The King of Crows

by Libba Bray

  The field was dying. The trees dropped their leaves. The grass crisped and disappeared.

  Gabe lowered his horn. Memphis watched in horror as Gabe’s throat ballooned, muscles working to dislodge something trapped inside. His head tilted back. His jaw dropped as if hinged; his lips spread unnaturally wide. Four wriggling insect legs whipped out and embedded their pointed ends into his cheeks. An enormous beetle eased itself from Gabe’s ruined mouth and landed in the dirt with a sickening plop. His face and neck bubbled with movement, something eating its way out, and in the next second Gabe’s flesh erupted in a spray of dark slime as the bugs burst forth and fell to the earth.

  Memphis tried to scream but could not.

  The giant beetle rose and stood on two feet like a man. It staggered toward Memphis, evolving.

  “You think you’re prepared for this fight? You have no idea,” Gabe called, his voice joining the swarm. “Strike a bargain with him while you still can, brother!”

  Memphis put his hand to the ground and it softened under his touch, greening just enough for him to free his feet. The dead closest to Memphis fell on the new vegetation, screeching and squabbling. In the fields, the dead devoured the dying crop.

  “To the King go the spoils,” Gabe barked as the sky opened above them. The dead stopped and turned their open mouths upward, and the broken sky pulled the energy from their shaking bodies.

  Memphis turned and ran toward the train. He no longer cared if anybody saw him or turned him over to the Shadow Men. He only wanted away from this horror. “Nelson! Coleman!” he called.

  Passengers appeared at the windows. Memphis shouted, waving his arms as he ran. The doors were sealed shut; the steps were gone. Memphis slammed into the train and banged his hands against the cold steel. “Let me in! Let me in! Let me in!”

  The passengers looked down.

  They opened their mouths.

  The beetles poured out like dark rain.

  Memphis cried out as he came awake to the screech of brakes.

  “Wh-what’s going on?” Henry asked, dazed. He felt drugged with exhaustion.

  Memphis touched a hand to his chest, brushing at bugs that weren’t there. Daylight pressed on the other side of the curtains. The car was warm. He was safe in his berth.

  Nelson’s syncopated knock sounded at the door just before he let himself in. “Get dressed. Hurry,” he commanded as he handed Memphis his shoes and shook Bill Johnson awake.

  “Are we in New Orleans already?” Henry asked, pulling up his suspenders.

  “Not quite. Just came into Sugarland, Mississippi,” Nelson said. “We’re being boarded by the Pinkertons. They’re hunting for Diviners. Somehow, they got a tip some might be on this train. I reckon you were seen getting on in New York.”

  Henry and Memphis parted the window curtains a sliver. The platform crawled with local police and Pinkerton detectives, gold badges shining on their lapels and guns in their holsters. The conductors were readying the steps for them to climb aboard.

  “We’re like sitting ducks,” Henry said.

  Nelson’s expression was grim. “That’s why we have to get you off of this train—now.”

  WHERE IT ALL STARTED

  The drive upstate had taken Evie nearly all night. In the early hours of the morning, when exhaustion had overtaken her, she’d parked Will’s car off the road under cover of the woods not far from Jake Marlowe’s estate and managed to catch some sleep. Her dreams had been vivid. She’d been running down a busy New York City street after Mabel, but Mabel was always just out of reach. Evie called and called to her, but Mabel did not stop. And then at last, Mabel turned around. In her hands was a bomb inside an hourglass. As Evie watched, helpless, the last of the sand drained away.

  “Good-bye, Evie,” Mabel said sweetly.

  The bomb exploded and Evie woke, breathing heavily, her eyes wet with tears.

  Sunlight poured through the windshield. It did nothing to warm her up, though. Her body was stiff and her fingers frozen. She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and nudged Theta with her knee.

  “Theta. Theta. Wake up,” Evie said, working out the kink in her neck.

  “Five more minutes,” Theta moaned.

  “We have to rescue Sam, remember?”

  Theta’s groan became a whimper. She sat up and worked her mouth, grimacing. “I taste like I’ve been licking ashtrays.”

  “That’s because you smoke.”

