The Ravenous Dead by Darcy Coates

Author:Darcy Coates [Coates, Darcy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Owl Books

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Keira didn’t remember much of the rest of the night. Mason kept heaping wood on the fire and trying to get her to swallow warm, sweet drinks. She guessed she must have eventually fallen asleep, because when she finally opened her eyes again, light was streaming through the windows.

Mason rested on the floor near her. He’d propped his back against the couch and stretched his long legs out as he stared at the fire. Daisy sat neatly in his lap, curling the tip of her tail with joy and occasionally headbutting his hand when he didn’t stroke her fast enough.

He looks exhausted. He didn’t stay up all night, did he?

A quiet, scraping noise came from the kitchenette. Zoe, dressed in the same outfit she’d worn the day before, was cooking at the stove. Eggs, Keira thought, based on the smell.

Keira still felt half-frozen. A clammy sweat covered her. She was wrapped in an incredible number of blankets, and she could feel some kind of bandages on her feet where she must have nicked herself on rough stones the night before.

The stabbing pains that had burnt through Keira’s body were reduced to a dull ache, not too different from overexerted muscles. She knew moving would make them worse, but it was unavoidable. She set a calm, pain-free expression on her face and maintained it as she sat up. A quiet chant played in in the back of her mind. Ow, ow, ow, ow…

Mason’s face brightened when she moved. He placed Daisy on the floor and scooted closer. “How are you feeling?”

“Great, just great,” she lied. “Sorry about last night—”

He pressed a hand to her forehead, then moved it to her neck, and frowned. “You’re still chilled. It’s been hours, but I can’t get your temperature back up. What happened?”

Zoe approached, juggling three plates, which she placed on the floor between them with a clatter. “Yeah, you’d better tell us, because he wouldn’t let me wake you and I’m literally dying from curiosity.”

“Literally dying, huh?”

“Yeah. Like how curiosity killed the cat.” Zoe sat on Keira’s other side, her expression deadpan. “Except cats at least have nine lives to waste on curiosity. I have one. So spill the beans. Except maybe not literally.”

Keira glanced down at her plate and saw she did, in fact, have a serving of warm beans next to the scrambled eggs.

Both Zoe and Mason were watching her. She didn’t know what to say. I thought I was dead. I felt like I’d been torn open. The shade is a very, very long way from harmless, and I still don’t know what the consequences of coming in contact with it might be.

Mason wanted her to live somewhere other than the cemetery. But Keira couldn’t leave, not now, not when the shade was devouring her ghosts. The twisted spirit was her responsibility; she’d woken him when she’d stumbled on his grave. She had to find a way to put him back in the ground.

“It was Gerald Barge, wasn’t it?” Mason asked.

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