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And the ground began to rumble. I felt them, body after body, corpse after corpse. They were awake and ready. My word made the earth roil.
Bullets did nothing to stop the dead. They were already dead, beyond pain and when they returned to the grave any insult or injury would vanish.
I shoved Daphne away andflowedto Ally. I jerked her toward me as Tres turned and savaged his captor.
It should have been horrifying, but Ally was mine to protect.
“Give her to the corpse to get her out, Hexen.” Iggy’s eyes began to glow. “Draw from the dead.”
At first, I didn’t understand, but then I remembered leaving him desiccated by drawing his magic. I looked at Tres and ordered, “Get her to Beatrice. Stay with her.Go!”
As soon as Tres and Ally were gone, I met Iggy’s eyes. “Tell me.”
I felt images flood my mind, saw the locations of any witch in the earth. “Above.”
I shoved my reach into the mausoleums, and I found them—witches, voodoo practitioners, priests, rabbis. Those who connected to something greater than this mortal plane had a spark inside. That was why some bodies were housed in stone. They were dangerous to rouse.
I understood why I could not force Iggy to the grave.
“Questions later, Hexen.” He gestured. “Funnel this through me, and I will guide you.”
I nodded, and then I tugged, pulling magic from the graves of those who had gone before me. That magic I siphoned into my will and toward Iggy. He was able to direct it, even if I couldn’t.
I stumbled, falling to my knees from the weight of it.
“Stay with me, Geneviève. We are so close.”
Iggy sounded stronger, and I glanced at him. He was a conduit, sending my will to the dead.
“Tell them to live,” he urged. “Order them to remove this threat. Take it to the soil, and then be free.”
I echoed his words, shoving them toward Iggy with the magic I’d drawn.
My army of the dead began to embrace the soldiers—and the remains of Daphne. As the dead sunk back into the soil, they took pieces of those enemies in their hands. Those who had the foreign flesh would not rise at any command again.
But neither would my enemies.
No guns. No cameras. No evidence remained. It was all under the soil, and I was prone on the ground, staring up at Iggy. A very alive and breathing Iggy.
“What . . .?” I trying to push myself up, but I was too drained.
“You said to live, to remove the threats, and be free.” Iggy smoothed his suit and smiled at me. “I simply obeyed.”
“You’re a monster, Ignatius Blackwood.”
“Indeed I am.” He bowed his head. “And a liar, Hexen, but let there be peace between us for now.”
And I saw in a flash that the man calling himself Master Blackwood was both more and less than before. The image of Baron Samedi, loa of the dead, hovered over him briefly, but then was gone.
“I’ve worn many names. I’ve lived many lives.” He looked around. “But if not for a dutiful servant, I’d have been bound in a box as poor Marie was.”
“Laveau?”
He nodded. “Someday you will avoid that as you lured a faery into your clutches. Beatrice avoided it by becomingdraugr.I had to find another option.”
“But if I hadn’t raised you . . .”
Iggy crouched down beside me, ignoring my question, and said, “My heart beats again, Geneviève of Crowe, because of you. For this, I am in your debt.”
