Thin Ice (Enter Darkness Book 4)

by K. M. Fawkes

  “Because you’re not judge, jury and executioner,” Anna said. “Were you just going to kill them without even talking to them?”

  “Why the hell would I talk to them?” Lee demanded, standing up and walking down the steps.

  Brad angled his body in front of Anna’s just slightly. Lee’s shrewd eyes took that in as well, but Brad didn’t care. His father needed to know that Anna was his to protect and that he would be protecting her at all costs.

  “To find out what really happened to your friend?” Anna suggested. “They might have had information.”

  “Maybe they did,” Lee said. “But they definitely had guns. Was I supposed to roll down the window and asked if they’d recently murdered anyone before I plowed the truck into them?”

  Anna blinked. “I…I don’t know,” she said. “But just killing them when all you knew was that they were in the same neighborhood as your friend seems crazy.”

  “Let he who is without sin among you cast the first stone,” Lee snapped furiously.

  Anna caught her breath. “What did you just say?”

  “I said that none of you are any better than I am,” Lee continued. “Bradley’s hands aren’t clean. Neither are yours.”

  “What?” Anna demanded. “I—”

  “You ran off like a scared rabbit and put my son and your own kids in danger,” Lee hissed. “I’ve heard about you. The things you did to him.”

  Anna glanced up at Brad, whose frank shock went a long way toward confirming his innocence. “Maybe I haven’t always made the best decisions,” she said, her green eyes flashing. “But my choices didn’t put your son in danger. My choices didn’t put my kids in danger. The nutjobs who are keeping us here handled that on their own!”

  “Oh really?” Lee demanded. “So how do you justify your decision to—”

  “I don’t,” Anna said, speaking over him. “Not to you, anyway. I don’t owe you anything.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment. Brad watched Lee’s face for signs that his father was going to move, but he didn’t. And when he finally did, it was backward. Anna’s body relaxed just slightly. Brad gave her shoulders a brief squeeze as he smiled down at her. He’d missed Anna so much.

  She leaned her head against him again and closed her eyes. Brad stretched out on the cot, curling up so that his feet didn’t hand off of the end and pulled her down with him. She snuggled into the curve of his body and sighed.

  “This is the first time I’ve been really warm in weeks,” she whispered.

  “Me too,” he said, realizing that it was true. “Anna…did you really hope that I’d come to Island Falls?”

  “I missed you from the second I hit the road,” she said. “But I couldn’t go back. I knew that you weren’t going to be able to win that fight.”

  “No,” Brad said. “I didn’t. If I’d gone with you the cabin might still be standing.”

  “But we wouldn’t be able to use it,” she said. “And if we can’t…I’m glad that they can’t either.”

  Brad gave a soft laugh. “Now that I think about it, I’m glad too.”

  She wrapped one arm around him and a few minutes later, he heard her breaths began to deepen. She was asleep.

  The cot was uncomfortable. His ribs were killing him. The cut on his side still burned. He was probably going to die tomorrow; a sacrifice to a combination of gods and devils.

  Brad closed his eyes and breathed Anna in. He was warm. She was there. For the first time in days, Brad closed his eyes and dropped off to sleep.

  Chapter 13

  It was still dark when the door was yanked open. The wrenching sound startled Brad and Anna awake and caused Lee to jump to his feet, eyeing the door warily. Three of the men who’d been part of the hunting party yesterday came down the stairs.

  Brad glanced up. Everything should be pretty bright right now, but it was pitch black over the men’s shoulders. He could barely hold back a grin when he saw that the sky was cloudy.

  “Get up,” one of the men barked at the two of them.

  Brad stood and stretched, pleased when his back cracked. “That’s some tough luck,” he said as one of the men approached with a pair of handcuffs.

  “What is?” the man asked warily.

  Brad pointed at the open cellar door and the man glanced back over his shoulder. If Brad had been inclined, he could have taken him off guard right there. But he wasn’t.

