by Sarra Cannon
Fifteen
Parrish
Parrish scrambled to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pain screaming through her side. She needed to get to her sword, but the moment she made a move toward it, the silver zombie casually jumped down and kicked it under the bus.
Damn.
This one was different, somehow. More intelligent.
Parrish suddenly knew deep in her bones that this one had not been created by Lily and sent here like the others.
This silvery zombie had been carefully crafted by the pure magic of the Dark One.
The thought chilled her, but she didn’t have time to sit and think about what that might mean.
She had bought them all some time with her flash of blue energy, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t do anything against the metallic outer shell of this zombie.
She did, however, know that it had hurt the two tentacled ones still crawling their way toward her. Only when she turned to face them, they were both completely still, as if they’d been stunned.
She glanced around, her eyes naturally traveling toward the roof.
This had Karmen written all over it, and sure enough, her friend stood at the edge of the rooftop, along with a crowd of survivors from the compound, staring down at Parrish and the rotters she faced now.
Of course, she’d barely even turned her attention away from the silver zombie for a second or two, but that little bit had created an opening. This thing was too fast, and Parrish couldn’t seem to get ahead of it.
Silver ran toward her, fist raised again.
Parrish just barely twisted her body around in time to miss the blow, but she took advantage of Silver’s momentum, landing a strong kick in its side that threw it against the side of the bus.
The metal on that entire side of the bus caved in as if it had been hit by a freight train.
Parrish’s foot and knee pulsed in pain, too, from the hit. Just how strong was this thing?
She needed to put together a better strategy, or this rotter was going to get the best of her. She widened her stance and gathered as much blue light in the palm of her hands as she could manage, increasing its energy with the intention of her mind. The light flickered and then expanded as its intensity grew.
When Silver turned back around to face her, Parrish unleashed the ball of light in a brilliant flash that this time, instead of expanding outward, focused into a single point of intensity.
To her horror, Silver simply lifted its hand in front of the light and absorbed it. The light went out, doing no damage to the rotter at all.
Parrish stumbled backward, feeling more afraid than she had at the hospital yesterday. She’d put everything she had into that spell, and it had done absolutely nothing to this thing. It just kept coming for her.
She thought of running away, but where could she go?
This thing was obviously faster than she was, and with its power, there would be no place inside to hide from it. She’d only end up getting everyone else killed, too.
She needed to find a weak spot in this thing’s defenses. Everyone and everything had a weak spot somewhere.
And she wanted to get her sword back. Even if it couldn’t slice through whatever armor this zombie wore, it made her feel more focused and in control of her power.
She held her ground, then, paying attention to every micro-movement the zombie made as it studied her. Finally, when it ran forward, Parrish was able to shift her balance at the last minute, stepping out of the way of the zombie.
Silver obviously had been expecting her to try to kick it again, which was maybe why it had come to her the same way they had last time. It wanted to use her own movements against her.
But Parrish didn’t try to kick it this time.
Instead she ran and slid under the bus, grabbing her sword and quickly crawling out the other side.
She had moved with great speed, but it wasn’t enough.
As soon as she stood up on the other side, Silver was there waiting for her.
There was nothing she could do fast enough to try to save herself.
Silver reached out with both hands and grabbed her by the neck, its skin cold as steel and equally as hard.
Parrish didn’t have enough room between herself and Silver to even attempt an attack with her sword, and the way this rotter was squeezing her neck, she knew she’d run out of air fast if it didn’t break the bones in her throat first.
She dropped her sword and clawed at Silver’s hands, trying to gain any leverage she could to pull them apart.
She couldn’t breathe.
Since she was on the other side of the bus, there was nothing Karmen could do to help her either. Karmen wouldn’t be able to see what was happening over here, and without line of sight, it would definitely be harder for her to get inside this thing’s mind.
So, what could she possibly do?
Her feet dangled at least a full foot off the ground, so she kicked backwards against the side of the bus, hoping to at least pull this thing off balance. Silver didn’t budge, though, no matter how hard she kicked and protested.
Instead, the silver rotter just looked at her. No emotion on its face or in its eyes. It had a job to do, plain and simple, and once it was done, she had no doubt it would go after the rest of them, too.
She couldn’t fail them all like that.
So she did the one last thing she could think of. She wrapped her fingers around the fatalis stone and asked for help.
She had no idea the true power of this stone or even what it was meant to be used for. In her dreams, she had seen the fifth use it on the island to retrieve or reset their memories but other than that, she wasn’t sure how to use it.
But she sensed in that moment that it could help her at least communicate and connect with the others. To ask them to come help her.
Because she understood now that even though she wanted to take this burden on by herself sometimes, they were so much stronger as a group. She never should have come out there by herself.
Please, she said in her mind. If you can hear me, I’m on the other side of the bus. A strong zombie made of silver or steel has me trapped. I can’t breathe.
I’m coming for you, Noah responded immediately. Just hold on.
