All Who Wander Are Lost (An Icarus Fell Novel) Read Online Free Page B

back plunging a knife into my
kidneys.
    Nice to have
something in common with the people you work with.
    The plane hit two
hundred meters away with the biggest splash I’ve ever seen,
like a mechanical giant belly-flopping from the high-diving board.
We rose and dipped with the wave but my shoes remained dry—the
pilot wasn’t so lucky. The impact obliterated the craft,
sending pieces of airplane shooting into the sky. When the wave
settled, a million pieces of debris bobbed on the surface of the
sea, one of them the body of a man.
    “ We
should help him.”
    I said the words
already knowing they were meaningless. It’s not my job to help
not in the paramedic sense of the word, but I meant his soul, not
his body. Mikey remained silent. Seconds later, a not-quite-opaque
figure sat up from the dead pilot, using his corpse as a life raft.
I looked from the spirit to Mike and back. I hadn’t received a
scroll with the man’s name, but that didn’t mean he
should be left to...whatever happens to souls left alone too long.
    I took one step
away from the archangel and went headlong into the sea; salt water
filled my mouth and nose, gagging me; cold assaulted my flesh. I
thrashed and struggled, so surprised by the need to swim that I
forgot how. My head broke the surface giving me a second to gulp a
breath past the briny taste in my mouth before I went under again.
The first time I died, the knife wounds were unexpected and painful,
but drowning was an entirely different kind of trauma. I kicked and
stroked as my mind reeled, wondering if I could die again.
    Michael pulled me
out with one hand, dangling me above the water like a fishing trip
trophy—the one he wished had gotten away. I sputtered until my
lungs cleared and breath filled my chest again.
    “ There
is nothing you can do.”
    I barely heard his
words above the buzzing in my ears. After hanging there shaking my
head to clear the water, I realized the noise wasn’t an audio
reaction to my near-second-death experience, but the sound of an
outboard motor.
    Mikey set me back
beside him and I looked across the still-undulating sea at a speed
boat which, in keeping with its name, approached rapidly. Its black
hull cut through the water; two black-clad men piloted the boat
toward the crash site and its floating non-survivor.
    Carrions. Again.
    The boat pulled up
beside the soul floating on his corpse-canoe and one of the Carrions
leaned over the side and offered his hand. The man’s spirit
accepted eagerly, like a drowning man offered a hand, strangely
enough. If he knew where his rescuers intended to take him, he
probably wouldn’t have been so keen. They pulled him in, the
motor roared, and they sped off toward the horizon.
    With the boat’s
wake lapping beneath our feet, I turned to demand an explanation,
but the world wavered before I opened my mouth, then faded to black.
In the darkness, I wondered if the world would return or if this was
my final punishment.
    †‡†
    I paced, amending
my path occasionally to avoid errant umbrella stands and waterproof
cushions fallen from their piles. Anger and guilt roiled and twisted
in my gut; I breathed deep, attempting to control it. There was
nothing to gain by venting my ire at the archangel, I’d
learned that lesson. Michael stood nearby, arms crossed, waiting.
Finally, I stopped and faced him, mimicking his pose.
    “ Why
didn’t you let me help them?”
    “ They
were beyond help.”
    “ But
I was right there. I could’ve done something.”
    “ Their
time has passed, Icarus. They died while you hid in your motel.”
    “ Will
you call me Ric, for Christ’s sake?”
    He glared at
me—presumably for taking the name of the boss’ son in
vain—but didn’t respond. I held his gaze feeling like a
man engaged in a staring contest with a cat. Time crawled past, my
discomfort increasing as each second ticked by.
    “ Why?
Why would you show me that?”
    “ So
you would see that death happens, Icarus Fell. Whether