| |
The funeral lasted hours. I don’t know how long it was that I stood in front of Danny, but my whole body was yelling at me to go to sleep when the procession continued long after the suns went down.
I nearly jumped when Ezra placed his hand on my shoulder. “Darling, can you take Anastasia Grace for a walk? My self-control is waning.”
It was only then I realized he was breathing through his teeth, and no doubt holding onto his human side for dear life. “Of course. You guys got Danny?”
“Keep walking, old man. That’s right.” Boston’s fists clenched as he snarled at a man who walked by with a glare aimed at Danny. “Not a problem. I could do this all night.”
Von and I moved into the castle, gusting out a deep breath when we were finally hidden from the public eye. I fished through my purse that I’d stashed just inside the heavy wooden doors. “I’ve got you, baby doll,” I offered as I shook some formula up with the bottled water I’d brought for her.
Ana had just started fussing, so I sunk to sit on the floor and held my hands out for her to give Von a break. He’d been the one ducking into the castle to feed and change her today, since I couldn’t leave my post. “I’m sorry. Your arms must be so tired. Let me have a turn.”
“Thanks, love. Easy with her. I know we said we wouldn’t use pulling on her, but I couldn’t very well let her scream throughout the entire service.”
“You’ve been pulling this entire time?” My eyes went wide as I cradled the sweetest sweetness in my arms, feeding her the bottle I knew she was hungry for. She was pleasantly staring up at me, making precious cooing noises that erased the memory of the hours of screaming she’d done all night long. She was magic incarnate, bewitching me at every turn; Von and I were completely enamored of her.
“I wasn’t pulling the entire time. Just when she starts to go on about the sodden state of the union.”
“You must be starving. Do you need to refuel? I brought a blood bag in my purse.”
Von’s black eyes softened as they fell on my face that held no condemnation of all that he was. “You love me.”
“Can you blame me? You’re doing that suit all sorts of favors.”
Von offered up a silent snort, trying to hold onto a sense of humor that had served him so well until today. Today was simply bleak, and there was no painting a happy face on the frown. “I can’t believe we’re here, that this is happening. It doesn’t feel real.”
“If only it wasn’t real. What happens after the hiya procession?”
“Terraway watches while the Mangkukulam burns her body. Then Kabayo gives an address, and that’s that.”
My mouth gaped. “Burns her body? Why can’t Kabayo just bury her in his crypt?”
Von swallowed hard, running his hand through his inch-long hair. “It keeps her body from reanimating. So much goes on in an awakened Omen’s body. It’s not safe just to bury her. Omens who’ve been awakened have a lot in them that regular Terraway residents don’t. We can’t take the risk of her turning.”
I chewed on my lower lip, forcing out the image of my sis coming at me with skin patches missing and jaw slack, like the residents of Terraway did when they weren’t buried properly. “Oh. Well, I guess we don’t want Mariang reanimating. That wouldn’t be good. We wouldn’t want her walking to Sombi.”
“She has too much magic to turn into a zombie.” Von waved his hand like this was all no big deal to be discussing. “That’s for the commoners like me and the rest of Terraway. She wouldn’t do that. She’d turn into a Woman in White.”
“Huh? Like a bride?”
“Not exactly.” Von sunk down next to me, his back against the stone wall as his knee rested against mine. Not to oversell the Omen-Reaper bond, but I could practically feel his exhaustion through the small contact of his knee on mine. I kissed his cheek as he explained. “A Woman in White is a sort of apparition. She appears to desperate men and beckons them to her. Eventually they succumb, and usually they die.” He unscrewed the cap on the blood bag, wrapping his free arm around my shoulders to bring both of us closer. “You have to burn her whole body, otherwise her spirit will cling to her remnants. Then she’ll turn into a Woman in White who roams near where her body remains. Utter havoc.”
My mouth fell open. “Bruce Campbell never had to deal with crap like this. He just got to deal with demons and call it a day. Take ’em out with his boomstick, and that’s that. Now we’re all burning bodies and dealing with ghost-zombie nonsense.”
“I’m pretty sure none of this would’ve thrown your first love. Bruce’s got a chin that could conquer anything.”
I leaned my temple to his shoulder and sighed in the quiet of our little huddle. “You’re so sexy when you talk like that. When you love Bruce Campbell, it only makes me want you more.”
Von chuckled, draining the last of the blood bag. He crossed his arm over me to stroke Ana’s cheek. “It’ll be alright, yeah? You’ve both got me to watch over you until Bruce’s schedule frees up and he can guard you nice and proper, like he should.”
