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“And that wouldn’t bother you?”
His shoulders tensed, but he didn’t slow his step “There’s a horde of zoht, holed up in a warehouse about six miles down the road” He turned to address the others with a cruel look on his face “As slow as Evie is, that ought to put y’all right in theirabouter bait,” Jackson said “That’s between you and your god Me? I’er”
There were other things to be said, other questions to be asked—
“Have fun, Ery withwith it
He whipped around and stalked toward asped, rocked to the core “I-I can’t help the way I am”
“Doan ot to deal with it You doan need me to babysit you anyed onward
“Are you madder about what I am, or that I kept it from you?”
“Split it down the middle Call it a day”
“You—you et lance over his shoulder “You’re goan to pull that shit with oan that way” He pointed to theI wouldn’t
While I stood there in shock, Matthe up beside me
“Should we follow Jack?” I asked him
“I’ll lead you on the correct path Let you knohen you step off it” He trotted pastthe Cajun
That was the correct path? The others looked at ain like I was their leader
“We’ll skate close to the edge,” I assured Finn and Selena “Head south to the end of the range, then cut back for North Carolina We won’t go deep into the mountains”
“And if we lose our way?” Finn asked “There are tons of mines up there Each one’s filled with cannibals, like ants in a hill I told you I’d never cross the Appalachians again”
“I follow Matthew” Jackson had nothing to do with uised her relief that we’d stick with Jack for now Finn alht rain on his tongue
“Let’s go”
For the next half hour, weno one, expecting no one We did pass piles of bodies left over froh Stripped of clothes, they looked like stackedtoward The lower parts of the rise had once been covered with forest The Flash had scorched the trees into charred trunks, reseround was covered with ash
Ash The Flash-fried remains of trees, animals, and people I shivered, phobic about it Since the apocalypse, it’d swirled in the windstorainst the face of that incline
A low bank of fog poured down the nearestaround the base of it When it closed in on us, that oht I would choke on it
Just when I was about to tell the others that I was rethinking this plan, a Bagman wailed behind us Onward, Evie
What awaited us in those dark hills?
6
We were being watched
After trudging uphill in the otten anywhere near the center of this range, so it couldn’t be cannibals Nor Arcana—none of their calls sounded close by Nor was it Bag in the valley below us, held in check by the diluted sun
For now
As the afternoon wore on,ass, huffing and puffing, the acrid scent of burned wood stinging my nose I’d trained as a dancer for years, but cohable The ongoing drizzle provided enough lue
I’d toppled over so lobs of it, my hair as well Remains In my hair
Finn was just ahead, Matthew at ered, far in the lead as we headed for the next valley to the south She’da town there on hertoward it Jackson must have been as well
So led to process it all Arthur’s defeat, the return of some of my memories, the shoith Joules, the dreaht of usted I would have given anything to talk to hiht, but it wasn’t a choice I’d made to hurt him It wasn’t a choice whatsoever
“You okay back there, Evie?” Finn asked with a worried look “Maybe we ought to stop for a ” I would chop off ht, marked hand to stop We’d never had to contend with mud before I hoped it would slon any zombies—or Arcana—who decided to pursue us
“Okay Cool” He carried on ahead as if I’d told hi
I could barely talk, but questions were swirling in ht I dreamed of a time when Death stabbed a past Empress with a sword Did you send me that dream?”
“Yep”
“Why now? I’ve already learned about my abilities” I’d used most of theht him with your powers”
That Empress in my dream hadn’t been able to use any powers for me to learn from “All of those dreams have seemed fa my body”
“You felt it”
“Yeah, that’s what I just said”
He nodded, effortlesslybesideout the words: “Past life?” He’d never told htmares I’d had were in fact about me “You never said that ere reincarnates”
Of course, he’d never said eren’t reincarnates Hadn’t I suspected? From the visions Matthew had revealed, I’d witnessed a past Empress so horrific, I’d dubbed her the red witch