Ossified State (Chronicles of the Wraith Book 2)

by S. C. Green

  “What about my child? You just said it was the future of the Reapers. I risk its life going after that cloud.”

  “There are Reapers outside the dome. Raine’s return confirms this. The Reapers will survive. Besides, I am certain your child will be fine. It has survived this long.”

  That didn’t exactly inspire confidence. I folded my arms across my chest. “You’re not making me do anything.”

  “Fine. But I’m going after that cloud. There must be something I can do.”

  Without glancing at me, Lorcon turned away from the window and rushed toward the door. As he passed through the doorway, he mumbled something under his breath, but I couldn’t catch the words.

  I stood, shakily, only just realising how exhausted I felt. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was get near that horrible cloud again, and endanger myself and my child. But I had no choice. Harriet could be tearing through the dome, turning every last living person into dust. And then she could use Raine’s wraith to make her way outside the dome. If Lorcon was right, and I could stop her, I had to try.

  I heaved myself toward the door and followed him out the gates.

  Out on the street, I got a clear look at the damage the cloud had done. Scorch marks ran along the side of the Compound. Every window in the nearby buildings had been broken, the glass covering the ground in twinkling shards. Debris had been thrown through the gaping windows and strewn across the square, creating a rickety maze through which we had to navigate. A nearby wall had been smeared with what looked like blood and … ash? I could just make out the swirling tips of the cloud behind the skyscrapers, heading toward Brownleigh.

  How could we hope to fight this? I was used to battling an enemy that was at least somewhat in corporeal form. Guns, I could understand. Fists, I held my own. Give me a blade, and I could do some serious damage. But how do you fight against vapour and dust?

  “You mussst ssstop it,” a voice hissed in my ear.

  I whirled around. Raine’s wraith stood behind me, its gaping mouth inches from my face. I screamed and leapt back. The wraith’s mouth downturned, almost as if my reaction offended it.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” it said. “I don’t want to husssk. I only wanted my wife back.”

  “Don’t come any closer,” I warned. “I’ll send you back to the underworld, and you won’t return.” It was an empty threat, of course, but the wraith didn’t know that. It had seen what I’d done in the cemetery. It didn’t know I couldn’t do it again.

  “Do asss you mussst,” the wraith hissed, tilting its head to the side. “I dessserve it, for what hasss happened here. I only wanted to sssee her again. But ssshe is not Annabelle any longer.”

  “What are you talking about?” I gestured to the cloud that swirled away across the city, spitting out charred debris in its wake. “What is that thing?”

  “It isss the new wraith,” he hissed. “Made from thossse who have been cremated. My wife isss in that cloud, but shhhe cannot sssee me. Shhhe is only vapour and hatred, only dussst and hunger.”

  Lorcon ran forward and tried to push me behind him. “Stay away from Sydney.”

  “But how?” I asked, ignoring him, my chest tightening as the full knowledge sank in. The cloud wasn’t just a single wraith, but several wraith, all swirling and churning together. What could a storm like that do, and how was Harriet controlling it?

  “It doesss not hussk, asss we once did. It burnsss through the ssskin, through bone, through everything, devouring the essssssence whole. It hasss hunger like you could not imagine.”

  “I’ll make sure you never hurt another person again,” Lorcan warned.

  “Wait,” I said. “Let’s hear what he has to say. Why are you telling me this? You’re not trying to help us, are you? Why would you do that?”

  “I am loyal to Raine. I thought shhhe would reunite me with my wife, but she wasss too dissstracted with her own lover. I wanted to sssee Annabelle ssso badly, I could not refussse his offer.“ The wraith hung his head. “I realissse now that I wasss wrong.”

  “His offer? Who’s he? Harriet is a woman, my friend.”

  “Shhhe is not your friend anymore.”

  “Then what—”

  A violent wind slammed into me, knocking me back. The pile of detritus I stood on shifted beneath me, and my knees buckled. Lorcon caught me before I hit the pavement. We clutched each other as a tendril of the grey cloud swept past us, dragging Raine’s wraith along with it. Lorcon flung his black coat around us both. As the cloud surged around us, cold shot through my entire body. I buried my head against Lorcan’s chest.

