The Reckoning by Alma Katsu

Author:Alma Katsu
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2012-06-18T22:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

MAINE

When the sky was half lit by dawn, Adair pulled the vehicle to the side of the road. With light enough now to see, he leaned over the seat and drew the coat away from Jonathan’s face, hoping to find that a major transformation had transpired in the past few hours.

Jonathan’s skin was at least a few shades closer to a normal hue, and the stink had mostly dissipated; having the windows down during the drive had done much good in that respect. However, Jonathan did not appear healthy. His appearance reminded Adair in no small measure of victims of the Black Death, his pleasing face distorted by swelling, and purplish blooms peeking from the open collar of his shirt.

Adair didn’t realize until then just how badly he’d wanted this gambit to work, and work perfectly. Raising the dead was hard enough; restoring a body to its original state, when its original state had been absolute perfection, was probably impossible. While there was a chance Jonathan would improve, Adair decided to prepare mentally for failure and resolved to view this as an experiment, a chance to observe in the hope of doing better the next time he tried to raise the dead, should he ever attempt this spell again. In his heart, however, he felt the ache of disappointment.

Adair was staring at Jonathan, wondering if he’d ever regain consciousness, when his eyes popped open.

“Have you been awake long?” Adair tried to hide his surprise and delight to see Jonathan’s corpse shudder to life.

“I don’t know. Am I conscious now? This is not a dream?” The voice was Jonathan’s, but it sounded as though it came from far away.

“Can you move?”

Jonathan floundered, finally using the back of the seat to push himself upright. It pained Adair to see him so crippled, to see that once flawless physical specimen now ruined. His stomach clenched, for he wasn’t totally without pity.

“It’s like putting on a suit of clothes you haven’t worn in a while. I never thought I’d feel like this again—made of flesh and bone,” Jonathan remarked. And correspondingly he moved in a strange, disjointed fashion, as though his skeleton had been put back together differently and he had yet to figure out how this new system worked. As he sorted himself out, he continued to grumble at Adair. “Why did you bring me back? It’s an obscene thing to do to a man who has made his peace with this world.”

Adair couldn’t argue with him on that point as he, too, felt he might have crossed a line, though he would not admit this to Jonathan. “I have need of you: I have unfinished business with you and Lanore. But first, I want to know how you ended up in the grave. It must’ve been by Lanore’s own hand, for it could not have happened any other way, and yet, I wouldn’t have imagined she’d ever let you go. Did you drive her to kill you? You must’ve done something very horrible indeed to make her wish to be rid of you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.