Chapter 24

“ W ho are you?” I tensed when Kierce failed to react to her presence. “What did you do to him?”

“Sure, he’s fine.” She glided down to land on a fallen limb. “A bit dazed is all.”

The last time she visited me, her advice on marking a soul for Dis Pater got me killed when he arrived to collect. I wasn’t interested in what her next suggestion cost me. “You never told me your name.”

“Me?” She winked one beady black eye. “I’m just a bird.”

Before I could press for the reason for her visit, Kierce lunged where she had been with a snarl in his throat. The crow exploded into the sky, and his hands closed over air.

“Who was that?” He shot to his feet, scanning the area. “What did she want?”

“She didn’t tell me her name, and someone scared her off before she got down to business.” I hooked a bone and ripped it free then rose and moved on to the next spot. “We have to keep going. Whoever she is, I’m sure she’ll be back. We’ll get our answers then.”

“This is the second time an omen has appeared to you.” His fists clenched at his sides, and his jaw popped with the force of his gritted teeth. “The eyes of more than one god are upon you.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I soothed him. “Is Badb okay?”

“That thing wasn’t my friend.” His eyes cut left. “Badb remains with Carter.”

Casting out my senses, I located the next bone and drummed up a distraction. “What is an omen?”

“A sign of good or bad things to come.” He inhaled then exhaled slowly. “They can take any form.”

“She must be using a crow as camouflage. I don’t think twice when I see one now. I write it off as Badb.”

A faint ripple in the air stole the words from his mouth as the barrier shimmered on its mores.

“You’ve done it.” He touched the ward but only hissed from the burn. “It’s close to breaking.”

“Excellent.” I tugged on his arm. “Then we really need to finish up before Anunit comes calling.”

From the rough count I was keeping, I estimated we had two-thirds of the stolen bones.

As attuned to the magic as Anunit was, she would come investigate the disturbance. Though she knew it was me, and was aware of my intentions, that might not save me.

Perhaps he performed the same mental calculations before suggesting, “We could go faster if we?—”

“Nope.” I cut him off and dragged him along with me. “We stick together.”

Even with Badb acting as a scout, she might lose Anunit if she went incorporeal. Then we would have no warning we were under attack until it was too late. Kierce and I could see Anunit in either form. It made the most sense for us to watch each other’s backs until the cursed beast made her move.

“Are you certain you don’t want to learn your divine parentage?”

Had my thoughts not kept circling back to that very question, I might have snapped that a promise was a promise. Us Marys didn’t want to know our parents. That was the vow we made. Never to search for them. But if I bit off his head, it would be my own guilt I was chewing.

Because I was considering it.

And that was damning in and of itself.

Knowing who sired me might explain the sudden divine attention on me, but I had no interest beyond that in my lineage. None. I didn’t care who gave birth to me or who played sperm donor. They had both given me up, given me away, and they hadn’t looked back.

“Let’s survive Anunit first.” I clung to an easy out. “Then we’ll discuss next steps for…everything else.”

As we entered the final stretch, with only three bones remaining, we heard the first leaves rustle.

Panic banged a drum in my chest as I groped the damp earth in search of fragments, but I sensed the exact moment the sand ran out in our hourglass.

An inquisitive sound trilled into the night.

I ignored her and kept digging, but Kierce groped blindly in the dirt while staring her down.

“You came to make good on your word,” she rasped into my mind.

“I’m doing great.” I wanted to lift my head, but I couldn’t stop now. “Thanks for asking.”

“You knew the risk, and you chose to step in front of the girl.”

“I thought she was your target.”

“The elder did not deserve your mercy?” She sounded amused. “Or mine?”

“She made her decision, but I’ll grant her the grace of saying someone put the idea in her head. I would have been more sympathetic if she hadn’t doubled down on her choice, trapping these women where they would be preyed upon. She had ample opportunities to correct her mistake.”

Granted, by the time Tameka confronted Patty, I believed, in hindsight, she was already too far under Ankou’s influence to be swayed.

“I’ve got it.” Kierce tucked his find into the bag. “We need to move.”

“Keep behind me.” I shielded him as I walked, Anunit pacing us a dozen yards away. “Do you feel it?”

“There.” Kierce sank to his haunches next to me and began scooping dirt. “Keep her occupied.”

“Yes ,” Anunit said dryly. “Entertain me while he plays in the dirt.”

“Did you harm any of the officers?”