  Please don’t take me. Please don’t hurt my child.

  The wind pounded against my body. It had a solidness that felt as though I was being battered by a hundred fists. It whistled around my head, cruel laughter ricocheting in my ears. It sounded like a man laughing. A he, not a Harriet.

  My whole body tightened. Fear closed in on me, trapping me inside the cloud. I held my breath against the poisoned air, my chest bursting as it begged for relief. I waited for the wraith to burn away my skin and devour my soul, to drag from my womb the tiny child that had not even had a chance to live before turning it to dust.

  I won’t let this happen. I tried to take my mind back to the Mimir, to find that place inside the light where the threads of the world converged. But all that existed was the memory, tainted by my fear, fear of losing another the way I lost Diana. The light of the Mimir dulled from the darkness behind my eyes.

  Laughter roared in my ears, pounding inside my skull until I was sure it was part of me. It mocked me for my inability to save myself. The futility of my battle struck me, and I stopped trying to fight it. All that existed was the wind.

  I knew no pain greater than that cackling, screaming laughter pummelling my skull, bringing all thought to a standstill. The cloud was choking me, preparing to burn my body to dust. I tried to fight against it, but pain tore at my skin. It was easier just to ride with it, to become the laughter.

  Beneath its roar, I heard the faintest words. High pitched and hard to distinguish, but definitely a woman’s voice. Help me, Sydney.

  Help you? Help who? I cried back into the void. But the voice was swallowed into the laughter once more.

  Finally, finally, the wind died away. My muscles unclenched. I dared to relax my shoulders, and, feeling no resistance from the air around me, I leant weight on my feet once more. My lungs stung, begging for air.

  “You can breathe,” Lorcon said. “It’s gone.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why did it let us go?”

  “Did you sever the threads of the wraith within the cloud?”

  I shook my head. “I tried, but I was too afraid. I couldn’t find the threads again, only the memory of them. The only reason we’re still alive is because that cloud allowed us to live—”

  “Sydney?”

  At the sound of that familiar, beautiful voice, I dropped Lorcan's arms. My legs miraculously held my weight, strong again and fueled with joy. I whirled around.

  Alain ran across the courtyard toward me, his wild curls flying and his black coat billowing around him. The settling mists of dust and ash flew down around him, giving him a pale aura. His eyes flashed with relief, a mirror of the surging feeling that lifted my heart.

  He was upon me before I could even step toward him. He picked me up, wrapping me in his arms, his hands running over every inch of my body. “Are you all right? Is the baby safe? When I saw the cloud, I thought for certain I’d lost you.”

  I cupped my belly, reassuring myself that the little peanut was still there. “You didn’t lose me, and the baby’s fine, hanging in there like a champ. How did you find me?”

  “I know you and May. You wouldn’t go back to the apartment, especially not with my daughter protesting in your ear. This was the next logical place you would go in search of Harriet.” Alain looked around, his brow furrowing. “Where is May?”

  “I don’t know.” I p
ointed to the trail of dust and debris the cloud had left behind. “We came here and found Lorcon”--the Reaper gave Alain a curt nod of greeting, which he returned in kind--“and then the cloud came here. It killed three men – they might have been from the Spinoldi gang, by the looks of their rifles. You have to see the bodies. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Harriet stood right over there, across the square. She was directing the cloud, telling it where to move. And the cloud just picked her up and carried her off. May flew off after her. I couldn’t stop her. I’m so sorry.” I sank against him, falling into his familiar, wonderful, musky scent.

  His whole body tightened, his muscles rigid. Nausea rose within me once more, but this time, it had nothing to do with my pregnancy and everything to do with the fact that I’d let him down. I’d allowed May to be taken. All my earlier anger at him evaporated as I realised I was responsible for losing his daughter.

