The Rise (13 page)

I opened my mouth and returned their call, a hiss rippling through my lips that matched their own deafening high-pitched cry, note for note.

Then they all started to swoop down to the ground, like bats taking flight, surrounding me as completely as the darkness, cutting off any chance of escape.

Alexa

We found a small dirt road off the highway that led us into a deserted area, just rolling hills and thick stands of trees all around us. If Camillia—I saw no more point in referring to her as “Queen”—was telling it right, we were only about fifteen minutes from our destination, but we had to stop. I’d insisted. We’d stolen a shovel from a barn a few miles back, and I didn’t feel bad about that at all. I needed it more right now than the farmer. I needed to bury my Mother. I couldn’t stand another minute in this van with the form of her body lying under the truck-stop blanket, and I couldn’t see tossing her in a river somewhere. I had already gotten sick twice, and the van smelled strongly of lemon-scented wipes, copper, and regurgitated stomach acid. At least now there was absolutely nothing left in my stomach, so I was stuck with dry-heaving. Small mercy.

As soon as the van lurched to a stop, I threw the door open with a bang and jumped out, blinking my eyes at the harsh daylight. I stood on the edge of a dirt road, ahead of me a small forest. The stolen shovel was clutched in my cold left hand, my Gladius in my right. I began to march toward the line of trees, leaving the task of moving the bodies to the others. I couldn’t handle that, couldn’t think about it or understand it. But, dig, I could do. It might even help me to let off some steam, plunging the iron spade into the earth and ripping it up, as long as I didn’t think about
what
I was doing and
why.

Twigs and dry leaves crunched under my shoes and birds called out their presence from above. It was a warm, pleasant spring day, the sunlight gentle and sweet on my skin. That’s what I concentrated on,
only
that.

Eventually, I came to a stop when I found a small clearing in the trees. Wild flowers bloomed here, yellow dandelions and purple violets. The air was cooler here, fresh, the sounds of nature the only things to be heard. A pretty place. A peaceful place. It would have to do.

I set my Gladius down beside me, then straightened and slammed the tip of the spade into the ground, shoving it in deeper with my foot, over and over, turning and tossing the earth. I was panting like a winded dog by the time the others reached me. Sweat matted my hair to my forehead and neck. I’d ripped off my jacket and tossed it aside, and now the sun glinted off my silvered right arm like a mirror, blinding me when I moved it certain ways.

I continued to dig. I could feel the eyes of the others watching me, knew how insane I must look, didn’t care. I just pretended they weren’t there. I
wished
they weren’t there, waiting to drop things into the holes I was digging. My wrists throbbed and hurt so bad that I was sure that at any second my hands were going to tear off of them and thump to the ground. That didn’t happen. But I welcomed the pain anyhow. It was better than nothing to hold my attention. Easier than dealing with whatever pain I would face emotionally when I had a moment to stop and think things through.

We had only the one shovel, and either everyone else was too tired, or too afraid to offer to take it from me. Better that they didn’t. I wanted to do this. Somehow, it only felt right if it were me.

Before I knew it, the task was complete, and two deep rectangles had been cut into the earth. I’m not sure how much time passed, and the others waited by patiently without saying a word. But when I climbed out of the earth with an assisting hand from Kayden, my body screamed its exhaustion at me through my muscles in high-pitched wails. Kayden’s arms wrapped around me, holding me upright. The digging had taken more from me than I had realized.

When I felt able, I pushed away from Kayden to stand on my own feet. Things to be done. There were things to be done.

Tommy came forward and handed me a bouquet of dandelions and violets, and I stared at them a moment, wondering what they were for. Now tears burned my eyes, and I blinked hard, and they rolled hot and wet down my cheeks. I turned and buried my head against Kayden’s chest, hiding there, crushing the flowers between us. He held me, and I heard the others moving the bodies, heard the
thump! thump!
as they tossed them into the earth, heard Camillia’s heartbroken sobs, heard Patterson’s agonized groaning sound, and the silence that had seemed to steal the voices of the others. I clenched my teeth and clutched Kayden, my body shaking and shivering. His hands stroked my hair, his arms held me tight. And I cried. And like always, I hated it.

I didn’t remove myself from Kayden until he leaned down and whispered, “It’s done, Alexa.”

I took a slow step back and looked to my left, my hands still wrapped around the fabric of Kayden’s shirt. There, the earth was turned fresh and brown, and flowers that the others must have placed lie scattered over the two graves. There, my Mother would sleep for the rest of eternity. I felt as if by digging these holes, I had punched a hole inside of me, a hole that couldn’t so simply be filled in, a hole that could
never
be filled in.

And Nelly was gone, too.

But her we can save, Warrior. Her we can save.

For once, I welcomed the input of my Monster. If there was any part of me that could fight my way through this, it was the part of me that understood death, knew it intimately. It was a part of my life so great that I may as well befriend it; make peace with it, because as broken as I felt right then, I knew in my gut that the future only held worse.

