Page 164 of Dead Vengeance

Liam.

He’s here. Yellow Converse trainers stopped dead in the grass, his too-big overalls with that weird little ghost symbol, my coat over the top. The awe-struck, disbelieving, beautiful face of the man I love.

His hand covers his lips, trembling. Then one foot falls forward, another, and he breaks into a sprint. Jem’s arms are wide and strong, and he catches him. He pulls him hard against his chest, for the tightest hug I’ve ever seen, then holds him back to look at him. “You’ve grown so much.”

“I can’t…” Liam stares into his brother’s eyes, searches over him, standing before him real and alive in his dirty burial suit, not a mark on his skin, fresh and in perfect health. “I can’t believe you’re here.” Eyes wide, he turns to me. “You did this.”

“Barely,” I laugh out, taking the hand he holds out for me, climbing to my feet even as the world sways.

“Archer…” His tears brim over as he places a hand on my heart, looks back at his brother, up at me, overcome. “I can’t thank you enough for this. I can’t ever, ever thank you for—”

The sound of a gunshot tears the night all to pieces.

I’m falling.

Liam’s arms.

Liam’s screams.

I’m falling.

It’s all over.

forty-six

Blood For Blood

Liam

Blood everywhere, all over me, my hands soaked, so much blood pouring out of Archer’s chest, seeping through his clothes and mine.

“Archer? Archer, no. No, don’t. You can’t.” I can barely speak. I can’t even process what’s happening. Nothing makes sense.

Not a thing until I hear Jem say, “You,” his voice dark and filled with rage.

“What the fuck?” comes the reply, stark on the night air. I look up, and Peter Marsden steps out of the treeline, gun high, aimed directly at Jem.

“You fucking bastard!” I scream. “It wasn’t enough? You killed my brother and now…” Archer’s head is limp on my chest, blood flowing hot from the wound. And I know. I can feel it. I can sense he’s not there anymore. He’s dead in my arms and…

“Not this time.” Simon materialises out of the darkness, waves a hand, and the crack is audible as Marsden’s wrist snaps backwards. The gun drops to the ground, torn to pieces by Simon’s supernatural abilities. His arm shoots out, and a strangled sound rips from Marsden as he goes flying back into a tree, held tight against it with some invisible force even as he struggles, eyes bulging with fear.

“Simon!” I shout. “Help Archer. There must be someone else. Someone like him. Where? Where?”

But Simon only stares down at Archer’s body on the ground, the impossibility of what I’m asking clear in his broken expression. “I’m sorry, Liam.”

“No. No, you’re a ghost. You can find another necromancer. I know you can! He can’t be the only one!” Tears pour out of me, strangling my words, killing every thought of everything but Archer.

He’s still warm. How can he still be warm, here, and gone? Just like that.

I cradle his head in my arms, press a kiss to his cooling lips. “Please don’t be gone. Archer… If anyone can control this, it’s you. Please, please come back to me. Please. Tell me what to do. There must be a spell. There must be something. Please…”

Jem’s hand falls on my shoulder. Even in my heartbreak, I can feel that he’s oddly… unperturbed. Confident? “It’s all right,” he says softly. He squeezes into me, then calls out, “Tez?”

Tez?

Who the fuck…

A familiar scent hits me. Tobacco. Incense. The grass turns hard beneath me, flaming torches appear out of nowhere, walls form all around us, and we’re back in that giant temple chamber, once again… “Tezcatlipoca?”