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“The buyers won’t tolerate obstinance,” the man says, “so you’ll answer when I speak. What did you?—”
“Kill him!”
Confusion flickers in his amused expression. He starts to look around theatrically.
But the dead are hungry for their revenge.
The heat shimmers begin to swirl again, spiraling around him even though he can’t see them at all. But then far-off screams whisper through the room, like distant sounds carried on a wind.
The man’s amused expression melts into confusion and then true alarm.
He taps something quickly on his phone and then aims the device at me like it’s a weapon.
The bracelet suddenly flares hot on my wrist like the metal is on fire.
I shriek, collapsing to the ground and clawing at it, but I can’t break it away. “Kill him!”
Faster and faster, the dead swirl. Their screams grow louder like a freight train racing toward us.
The man lurches as one of the heat shimmers slashes at him. The sleeve of his suit jacket shreds like claws have torn through it, and blood seeps into the edges of the torn fabric.
Victorious cries join the screams of the dead. The pain surging through me fades as the man’s device goes flying from his grasp. Again, he lurches as bloody scratches suddenly slice across his cheek. His forehead. His arm. His neck.
Eyes wide, he stares at me as he retreats toward the door.
I push back to my feet. “Don’t let him go,” I growl.
The dead descend on him as one. He screams as his suit shreds and his blood splatters. Wildly, he thrashes under the assault of things he can’t see.
I grin.
In only moments, nothing remains of him that hasn’t been sliced or torn. The heat shimmers rise from his mangled corpse, but they don’t drift upward into light like they always have.
They float toward me.
I tense, taking a step back warily. What’s this? I helped free them. Are they going to come after me too?
They reach the bars and hover beyond the cage. I wait, not sure what to think. Is the biting electricity holding them back? Do I have the nasty trader to thank for why they’re not attacking me?
The heat shimmers pass through the gaps between the bars, and suddenly, they’re not heat shimmers anymore. Like people stepping from behind a curtain, they transform as they pass the bars, not becoming swirls of mist but instead ghostly figures, their bodies foggy white and partially see-through.
I resist the urge to snarl at them, if only because they’re making me worried. There’s a woman with long hair and pointed ears in a flowing dress. Another in overalls with short hair and wide, large eyes. Several men in everything from jeans and t-shirts to construction worker clothes.
And children.
I tremble at the sight of the little ones, wishing I could bring that evil man back and kill him all over again just because they’re here.
One of the children steps forward. She’s wearing a little sundress with flowers that stirs in a breeze I can’t feel. Her eyes are huge, even bigger than mine, and they shine like bottomless pools. But her heart-shaped face is kind as she smiles up at me. “Thank you for freeing us.”
Reaching out, she wraps her hand around the bracelet.
The metal clicks and falls open, dropping to the ground.
She glances back and one of the older guys in overalls puts a hand to the bars.
A gate swings open.
My heart pounds, but I stop myself from rushing out to save my men right now. I don’t know what the dead want.
