Page 80 of The Crow Games

I could beg Lord Death not to snatch my soul out of my body and damn my remains to his service.

If he didn’t listen, would Asher come? Would he collect my body off the train, take me to the desert where the hills turn purple, and bury my remains? Would he visit me every night? Would he sit with my soul in the passenger car after he felt me die?

I believed he would. And immediately I felt like a fool for turning him away last night. That might have been my last chance with him.

But what about Bram? What about answers and revenge? He’d stolen my boots and my pistol to goad me into seeing him. He wanted me to beg him for the truth. Bram wanted to play games with me.

I could go and see him. I could charge further down the path of revenge that had gotten me thrown into the trials in the first place. But I was done with that. The vengeance that had once burned in my heart had died a little with Liesel and Emma. Then it had died a little more when Asher reminded me that Lisbeth was not the only family I had a responsibility to.

They were all my sisters.

I wanted to tear the murdering god apart, but there was something I needed even more than that now. I wanted my family safe. Never again would I watch one of my sisters die. And I only had one day to ensure that.

As the bell pealed once to signal the first trial, Nola and Ruchel and Blue lined up at the exit. I threw my arms around them and hugged them tight.

Nola’s chin trembled. “Ducky, I don’t know what I’ll do if I have to see you as a revenant on this train . . .”

“You’ll ask me to fluff your pillow,” I teased. “Make me mix your drinks.”

Nola nudged my arm. “I hope you’re right about all this.”

“It’ll work,” Ruchel said with a false cheer meant to bolster me. She couldn’t know it was true. The risk to others wasn’t as clear to her as her own, but I appreciated the vote of confidence. I needed it.

“We’ll see you soon,” Blue said somberly.

I watched them depart without me. The train chimed, and this time the bell sounded like a sharp warning. When the wheels started up, I had the sudden urge to throw myself against the doors, beg the train to open and spit me out.

I swallowed my panic.

The Schatten pulled away from the platform, and much too quickly Wulfram was a blur in the distance. I paced the lounge car. Then I paced the dining car and picked at the food, not really interested in eating anything, just keeping my hands busy.

I returned to the lounge and sat at the corner table, leaning my head back against the window, eyes wide, watching and waiting. My foot tapped out a wild patter.

A revenant appeared in the archway. Faceless and yellow-haired, she was the young beast-born woman with a tail I’d met my first day, or she had been when she was alive. I’d forgotten her name.

“Hello?” I said.

Her chin cocked to the side.

Then another revenant entered the lounge behind her. And another. And another.

My pulse jumped and my heart took off, beating like a war drum in my chest. I slid out from behind the table and sprinted away from them, into the series of dining cars.

They pursued, and others joined them. More revenants dropped their trays and abandoned their trolleys. A burst of gray knocked a revenant with shorn hair aside. I barreled through another into the first of the sleeper cars.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I hissed.

I leapt inside the nearest compartment, and I slammed the door shut, remembering too late there was no way to lock it from the inside.

The door handle jerked. I clung to it, keeping it latched. Revenants beat against the wood, rattling it in its frame. I squeezed the handle shut until my fingers ached, blood pumping loudly in my ears.

“Just stop!” I screamed.

They didn’t stop. Nails scratched at the wood. They were all around the compartment, scraping at the walls, crawling into the vents, the thump, thump, thump of their knees and hands beating in quick staccato as they drew closer.

“Hang it all,” I gasped. My vision narrowed and my fingers paled, trying to keep the damned latch shut.

The door burst open, and I was thrown to the floor. Faceless revenants swarmed the cabin like angry hornets. I was grabbed up by more hands than I could count and dragged cursing, kicking, and thrashing into the aisle, back through the dining cars.

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