  Theta rolled her eyes. “Are you gonna start with that this morning? And by the way, I’d kill for a cigarette.”

  “How are your hands?” Evie asked.

  Theta removed the bandages from her palms. The skin was still red in places. “Better.”

  “Well, that’s something at least.” Evie wanted to talk about the dream. She didn’t want to talk about the dream. There was a giant hole in her heart named Mabel, and another named Sam. There was only one of those she could do something about at the moment. “How’d you sleep?” she said, trying to redirect her mind away from sorrow.

  Theta moved her stiff shoulder in little circles. “Like a pretzel in a cold oven.”

  In the backseat, Isaiah was curled up under his coat. Theta tugged on his pants leg until he stirred. “Rise and shine, kid.”

  Isaiah sat up, dazed. “I’m hungry.” He rubbed his stomach, which growled.

  “We’ll eat after we rescue Sam,” Evie said. “Promise.”

  Isaiah regarded Evie warily. “Do you have a plan?”

  “I will have,” Evie answered, forcing a smile.

  “That’s a no in Evie-speak,” Theta said to Isaiah.

  “Isaiah, do you have any… feelings about what’s about to happen?” Evie asked hopefully.

  Isaiah wanted to be helpful. He wanted to prove how important he was. He shut his eyes, concentrating. Sarah Beth, he thought. Sarah Beth, do you see anything? When there was no answer, he shook his head. “Sorry,” he said, disappointed.

  “All right. We’ll go with Plan B.”

  “What’s Plan B?” Theta asked.

  “The one after Plan A,” Evie said. “First things first—we’ve got to hide this Tin Lizzie.”

  Evie, Theta, and Isaiah covered Will’s Model T with branches. Now they were walking through the woods bordering Marlowe’s estate, willfully ignoring the bold-lettered signs that read NO TRESPASSING PRIVATE PROPERTY as birds tweeted in the branches above, sending out the first song of spring.

  “How can anyone own the woods?” Evie grumbled. “Only the woods own the woods.”

  “If you’re Jake Marlowe, you can own just about anything you like,” Theta said. “Can’t believe I’m out here with no smokes.”

  “Is Memphis gonna be okay?” Isaiah asked. He’d been pretty quiet since they’d left the city.

  “Sure he is, kid,” Theta answered.

  “You’re worried,” Isaiah said.

  “Yeah. I’m worried for all of us,” Theta said.

  They came to a clearing ringed by tall pines that bordered a large pond gone rancid and overgrown with pine needles. There were no birds here at all. Evie and Theta leaped back, frightened by the sudden appearance of a frog. It was misshapen, its small body covered in sores and a nub where one of its legs should’ve been. Unable to hop, it stumbled about as if drunk. A few lackluster fish floated beneath the pond murk. One of them had four eyes, Evie noted.

  “This is a bad place, isn’t it?” Isaiah said, his breath coming out in small wisps of cold.

  “Is this it, Evil?” Theta asked.

  “Yes,” Evie said. “It’s a very bad place, Isaiah.”

  This was where it had all started, where Project Buffalo had turned deadly during the war. The Department of Paranormal had broken through to the dimension of the dead. Evie’s brother and his entire unit had been sucked up into Jake’s mechanical monstrosity to live out the same day of horror and pain forever. And he would continue that way until they were able to close the breach. If it was the las
t thing she ever did, Evie would free her brother from that machine.

  Sound moved strangely here. Probably the effect of the trees bouncing their voices around, an echo upon echo. The wind seemed to carry distant voices, as if moving them across time. Evie shut her eyes, straining to hear. Finally, she removed her glove and laid a hand on the ground, searching for some trace of her brother. Anything. Anything at all.

  Theta touched her shoulder. “You think that’s a good idea, Evil?”

  Sam was waiting. The present needed her. Evie shoved her hand back into her glove.

  They peeked through the trees and saw Hopeful Harbor rising up from spring’s first green. It was a breathtaking little fiefdom, all ivy-covered stone and perfectly manicured lawns—a magazine advertisement for the good life. But Evie had been inside its many rooms and had found it oddly cold. It had felt less like a house and more like a beautifully appointed reliquary; it was a place that wanted to preserve the past.

