Hollow Valley (The Hollows #5)

Chapter 1

Stella

In the morning sunlight, it seemed so peaceful here, even with the distant howling of zombies.

The warmer weather and longer days that arrived with May also brought the spring thaw of the zombies.

We were far enough north in the Canadian wilderness, nestled in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains, that we had lengthy winters with little more than a groan from the undead.

I’d been an early riser since my daughter Rafaella was born, although I didn’t usually get up early enough to watch the sunrise. But today, I was going to leave my daughter for the first time in twenty months, and I wanted to memorize the weight of her in my arms.

We were on the narrow balcony outside my room on the S. S. Barbarabelle, the steamboat hotel that has been our floating home for nearly two years. I sat on an old Muskoka chair with Fae curled up on my chest, and the comforter from my bed draped over us both to ward off the chill in the air.

Fae wasn’t even really awake this early, her eyes closed as she nestled against me. In the morning sunlight, her downy brown curls looked more auburn like my own, but her face was a chubbier version of her father’s, complete with the faintest smattering of freckles.

I smiled down at the wonderful perfection of her, because I knew she would change so much while I was gone. I breathed the sweet scent of the top of her head, and I sang to her the old lullaby that I had learned from Max, “à la claire Fontaine.”

Behind me, the balcony door slid open, and I looked back to see Boden. He leaned against the frame and squinted at me in the morning sun.

Boden turned thirty-one this year, although the past decade had aged him more than that.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, but he’d gotten a little soft in the middle during our time on the Barbarabelle.

I had, too, because the food was fairly plentiful, and in the long dark days of winter, there wasn’t much to do except eat and think too much on the past. So we ate.

His hair looked dark when it was cropped short, but the stubbly beard and temples had gone silver. His eyes were dark and expressive, and he never hesitated to smile if he could find a reason for it.

He was handsome, I think, although it was hard for me to tell because he was basically my older brother. Out of the past nine years, when everyone else has died or left, he had been the only constant.

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” he asked.

“No, not at all,” I assured him. “Fae is sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake her yet.”

“You don’t have to go, you know,” he reminded me. He reached over, gently tousling Fae’s soft hair with his big hands.

“No, I do,” I replied firmly. “I want to find her.”

“So do I.” He looked away, his eyes cast down at the dark water of the river surrounding us. “But maybe it’s not worth it to risk yourself or being apart from Fae for so long. It’ll take nearly two weeks to get out to the Lakehouse, so it’ll be at least a month for the full roundtrip.”

“Boden, we have gone over this.” I stared up at him from my chair, waiting until he met my gaze before continuing, “Max would go after her if he were here.”

“She wouldn’t have left if Max were here,” Boden muttered in exasperation, and by the grimace on his face, he instantly regretted saying it.

But he wasn’t wrong. There was no way that Remy would’ve left if her brother were still alive. And yet she had left Boden and her wedding band behind, along with me and her niece Fae, her only living blood relative.

After Max died and Serg died and the town of Emberwood burned, none of us had been doing well. What remained of the former safe haven had been left covered in soot and blood. The winter that followed was lost to grief.

But slowly, in the following spring and summer, we all seemed to find ourselves again.

Things couldn’t return to normal, because there was no normal, not after that much devastation, not when zombies still roam the earth.

But we could find peace and purpose in taking care of ourselves and our friends and neighbors.

I truly thought we were all on the mend.

Until six months ago in early December, we woke to find Remy gone. She’d left a note for Boden, the ring he gave her, and taken Lazlo’s mule. Then she vanished into the cold with her lioness, Ripley, at her side.

It had been as the first snow was falling, and I couldn’t follow her in that with a baby so young. Boden almost went after her despite the hardships and dangers of a subarctic winter, but he stayed with me and Fae, because we needed him.

With the winter behind us, and Fae a bit older, it was finally safe for us to travel. It was best to do it now, before the zombies thawed out in full force.

Since Remy had left in the snow, she couldn’t get too far. She’d likely want to go somewhere safe to hole up for the winter, somewhere she knew had provisions. That left the Lakehouse – our old home where we had lived until I fell pregnant with Rafaella – as the most logical place for her to go.

“I want to make sure she’s okay,” Boden said after a long silence. “I want to understand why she left. But I worry that we might need to accept that she doesn’t want to be found.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I argued. “Max would find her, and she would find Max. That’s what families do. She’s like an injured rabbit sneaking off to die. She’s hurting, and she needs our help. And besides all that, you will be safer with me than you would be without me.”

He cleared his throat and straightened up. “Well, if you still insist on going, we should head out soon. I wanna get there and back as quickly and safely as possible.” As he was turning away, he added, “Edie and Harlow are already down in the nursery, waiting to say goodbye.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.” I got to my feet as hurriedly as I could, because I really didn’t want to leave them waiting, especially not since they were doing me a favor.

Edie was Eden, a transgender woman I had met when we first moved to Emberwood, and she had become very close to me and Fae ever since.

In fact, we’d spent so much time together that she had become Edie when Fae started talking.

Her black hair was kept in a shoulder-length bob, and her dark eyes were wide and compassionate.

Harlow was also part of my extended family, although not as close as others. The first winter on the boat, we’d all been here, and she had helped out with Fae, babysitting, playing with her, making her clothes.

Last summer, after Lazlo and Nova had begun rebuilding Emberwood, Harlow and her girlfriend Kimber had followed suit.

Most of the time, the S. S. Barbarabelle was anchored near the waterfall to the south of Emberwood, making it only a two-day hike back to town.

That meant it wasn’t so hard for Harlow to come visit, but quick drop-ins were an impossibility.

Despite the relative proximity, I hadn’t been back to Emberwood. Not since the night the town had burned, and I had led the zombies away.

In fact, I hardly even stepped foot on land.

Sometimes I went to the shore to work the gardens.

We managed a few greenhouses on the limited outdoor space on the boat, and some small gardens on balconies.

But outside of fishing, most food still came from the land, and people rowed out every day to tend to nearby fields and livestock as well as going on hunting trips.

Mostly, I stayed on the boat, taking care of Fae and minding the chores here.

There was plenty that needed to be done on a steamboat that housed over fifty people, including multiple children.

Others would have to step up and fill in for me while I was gone looking for Remy, which was why Harlow had come down from New Emberwood yesterday.

She’d be staying here for the weeks that I would be gone, helping Edie with Fae and picking up the slack that I was leaving behind.

In the nursery, Edie was crouched down in front of the dresser, folding cloth diapers for Fae, and Harlow was sitting in the rocking chair, looking out the window at the same sunrise I’d been watching.

Her wavy blond hair was in a long braid, and she was wearing a robe she’d made from floral quilts with fur trim.

She was twenty-three with an easy smile, and a dark pink burn scar that ran from her cheek down her jawline onto her neck.

“I was starting to wonder if you’d changed your mind,” Harlow remarked as I brought Fae into the room, and Boden was following right behind me.

“No, no, I was enjoying my last few minutes with Fae.” I kissed the top of her head, hugging her close to me for another moment longer until she started squirming.

“I don’t blame you, but Fae will have a fantastic time with her Auntie Harlow,” she assured me as I passed my daughter to her.

“We’ll take great care of her and make sure she’s safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything except finding Remy and getting back here,” Edie promised.

Harlow snort laughed at that. “Do you really think she’s going to come back with you, assuming you do find her?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But even if she doesn’t, I want to make sure she’s safe and find out why she left.”

“She left because that’s what she does when she’s scared or overwhelmed,” Harlow answered.

Boden spoke for the first time since we entered the nursery, definitively saying, “That’s all the more reason that we should find her.”