  He’d made up his mind in his sleep. He didn’t want to die just yet. He wanted to see Sammy and Martha, to let them know that he’d come back for them. To look into their eyes for signs that they believed in any of this bullshit. If he decked the guard, all of that would be much harder to accomplish.

  He waited for the man to turn back to him, his brow furrowed in a frown of confusion.

  “After all that work to plan your little ritual,” Brad explained. “You can’t even see the damn stars.”

  He hadn’t been able to hold back a laugh as he finished the sentence. Anna smiled as well. She’d already been cuffed. So had Lee, who had apparently decided to go quietly for reasons of his own. Brad didn’t particularly care what they were, he was just happy that it was happening.

  The man grabbed his arm roughly and spun him around. “Our Lords will show us what we are meant to see at the time that we are meant to see it,” he hissed.

  “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” Brad said, wincing when the metal bit into his skin. Maybe he should have waited to antagonize them until after he’d been cuffed. But then he wouldn’t have been able to see their faces. He decided that it was worth the pain. Anna cast him a grin as they were jerked around and pushed up the stairs.

  The grass was heavy with snow that soaked the bottom cuffs of Brad’s pants. It was hard to see where he was going under such a cloudy sky, but the men seemed to know the way by heart. Just like they knew the twisted scriptures.

  They didn’t stop walking until they had reached the base of the quarry. The massive crosses from the old cabin had been placed near the sheer rock face in huge cut-outs. Fires burned on the ground under the cut-out sections, throwing tortured-looking shadows up onto the granite where they twisted and coiled ominously.

  “Holy God,” Brad said as he looked at the cut-outs. He wouldn’t have thought something like that would have been possible in the short time the Family had been here. “Is this what they make you do all day? Carve these rocks? How many hours did this take?”

  The man who was holding him in place didn’t answer any of his questions, but Brad could feel the calluses in his grip. He’d felt them before, but he hadn’t really paid attention. Now, he was sure that they’d been earned by chipping away at this rock. He felt a surge of sympathy for the followers that he’d never expected to feel. No matter what their religion, they were living in hell here in this quarry.

  More Family members began to walk in. Each of them went straight to a place that they had clearly been assigned. There were nine tall sticks placed around the clearing and a Family member stood by each one. Then, moving as one, they each lit the one beside them. Fire blazed up, showing that the torches were arranged in the shape of a cross pushing through a pentagram.

  “Bring the prisoners forward,” a man called.

  Once they’d been shoved forward, Brad realized that the man wasn’t Uncle. Where the hell was he, anyway? Surely the cult wouldn’t have survived without its leaders. Or was that why everything was so different this time around?

  “On their knees,” the man said imperiously.

  Lee had to be kicked in the back of his leg before he knelt to the man. Brad and Anna knelt on their own. Brad knew that it didn’t matter in the long run; no matter how long he had to kneel, he would never fear or respect the man standing above him.

  “You must be cleansed before you meet the ones called to serve the highest duties,” the man intoned.

  Brad heard Anna catch her breath as one of the men pushed the back of her head down. They poured water
from a silver bowl over her hair, leaving her long locks dripping and her teeth chattering. Brad lowered his head and felt a splash of water as well. Lee cursed loudly and inventively when it was his turn.

  They were hauled back to their feet again once the new man had intoned some words that Brad didn’t understand. Brad winced when the cut on his side opened up again. Water that had sluiced down his neck sank into the collar of his shirt. His teeth began to chatter from the cold air on his wet skin.

  More people were filing into the quarry now. To his frustration the clouds were breaking up, leaving bright patches on the ground in front of him. He could see his own breath in the air.

  He could also see members of the Family filing onto ledges in the rock face above him. Those had been hewn recently, too. No wonder everyone looked so exhausted and thin. That was a hell of a lot of calories to be burning, especially when they couldn’t be replaced easily. He was surprised that people hadn’t dropped dead from exhaustion before now. Maybe some of them had.