  “Look. In the drive,” Theta said. She pointed to a brown sedan parked in front of the house. “Shadow Men.”

  “How we gonna get around ’em?” Isaiah asked.

  “I don’t suppose you’re getting any visions about that, are ya?” Theta asked.

  Isaiah shook his head. “Don’t work that way.” Isaiah looked sad again.

  “What is it?”

  “If Memphis were here, he’d fuss about the way I talk.”

  “You can talk any old way you want,” Evie said.

  The front doors opened. The Shadow Men stepped out, and with them was a woman whose hands were bound by chains. “Come on, Miriam,” the smaller of the two Shadow Men said.

  “Miriam! That’s Sam’s mother,” Evie whispered to the others.

  “Miriam is the one who’s been talking to Sarah Beth,” Isaiah said.

  Miriam’s head shot up as if she was listening. Her gaze fell upon the line of trees where Evie, Isaiah, and Theta were hiding, and then her voice was in their heads: Can you hear me?

  “Yes,” Evie whispered. She didn’t know if Miriam could hear her like this, but she didn’t know what else to do. “I’m Evie. I’m Sam’s friend. We’re trying to find him. We’re here to rescue him.”

  It is hard for me with so much iron, Miriam said. And Evie could see that even this small exchange was costing her. Smoke rose from her wrists under the chains, and her mouth was set in a tight line. They hold him below. Third door on right. You must go quickly.

  “What’s the holdup?” the bigger Shadow Man said. He came around and took Miriam by the arm, and Evie felt the phantom touch on her own skin. The Shadow Man put Miriam in the backseat and shut the door. The brown sedan prowled in reverse down the long driveway and turned onto the road, driving out of sight.

  “Now,” Evie said, leading Theta and Isaiah into the rose garden. From her previous visit, she remembered that there was a side entrance into Marlowe’s study from there.

  “I hope you know where you’re going,” Theta whispered as they slipped into Marlowe’s private office.

  “Jericho said there’s a secret elevator behind one of these bookshelves.”

  “Okay. Which one?”

  “The one marked ‘secret elevator,’ I imagine,” Evie cracked. “Do I know? Just keep at it till one opens. Wait! I do know.”

  Evie removed her glove and rested her hand against the books. It would have proved overwhelming had most of the books been read. She could feel small remnants of the past in some, though, and when she came to one that had belonged to Will, she lingered, her eyes stinging with tears. She could see him, young and alive and brimming with hope. He was seated on the sofa with Jake, Sister Walker, and Rotke:

  …and then she was channeling a spirit from beyond, writing messages dictated from the other side upon the slate. I tell you, we were in the presence of a new frontier!

  How had it all gone so wrong? Evie wondered.

  “I found it!” Isaiah’s happy voice brought Evie back. He’d tugged down two fat volumes of Napoleonic history and the panel had opened to reveal a small elevator.

  “Isaiah, you’re the cat’s pajamas!” Theta exclaimed.

  Isaiah gave a goofy smile. “Thanks.”

  The three of them jammed themselves together in the cramped space. Evie examined the buttons, then selected B, and the lift rattled them down to the basement. The doors opened on a long hallway.

  “Miriam said third door on the right,” Evie said, and she was glad she wouldn’t have to read the secrets screaming from any of these other rooms.

  “This is it,” Theta said. She reached for the knob. Evie grabbed her wrist.

  “What’s the matter?” Theta asked.

  “I just… nothing. Nothing at all.” Please, Evie thought. Please let him be alive.

  Theta tried the door. Locked. Of course it would be.

  “Theta? Do you think you could burn through it?” Evie asked. She felt terrible asking after last night, but it was the best chance they had of getting into that room.

  Theta’s hands still hurt, but she wanted to help. “I’ll try. But if I burn this house down, you asked me.” She pressed her palm against the lock and thought about what those Shadow Men might’ve done to Sam. The sudden flush of anger frightened Theta. She pulled her hand back quickly.

  “What’s the matter?” Isaiah asked.

  “Nothing. It just… wouldn’t come,” Theta lied.

  Evie slumped against the wall. “Do you suppose there’s a key somewhere?”

