by Nora Roberts
kitchen items—the big stewpot, frying pan, manual can opener, a colander, bowls, the mortar and pestle Max found for her in another cabin. Her knives, of course.
They could make do with one wooden spoon, one slotted, a single spatula—but if they, as planned, took another car, she’d wedge in more supplies and equipment.
They’d designated finding and bringing back a truck or SUV as the top priority for today’s scavenging trip. Putting her faith in Max to do just that, she earmarked more.
She looked up from detailing their medical and first-aid supplies when Kim came in. “These are holding up pretty well,” she said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to add to them once we’re on the road. I can supplement these holistically once we’re into spring. That, at least, is something I’ve learned about before.”
“I know a little about it. My mother was big into holistic and Chinese medicine.” As she spoke, Kim wandered to the window. “Listen, I really want to get out, get some sun. It’s warmer today. Are you up for it? I don’t want to get a demerit for ignoring the buddy system.”
“Sure. I could use a walk.”
“We’ve had some more thawing, so it’s sloppy out there, but—”
“Just let me get my boots.” Setting down her pad, Lana went to the mudroom. “Are you feeling all right?”
Kim shrugged, grabbed her own boots. “Itchy. I guess it’s knowing we’re winding up our time here. Part of it’s tedious, sure. Rinse and repeat. But routine gets comfortable. I want to go. We have to go, but—”
“I know.” After choosing one of the lighter jackets, Lana added a scarf. “I think we all know.”
“I’ve had this weird dread hanging over me all morning. My personal black cloud.” Kim zipped up her jacket, pulled a ski cap over her lengthening wedge of ebony hair. “Probably caught it from Allegra. I’m not ragging on her,” Kim claimed after Lana gave her an elbow poke. “She’s been lifting her weight, and cut back on the whining. But, Jesus.” She yanked open the door, took a deep inhale of air as they stepped out. “You can practically see her black cloud.”
“My sense, from what I’ve seen and what she’s said, is she came from privilege. Only child of well-off parents—divorced parents, and maybe a little spoiled by both as compensation.”
“Yeah, WASP princess. Sorry, that is ragging on her, and I really barely knew her before all this, and only casually at best once she and Eric hooked up.”
“Were you and Eric…”
“What? Oh, no.” On her laugh, some of the stress in Kim’s face lifted. “We had some classes together, and he dated a friend of mine for a while last year. I knew Shaun better—a couple of nerds. It was just chance, really, that the five of us ended up taking off together. We all ended up hiding out in the theater—the prop room. Poe had a car, Shaun had this place, so we decided to get the hell out. We had one more, my friend Anna. She didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d lost someone. You were close?”
“Dorm mates. We didn’t have a lot in common, but we hit it off, and we got pretty tight. She was a theater major, and that’s how I ended up in the prop room. She dragged me in there. She wanted to stay, ride it out, but I convinced her we had to go, we had to take off with the others.”
“You were right to go, Kim. You couldn’t have risked staying.”
“I know, and I hang on to that. It was the first night out … We hadn’t gotten very far, things were crazy. We actually found this empty house—a shack really. Anna was kind of a wreck, I guess we all were. In the morning … we found her in the morning.”
Lana said nothing as Kim gathered herself, breathed in deep.
“She’d hanged herself from a tree branch. She used a bedsheet. And she’d pinned a note to her coat. It just read: ‘I’d rather die.’”
Lana put an arm around Kim’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about her so much today. Part of that black cloud. Where’s everyone else? I know Max and Poe are out car shopping.”
Change the subject, Lana thought, and gave Kim a quick squeeze before dropping her arm. “I think Eddie and Shaun took Joe out for some exercise, maybe some archery practice.”
“It’s good for Shaun—Eddie and Joe, I mean. Even inside the circle of nerds, he’s the one who usually got picked on or ignored. Eddie treats him like he’s cool, and that’s probably the first time in his life Shaun’s approached the outer edges of the boundaries of coolness. And he’s done more than pull his weight. We have the house because of him. Yeah, he screwed up, but since then he’s not only toed the line, he’s worked really hard.”
“He has,” Lana agreed. “He treats the cooking lessons like a science class, and that’s not a bad thing.”
Kim bent to pick up a thin, whiplike branch, swinging it idly as they walked. Restlessness pumped out of her.
“It’s kind of awful to say, but all this shit that’s happened? Freaking global plague, forced to adapt to survivalist mode? It could be the making of Shaun.”
