Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Ellery
The sun had mostly faded from the sky, the shadows had taken over, and the birds were settling into sleep when we arrived at the site of the blood-drenched woods.
We’d only been a few hundred yards away when the poltergeists found us; Ryker wasn’t here anymore, but my pull to him had still been right.
Rage warred with sadness and horror as I walked between the bodies littering the forest floor. Ghosts hovered nearby in the trees, staring at the remnants; I recognized a few of them as some of the dead who surrounded me.
“There’s a couple of new poltergeists too,” Cryton said. “But they’ve moved on already.”
“Do ghosts always stay close by afterward?” Scarlet inquired.
“Not always,” Farley said. “I’m not sure how the ghosts feel when they rise, as they’re pretty mindless and useless, but for new poltergeists, it’s confusing to emerge from your body.
Some are in denial about what happened and stick close by, others are disoriented and flee, and some are angry and looking to take it out somewhere. ”
“It sucks to see your body and not be able to get back into it,” Cryton said.
“And some try to do that too. I did. I kept thinking that if I could get back inside, I could return to life.”
“That sounds… awful,” Scarlet breathed.
It did sound awful, but what happened here was fresh and new, and some of the dead were our friends. I recognized a couple of amsirah from the camp, but most were guards.
Ryker and the others had taken down a fair amount of the enemy before being overwhelmed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep them free, and now Ryker was in the hands of his father.
I couldn’t think about what that man would do to him… I already knew. I’d seen his scars; I’d traced them and kissed them all as I’d sought a way to ease the sorrow staining his soul from them.
I could never eradicate what so many did to him, but I’d helped him heal from it, and now that fucker was going to damage him more. My hands fisted as my teeth ground together.
I would get him back, and I didn’t care what I had to do to ensure it. And when I did, I’d light the duke on fire and laugh while he burned.
When I stopped beside Val’s head, Cryton floated over to bob beside me. “She brought the duke here.”
My gaze shot up to him as he glared at Val’s head. A sense of betrayal twisted in my gut; I’d never seen that coming.
“She did?” I whispered.
“Yes,” Cryton said. “She’s the reason they took my dagger.”
“Let the dagger go,” Farley grumbled.
“Why don’t you let your dagger go? I’ll take it.”
“I’m not giving you my weapon because you were foolish enough to lose yours.”
“Fuck you, Farley.”
“Fuck you and your daggerless hands, Cryton,” Farley retorted.
“Why don’t both of you dickless wonders shut the fuck up!” Ianto interjected.
My eyebrows rose at his words as both poltergeists turned to glare at him. It was usually Ryker who was abrupt and annoyed by the poltergeists; Ianto tolerated them a lot more and was kinder to them. His speaking to them like this was a big indicator of his concern for Ryker and the others.
“That was rude,” Farley said.
“Sorry.” Ianto’s gaze remained locked on Val’s head. “What happened? Why did she bring the duke here?”
The poltergeists didn’t speak for a moment before Cryton made a disgruntled noise and started filling us in on what happened. Some of my anger eased when he spoke of Georgie; I understood Val seeking to save her son, but she’d turned on all of us.
My growing sense of betrayal was like a knife to my chest. As it twisted deeper, it became a lancing, festering thing full of anguish and rage.
We’d trusted her, and she’d handed Ryker over to the worst man possible. As I stood beside her head, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to kick it into the woods or give it a proper burial with the rest of her body.
I was torn between my warring emotions when I lifted my head to study the forest. As if sensing my attention on her head, Val’s ghost drifted across the clearing.
They’d never been sentient beings, and that didn’t change as she passed over her body and floated deeper into the woods. I hoped never to see her again, but I ached for the life she’d lost and the fate handed her.
And I couldn’t help feeling a pang of guilt over it. She’d volunteered to help us and other amsirah, we hadn’t forced her into it, but it led to her demise.
“We have to get back to the encampment,” I said. “The duke’s going to torture them until he discovers our location, and someone might break. We have to move everyone to our backup shelter, and we have to do it fast.”
“The backup shelter isn’t ready for all of us,” Scarlet said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ianto replied. “We have to go.”
I stepped over Val’s head. I wouldn’t kick it or bury it. We didn’t have time for that; we couldn’t even bury our own.
I hated the idea of leaving them here to the animals, but the living were more important than the dead. I was about to open a portal when the fading sun flashed over something on the ground.
Frowning, I walked over to see what it was. I bent and pushed aside some leaves to grasp whatever was there.
My confusion mounted as my fingers curled around something cold and stiff yet strangely yielding. I lifted it to examine what I’d discovered.