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“The King of Crows took my mother and my brother from me,” Memphis said.
“Are we going to argue about whose mission is most important?” Henry asked. “Either we do all of it or none of it.”
“I vote for only fixing the breach,” Jericho said.
“I won’t leave my brother to suffer,” Evie said.
“I won’t leave my mother at the mercy of the King,” Memphis said.
“Looks like we do all of it,” Theta said.
“We have to wait for Memphis’s power to regenerate,” Ling said.
“If it does,” Sam said.
Memphis touched the tree again. This time, only one vine emerged, and then, as before, it died.
“Stop doing that!” Ling reprimanded him. “You have to save your energy.”
Nearby, several of the dead sniffed again and growled low.
“Miss Addie. Now,” Theta said.
“I’m going with you,” Evie said.
“Be quick about it, Baby Vamp,” Sam said and kissed her.
Evie and Theta set off in pursuit of Miss Addie.
“Careful,” Theta whispered as she and Evie passed among the many dead. Their rotting bodies were so close. Theta had to stifle the urge to scream. She was relieved when they came out on the other side of the sniffing, grunting horde.
The grating, mechanical noise of the Eye grew louder. Their journey was bringing them closer to it. There, suddenly, was the clearing Evie had seen so many times in her dreams, a version of it, at least, with the missing Unit 144 going about their looping existence. And there was her brother. There was James. Alive.
“James? James, it’s me. It’s Evie.” She left Theta’s side and ran toward the field.
“Say, what’s this mission the department’s got us on, anyway?” James asked another soldier.
“Beats me. S’posed to help us win the war and show those Germans who’s boss,” another soldier answered. “Say, O’Neill, what card am I holding?”
Without looking, James answered, “The eight of hearts.”
“Son-of-a-bitch! Right every time!”
“James,” Evie said. For years, she had longed to see him again, to hug him, talk with him. He was so close. She could reach out and touch him. But she would only be holding a memory, she realized now, with great sadness. She would only be touching a ghost.
“Evil,” Theta said gently.
“I know,” Evie said. She took Theta’s hand instead, and side by side, they marched toward the skeletal forest.
Evie and Theta crawled over thick brambles that poked and tore at them. Theta’s foot came down on something that gave with a squish.
“When we get back, I’m gonna scream for a whole day,” she said.
“Just keep going,” Evie said, trying to ignore the red-eyed vultures perched on the tops of gnarled trees.
Theta pushed aside a cluster of thorny twigs, and there it was: the white clapboard church under a yellow moon.
“I think this is from Miss Addie’s memory,” Theta said. “She wrote about this church in her diary. It’s where they buried Elijah. Where they were supposed to marry.”
