacob grabbed him
and pulled him back. No chains bound his hands. There was no collar around his neck.

The collar was off.

Hope flashed through me.
This was
our chance to make a stand. To fight
and try to escape. I started toward him, but Mildred held me in place. “Don’t
do anything rash, child.”

My eyes wandered to the death dealers
surrounding us, and my optimism immediately sank away. There were too many of
them. It would be madness to try and escape now.

Luke looked at the body on the boulder, and
then his eyes swung back at me. “Colina, don’t let them go through with it!
This was
wrong the first time you brought me
back—it’s wrong this time, too,” he shouted.

I knew Luke thought this was wrong. We’d
argued about it before, when he’d first possessed Dean’s body. But I wasn’t
strong enough to let him go. I couldn’t meet Luke’s
eyes
and turned my face away.

Mildred moved to the boulder. She bent down
and picked up a black bowl lying at its base. She dipped her finger into the
bowl and painted something on the boy’s forehead and arms. When she finished, a
sudden
wind
roared through the tent. All
the candles went out. The only light shining now was from the lanterns swinging
wildly in the strong breeze.

Gage started to recite out of the book, and
as his words rang
out,
I could hear the
hollow echo of rain slowly pattering on the canvas tent above us.

My eyes went back to Luke, who was struggling
fervently. Caleb and Jacob brought him to the base of the boulder.

Gage stopped
reciting
the spell
and turned to Mildred. “
Tell her she’ll have to make sure that only Luke’s soul
jumps into the body. She’ll need to concentrate and use all her power to keep
the other souls at bay.”

That’s
when I comprehended that he was talking about me. Mildred moved quickly to my
side. Before I could say anything, she grabbed my arm and pulled me forward.
The old woman was stronger than she looked. I stumbled until I was standing
before the boulder.

I
looked over at Luke, who glared at me, pleading with his eyes to stop this
ritual. We were only an arm’s length away from each other. I started to reach
for him when the old woman slapped my hand back.

“Whatever
you do
,
don’t touch him,” she said
to me while gesturing at the boy. When I didn’t
respond,
she gave me a hard pinch. “Do you hear me? Colina, you can’t touch him!”

I
looked down at my hands. “What am I supposed to do?”

Mildred’s
voice took on a smooth tone. “Concentrate. Can you feel the energy around you?”

I
could feel Luke’s eyes burning into me, but I refused to meet them. I knew he
wanted me to
st
op. He didn’t want me to
go through with the spell, but this would help fix everything. Luke would be in
his
own
body.
This was
what we had been hoping for, what I had been
working toward
. Luke would realize when it was all
over that it was the right decision.

Mildred
hissed, “Concentrate.
This is
important.
You must focus your whole being on the spirits around you.”

“Colina,
don’t do it,” Luke begged me. “I want to be with you, but this…
this goes
against the laws of nature.”

I
didn’t look at him. Instead, I turned all of my attention to the space above
his head. The air between us began to vibrate with energy.

“Good.
Good,” Mildred whispered.