Shadow of Nevermore

by Lilly Black

  Though Olivia believed she knew why, she didn't want to show her hand. Instead, she asked him to tell her how he had come to be at the solar farm.

  "When the shit went down, my girlfriend and me were living in my parents' basement. They had a little farm with a well, and my mom was always canning in the summer, so it was a good place to be. It was out of the way, and we never even saw a zombie other than on the TV news before the power went out. Then one day just a few weeks ago, three men in a souped-up jeep showed up. My dad took his rifle out to meet them, and they just gunned him down, no questions, nothing. I went crazy. I emptied two clips trying to take them out, but I'm a terrible shot, so they captured us. They brought my mom and me to the drug farm and left with my girlfriend. I found out later that she probably went to the prison. There wasn't anything I could do about it then, but you guys could. You could rescue her."

  "The other people from the solar farm told us it was your sister," Olivia said, hoping to catch him in a lie.

  "I told the men who took us she was my sister. They were arguing about what to do with us, and I heard them say that the Widowmaker only takes couples. Then another guy said that a mother and child would serve the same purpose. I didn't know what they meant, but it sounded like they were going to split us up, so I thought maybe if I said April was my sister, they'd keep her and my mom together because I didn't want either one of them to be alone. I was trying to protect them both, and I ended up getting my girlfriend taken to that fucking rape factory!" Tears filled James' eyes as he stared at the ground, and though Olivia was inclined to believe him, she wasn't inclined to fully trust someone who thought like James. In the stories he was telling, he had already proven to her that he could come up with a lie on the spur of the moment designed to protect what he held dear, whether it be his own life or that of his mother and girlfriend.

  "Tell you what," she said. "You're going to stay on as our guest in this cell for a few more days, and when our team gets back from the prison with the women, if your girlfriend is among them, perhaps she can vouch for you."

  "If she's still alive," he lamented. "They didn't tell us much about the prison at the drug farm because a lot of us had family who'd been taken there, but Billy knew. He told me what they do there, and if April got taken to the place they call Death Row... Well, if she survived, she's going to hate me. If I hadn't been trying to outthink those guys the day they took us, my mother would have gone to the prison, and April would have been at the drug farm with me."

  "Would you do it differently if you knew then what you know now?" Olivia asked. It was a cruel question to pose, but she felt like it had to.

  "If I knew then what I know now, I might have just turned that gun on myself as soon as they shot my dad," he said. "Ma'am, I didn't go along with Billy because I'm afraid of dying. I went along with Billy because I saw it as my opportunity to set things right. I didn't do the right thing for April, but I could have done the right thing for the people here when the time came. I just wasn't counting on Widow wearing a wire."

  "I wasn't counting on ever having to ask her to wear a wire, but the safety of the people of the Deadfall is the most important thing to me. With people out there like those at the prison, surely you can understand that."

  "I do, and if there is anything I can do to help you take them out, my life is yours."

  "Don't volunteer it so easily. I'm still not convinced that I shouldn't crucify you," she said with a warm smile, and James felt a chill go down his spine as he found himself filled with a desire to please her even on the heels of a psychopathic threat. She was everything Widow had warned them about, and he was suddenly certain that if Billy had just sat down and had a talk with the queen before even considering a takeover, the whole episode never would have happened. He had no idea that Billy had learned that himself right before he died.

  With his mission scheduled for tomorrow, Jax had a certain number of things he wanted to accomplish without Dani's knowledge, so he had slipped quietly out of bed this morning before sunup, unaware that the slightest of movements would stir his jealous lover, who was always expecting the worst of him. He also didn't know that she could follow him anywhere without his knowledge, and as he made his way to the back gate in the darkness, he was surrounded by a light, sentient breeze.

  "Where are you going at this hour?" Widow asked, coming out of the guard house. Now that the people from the solar farm were integrated, they were tasked with responsibilities beyond just the building of the wall.

  "I need to take a walk in the woods," he lied. "Clear my head before tomorrow."

  "You got all the ammo you need?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I'm good."

  "I'm sure you are," she said, and though she honestly didn't mean anything by it, she suddenly felt herself knocked backward onto her ass by an unseen force.

  "Are you okay?" Jax asked, extending his hand to help her up.

  "Yeah," she said. "I guess I must've tripped over my own feet." Though she giggled, it was a nervous laughter because she felt like someone had shoved her, but there was only Jax, who hadn't even been close enough. No one was more surprised by what happened than Dani. She knew she could blow light things around, but to actually be able to be able to push someone onto the ground? That was huge.

  Excited, as she followed Jax into the woods, she tried to affect every tree she passed, finding that she could snap the smaller branches in half, even cause trees with thin trunks to bend. She needed something to test out other than just the trees, rocks, and dirt of the forest, so she abandoned Jax to listen for the telltale shuffling and groaning of the dead. She honed in on one a few hundred yards to her left, and although she was curious about Jax's reason for being outside the wall, this seemed more important. Besides, she knew she could get back to him in an instant if he needed her, so she took the detour to the zombie and was soon thoroughly distracted as she discovered all the ways she could control its body.