At the sound of his voice, Parrish felt renewed. She reached into the stone for more power and then pressed her hand against the rotter’s silvery arm, pouring as much of her icy cold light into it as she could.
Frost built up on the outside of its armor, but it didn’t let up on its grip.
She was running out of air, praying she could hold on until Noah got to her.
But then, after Noah’s voice faded from her mind, there was another.
Parrish?
Tears welled in her eyes, and hope flooded her heart.
Zoe, is that you? Are you safe?
Hearing her sister’s voice was like feeling the sun on her face after a long winter.
We’re safe, and I miss you. But I need you to listen to me. The boy here says to use your fire, not your ice. I don’t know what that means, but he said you can melt metal.
Parrish gripped the fatalis stone tighter.
In all the craziness after the hospital, she hadn’t even thought about the moment her hand had practically burst into flames. She’d been so used to using ice as her main power that she still wasn’t even sure how she’d created flames.
From what she could tell, everyone in their group—even Lily—had powers that were based in either ice or fire.
No one else seemed to be able to control both, but somehow she had done it.
Parrish stared at her hands and focused everything inside her to this one, singular image. A hand covered in flames.
The instant the thought took hold inside her, a flame appeared, covering the hand that gripped the silver zombie’s arm. Remembering what Lily had done to kill the rats in the apartment, Parrish took what was left of her precious breath and blew across the top of the flame, directing it
up and down the rotter’s body.
Silver screamed and released her, stepping back as the silvery armor melted onto the skin beneath it. Parrish didn’t let up. She blew more flames onto the rotter, coaxing them hotter and more powerful. The zombie writhed and kicked and screamed until whatever was left of its life faded away in pain and horror.
It worked, she said to Zoe in her mind. I can’t believe it worked. Tell him thank you.
But instead of Zoe’s voice in response, she heard the boy.
Parrish, watch out.
The moment he said it, a figure moving toward her caught her attention. Hope drained from her face as the sheer power radiating from the zombie woman almost pulled her to her knees. There was no thought of trying to run or fight.
All Parrish could do was watch.
This rotter had been beautiful once, she had no doubt.
Long black hair that, though matted now in parts, still cascaded down her back in curls. Her black dress was partly sheer at the skirt with a tight, leather bodice that reminded Parrish of a corset.
It was the kind of dress Parrish might have chosen for herself if she’d ever been asked to Prom.
The woman barely had any signs of decay on her dark skin, except for an occasional bruise-like mark on her face or arms. Maybe she’d only been dead a short time, though Parrish couldn’t imagine why anyone would have been so dressed up during this mess.
The woman’s eyes glowed with a deep, amethyst light, and Parrish knew without a doubt that she was, for the first time, standing in the presence of the Dark One.
Not in the flesh.
Not yet.
But it was her, nonetheless.
“I have waited so long to see you again,” the Dark One said, coming up so close to her that Parrish could now smell the woman’s decay, despite her lingering beauty. Her voice was almost wistful and sad. “You don’t remember me, though, do you? All these centuries dreaming of my revenge, and you don’t even know who I am.”
“I know some of it,” Parrish said. “I know you’re the one who started all of this. The one who killed all these innocent people.”
The Dark One shrugged, as if that had been nothing at all. “You’re the one who brought me here to this pitiful world.” She glanced around. “Doesn’t seem like your little plan has worked out all that well, after all.”
The fight inside Parrish told her to run. Or to lift her sword or gather some of her power into her hands. But she couldn’t. The power of the Dark One’s presence held her to the spot, her knees trembling.
With what confidence she could manage, Parrish squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “We’ve kept you in prison for centuries, haven’t we? I wouldn’t say we’ve done such a bad job.”
The Dark One smiled through the woman’s eyes and face, and Parrish wondered how it must have felt for her to be locked away alone for so long with no power. No one to talk to.
She obviously enjoyed having some of her freedom back.
Parrish hadn’t realized the Dark One could take such direct control of a zombie, but she wasn’t entirely surprised, either. With every new death and awakening, she grew in power. There were likely over a billion deaths worldwide now. Maybe more.
What more would it take for the Dark One to go free? Did everyone have to die? Or was she on the brink of freedom, even now?
And if this was how her power felt when she was using a dead human as a vessel, what would it be like to face her in person?
Parrish sucked in a ragged breath.
“You used to love me, though you’ll never remember it now,” the Dark One said. “You were once like a daughter to me. You were a lot like me, in fact.”
Parrish lifted her chin. There was no way she’d ever loved this woman. “I don’t believe you.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe.” The Dark One leaned against the side of the bus, so close Parrish had to turn her head slightly to see her face. “It’s practically over now, anyway. I have almost everything I need to retake what was stolen.”
Parrish wanted to move, but at the same time, she wasn’t entirely sure she had control of herself.
The magic surrounding the Dark One was both intoxicating and terrifying at the same time.