“It’s going to make or break all of us.” They stopped and watched a herd of deer stream through the trees. “I’d worried some that the situation, the dynamics, would damage Max and Eric’s relationship. I still have moments when I can see Eric’s resentment, but he swallows it, does what needs to be done.”
“Max is the leader. Everybody knows it. Eric has more trouble with it, but he knows it, too.”
“For me, then Eddie, Max taking charge was just natural. The rest of you…”
Kim whipped her switch, shook her head. “Look, I could and would have told everybody we had to ration the supplies, go out, find more, make a plan. And I’d have gotten Poe on my side of that because he’s no idiot. But we wouldn’t have been able to get everyone in line. Still, Eric sort of took point on the way here, and he’s had to abdicate that role, you could say, since you and Max joined us.”
She glanced over at Lana. “And we have supplies, organization, a plan because you did. Allegra? She’s the princess, and Eric gets to be the knight. I guess it works for them. Where are they, anyway?”
“I don’t know. They weren’t in the house?”
“I didn’t see them, and the stuff they usually wear outside wasn’t in the mudroom.”
“They probably needed a walk, too. It is warming out, and the sun feels good. I guess we could get more snow, but I’m going to believe winter’s back is broken.”
“I want to see things growing again, make stuff grow again.” Kim tipped her face up, breathed in.
“An herb garden. It’s the first thing I want to do. I grew herbs in Chelsea, in pots on the windowsill. I wish I’d brought them with me.”
They circled back—following the rule not to wander too far from the house without everyone knowing.
“I’m glad you wanted to walk,” Lana said. “I didn’t realize how much I needed to get out, too.”
They both turned at the sound of running, sliding footsteps. Lana gripped Kim’s arm as she looked left. Nearly in sight of the house, she thought, close enough to see and smell the smoke from the fires left banked and simmering. If they had to run …
Then Joe burst out of the trees. Lana’s instant relief, even the laugh at her own paranoia, faded as Joe pressed to her, shivering.
“What is it, Joe?”
Shaun slipped his way out of the trees, nearly face-planting in the melting snow before Eddie grabbed him, pulled him up again.
“What happened?” Lana demanded.
“Something way weird back there.” Shaun pushed up his glasses, the lenses fogged from his own panting breaths. “Way weird. We should go back to the house. We should get Max.”
“Just wait. Take a breath. What did you see?”
“Either of you bring walkies?” Eddie asked.
“No, we only went for a walk.”
Shaun, face pink from running, breath still coming in pants, looked back toward the trees. “I’ll get one. I’ll
contact Max—he took one—tell him to come back. We need him to come back.”
“Like pronto,” Eddie added.
Shaun took off in an awkward, slipping run.
“Eddie.” Patience fraying, anxiety building, Lana spoke sharply. “What’s going on?”
“Did you ever see Blair Witch? You know, like, the movie?”
“No,” Lana said as Kim said, “Sure.”
“I love spooky movies.” Eddie comforted Joe with one hand, looking back over his shoulder. “Don’t like living in one. You know how they had all those symbol-things hanging from trees?” he said to Kim.
“Yeah. Creepy.”
“Well, you want to talk creepy? We’ve got a shit-ton of them back there. Hanging all over the hell. Off the track we use, but Joe started back that way, and we saw footprints, so we went to check it out. All these symbols, like—what it is?” He drew in the air with his finger.
“Pentagrams.” Lana’s chest tightened.
“Yeah, those, and these weird-ass little dolls, too. Made out of twigs and brush string and shit, and torn-up rags. I know some of it’s from my Grateful Dead T-shirt. Blair Witch, baby, and it ain’t good.”
“I need to see.”
Eddie shook his head. “It’s bad, Lana. Bad like that black circle. You can feel it. And there’s blood on the snow. It looked fresh. A lot of blood, and, you know, ah, entrails. Joe? He peed himself. Nearly did myself.”
“What black circle?” Kim demanded.
“We’ll explain later. I need you to show me. If someone’s coming this close to the house, using dark magicks, I have to see it, counteract it.”
“I knew you were going to say that.” After scrubbing his hands over his face, Eddie dropped them. “Let’s just wait for Max, okay?”
“Eddie, I need to see it. Then I can explain the symbolism to Max, and we can put together what’s needed to counteract it.”
“Okay, okay, but we’re not going past where Joe peed himself and I almost did. Here comes Shaun.”
