Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly #1)(82)

“And my injuries are nothing compared to the deaths of the last few days.” I set my jaw and turned my hardest stare on Joseph. “We must go in and stop Elijah. Tonight.”

“That is not possible. Your brother is too powerful for us.”

“So you intend to live here in the woods forever? Protecting a city that hates you?” I snorted, putting as much disgust into the noise as I could. “You’ll waste away from overwork.”

Joseph lifted a shoulder. “Do you have an alternative?”

“Yes. I can go inside and stop Elijah. He won’t hurt me.”

“Even if you speak the truth, Eleanor, can you do what is necessary to stop him?” Joseph’s voice was low, as if his concerned words were intended for my ears only. Despite all that had happened to him, he was still worried about me.

“Yes.”

“How? How do you intend to do it?” His eyelids lowered. “If we go in to stop your brother, we have to be certain we can succeed in destroying both him and his army. If we are killed and fail...” He shook his head. “If we fail, there will be no one to stop him. No one in Philadelphia can survive the corpses in this cemetery.”

I pushed back my shoulders. “Then I will find Elijah, and I will kill him.”

Daniel stomped in front of me. “You don’t get it, Empress. You can’t just go in and kill him, or we’d have done that a long time ago. The army’s gotta be put to rest first. We have to remove all the spiritual energy that animates them.”

My eyes flicked to Daniel. The lantern light made bottomless holes where his eyes would be. “Why?”

“If your brother gets killed, then the leash snaps. They need the necromancer to command them, otherwise, every single corpse in Laurel Hill will turn rabid.” His voice dropped. “They will hunt you down and eat you alive. Then those hundreds of Dead will break free from Laurel Hill and ravage the city. We can’t stop the Hungry if they’re not contained.”

“He is right,” Joseph said. “Like all cemetery fences, Laurel Hill’s iron bars were only constructed to contain the occasional corpse. It cannot withstand an army of violent, powerful, desperate bodies.”

The thud of footsteps in the forest hit my ears. I swiveled around, my arms up and ready to fight.

Jie jogged into the clearing. Her black braid was wrapped tightly around her head, and in her hand she held a sword, which flickered in the yellow light.

Her eyes lit on me, and she grinned. “You’re alive.”

“So are you.” I inclined my head toward the sword. It was as long as her arm, two-edged, and tapered to a point. Though it gleamed, I could see it was chipped and dented.

Her smile widened as she moved to my side. “One Hungry corpse is easy, yeah? It’s the whole army I can’t fight.”

“Where’d you get that sword?” I asked. “It looks ancient.”

She snickered. “I think it actually is ancient.... Like, Roman, yeah? It was just lying there with a bunch of other swords, so I took it.”

I choked. “You took a sword from the Ancient Rome exhibit? That’s... Well, somehow that fits.”

“It’s an international exhibition.” She shrugged one shoulder. “So a Chinese girl with a Roman sword in an American city. It’s perfect, yeah? A little old, but I sharpened it up some, and now it works fine. Don’t need a clean cut to stop the Hungry.” She popped her knuckles. “As long as you’re the closest life around, the corpse’ll follow you. When it’s more than one chasing you—that’s when it gets tricky, yeah?”

I blinked. “Wait.” Something about those last words triggered an idea in my mind. I fidgeted with the ribbon around my waist while the logic worked itself out.

“So,” I said at last, “if the Hungry follow the nearest living person, then... well, if all the Dead turn Hungry, then all the Dead will chase you.”

“Yep.” Daniel scratched his jaw. “That’s why Philadelphia stands no chance if the fence falls. The Dead will head straight for the city.”

“How many pulse bombs are left?” I asked.

“Ten.” He cocked his head. “It ain’t enough to blow up the whole cemetery. The Dead don’t stand in one place—your brother’s got ’em shuffling around everywhere.”

“Do they go to the river?”

“Some,” Jie answered. She wiped her sword with a cloth. “But they don’t go all the way to the water because of the steep hill, yeah?”

“And the Hungry?” I looked between the three Spirit-Hunters. “Do they ever go to the shore?”

Joseph cleared his throat and shook his head. “There are no people on the river to attract them. When they breach the fence, they head straight to us.”

I cocked my head. “But the water—you could use the water to magnify your power, couldn’t you?”

“Wi. That much water would enhance my range and power significantly. But without the influence machine to produce a strong electric spark, I would not be able to shock the Dead.”

Daniel frowned. “And the influence machine can’t go in the water, Empress.”

I flashed my eyebrows and bared a wicked grin. “I have a plan. We need a boat.”