And we will stand, Warrior. We will survive.

“Yes,”
I thought.
“As long as there is Nelly.”

Yes, as long as there is Nelly.

Slowly, the others began to drift back toward the cars. Patterson had left without my noticing. Camillia stayed the longest, kneeling by her niece’s grave and muttering words I couldn’t make out. Eventually, even she left, and then it was just me and Kayden.

He had his arm around my shoulder still, and when his calloused fingers brushed my wet cheek, I turned to look at him. “Do you want me to give you a moment?” he asked.

I shook my head, clinging to the gold in his gaze like a life-preserver. “No,” I said, my voice cracking. “Would you stay, please? I-I don’t know…how to do this.”

Kayden nodded, took my hand, and led me over to my Mother’s grave. We knelt down together, and I closed my eyes wishing for this nightmare to be over. I knew I should say something, but I couldn’t seem to find the words.

When Kayden began humming softly, his deep voice vibrating in his chest, I fell into his arms again. He rocked me gently back and forth, his voice carrying sweetly, lovely. Kayden was a man of few words, had been as long as I knew him, which wasn’t really very long, but felt like forever to me. It was a quality I’d come to admire in him, because I could never seem to keep my mouth shut. But it was a shame, really, because a voice such as his was like angels’ music. It was even more so when he hummed. I closed my eyes, lulled by the rhythm of his song, which I realized that I recognized.
Danny Boy.

As Kayden’s low, deep voice carried the tune, the only words I knew to the song played out in my head, like whispers from the dead. But it was the voice of my Monster which sang the words.

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling. From glen to glen, and down the mountain side. The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying. ‘Tis you, ‘tis you must go and I must bide.

Now I sobbed, my breath hiccupping and catching. Kayden continued on with his hummed eulogy, and I let what seemed like so much hurt pour out of me in salt water and sobs. In all my days my chest had never felt so tight or my gut so wrenched. I wasn’t sure that I had ever allowed myself to show so much emotion like this. And I was ashamed to have Kayden here with me, witnessing it, but the thought of having him go was even worse.

Kayden ended the song, gently, his already barely audible tone fading out until it was gone. Then we sat in silence, and I knew it was my turn to say something. It didn’t even matter what, just
something.

My mouth fell open, though I had no idea what was going to come out. “I-I’ll do my best, Mom,” I said. And that was all.

After a little while, Kayden pulled me to my feet, and then he lifted me into his arms, cradling me like a child. That was fine. The load on my back had grown too great. “You ready?” he asked, looking down at me.

I reached up and smoothed a lock of his golden hair behind his ear. “Yes,” I told him. “I’m ready.”

He carried me back through the woods and to the van. I stared up at the trees, their branches swaying in the breeze, and thought about my sister. I thought about how she should have been here for this. I thought about the way she had looked at me just before she’d tried to kill me by draining me of all my blood. I thought about how lost she must feel right now. I thought about her waking in that van with just my Mother, and whatever happened next. I thought about my Monster telling me that she could still be saved. That I could still save her. I clung to those thoughts. They were all I had left.

Yes, but how far are you willing to go to save her, Warrior? How far?

“To the ends of the universe, my friend. To the ends of the universe.”

And the journey continued on.

Nelly

The Lamias were
fast.
I could feel the very air stir with their movements. My head snapped back, instinct taking over the way it only does when faced with certain death, and I threw my mind out at them like a web, wrapping silky fingers around their souls. It was easy. I felt the raw power flow through me, and with it a wondrous peace that felt so right. I held the Lamias where they were for a moment, and I heard a jackal’s laugh cut across the sudden silence in the dark cavern. It sounded strange, even though I’d felt it bubble up from my own belly, pass through my own lips.

The Lamias stood all around me now, and all of my actions now seemed to happen on their own, like a series of knee-jerks. Like falling. I could feel them there, so many, two-hundred and twenty-seven, to be exact. A large nest. I pinpointed their leader effortlessly, gripped her soul hard with my challenge. A moment later, a single hissed word gave me her response.

“
Masssster
,” she said.

Another jackal’s laugh escaped my throat. Satisfaction ran through me and made my chest swell. They were mine now. They were all mine. I ran my eyes over them, and one by one, they all fell to their knees before me and bowed.

I heard myself speak, my voice as foreign to me as that laugh. “
Rise, my ssssisters.”

Another whispered, agonized voice was warning me that I was missing something, that I needed to remember something. I shrugged it away. My mind was otherwise occupied with my survival and my soul enraptured by that powerful peace. One-tracked, like a train to nowhere. I found it utterly impossible to concentrate on anything other than the here and now, of the fire that seemed to be burning in my throat, of the need for
control
in my belly as sharp as hunger pains.

The Lamias found their feet, and I studied them all. Beautiful, fearsome creatures, they were; all female with porcelain skin and flowing hair and infinitely deep black eyes. I knew I should be afraid, terrified even. But I was not. And that was just something that couldn’t be helped.