“No.” Her gaze dropped away. “I have taken my tithe for the day.”

“Will you let the others go when the ward comes down?” I turned a circle. “Anunit?”

But Anunit wasn’t there.

Whispers rustled through the trees. Limbs snapped. Leaves crinkled. Children cried softly.

Women spilled out, pulling up short to discover Kierce and me. They turned to flee, but Keshawn pushed through them to the front, spotted me, and broke into the first smile I had ever seen on her face.

“Frankie.” She skimmed over the others. “Mom.” She waved an arm over her head. “She’s here.”

“Frankie?” Tameka wedged through the crowd, tears filling her eyes when our gazes met. “Frankie.” Her cheeks flushed with emotion. “Thank God you’re okay. Your friend told me you were safe, but Anunit?—”

“We lost the other bones,” Keshawn, who noticed what Kierce and I were doing, blurted.

“You ran after Anunit attacked Rosalie.” I waved away their worries with a dirty, bloody hand. “I don’t blame either of you for praying she chose to protect the bones over pursuing you.”

“No.” Keshawn took her mother’s hand. “We ran after what she did to you .”

“You must have been as shocked as me,” I said, “to discover I could be harmed in that form.”

“I thought if Anunit attacked me, I would lose the body but my soul could remain with Keshawn.” Tameka let out a shuddering breath. “I was terrified when she sank her claws in you. All I could think was that if she did that to me, I couldn’t escape. Then any hope of seeing my daughter in the afterlife would be gone.” She swallowed. “We went back for them, after we calmed down, but they were gone.”

“A friend of mine has them.” I flexed my cramping hands. “Want to get out of here quicker?”

The mother and daughter beamed at the chance to pitch in, and I was happy to give it to them.

“Kierce, can you mark the remaining bones?” I trawled my fingers through decaying vegetation for a hint of white. “They know what to look for.”

While he got them started, I resumed my task, focused on what was in front of me.

On my periphery, I noted the women shifting, uncertain what to do, but I didn’t have time for soft words or promises of safety. I almost melted with relief when I lifted a muddy bone and freed myself to move on.

And then reality began to twist and warp, the ward screeching dissonance as watery streaks appeared in the barrier.

“Stay put,” I snapped as the women made a break for freedom. “We’re almost done here.”

Unwilling to give up the ground she had gained, one woman planted her feet and waited, staring up at the sun.

“Got mine,” Keshawn called, rising with her prize in hand.

“Got mine too.” Tameka rose with a wobble in her knees. “Let’s get these to?—”

The ward crashed around us with a bone-jarring thud that dropped everyone but Kierce and me to their knees. Illumination from the spotlights blasted the women in their faces, and they shut their eyes against the glare. The deer-in-the-headlights looks didn’t last long before they ran past the commune’s borders the way a spooked herd of antelope fled a pursuing lioness.

Arm in arm, the Ezells came to me and offered up their finds.

“We’ll go with you.” Keshawn tipped up her chin. “We want to help.”

The thought of moving even an ounce more dirt made my fingers throb with a plea to rest them.

“I’ll take that deal.” I was grateful when Kierce helped me to my feet. “I’m running out of juice.” I turned my ankle on my first step. “Fast.” I didn’t fuss when he took the bag from me and passed it to Tameka. “I can walk.” I put out my hands. “You don’t have to carry me around like a fairytale princess.”

Ignoring my protest when I wobbled again, he scooped me into his arms and rolled me against his chest. I rested my sweaty forehead over his heart, breathing him in, but that was a bad idea. His scent calmed my jangled nerves, and sleep beckoned me.

The toll of healing my injuries, then tearing open a gate and holding it, was gnawing through my reserves until spots danced on the edge of my vision in a taunting promise if I shut my eyes, I would feel so much better.

“Not now,” I groaned, fisting his shirt. “I need...”

“I know,” he gritted out, his jaw taut. “Hold on.”

“What’s wrong?” Tameka hustled to match Kierce’s stride. “What can we do?”

The cotton sensation stuffing my mouth prevented me from answering.

“Exhaustion,” Kierce explained when I remained silent. “She’s expended too much energy.”

The way I kept topping off instead of letting myself rest and heal would catch up to me eventually.

All I could do was pray I could outrun it for a while longer.

“Tell us what to do.” Keshawn bounded up on my other side. “We want to help.”

A rumble in Kierce’s chest led me to believe he was talking, but if he was, I didn’t hear his words.