  Meanwhile, Jax continued to climb the mountain, heading in the direction of the witch's cottage. He had never been there before, but he knew it was just beyond the wellspring. There was something he needed from her before he went to the prison.

  He arrived at the shack to find the same old, grandmotherly woman Dani had gone to more than once, and he left with exactly what he was seeking. Dani had become so preoccupied with her newly discovered talents that he managed to return to the Deadfall, have a quick meeting with Olivia, then leave again through the front gate before she even realized how much time had passed. When she returned to their cabin, he was gone on a secret scavenging mission with Alek and Aiden, and no one she asked knew where to find them. That was by design because he didn't want her to know he was going to Sylas Gun and Pawn.

  In what seemed like another lifetime, the people of the Deadfall had cleared all of the corpses from the area surrounding the pawn shop, and although they had taken most of the jewelry inventory, Jax was hoping there would be something left in the back because everything at the Deadfall had been melted down, the metals and gems sorted. At Sylas, they still ran into a few zombies, but there was no jewelry to be found.

  "Maybe we could look at the records and figure out what houses to loot," Alek suggested because the closest jewelry store they knew about was in Princeton.

  "Rings are probably on fingers not in jewelry boxes," Aiden said.

  "And I guess you would have a problem with that," Jax said, irritated. He hadn't even wanted Aiden to come, but he had horned in when he overheard them talking because there was something Aiden needed to loot as well, something that he was more likely to find in Princeton.

  "Seriously, Jax? I don't have a problem taking a ring off the finger of a corpse. I just think Dani would probably prefer a ring that hadn't been on the finger of a corpse."

  "He makes a good point," Alek said.

  "Princeton is a lot more dangerous. Are you sure you guys are willing to go there for this?" Jax asked.

  "It's kind of important," Aiden s
aid.

  "Are you getting a ring for Liana, too?" he asked.

  "I'll get one as long as we're there, but I want to wait until the time is right to give it to her."

  "Look around you, man. The time is now. We could all die any minute," Jax said.

  "That's always been true for every human since the beginning of time. I just don't think we're ready to take that step. That's all."

  "What about you?" Jax asked Alek.

  "The woman I love never took off the ring another man gave her, and now he's back. She'd have to wear it on the wrong finger, and that would make me feel..."

  "Like what? Less of a traditional, little prince?" Jax teased with a roll of his eyes. "Put it on her right hand and wear yours on the same. None of that shit matters anymore. I'm getting rings for Dani and me because I love her, she's the only woman on the fucking planet who has ever loved me, and I want to make sure she knows it before I go to that prison tomorrow and get myself killed. In fact..." he paused and took off the wedding band that his wife, Linzie, had given him. He had moved it to his other hand weeks earlier, but he realized it was time to let it go. He tossed it up in the air, caught it, then threw it as hard as he could.

  "Let's go to Princeton, boys," he said as he got back in the driver's seat.

  Jax returned to the Deadfall with a set of rings, Aiden returned with a set of rings and a secret item from a pet supply store he insisted on entering alone, and Alek returned with every other piece of jewelry in the store. He had no intention of offering Olivia an engagement ring anytime soon. It didn't seem right since Reid had returned. If he gave her a ring, he didn't want her to ever question whether it was because he really loved her so much he wanted to bond with her for the rest of his life or if he was just determined to throw his weight around since he had to share her with her husband. He took an extra room safe into the office and stashed the jewelry inside, hiding it in a stack of boxes in the corner.

  Aiden hid his treasures in his cabin among the BDSM toys he had amassed because his slave knew better than to go rummaging through her Master's dungeon, and Jax took his straight home. He wanted to give them to Dani as soon as possible, but at the moment she was in counseling sessions, which gave him the time to take care of something he needed to do in secrecy before he left for his mission to the prison.

  There was one more thing he had hoped to find while he was out today, and from the inside pocket of his leather jacket, he pulled out a large, sealed plastic bag containing dozens of smaller ones that had been in a drawer at the jewelry store. He had hidden them from the other guys because they would have asked too many questions, especially Aiden, and Jax didn't want Aiden to know anything about his plans for tomorrow's mission.

  The bags were to split out the heroin and meth Olivia had given him to secure his welcome at the prison, adding the special ingredient from the witch into about half of the bags. When he shared them, he would claim that he salvaged his supply from an abandoned car in the Pipestem area, which is where he would say he met Austin, who was also abandoned after he and his two companions were killed by a group where they tried to steal a young woman.

  When he was finished splitting the drugs into single doses, he filled the inside pocket of his jacket with the ones he intended to turn over to Rundo, then sewed another set into the coat lining so he would have some to directly dispense to the users. These drugs were an integral part of his plan to protect himself at the prison, but aware that all of the founders would never consent to it, only he and Olivia knew about the drugs. He didn't even discuss it with Dani.

  When she crossed his mind, he looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for her to come home, so he cleaned up to get ready for her. Earlier, he had arranged for June to prepare dinner and special dessert for him so he and Dani wouldn't have to go to the lodge tonight, and after setting the table, he turned off all of the lights and lit candles in the dining room. June left only minutes before Dani arrived.