  “It would take us a whole year to find it!” Isaiah said.

  “No. I can do it. Just… gimme a minute.” Theta placed her hand on the lock again. A second later, she felt Evie’s and Isaiah’s hands on her arms, giving her strength. Heat flowed into her palm once more, and the lock melted away.

  Evie wrapped her coat around the sizzling metal and carefully opened the door.

  “Sam?” she whispered into the darkened room.

  “Evie? Is that you?” Sam’s weak voice nearly wrecked Evie’s heart. He sounded sick. Broken. Theta found a light switch and a bare bulb blinked on. Sam lay curled up on a bed against the brick wall. His hands were shackled to the steel railing of the headboard. With effort, he sat up. His eyes were glassy, haunted. He looked like he’d aged ten years. “Evie?”

  “Sam! Oh, Sam!” Evie ran over and unlatched the restraints, freeing him. She scooped him up in her arms. He fell against her chest, limp.

  “Baby Vamp, is that really you?”

  “It’s really me,” Evie said and kissed him gently on the lips.

  He stared into her eyes. “Why do you look like a hobo?”

  “I’ll explain later. Did he hurt you?”

  “Will you kiss me some more if I say yes?”

  “I will kiss you as much as you like.” And with that, Evie kissed Sam deeply.

  “Ew,” Isaiah said, embarrassed.

  He looked to Theta, who rolled her eyes. “Give ’em a minute, kid.”

  Sam pulled away. His shoulders shook, and it took Evie a second to realize that he was crying.

  “Oh, Sam, Sam.” Evie threw her arms around him again.

  “I’m afraid this isn’t real,” he said between hiccuping sobs. “I’m afraid in a minute I’ll wake up and I’ll be here but you won’t be.”

  “I’m here, Sam, and I promise I will never leave you again.” She wiped his cheeks with her scarf. He looked so sad and bruised by life it nearly killed her.

  Sam cupped Evie’s face between his dry palms. “You’re real.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re here with me now.”

  “You bet-ski.”

  Sam gave Evie a weak smile. “I’m a little disturbed by how much I liked kissing you in that getup.”

  Evie laughed through tears. “Then I’ll wear it all the time!”

  Sam’s smile died. He was afraid again. “Where are the Shadow Men?”

  “They drove off,” Theta said, coming to give Sam a hug.

  “
Theta,” Sam said in wonder. He held both of her hands.

  “Missed you, too, you little criminal,” she said.

  “Hi, Sam.” Isaiah waved.

  “Hey, kid. You got taller,” Sam warbled, and Isaiah beamed. “Are the others here, too?” Sam asked.

  “We’ll talk on the way to the car,” Evie said.

  “Those Shadow Men’ll be back,” Sam said grimly. “We have to leave now.”

  “No kidding,” Theta zinged. “And I was hoping to stay for tea. I hear the finger sandwiches here are something else.”

  “Yeah. Real fingers,” Sam said. “Lamb Chop, what’s your plan for getting out of here?”

  “We don’t have a plan,” Isaiah said.

  “We’re… improvising!” Evie added.

  “Oh, shit,” Sam said and buried his face in his hands.

  “Sam Lloyd, don’t make me regret coming to rescue you!”

  “I’m just saying: A plan. A plan is helpful.”

  “We didn’t have time to make a plan,” Evie said. She was starting to feel irritated. “Every bounty hunter and federal agent is out looking for us right now. We drove straight here from New York.”

  “Will is dead. And Sister Walker got arrested for treason,” Isaiah supplied.

  “Jake Marlowe declared the Diviners Public Enemy Number One at Sarah Snow’s memorial. There’s a bounty on our heads.”

  “And there’s a girl in Nebraska, another Diviner. That’s where we’re headed. To Bountiful,” Isaiah added. “And I don’t know where Memphis is.”

  “We got separated in Times Square,” Theta said.

  Sam’s eyes widened.

  “So as you can see, we’ve been rather busy,” Evie said coolly. It was amazing how quickly her feelings for Sam could slip from wild love to extreme annoyance and back again. She hadn’t quite made it back again. “We have Uncle Will’s car hidden in the woods. Do you think you can walk?”