Shaun rushed back, face red now with the effort, breath heaving. “I told them.” Leaning over, he braced his hands on his knees. “They’re coming. Ten or fifteen minutes, but they’re coming.”
“Good. Now take me back, and in ten or fifteen minutes Max and I will figure out what we have to do.”
“Back?” Still bent over, Shaun lifted his head. His face went pale beneath the red. “In there? I’m not going back in there. No way any of us should go back in there. Max—”
“Isn’t here,” Lana pointed out.
“Would you rather wait here by yourself?” Kim asked, taking a step forward.
“Hell no.” He fell in behind Kim, head swiveling side to side. “I just don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Neither is leaving up black magick symbols,” Lana shot back. “Last month we found a ritual site—dark, dangerous. And again too close to the house. We purified it. And that’s what we’ll do with whatever this is.”
“You didn’t tell us,” Kim accused.
“No, and maybe that was a mistake.” When Eddie stopped, she looked at the trampled snow to the left. “Angling closer to the house.”
“Yeah. It’s rough going—a lot of brush, downed branches, rocks. It’s why we stick to the trail.”
“If we wait for Max—”
Kim rounded on Shaun. “Lana’s as much a witch as he is.”
To settle it, Lana moved forward on the broken snow. She’d gone no more than two yards before she stopped. She felt it pulsing, pumping, oozing. Darker and more potent than the circle, she realized as her skin went clammy.
That had been an offering. This, she feared, a realization.
She pressed a hand to her belly, to her child, and swore she felt a pulse in there as well. The light beating.
Trusting it, she continued on.
Blood, death. Sex. She smelled it all, mixed and smeared together.
Then she saw. Inverted pentagrams dangling from branches. Thirteen by thirteen by thirteen. Blood splashed red over the white snow, and the gore was piled on a makeshift altar of stones where something had been gutted.
The dolls: six human dolls and one four-legged.
With the black beating against her, the white pulsing inside her, the absolute silence of air gone bitter-thick and still, she knew.
And grieved.
To test, power to power, she lifted a hand, pressed her light to the dark, felt the shock as it all but licked greedily at her palm.
“We need to go back,” she said with absolute calm. “There are things I need.” Max was one of them.
“Good idea!” Shaun took a step back, but froze at the sound of thrashing.
“Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, that’s a bear.” Kim took a stumbling step back.
“Something’s wrong with it,” Eddie stated. He unstrapped the rifle from his back as Joe stopped quivering and growled low.
The bear twitched and convulsed as it plodded forward. Its eyes gleaming a sick yellow as it snapped at the air.
“You’re not supposed to run.” With a shaking hand, Shaun gripped Kim’s arm. “Don’t run, or he might chase you. And he’s faster. Maybe just back up slow, give him room, but stick together so we look bigger. It’s a black bear, and they’re not aggressive, but this one…”
“It’s not right.” Eddie breathed slow. “Is anyone else packing?”
“I am.” Kim fumbled to get the gun from her hip.
“Shaun’s right about not running. Let’s try the backing up. Nice and easy,” Eddie added. The bear reared onto its hind legs, roaring.
“Shit. Shit. That didn’t work.”
“It’s infected. You have to kill it. Shoot it,” Lana ordered, throwing out sharp power.
The first shot struck its chest. It screamed, dropped to all fours, and charged.
Shots—the rifle, the handgun—blasted. Lana pressed a hand to her belly, drew on what she’d been given, and hurled a jagged sphere of light.
The bear howled, letting out a cry of pain that tore through the air as its front legs crumpled. With pity, Lana saw its eyes go blank—not with death, not yet, but with fear.
Then Eddie ended it.
“Back to the house,” Lana ordered. “Everyone back to the house. There may be more.” Going with instinct, she threw out a hand, setting the hanging symbols ablaze. “Hurry.”
“Eric and Allegra,” Kim managed as they ran through the wet snow. “They might still be out here. We need to find them, get them inside.”
“Eric and Allegra did that. Hurry,” Lana repeated.
As they broke into the clearing around the house, Eric and Allegra stood on the path, their hands linked.
“You’ve spoiled our surprise.” Allegra tossed back her hair, smiled.
“You held back on us.” Panic skidded down Lana’s spine. She didn’t have to test power to power here, not when she felt it churning.
She needed Max. They all needed Max.