  “Don’t let her get distressed,” Lorcon said, ripping me away from Alain. “You’ll do damage to the child.”

  “It’s wraith. The cloud is wraith.” I beat my fists against Lorcan's shoulders so he’d let me go back to Alain. “I should have saved her. I should have been able to use my power, but I can’t. I don’t know how. I’m so, so sorry.”

  She’s going to die, just like Diana died, and it’s all your fault.

  “If you can’t stop the cloud, we have to go after it.” Raine stepped out from behind a pile of debris, her mouth drawn in a thin line. She placed her hand, possessively, on Alain’s shoulder. The look she gave me was part sympathetic, part hate-filled. “That Harriet girl is still alive inside the cloud. That means she might be keeping May alive, too.”

  “It’s a cloud,” Lorcon. “We can’t track it like an animal.”

  “No, but we don’t need to.” Raine’s eyes flashed with determination. “I know where they’re going.”

  16

  Raine

  My words hung in the grey air. No one moved, not even me. It was taking everything I had to stay upright, to keep the panic and fear and fury and guilt that welled up inside me from spilling over.

  Wisps of dirt swirled around us, the last remnants of the great cloud rolling away. Mocking dust-filled fingers darted across the edges of our skin. Even though I knew it could burn me, I couldn’t move. What did my life matter? The cloud had already taken the one thing I cared about.

  The last of the wisps departed, leaving Sydney clutching Lorcon. Her huge eyes stared at Alain like a puppy whose master had just come home early with a giant bone. Alain broke away first, dropping my hand and racing to her, wrapping her in his arms in a way that made my chest ache.

  Damn. Would I ever get used to seeing them together?

  I knew how stupid it was to be thinking with my heart now. Our daughter was gone, we were all in great danger, and it was my fault. As difficult as it was to get my mind off Alain and Sydney and his new child, especially when they displayed moments of tenderness like this, I had to focus on figuring out how to find May and stop this cloud.

  Tearing my gaze away, I stared around the square, taking in the scorched buildings, the debris strewn everywhere, the broken glass covering everything in glittering crystals. It was hard to believe I’d only been here yesterday. It looked so different, like the sight of a bombing.

  If this is what the cremated wraith are capable of ...

  Lorcon caught my eye. Understanding passed over his face as he seemed to recognise me. I remembered Lorcon from my days at the Compound. We didn’t have much to do with each other – I was a scientist, and he was an historian. If ever there was a problem that had to be dealt with, Lorcon would turn to the dusty books in the Compound’s library, convinced we would always find answers there. He used to clash with Dorien all the time – of all of us younger Reapers, only Dorien would dare to argue with the Elders.

  Dorien. I hadn’t had much time to think of him, or his place in all this madness. We’d been friends once, long ago. He used to babysit for May, because I worked such long hours in the city and Alain was taking on more and more reaping shifts as he trained to one day become an Elder. I often thought back fondly on watching Dorien and May playing one of their many make-believe games, and I’d drawn some comfort knowing he was also trapped inside the dome, looking out for her.

  Last night, Alain informed me that Dorien was the one who’d made a deal with the wraith, who’d executed his way to head of the Order, who’d gone literally mad with power. I wondered what had happened to him inside the dome to turn that excitable teenager into the villain Alain had described with such venom. I knew Alain was leaving details out of his account of Dorien’s actions. I could tell from the way the end of his mouth twitched, the way his hands seemed to involuntarily clench at the mention of Dorien’s name. He forgot that I could read him, still, after all these years. I knew his tension, his rage, had something to do with Dorien and May. That knowledge made my whole body flinch.

  If I’d been here, I would have known something was wrong. It was the kind of thing a mother could see but a father sometimes couldn’t, especially when the villain was his closest friend. But I would have put a stop to it. I would have wrung his neck with my bare hands.

  Would you have? Would you really? Are you not the cause of all your daughter’s woe? If you hadn’t left, she never would have been left at Dorien’s mercy.

