Give the Dark My Love(85)

Dannix stumbled up, grasping my hands. “You came back,” he said, his eyes alight with hope so fierce it was almost painful to see, like looking at the sun. “You came to help treat the ones who stayed.”

My heart thudded in my chest. I couldn’t tell him that his son was dead, not with him looking at me like that. “What are you doing here?” I asked again.

The group of people reached the top steps, and one of the women stepped forward. For the first time, I noticed her pallium. “You’re a priest,” I said.

She nodded. “We came to give the proper rites to the dead,” she said.

I thought of the plague victims who had not wanted to be raised. “Thank you,” I said. “There are three who—”

“Three?” the woman interrupted. “We were told to expect closer to thirty.”

My eyes were on Dannix. I couldn’t voice what had happened.

So I opened the door.

“Ronan!” Dannix screamed, rushing forward. The others were more hesitant, stepping slowly into the foyer. The priest touched the three beads she wore at her throat, a prayer slipping past her lips.

“What is this?” she said, horrified.

Dannix knelt in front of his boy, holding him tightly, sobbing in relief and joy. He had not seemed to realize that his son was not truly alive.

But the others did.

Some backed away slowly, their eyes wide, as if the sunlight would protect them. A few stepped into the shadows, reaching out for other loved ones. They were all, I realized, related to the dead who had been left behind. They’d pooled together their resources and come here to perform the holy rites.

They did not expect the undead to meet them.

“This is . . .” the priest started, horror filling her face.

A revenant stepped forward. I knew through our connection that it was the priest’s mother. The priest’s lips moved wordlessly, though in prayer or curse I wasn’t sure.

“She’s a witch!” one of the people in the group—a heavyset man with dark eyes—shouted, pointing to me. “No better than Wellebourne!”

Dannix leaned back. For the first time, he seemed aware that his son wasn’t alive. “Is it you, Ro?” he asked.

Ronan nodded.

Dannix stood and turned. He dropped to his knees in front of me. “Thank you,” he said with palpable fervor.

“This isn’t right,” the priest said in a low voice, unable to rip her eyes away from her mother.

Footsteps echoed down the stone steps. Almost half the group was running away, back to the boat. With a horrified look in my direction, the priest turned around and chased after them.

Dannix, two other men, and a woman stayed behind. We watched as the others fled.

They would not keep this secret.

“You’re staying?” I asked Dannix and the others.

“I’d rather stay on this island with him than be anywhere else without him,” Ronan’s father said. “If you’ll have me.” He looked down, seeming to remember the way he’d attacked me just after his son’s amputation.

“You don’t care that it’s—”

“Blasphemy?” the woman said. I nodded.

“No,” Dannix said. His hand clutched Ronan’s as if he were afraid his son would disappear again. If he noticed how cold his son’s dead flesh was, he didn’t care.





FIFTY-SIX


    Grey



The news sheets had been brutal.

TOP PROFESSOR AT YūGEN ACADEMY ARRESTED FOR TREASON, they said in bold letters. SECRET HERITAGE OF BENNUM WELLEBOURNE EXPOSED!

What bothered me more were the questions.

“So, did you know?” Tomus asked, putting his breakfast tray on the table and sitting across from me in the cafeteria.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” I mumbled, not looking up. Several more students, emboldened by Tomus’s temerity, sat down as well, not disguising their starvation for gossip.

“Oh, any of it,” Tomus said, rolling his hand. “That Ostrum was a traitor. Or related to Wellebourne.” Tomus leaned forward. “Or maybe you know something about the school’s charity case.”

“I bet that’s why she’s not back,” Salis said haughtily. “She was an accomplice.”

My head snapped up at that, and Tomus grinned, knowing he’d struck a nerve. “Nedra’s not been in school for ages, Greggori, didn’t you notice?”

“Of course I’ve noticed,” I growled. I tried to ignore their laughter as I stormed away.

Tomus cornered me before I had a chance to escape the dining hall. We were both deeply aware of the rapt audience straining to listen.

“Wonder if she’s been arrested, too,” Tomus mused. “Your little girlfriend, I mean.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said immediately. Not anymore.

Tomus raised an eyebrow. “Oh,” he said, drawing the word out. “You know, Ostrum was arrested before your meeting time with him. Did you run into him being dragged out in handcuffs?”

“No.” I bit the word off.

“I must admit,” Tomus said, raising his voice so others could hear, “I’m honestly surprised little Nedra hasn’t come sniffing around for Ostrum. I had thought, you know, if you two weren’t an item . . . well, there were all those special sessions . . .”