Chapter 62
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
The spirits of Ullman’s victims tore through him like a volley of cannonballs, trailing bits of black smoke in their wake.
“No—stop—you can’t do this to me!” he shrieked.
His fang-lined mouth opened, and he tried to bite at them, but they simply ripped through his increasingly insubstantial form, leaving holes in his cheeks, the back of his head.
Less and less of the cloaking mist remained every moment, and his face shrank back to normal dimensions, as if a mask was stripped away.
Now all that remained was the specter of a man.
Nothing special, nothing godlike, nothing powerful.
Ullman looked small, his hands clawing weakly at the air as the spirits of those he’d killed whipped past, just beyond his reach.
Finally he gave up and simply stood there, a bedraggled, wet shape moaning to himself, “No…this can’t be happening… I deserve better…how dare you…”
Gloria turned to face him, a look of wonder on her face as she watched long-withheld vengeance play out. Seeing him reduced to this thin shadow, her mouth curved into a grin. Then, with an eerily childlike shriek of glee, she rushed him.
Her hands struck his midsection, and he flew back through the wall, over the gallery, into the night. The last shreds of him unwound in the screaming wind.
Then he was gone. Passed on to whatever awaited him next.
“Look,” Robin said.
Oscar followed her pointing finger. The orbs had raced out across the waves and were now dismantling the flaming ship and its inhabitants as thoroughly as they had Ullman. Within a matter of seconds, the fire flickered and went out.
The ship gone, silvery balls of light chased each other across the heaving ocean in a manner that struck Oscar as playful. Joyful, even. Then, one by one, they faded away and were gone.
“It’s time for me to go as well.” Robin faced Oscar, smiling gently. “I think I’ve atoned for my part in this. Thank you for seeing through what I couldn’t.”
Then, with a last whiff of flowers, she vanished.
“Oscar!” Tina yelled. “We need your help! They’re about to fall!”