Darkest Journey (Krewe of Hunters #20)(93)

More shots, but she didn’t hear her father scream and had to believe he was still safe, still running.

The mist was growing thicker. Charlie slammed into a tree so hard she was momentarily stunned. She staggered back and fell, then pushed herself up, trying to rise.

And then she saw them.

It was exactly as it had been when they were filming, except now...

Now it was real.

They rose from the earth, one by one, spectral shapes that slowly populated the high bluff where the church had long held dominion over the landscape. If she blinked, they might have been a part of the mist, they were so ethereal. And then, as she watched with eyes wide open, they became what they really were: ghostly soldiers, rising from their graves, worn, war-weary, dirty, sweaty and exhausted, yet ready to fight for what they believed was right.

Here in this narrow strip of Louisiana between Baton Rouge and Fort Hudson, the Civil War had one day come to a halt, and as a result the men who rose from the earth wore both the tattered butternut and gray of the South, and Union blue. They’d been good men in life, and they rose together now, ready to fight shoulder to shoulder, for at a time when the nation had been torn apart in tragic conflict, they had found, for a few brief moments, peace and friendship.

They were a ghost army, ragged and unearthly, chilling and terrifying in the night, shadows of vengeance marching in the moonlight.

They moved slowly in otherworldly splendor, spectral shapes, faces hardened, joined together to protect the innocent and destroy evil.

Someone flesh and blood burst through the trees. Barry Seymour, wielding his rifle.

He started to aim it at Charlie when one of the ghosts stepped in front of him. It was Captain Anson McKee, Confederate States Cavalry. Barry looked at him and screamed, staggering back. But he still had the gun, and he tried to fire at the apparition before him. Bullets glanced off trees, and he cried out, “I’ll kill you, Charlie. So help me God, I’ll kill you!”

There was a sudden hard thrashing through the trees, and then another voice rang out—strong, furious.

Ethan.

“Not in this lifetime, you won’t, asshole!”

He fired a warning shot over Barry’s head and shouted, “Drop the gun!”

Barry fired wildly again.

Ethan fired once more, this time hitting Barry in the arm that held the gun. Barry screeched and fell to the dirt. Ethan strode over to him, ignoring the man’s wails, and secured the weapon.

“Ethan, be careful!” Charlie called as he came to her. “Grant Ferguson is still out there, somewhere close. I don’t know if it works or not, but he has an old Enfield.”

As she spoke, Grant came bursting through the trees, the Enfield aimed at them.

But Ethan turned on a dime and fired, and Grant went down just like Barry had, howling in pain. Ethan went over and claimed that weapon, too. Then he returned to Charlie, giving her a hand and drawing her to her feet. He pulled her into his arms, and for a moment she just stood there, shaking, grateful for his warmth and glad of his strength. Then she pulled away from him and said, “My father—”

“Is fine!” Jude called, walking over to join them, with her father leaning heavily against him.

Charlie let out a glad cry and rushed into her father’s arms.

“Charlie, Charlie, Charlie...you shouldn’t have come for me.”

He stopped speaking and just held her, then suddenly he pulled back, and she realized he was staring over her shoulder. She turned to see what he was looking at.

They were still there.

Tattered, weary soldiers, Union and Confederate, watching. Captain Anson McKee was there, and Ellsworth Derue stood at his cousin’s side.

As one, they lifted their hands and saluted.

Ethan and Jude saluted in return. As Charlie watched, her father smiled in wonder and saluted the men, as well.

Then the soldiers drifted away to become part of the mist. Anson and Ellsworth were the last to disappear.

The distant sound of sirens reached them, faint at first but growing louder. Charlie began to shake. It was over.

And yet she felt strangely that her life was just beginning.

Northern Virginia was going to be wonderful.

Working with Alexi and Clara again would be great.

But, most of all, life with Ethan would be everything she wanted.

*