I closed my eyes and kissed Anastasia’s forehead, wishing she would never know anything about Terraway. “I don’t want Ana to ever have to be awakened. To think of her withering away like Mariang did? It’s eating at my guts just thinking about it. She’s so tiny.”
“You’re so tiny,” he commented, his arm tightening around my shoulders in protection.
“I was thinking maybe we should up the daily count of hearts we reap. I mean, now that Mason’s back, I think that’ll help me be able to reap more. Six a day isn’t cutting it.”
“Slow down, speedy. We need one soul per day. The six a day we’re doing is more than plenty. We’ve got a nice stock of souls built up for the occasional day away. Nice jaunt for holiday here, soul-crushing funeral there. We don’t need to do more than that.”
Ana felt so small and fragile in my arms. “But if I do enough for years, maybe even decades, then no other Omen has to be awakened in our lifetime. Anastasia can just enjoy a normal life Topside. She’s only a month old, and she’s already had a rough life.”
“No,” Von ruled. His usually relaxed tone was resolute as he planted his stake in the ground to show me how little he was willing to compromise on this. “I won’t sacrifice you like that. Danny had no choice in the matter. Mariang couldn’t keep up no matter how hard she worked. I want you to be the first Omen to see her forties. I mean it, Peach. I know how you get when you’re jonesing to work, but this isn’t an option. Anastasia will be awakened when she’s an adult and can handle such things. She’ll have to reap one person a day, which means that both of you could live to be old women.” He kissed my temple. “I want to see you with white hair all done up in a sexy librarian bun someday. I want you to take up knitting tea cozies and carry around sweets in your purse.”
“Well, I’ve got blood bags and formula in my purse now. Does that count?” I don’t know why I tried to make a joke out of his sincerity. It was such a beautiful thing for him to say – I didn’t feel worthy of so grand a compliment.
Von narrowed one eye at me, seeing right through my deflecting. “I love you, no matter how you try to make jokes to deal with that reality. Let’s just get through this, yeah? One day at a time.”
I nodded, but couldn’t help voicing the thing that had only just begun to plague me. “They’re going to burn my body.”
Von stiffened, his eyebrows tenting in the center of his forehead. “What? Who?”
“When I die someday. You’re going to stand at my casket with Mason, and they’re going to burn me so I don’t come back and haunt you.” I pursed my lips, unsure how to feel about it all. “I had big plans for haunting you, too.”
“Then I’ll steal you away, and you can haunt me until I’m mad in my obsession for you. I’m near enough to the edge of sanity as it is. I’d love nothing more than a lifetime of your hijinks, you evil little ghoul.” Von gave me a light kiss that softened both of our dismal moods, but didn’t take us fully under with hallucinations. When we blinked away the trickling of blue and gold, the music that usually started lulling us blasted in our ears, making us jump. Anastasia startled and began wailing that we’d jostled her when she was trying to drink her bottle in peace. “What is that?” I shouted to Von, who stood to peer through the heavy wooden doors.
His eyes turned to saucers, and he backed up when Finn and Mason crashed through to join us in the safety of the stone castle. “The four of you are porting right now,” Finn declared with no room for argument, and no explanation. “Up you get.” He held his hand flat to Mason, who kept his distance from Ana as if her life depended on it, which it did.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” I stood with Ana in my arms and my purse (which was actually just a fancy diaper bag) slung over my shoulder. “What are the trumpets for?”
Mason looked at Ana with fear that was mixed with longing and self-loathing. “I’m porting Von and Danny to Ezra’s mansion now! I can’t be around the baby yet. She’s too fresh! Take October to her house so I don’t turn and... Just take her and the baby to her house and wait for Von there.”
Von opened his mouth to protest at our parting, but Mason was running out of self-control. He dragged Von out of the castle toward Danny so they could port together.
“What’s happening, Finn? What’s going on out there?”
“There’s no time. We have to go now.” Finn’s arms went around me, keeping the wailing baby sandwiched between us with great care. He gripped my waist, while his other hand touched Ana’s head tenderly.
When the wooden door burst open again, Ezra shouted a frantic, “Go! Get them out of here!”
Then Ezra tripped forward, pelted with something from behind that hit him with too much force. A large stone followed up the assault, missing Ezra and smacking Finn in the head. Ezra’s intake of breath and the sudden surprise on his face scared me more than the thrumming I could hear coming from outside, mingling with the whirring in my ears. Ezra’s fall felt ominous and made my heart race as I ran toward him. My dad’s mouth popped open in a pained moan as he toppled forward again, smacking his face on the stone to reveal an arrow sticking out of his back.