Page 101 of Last Rites

Despite being unable to see him, I sensed Eeus’s soft, knowing smile. “I see them the same way I’ve seen you. I know whose minds are not lost to the rot. I have no intention of punishing those who have seen a better way. There have been enough lives lost already, and I will take no more than necessary.”

There weren’t many options left to us. Either Eeus delivered his judgment, or we sent for the militia to do it for him. And waiting for the militia to make it all the way to Ashpoint gave too many opportunities for the zealots to escape and take root elsewhere. To do this all again in another few years, another decade…

He was right. Every last fanatic needed to be dealt with if we wanted to truly be free of the Bone Men.

Maybe it was time to use a little of my purported faith to let Eeus do what he must.

“Okay,” I conceded. “Thank you. For sparing my family.”

“Would you like to mete out the punishment, or shall I?”

The swell of nausea returned, and I hissed out a breath.

“I have more than enough death on my conscience,” I whispered. “Please don’t make me do that.”

A comforting warmth enveloped me, and the light faded.

“You have done enough. It’s time to rest now.”

Darkness surrounded me, and Eeus’s voice echoed in the black as consciousness slipped away.

“You have done well, Kit. Your mother would be proud.”

37

Penny

The breeze smelled like wildflowers. Sweet and fresh and nothing like the dank musty cavern I’d left behind. I could still see it, though, between blinks. The real world now inhabited the darkness behind my eyelids, intermittent and fleeting.

It was prettier here. Peaceful. I sat barefoot in the dirt with tall grass swaying all around. The bright blue sky stretched overhead, crowded with clouds that were as fluffy as sheep wool. I couldn’t touch them, but my hand was caught in something equally soft. Kit’s curls wove between my fingers as his head rested in my lap. He was gone, but not far. Just resting. We both were.

Beside me, another figure wore my face. He gazed toward the distant horizon where a flock of sparrows swooped and dipped.

Paneus.

“It’s almost time now,” he said. He looked like me, but he didn’t sound like it. “You've done well.”

I glanced up at him. At the image of myself standing in this same meadow. It was the one at the back of our family property, that bright sunny clearing where we buried my father. I imagined, if I looked hard enough, I could find the place we’d hidden him.

But I didn’t look or even stand. I stayed where I was, combing Kit’s hair with my fingers.

Paneus gazed through it. What I saw with eyes closed, he could view with eyes open, and he scrutinized. The people of Ashpoint. The Vessel made of bone. Merrick pinned beneath my friends and still trying to lord over it all from his back. I wasn’t sure what the god thought of it, but I felt certain of one thing.

A smile lifted my lips.

“The Symbiarch said you would like me.”

He hadn’t said as much but, from the moment he came into my mind and freed me from that cold stone altar, I knew. He gave me the peace his worshippers always talked about. This serene feeling. He brought me somewhere safe and beautiful, removed from pain and danger.

He tilted his head, eyes glowing as green as the grass stretching all around. “Most people do,” he mused.

I stroked my hand over Kit’s face. The sensations came and went. Soft hair tucked behind his ears, stubble that scratched my cheeks when we kissed, and the worry lines etched in deep.

I recalled what Paneus had said before, though it was hard to concentrate. Thoughts were like wisps here, like dandelion fluff drifting away, but I’d caught this one, and I held it close.

“Almost time for what?” I asked.

“The end.”