“I didn’t want to brag.” On a laugh, Allegra tipped her head to Eric’s shoulder. The flirty, female gesture in contrast with the cold pleasure on her face. “It was so much fun to watch you play with your inferior talents while ours grew bigger, darker, sweeter. Now.”
She circled a finger in the air and ringed them all in a circle of black fire. “We’ll just wait here for the last of our happy group to get home.”
Lana held up a hand as Kim raised her gun. “It won’t get through the circle, and may hit one of us.”
“You’re so clever. We’ll sacrifice you last.” His face flushed with power and glee, both deathly dark, Eric smiled. “Max is first.”
Everything inside Lana feared, everything inside her sickened as she met Eric’s gaze and saw his glee.
“He’s your brother.”
“Fuck a brother.” With a flick of his fingers, he shot darts of black light toward the sky. “All my life he’s come first, and I was supposed to just follow along behind him, never quite measuring up
. The good son, the dean’s list, the important writer. The power. I’m so much more than he is now. And he thinks he can lecture me? Teach me? Train me?”
He shot out a hand, tossed an oily black bolt at a pine at the edge of the forest. It cleaved in two, and the jagged halves smoldering in the blackened snow.
“He thinks his soft, white, weak power can measure to mine?”
“He—he’s gone to the dark side.” Shaun stuttered it out. “Like, like Anakin Skywalker.”
Mouth curling into a sneer, Eric flicked a black dart at the fire ring. “God, you’re such a fucking geek.”
“This isn’t you, Eric.”
He turned that sneer on Lana, then looked at his hand. Now something black and sinuous curled around his arm. When he lifted it, crows streamed over the sky, began to circle.
“It is. Finally, it is, and I have what should’ve always been mine. Humanity’s dead. I’m standing on its rotting corpse, and am. We are,” he said, turning to Allegra. “We are what lives now.”
“Thrives and takes. Whatever we want. Whoever we want.” Leaning into Eric, Allegra rubbed her cheek to his. “Maybe we should keep one for a pet.”
“You’re sick, man.” Eddie gripped Joe’s collar to keep him close. “You’re way sick.”
“Maybe him,” Allegra considered. “After we roast his dog on a spit.”
“Let’s do one now. Our rule-making hero’s taking too long. Let’s just do one now, have some fun. You pick, baby.”
“Hmm.” Allegra stepped forward, pale hair streaming behind her as she strolled around the circle. “It’s hard to choose. They’re all so boring. Except her.” She stopped in front of Lana. “But she needs to be last—her and that bitch she’s growing inside her. She needs to see the rest die.”
“I thought you were just a little stupid.”
Off balance for a moment, Allegra blinked at Lana. “What?”
“You heard me.” Whatever it takes, Lana thought, she’d protect her child. So she smiled dismissively. “A little stupid, a lot whiny, and mostly useless. I can see I underestimated you. You’re really stupid, whiny, and useless. I’m not sure what that makes Eric, as you’ve been able to use sex and some clumsy power to pull him in with you.”
“A man,” Kim said from behind Lana. “A man who loses his shit over a pair of tits. Sorry, guys, but we’ve got a case in point here.”
As she stood, legs spread, Allegra’s hair began to fly in a rising wind. “You have no idea what I am, how long what’s in me has waited for this day. But you’ll know, before I rip that wriggling mass of cells out of you, you’ll know. You’ll see.”
Allegra spread her arms, and they became wings, pale as her hair, with edges toothed and keen. She rose up on them, spun. In the whirl of wind, smoke rose from the flames.
“There she is!” On a laugh, Eric lifted his arms. His wings were black, oily like the bolt, gleaming in the haze.
“What are they?” Shaun choked out. “What are they?”
“Death. The dark. Desolation,” Lana murmured. And arrogant, she thought.
While they, like their crows, circled, Lana drew on what she was, what she had, prayed it would be enough.
“When I say run, run. To the house.”
“We’re trapped here,” Shaun began.
“We won’t be.”
She cast out her light, beat it against the circling dark. Cracked it. “Run,” she snapped, shattering it.
She dug for more, hurled it upward. She heard a sound, like the sizzle of bacon in a hot skillet, a roar of pain and insult, as she ran with the others.
Those bolts rained down from the sky, turning the house into an inferno. The heat, the blast, knocked her back. Before she could push herself up, one of Allegra’s singed wings swooped down. Desperate, Lana gripped it, twisted it, even
