Page 107 of Beauty

But there he is. Shim lay on the floor, his body still asthe flames leap around. Some seem to shoot from his body, but he doesn’t seemto be burned. His clothes are a mess, but his skin is pristine.

“Shim!” Lach screams over the cracking of the fire. He looksoverhead. The beams will come down any minute. He doesn’t have a second tolose. He has to get his brother out of here. He leaps across the flames, hisskin scorching, and picks up his brother.

And drops him. His flesh is on fire. Horrible burns erupt onhis flesh where he touched his brother. The skin bubbles and boils.

And he can’t give up.

Lach grits his teeth against the agony and lifts his brotheragain.

He screams, the pain filling his every sense, but somehowhis feet move toward the door. Somehow he makes it outside where the grass iscool.

He falls to his knees and knows beyond a shadow of a doubtthat his brother is dead.

There is nothing inside Shim. Nothing at all. His body is ashell and a molten one at that. Lach’s body is burned, his skin torched, everyinch an agony, but something cool and calm comes over him.

Power flows for the first time. It starts in his center andreaches out. He can feel them. The dead. There is power in them, an unspokenessence that they each retain, whether bone or ash. Power remains and Lachcalls on it.

And his brother takes a deep breath.

Lach falls back, his vision fading, the pain taking over.His brother is…alive? He isn’t sure. But Lach can feel his soul once more.

ChapterThirty-Four

Shim

I come out of the bond, my whole body shaking. Iclench my fists and look down at my skin. It looks normal, but I know now itisn’t.

I am a corpse. I have been since the day I gave my life tosave Bron’s.

I am a walking, talking corpse.

“You aren’t dead,” Lach says harshly. His voice is strained,as though he was really screaming, and not just in the dream. “You aren’t dead.Maybe you were, but you aren’t now.”

Tears stream down Bron’s face. “I killed him. I killedShim.”

Gods, I don’t want her to take it that way. “No. I gave mylife to you, a chumann. I didn’t want to live without you.”

She sits up, her breasts exposed in the moonlight. “Gilliandidn’t bring me back. Shim did.”

“Yes, and somehow I brought Shim back,” Lach insists. “Heisn’t dead. I know when I’m reanimating someone. I can feel it.”

I stare at my brother and wonder how many secrets he keeps.“And how many corpses have you reanimated over a long period of time, brother?”

Lach’s face is pale, except for the scars which appear asred as the day he got them. “More than you know. More than I want anyone toknow. Shim, you’re alive. I didn’t remember much, but I remember now. I calledon my power and it flared, like your fire. It flared in a big way and itbrought you back to life. Damn it, Shim, use that brain of yours. You eat andsleep and you can feel your body. A corpse can’t do that.”

“You don’t know. You don’t know that.” The thought horrifiesme. I was dead. Am I still dead?

“I killed you.”

Bron. I need to hold on to Bron. My head is swimming. Mybody feels like a foreign thing, but I move to hold her. “You didn’t kill me.You didn’t.”

“I felt it. I was you in that dream,” she explains. “I feltmy hand reach out and pull at your soul. I reached out and took your life tosave mine. How could I do that? You’re dead because I killed you.”

“He isn’t dead,” Lach insists. He gets off the bed andshoves his legs into a pair of trousers. “Will either of you bloody listen tome?”

“You should have left me, Lach,” I spit back, anger bubblingto the surface. How can I go on knowing what I am? How can I make love to ourwife when I’m a dead thing animated only by my brother’s power? I gave my lifefor her, but Lach brought me back and turned me into a monstrous thing.

Lach’s fists clench. “You would rather be dead thandependent on me? Is that how much I mean to you?”