  Yet another part of my daughter’s life I’d missed, a trauma she should never have had to endure. The guilt tore at my insides, flaying against my organs, tearing open every vein and tendon. I felt all opened up, like a butterflied meat. I was a terrible mother. I abandoned my daughter. I left her to fall into the arms of a gun-crazy, power-mad woman who was hell-bent on destroying the world.

  Don’t dwell on it. Focus. Think about now.

  I shook myself back to the present. Sydney was explaining breathlessly what had happened since she’d found May. Her face appeared pale, and she clutched Alain as though he was the only thing holding her upright. I remembered how nauseous I’d been when I’d first discovered I was pregnant with May. Sydney’s pale, sickly skin gave me another flashback, the memory of carrying my daughter inside me, of her little feet kicking as she fought against her surroundings. How I wished I could go back and do it all again.

  “...I should have saved her …” Sydney’s words registered in my mind.

  I wanted to say, Yes, you should have. But it wasn’t true. May was still my responsibility. My brave, strong, stupid daughter. I should have saved her.

  Again, I told them all to follow me. This time, I didn’t hesitate, didn’t wait for Sydney to pull herself together. I just took off, transforming into my raven form. I soared high above the office buildings surrounding the Compound and glimpsed the cloud again. It was moving across the city, laying a blackened path of destruction in its wake.

  Somewhere inside that cloud was my daughter, and I knew where she was going.

  A raven flew up beside me. At first I thought it must be Alain, but no. Lorcon zoomed ahead of me, his black wings spread wide, feathers glinting in the dull light. I glanced down and saw Alain helping Sydney navigate through the streets. He looked up and waved me on.

  I would be the one to find our daughter while he took care of his new child. It needed to be me. I had so much to atone for.

  We flew over the skyscrapers, following the charred path as it twisted through the city like a serpent. In no time, we’d gained ground on the cloud. It came up on the Sunn Corporation headquarters, a path of shattered glass and peeled cladding streaming into the street after it. The cloud hovered over the Sunn building before descending down on the glass-fronted lobby. Windows smashed. A cascade of glass fell like a waterfall. Bits of metal framing and wooden desks flew into the street.

  The cloud formed into a funnel shape, spinning around itself like a tornado. As it leaned toward the Sunn building, debris spun inside the funnel – a blackened core of chewed, charred detritus flung out as it was searched for energy and
then tossed away.

  I wrapped my talons around the railing of the roof garden on the opposite building and perched there, folding my wings around my body. The cloud shrunk down, dropping toward the street below. It flooded the lower floors, moving through the building with tremendous speed.

  I jumped as every remaining window on the ground floor blew out. My ears rung, and I raised my wingtips to balance myself again as the force of the blast threatened to knock me backward.

  The cloud shrunk further, disappearing completely inside the building, leaving only a charred circle of twinkling glass on the street below. In a few moments, it was gone completely.

  Lorcon landed beside me, indicating with his beak that we should follow the cloud inside. I shook my head. We had to wait for Alain … and Sydney. She was the one with the power to vanquish the wraith. I hated having to trust her to save my daughter’s life when I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could, but the important thing was that we had a way to rescue May, if she was still alive inside the cloud.

  Please, my darling. Please still be alive in there.

  Lorcon and I waited in tense silence, watching the few remaining wisps of cloud being sucked away into the depths of the building. A few moments later, Alain and Sydney rounded the corner of the building, tearing toward the charred entrance. I dived off the railing and swooped down to intercept them, transforming midair so my feet slammed onto the ground, crunching a pile of glass. I was lucky Reapers transformed in our long coats and heavy boots.

  “What’s happened here?” Sydney asked, picking her way across the shattered glass and running her fingers over the scorched door frame.

  “The cloud is gone,” I said, panic tightening my voice. “It was too far ahead. We watched it being sucked down into this building, which means it’s gone outside the dome.”

  Alain kicked a jagged shard of window glass. It soared through the air and hit the side of the building, shattering into a thousand pieces. Lorcon reached for him, but he’d already spun away to kick a second shard.