“Then why show up here, if you’re so close?” Parrish asked. “Just to see me one last time before you kill me?”
The woman studied her and laughed.
“I don’t want to kill you,” she said. “Not here. That would be too easy for you.”
Parrish glanced at her, confused.
“Too easy for me?”
The Dark One’s eyes flashed, and she leaned in closer, running a jagged fingernail across Parrish’s cheek.
“I want you to suffer for a thousand years, the way you made me suffer,” she said, almost growling low in her throat. “I want you to watch everything you’ve ever loved be taken from you, including the home you once adored and cannot even remember. I will force you to remember, and then I will kill everyone who aided you or opposed me in any way, including the Guardian’s Council.”
Parrish recognized that term from one of her dreams of the old man, Tobias. He was part of the Guardian’s Council.
“I’ve had a thousand years to plan my revenge on you and the world who betrayed me and denied my gifts,” the Dark One said. “And I will not let you die in a brief flash of pain. I will torture you in a million twisted ways you could never imagine. I will make you beg for death. I will bring you to its merciful edge, and then I will give you life so that I can do it all again.”
Parrish’s lip trembled slightly, but she kept her head held high. As long as she wasn’t going to die here and now, she could endure whatever she had to so that she could fight back against this horrible monster of a woman and all the pain she had brought to this world.
“I will hunt you down first and kill you before I’ll let that happen,” Parrish said, daring to look the Dark One in the eye.
The woman laughed.
“That’s the strength I was looking for,” the Dark One said. “Even though you cannot remember your true self yet, you are strong to your very core. I have always loved that about you.”
“We beat you once. We can do it again, with or without our memories,” she said.
“If you had beaten me, we wouldn’t be standing here now,” the woman said. “Between the five of you with all your power and knowledge, you couldn’t figure it out, and you’ve gotten no closer to the truth after all these years of rebirth or reset or whatever it is your ancient one likes to call it.
She leaned in and whispered.
“You did not beat me, Parrish. You enraged me, and the entire universe will suffer for it. I promise you that.”
“No. We won’t make that same mistake again,” Parrish said. “This time, we won’t lock you away. We’ll kill you. That’s my promise.”
“I cannot die,” the Dark One said, leaning closer. “But I can kill. And I’ll start with your sister. I have her now, in fact. She plays her violin so beautifully, it seems to weep in her arms. Such an innocent girl. I will enjoy introducing her to unimaginable pain in your presence.”
The Dark One kicked at the hunk of melted metal near her feet.
“Maybe I will turn her into one of my toys and send her after you. Let you kill her a second time. Won’t that be fun?”
Parrish laughed.
“You’re a liar. You don’t have my sister,” she said. “She got away from you, and you’ll never find her now.”
Surprise flashed in the Dark One’s eyes for a brief moment, but her surprise quickly turned to rage. She gripped Parrish’s jaw in her hand.
“You obviously don’t understand,” the Dark One said. “I am death, and eventually, everyone belongs to me. Even you.”
A thick wooden bat came down on the woman’s head with a crack, and the light in her eyes went out as she fell to the ground in a broken heap.
At the same time, a giant beast of a man appeared aroun
d the other side of the bus.
Parrish grabbed her sword and held it toward the beast, but Karmen ran around the corner after it, her hand raised.
“Stop,” she said. “He’s mine for now. We still need him.”
“Yours?” Parrish asked, her body trembling.
Her best friends stood around her, all staring down at the lifeless woman in the black dress.
“Was that her?” Noah asked.
“Yes,” Parrish said. “That was her.”
“She’s growing stronger by the day,” Karmen said.
Parrish looked around at their group.
Noah seemed to have regained his strength in record time.
Crash had lightning crackling between his fingertips.
Karmen had tamed a beast with her mind.
Parrish could control both ice and fire with a single thought.
And the boy? He’d just saved her life from hundreds of miles away.
She held the fatalis stone out for them to see, the five symbols all glowing brightly.
“So are we,” she said with a smile. “So are we.”
Part Two
The Beach
Sixteen
The Witch
The witch wandered the streets of the city just before sunset, the edges of her black skirt trailing across the asphalt. All around her, rotters who had hidden inside during the heat of the day stumbled into the cooler evening air.
If she had been a normal human, they would have been feasting on her bones by now, but the rotters she passed hardly noticed her at all. They staggered past, moaning low and keeping their distance.
She could sense them all around the city, as if she’d somehow been plugged into the power of their deaths. Millions by now. All commanded by her Mistress.
Ever since she’d been blessed by the Dark One inside the ice cave, the witch could feel nothing but adoration and awe for what her Mistress had created here. How had she ever dreamed of betrayal? Of choosing anything but love and loyalty?
A scene flashed before her. Unimaginable pain and torture. Burned skin.
She winced but quickly pushed those images down. Something took their place, like a soothing balm being placed on a deep wound.