  He caught his breath sharply when Sammy and Martha walked out onto the ledge to his left. Their faces were perfectly impassive upon seeing him standing there with Anna, although she cried out for them both. God, was he too late? Had the Family succeeded in their brainwashing, or were the kids just very good at playing the game? He stared at the children, but they gave nothing away.

  A blaze went up in the center of the pentagram as the crowd began chanting something. At first, Brad thought that it might be Latin but then he realized that it wasn’t. It didn’t sound like any language he knew, but they spoke it fervently.

  Most of them had their eyes closed as they chanted faster and faster. As they got faster, they also got louder, their voices echoing off of the stone of the quarry. Light spilled more and more brightly over the quarry and meteors streaked across the sky.

  Brad was one of the only ones who noticed that. The rest of them were much too caught up in the moment. Sammy and Martha’s lips moved in perfect unison with the words.

  Just when he thought that he might go crazy from the repetition of incomprehensible words, the voices stopped.

  “Brad!” a voice called.

  He looked up to see Auntie and Uncle step into the circle of firelight. Auntie was smiling at him, her arms lifted to the light show of a sky.

  “Is it not as she prophesied?” Uncle asked the crowd, turning and gazing up at all of them with an ear-to-ear grin. “Has not the prodigal returned as we promised?”

  A general murmur of assent flowed around them. No one took their eyes away from the couple in the center of the pentagram. They stood so near the fire that an errant step back would have set their clothing on fire.

  “Sorry,” Brad said. “But there’s no way in hell that I’m your prodigal.”

  The crowd stirred restlessly and Anna jabbed Brad with her elbow. He recognized it for what it was: a warning not to argue. He bit his tongue in an effort to stay silent. He had to be alert now, he had to watch for any chances that he had left.

  “You found the note,” Auntie said, her voice contradictory to the flash of anger in her eyes at his rebuttal. “You came back to us. You have gone through the first stages of being cleansed of your many sins and you are more than welcome to join us in a more purposeful life.”

  “Oh, am I really?” Brad asked, raising an eyebrow. “That seems like the kind of thing I would know about myself, don’t you think?

  “Of course you are,” she said, sweeping her arm to indicate the massive crosses in the wall. “We serve our Lords and we know that they are Gods of second chances.” Her smile stretched wide and Brad had to hold back a shiver that had nothing to do with being cold. “You will all have a chance to repent. You will all have a chance to serve. I suggest that you think about your answers carefully. You will not be asked again.”

  She paused, ostensibly to give them time to reflect on their own sin. Brad had a feeling that it was for dramatic effect instead.

  Auntie swept the quarry with a self-satisfied glance that made him want to slap her face as hard as he could. She knew exactly what she was doing. He knew exactly who she worshipped. It wasn’t God or Satan, or any combination of them and others. It was herself. It was the power that she wielded here in this new world.

  “Will you join us?” she asked Lee once she was done basking in the crowd’s attention.

  Lee laughed harshly and bitterly before he spat on the ground at their feet and said, “You crazy bastards. There’s no way I’m drinking your Kool-Aid.”

  The crowd gasped, shifting and murmuring as they processed what Lee had said. Uncle’s face twisted with anger for one brief second, but then he managed to smooth it over as he remembered that he was the focus of dozens of pairs of eyes.

  Brad swallowed the metallic tang of fear that had risen at his father’s blunt words. He might want to leave his father behind once this was done, but he emphatically didn’t want to see his father die. They kept their word though. They didn’t address Lee further.

  “What about you, dear?” Auntie asked, walking over to stop in front of Anna. “Are you ready to be one of us for good this time? You have your proof in the return of your lover, do you not? Is that not what you have prayed for?”

  Brad barely held back a snort at the assumption. Anna gave a quick and jerky nod, her eyes still locked unwaveringly on Sammy. She hadn’t been able to stop staring at him since they’d come in.

