Chapter Ten

The scene was one I'd grown accustomed to—people running in fear as the dead chased them. When I'd first become a wraith lord, it had been Corrupted that we dealt with—humans under the Corrupter's control. But as I added men to my heart and made them stronger, the Corrupter—no, Death—had to up his game. Now, he killed people and reanimated them immediately. Or rather, he forced Ara to do it? Why? Because it ensured that not only did he have full control of the mindless soldiers, but they also had strong bodies that wouldn't rot. And, even better, he didn't have to worry about running out of prospects, as he did when he used corpses.

Corpses like those of my parents.

I would never know what happened to my parents' bodies. They were probably buried in a mass grave somewhere. That's what we did with the bodies of the reanimated dead after we broke the Corrupter's spell and brought them down. Thank goodness—and by goodness, I mean the Emperor—we had spell beads to do that. The Emperor himself had worked on creating the confined spells for us. Every wraith lord carried pouches full of the little magic spheres when he went on a mission. It was getting to the point where aim counted more than physical prowess.

My team was already there, waiting for me. We had agreed a while back that we fought together—no running off alone. So, we waited until everyone was there before we left the arrival point. Vex showed up a few seconds after me. Technically, he wasn't a part of my team, but he joined us when we went running for the closest group of reanimated dead.

I had downed three and was aiming for a fourth when I felt him. I spun, gasping, “Ara.”

“He's here?” Kel searched the area. “Where?”

“Near,” I said.

“Don't you fucking run off,” Taroc growled as he launched a spell sphere.

“I won't,” I said, but I kept looking for Aranren.

And then I saw him—a beacon of pale hair and skin in the dark. He stepped forward, his hand sweeping out, and a group of Corrupted ran off in that direction. Corrupted, not the reanimated dead. Which meant that they were on a separate mission.

The Corrupter met my stare and smiled.

Ara was in there, but that grin was all Death. He was the Corrupter, completely caged and doing his master's bidding. And there was nothing I could do to free him. Not right then. Great Goddess, that stung.

“I won't give up, Ara!” I shouted at him. “I'll free you. Don't lose hope.”

The Corrupter smirked and vanished.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Xae snarled. “Why didn't you tell us about them?” He pointed at the Corrupted.

The group had split into three and were heading for the running residents of whatever town we were in. The Corrupter needed more undead to fill the ranks we were depleting.

“Shit!” I hissed. Then, “Rath!”

I took Xae's outstretched hand as I reached for Rath, leaving Keltyr, Taroc, and Vexen to watch our backs. Magic spun between us, gathering strength. Then our wraiths shot out of our chests—black, ghostly duplicates of our bodies that were nearly invisible in the darkness. The three wraiths went in three directions, each one chasing a group of Corrupted, then those wraiths split into several more. Each wraith shot through one of the Corrupted, freeing them of Death Magic and leaving the humans stumbling in confusion.

As soon as our wraiths returned to us, we got back to casting spheres at the dead. It was a smooth maneuver because we had trained together. But no one stopped to congratulate us. Performances like that were expected, not applauded. And there was still a lot of work to be done.

But through every second of it, I saw Ara's face. There was a moment before he vanished that his expression had changed and his smile turned tender. That smile would fuel me through my next bout of self-pity and sorrow. We would keep each other going. That's what you do for the people you love.