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“It’s getting bigger,” Memphis said with alarm. How could he possibly close such a wound?
“Don’t look now, but we got company,” Sam said.
Through the broken trees, across the salted land, the King of Crows strode toward the rest of the Diviners. Behind him the dead followed blindly, sniffing, always hungry. In the multitude was Gabe, Memphis saw.
“What a surprise. I don’t usually get visitors here. Well, live ones, at least,” he said. “But I’m not here for you. Yet.”
The King of Crows turned his attention toward the breach. There was a high-pitched mechanical whine, different from the noise the Eye emitted. The whine grew louder as the first battalion of fighter planes approached the threshold of the breach. The King of Crows watched, unconcerned, as the first dozen planes sailed through the breach and skittered to a stop in the clearing. A second wave was nearing the breach.
“That’s quite enough,” the King of Crows said. He lifted an arm, shooting lightning into an edge of the rift. The dead stiffened from the energy being sucked from their ravaged bodies. The Diviners, too, felt some of the same pull, as if they’d all bitten down on a fork at once.
The breach burned with an unearthly glow. As the planes crossed the barrier, they burned to ash, leaving dark shadow impressions across the landscape.
The planes on the ground unloaded their soldiers, who marched across the land of the dead, guns at the ready.
“Company, halt!” a general commanded and the troops knelt, guns trained on the King of Crows. The general strode forward with certainty. “We claim this territory in the name of the United States of America.”
“Do you now,” the King of Crows said. “This will be fun.”
With a flick of his long finger, the King of Crows signaled his dead, and they raced toward the soldiers and their general like beetles skittering across a floor.
“As you can see, some people do not honor their treaties.” The King of Crows listened to the soldiers’ screams, watching with obvious pleasure as his Army of the Dead devoured the army of the living down to bones in a matter of minutes.
“You’re a monster!” Memphis shouted.
The King of Crows took note of Memphis and smiled his rictus grin. “Ahhhh, the Healer! Forgive me. No longer, yes? You gave away your power. How hasty. How foolish.”
“You tricked me out of it! Not the same thing at all. That’s what you do, you trick and you take and take some more,” Memphis said through tight teeth.
“I’ve taken nothing that people weren’t willing to give me. Out of greed. Out of anger. Out of fear.”
“You took my brother.”
“Wrong again!” the King of Crows thundered. “Sarah Beth Olson murdered your brother.”
“Because she wanted to please you. She thought you’d glorify her and make her your queen!”
“I never said that in so many words. She alone is responsible for her actions. As are you.”
“You broke us down, my family, till we didn’t have a choice.”
“You did have a choice. You made it. And now your healing power is mine. Of course, it works somewhat differently for me.”
The King of Crows reached over and touched his hand to Gabe’s wrist, infecting it with rot, which began to climb up Gabe’s arm. Memphis could feel traces of it in his own body, along with Gabe’s suffering. Gabe, dead for months, still felt pain. He cried out with it. So did the other dead.
New fury raged in Memphis. Tiny electrical sparks played along the tips of his fingers. His eyes still on the King of Crows, Memphis reached out and touched Gabe’s arm. He could feel the sickness, but still he held on. Light rippled across Gabe’s rotting flesh, reversing the damage done by the King of Crows.
The healing, delivered to Gabe, traveled to the others as well.
“Connected,” Ling murmured in awe.
“B-brother,” Gabe said. Two tears cut through the grave dust on his face. The King of Crows put his hand over Gabe’s mouth, and when he lifted it again, Gabe’s lips had been sealed shut.
“Impressive. But careful, Healer. Don’t want to use it all. How much do you have left, hmm? Enough to heal the breach?” The King of Crows gestured to the pulsing rift on the horizon. “Or maybe not quite enough?”
The King’s words stoked the old fear inside Memphis, dimming his nascent power. A moment ago, he’d been warm. Now he was cold.
“As I said, you made a choice. And I always honor my bargains,” the King of Crows said. “Look! The Eye has almost stabilized the portal.”