  “Yes,” she said, nodding again and again. “Yes, I know that I’ve been wrong and I’m ready to make it right. I’ll do whatever you want to prove that to you.”

  “Good,” Auntie said, stroking Anna’s hair, making her flinch. Ice had already begun to form in it and it crackled under Auntie’s firm grip. “It is always good to come into the light, no matter how long it takes. Our Gods are balanced, one infinitely patient and the other…less so. But your willingness to change is noted.”

  “What will you—” Anna began, but the leaders walked away from her. They’d gotten an answer. They were done with her for now. Brad saw her bite her lip as her hands curled into fists. She’d done all that she could.

  “And you?” Uncle asked Brad. “Will you not step out of the dark shroud? Will you not join the Family in the light of the Gods?”

  Dawn began to streak the sky as he said the words. It muted the brightness of the morning star and made it harder to see the falling stars. Brad knew that they must have timed this closely for the best effect and he wanted nothing more than to sneer as his father had done. He didn't want to even appear to give in to his charade.

  Even though they weren’t touching, Brad could feel Anna trembling. Sammy and Martha still looked down at Brad and Anna impassively. Sammy had grown taller. Martha was thinner. Both of their eyes looked dead.

  “Yes,” he said after a moment, halfway afraid that he was going to choke on the words. “I will join you if you’ll let me.”

  Lee snorted in derision but Brad did his best to ignore him as a cheer went up from the ragged followers. Apparently they’d been rooting for him, which he hadn’t expected, given that he’d killed a good number of them only a few weeks ago. Perhaps Uncle and Auntie had found a good way to spin that, too.

  “Now what?” Brad asked them as the crowd cheered.

  “Now we must pray,” Auntie said, turning to the fire pit. “We must speak to our Lords and ask what they would have us do.”

  “I thought we just did that,” Brad said, but she didn’t answer.

  The crowd began to chant again as Auntie and Uncle lifted their hands, and Uncle called out to the sky in that strange language once again. Brad saw fear flash across Sammy’s face before he managed to smooth it away.

  He wished that Sammy didn’t have to be afraid, but he was relieved to see it. It meant that something of the boy he’d known was still there.

  Brad waited, trying not to tense for action too obviously. Something was going to happen soon. He didn’t have any idea what it was, but everything was drivin
g toward it.

  “The Lords of darkness and light have answered us!” Auntie cried out suddenly.

  The crowd fell obediently silent at her words and waited. It seemed like they didn’t even breathe. Martha leaned forward just the slightest bit, her shoulders rising and falling just a little too quickly as she listened.

  “The dissenter will die,” Auntie said calmly as she pointed at Lee.

  No one in the crowd objected. Lee himself stood stock-still, looking at them with pure, burning hatred. Whatever they did to his father, Brad knew they would have to do it quickly. He wasn’t going to make this easy for them.

  Then Auntie turned to Anna, her smile impossibly gentle and disgustingly self-important. “The woman will die as well.”

  “What?” Anna gasped out, her knees buckling so that the man behind her grunted with holding up her suddenly nearly dead weight. “Why? I said that I would do whatever you wanted! You know that I’m useful! You know that I’m—”

  “We are glad you’ve seen the error of your ways,” Uncle said, holding up his palm to stem the frantic flow of her words. “And we hope that you make amends in the Beyond. Perhaps one of Them will accept your service in the afterlife even if it was found unnecessary here.”

  Anna let out a scream, but it went unacknowledged as the leaders turned their attention to Brad.

  “As for our prodigal,” Auntie said, giving Brad a wide smile. “You will live. You will take your vows and your service will begin right away.”

  It didn’t have a damn thing to do with who he was and Brad knew it. This decision had been made solely because he was the strongest and the most capable-looking of the three. The choices they’d made for Lee and Anna had been made with practicality in mind as well. Brad could tell that the Family couldn’t afford too many extra mouths around. None of this had a damn thing to do with forgiveness, compassion, or serving any God. It all had to do with power and fear.