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“We should be able to send the souls back to the Underworld.”
“We can’t.”
He looks at me, backing up and dragging me with him, one eye on the forms lurching in front of us. Xavier pulls lightning down from the sky and fries a zombie that was getting too close for comfort.
“Not how I imaged my immortality ending, I’ll be honest,” Cat says, her voice shaking.
“It’s not going to end,” Xavier growls. He turns to his brother. “Do something about the dead.”
Essos gives Xavier a disparaging glare before turning his gaze to me. “Why can’t we send them to the Underworld?”
“Okay,Ican’t. I don’t remember how.” I blink at him, hoping my terror isn’t obvious on my face, but I know Essos is seeing right through me. He slides his hand into mine.
“We’ll do it together,” he assures me.
“Together.”
I let the contact of our grip ground me even as we both keeping backing away from the incoming forces. Then, Essos reaches out for my power like he’s reaching into my chest for my very essence. Embracing the sensation, I open my well of power to him and let it flow through our connection. Mimicking each move he makes, I hold up my hand the same way he does.
Together, we send a welcoming wave toward the souls, encouraging them to use us as a gateway to the Underworld.
The zombie closest to the front barely stumbles in its quest for us.
Nothing happens. I cast a look at Essos, catching sight of the wrinkle in his brow. He takes a deep breath and, through the tether between us, I feel him gathering his strength and mine.
We try again.
And again.
And again.
“Maybe, it’s me?” I ask, withdrawing from him. This failure touches on one of my greatest fears—that everyone is right, and Essos and I aren’t actually married.
I can feel his reluctance as he pulls his power away, but he doesn’t release my hand until I take it back.
This time, when Essos pushes his will forward on the zombies in front of us, I can see the thread of his power wavering in the air, but when he draws the power back, the zombies keep walking.
“Whatever you’re trying isnotworking,” Cassius whines. I glance in his direction and see that he is positioned at the back of the pack. Spineless prick.
“I hate to agree, Essos,” Xavier says, using his power to physically drive the zombies back a few steps.
“Clearly, the reason therearezombies isn’t resolved, so maybe we should clearthatup,” Cat suggests.
“That isnotclear,” Dion says, and I can hear panic threading through everyone’s voices. We’ll be safe, but Zara’s family and the other mortals here won’t be.
I put a hand on Essos’s shoulder. We both know what he has to do. Destruction of the bodies isn’t stopping the zombies, which means that we have to follow Cat’s logic and take away the thing that is animating them—their very souls.
“I know,” Essos whispers.
I keep my hand on him, funneling not my power this time, but my love, because I know my husband. I know who he is at the core of his being, and destroying these souls is going to chip off a piece of him I’m not sure he’s prepared to give up.
Essos shakes out his arms before I feel him drop into his magic. The chomping decayed faces are getting closer and closer, but Essos won’t be rushed.
He brings his hands together in a firmclap. The zombies cease their movement and for one heartbreaking moment, I’m afraid it didn’t work. But then the zombies in our immediate vicinity drop to the ground. With nothing to hold their bodies upright anymore, they fall. It’s going to be up to the mortals here to rebury or burn their friends and family, unless we do something to start making up for all the ways the gods have interfered for the worse.
Agony blazes over Essos’s face for a heartbeat before he throws his mask of indifference into place. My heart breaks for him and for the souls that were just destroyed, and the force of that loss renders me weak.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t be a good queen when I can’t protect the people who are most deserving of my protection. Who do I think I am?