  "What's all this?" Dani asked with an excited smile when she walked through the door to find him sitting at the table by a plate of roasted chicken, a rarity these days since the community was growing faster than the henhouse.

  "I thought it might be nice to have a romantic evening since I'll be gone for the next couple of days," he said.

  "Did you cook all this?"

  "What do you think?"

  "Did June cook all this?" she asked, and Jax laughed.

  "Sit down," he said, patting the seat beside him, and although he was anxious to get to the highlight of the evening, they lived in a world where it would be wrong not to eat the food first as the bird had already been sacrificed.

  Dani took her chair, Jax filled her plate, and as they ate, they both did their best not to talk about tomorrow's mission. Jax didn't want to worry her, and Dani didn't want him to notice how uncharacteristically unworried she was as she intended to be right there with him, poised to sweep him away in a windstorm on a second's notice should anyone threaten him. She was feeling invincible, yet she still wasn't ready for anyone to know. She would use her powers for the good of the people of the Deadfall without getting the credit and be able to watch Jax to make sure he was being faithful. Besides, it wasn't like she was capable of eradicating the zombie plague or anything. She could just throw them around one at a time, two if they were small.

  "Dani?" Jax drew her attention back to him. "You seem a million miles away."

  "I'm just concerned about tomorrow," she lied.

  "Don't be. I have it under control, and I swear I'm coming back to you," he assured her, then he pushed the plates out of the way, took a deep swig of his wine, and turned toward her in his chair. "However, when I come back, I'd like things to be a little different around here."

  "What does that mean?" Dani asked nervously, her mind suddenly reeling, but while she went to a bad place, Jax was about to take her in the opposite direction.

  "I went to see Olivia earlier today. She arranged for our dinner to be delivered tonight, and she did something else for me, something that I should have handled long ago." He lifted his right hand and ran it through his hair, hoping Dani would notice the absence of his wedding ring, but as she sat impatiently waiting for him to get to his point, she was utterly clueless about where he was going with it. "She's the ruler around here, right? And as such..."

  "Why do you never call her queen?" Dani interrupted. "You called her Your Grace in the hall, and you just said she's the ruler..."

  "That's not really important right now. What's important is that as the ruler, she has the power to do things like annul my marriage to Linzie."

  "Oh, my God! Really?" she asked.

  "Really. I took off my wedding ring and chucked it. It's gone. I am a divorced man," he said, and she threw her arms around him. She knew he was probably never going to see his wife again anyway, but the fact that they remained married had always bothered her. Now, he was officially free to be entirely hers.

  "You don't know how happy that makes me," she said.

  "I just wanted you to know that before I left because I never want you to think that you aren't the most important woman in the world to me," he said as he stood up. He kissed her atop the head then pulled two desserts out of the refrigerator - wine glasses filled with strawberry gelatin and topped with fresh whipped cream from one of the dairy cows they had acquired early on. In the light of the fridge, he could see which one was Dani's, but once the door was closed, it wasn't so obvious by candlelight.

  "Jello?" she asked with a giggle as he set it in front of her. She had told him a story weeks ago about how her mother used to make her strawberry jello as a celebration when she hit a milestone. She lost her mother when she was only five, but one of the few things she remembered was the gelatin.

  "I thought it was appropriate since I hope this night will give us something to celebrate," he said as she took her first bite.

  "Celebrate what?"

  "Eat your jello," he said. She took another bit
e, and once the whipped cream was gone, she could see something suspended in the gelatin. She held the wine glass up to the candle flame and saw the engagement ring.

  "Oh, my God!" she cried as he took the glass away and fished out the ring, sucking the strawberry gel off of it. "Oh, Jax!"

  "Danielle Templeton," he said, sliding onto the floor. "I don't call Olivia my queen because she's not my queen. You are my queen. You're my whole world and my only reason for living. I want to marry you, Dani. Whether I die to tomorrow or in fifty years, I want to live and die as your husband. Will you be my wife?"

  "Yes!" she shouted so quickly, it came before he even finished his sentence, and with tears rolling down her cheeks, her hand shook as she held it out for the ring.

  "I love you, Dani, more than I ever thought I could love anyone," he said as he slipped it onto her finger. "You're everything to me."

  "Oh, Jax," she breathed as all other words failed her, and she kissed him passionately. But he wasn't finished. He pulled the ring box out of his pocket. It contained the his and hers wedding rings.

  "There's one more thing. You can put this on my finger again when we hold a ceremony, but I'm going to start wearing it now so there is no question that I'm yours."

  "And I'm yours, Jax," she gushed. "Now and forever."

  "Ah, baby girl. I can't wait to make you my wife."

  "Then let's not. Do we need a ceremony?" she asked. "I mean, we've both done the whole big, church wedding thing."

  "What are you saying?"

  "I'm saying, if you want, you could just maybe put..."

  "...put this wedding ring on right now?" he asked, and she nodded. "And just like that, we'll be married?"

  "Well, I think you have to promise to love, honor, and fuck me forever or something like that."

  "Dani," he said as he took the ring out of the box and put it on her finger, "I swear I will love you, honor you, worship you, and make love to you and only you now and forever."