The Price Guide to the Occult(52)

At first, nothing happened.

And then, with a great creaking moan, the lady in the fountain turned her head and blinked at Nor with large, vacant eyes.

“Protect us,” Nor breathed.

With a great rattle, the woman lifted her skirts and stepped out of the fountain, which sent Pike, Sena Crowe, and Gage scrambling and tripping to get out of her way. The crowd fell silent as the woman overturned her bowl of water onto the burning house.

“Holy shit!” Savvy gasped. “Nor, how did you do that? Never mind! It doesn’t matter! Do the bear next! Or the cat!” Savvy dragged Nor around the compound, cheering as Nor brought all of the other statues to life, but stopped abruptly at the sculpture of the troll-like woman looming over the burning remains of Dauphine’s house.

“Let’s just skip this one,” Savvy decided, backing away. “I don’t think I’m ready to see that thing walking around just yet.”

These are the things Nor would later remember: the utter magic of watching the inanimate come to life; the welcome feeling of relief that settled over the crowd; Savvy’s incredulous laughter; Bijou’s excited bark; and Charlie with her hands held out as the water the aegises poured over the flames fell like rain.

And then.

The clap of thunder was so loud that Nor almost believed she’d made it up. The lightning was so bright it looked like nothing at all. It was like staring at the sun, like watching the last sparks of a dying star. The tree it struck burst into flames, and suddenly something was on fire on either side of the compound.

The air turned black with smoke. Nor reached behind her and grappled for Savvy’s hand. “Stay with me!” she yelled. The fire spread. It surged through the compound, crackling hot and bright and terrifying. Stumbling, they ran from the fast-moving blaze.

“We gotta get out of here!” she heard Gage shout.

Nor and Savvy now ran toward Gage’s voice, dodging falling debris and the pounding feet of the aegises fighting the blaze: the bison, who gathered two crying children into a hooved embrace, gave a mighty flap of those thick, leathery wings and soared off into the night sky; the bear with his colossal ox horns; and the wolf, the quills on the back of his neck raised. The woman from the fountain emptied her bowl over one house and then another, dousing the flames. But not all of Rona’s monsters were matches for the fire. First the wildcat faltered, and then the bear, his ox horns turning to cinders.

Nor and Savvy followed Gage away from the compound, away from the fire, and into the surrounding woods. The three fell to the ground and began coughing the smoke from their lungs. Charlie and Sena Crowe staggered in after them, carrying someone. It took Nor a second to realize who. It was Pike. The side of his face had been badly burned.

“Where’s everyone else?” Nor coughed.

Charlie and Sena Crowe quickly lowered Pike to the ground. He lurched forward and retched, then his eyes rolled back and he started convulsing.

“Do something!” Gage yelled.

Nor could hear the others calling out for one another through the trees like lost children. She thought she heard Reed screaming her name over and over again, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Try to keep him still,” Nor said, her voice quivery. She placed her shaky hands on Pike’s blistered cheek, but all she felt was a tiny pinch. She tried once more and still, nothing. Pike’s breathing grew shallow.

“Nor,” Savvy whimpered. “Help him.”

He’s going to die, Nor thought. He’s going to die, and everyone here will be forced to watch it happen. “I’m trying!” she choked. I’m afraid, but I’m trying.

Nor gritted her teeth and pressed her hands harder against the burn until Pike’s pain finally trickled out, as slowly as an intravenous drip, onto the ash-covered ground. The wound struggled to knit itself back together, a scar like a jellyfish sting spreading across Pike’s cheek. Finally, his breathing steadied.

Nor fell back on her heels with relief, her heart pounding wildly. She looked around at the small band of survivors. Gage’s arms were bright red from the fire’s wrathful touch. A deep gash ran along Savvy’s face. Sena Crowe’s shirt was ripped. Charlie’s arms were scratched and bloody. But Nor? Nor had run through a burning building, and all that she had lost was some hair.

All around them, the woods glowed the hazy orange of a dying fire and were filled with the sounds of people calling out, trying to find one another in the chaos and the dark. She wondered where Reed was. Grayson. Bijou.

Nor went to stand, but Gage quickly pulled her back down. “What the hell are you doing —?” she began, but what she saw next stopped her cold.

If it hadn’t been for the light of the flames, she might have mistaken them for people. There were at least a dozen of them. Slinking out from behind the trees, with their gray, rotting skin and their blackened eyes and tongues, they looked like monsters, like nightmares.

The Resurrected. And they were heading straight for Nor and the others.

“I thought you said the compound was undetectable,” Nor whispered. She recognized many of the faces under dead gray features. One of them had once been Bliss Sweeney. Another had been the boy with the Mohawk, the one who had helped Catriona bring Wintersweet to Fern. These were fellow islanders, people whose loved ones had laid them to rest in Anathema Island’s cemetery. Had Nor’s mother been the reason for all those graves? Is that why they were here? Had they been brought back to life only to be used to carry out Fern Blackburn’s commands?