Revenant Read Online Free

appeared. Then another.
Ghostly images began popping out. A shock ran through me as I recognized one of
the faces. I’d seen it just the other night, lying on the grass in the field. They’re the undead I’ve brought back to life. The zombies moved around me, circling. They reached out to me. Seeking what? I wasn’t sure. They kept moving
forward. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. I could feel their cold
fingers against my skin, pulling at me, tearing at me.
     
    * * *
     
    And
then I woke, gasping and sweating on the dirt floor in my prison cell. I
assumed Caleb carried me back each night after I collapsed into
unconsciousness. Each night I tumbled into a fitful sleep, encumbered by
fleeting dreams until I woke, greeted once again with the harsh reality of my
captivity. But this time I remembered clearly what I had dreamed. I thought
back to my nightmare. Or was it a vision? I didn’t know, and I had too little
energy to figure it out now. I was so hungry, so
thirsty, so tired all the time. My mind was
having a hard time focusing on the here and now.
    Luke . I breathed in
his name. I felt the wild pounding of my heart slow as I visualized his face in
front of me. The face of the boy I had met in the magic shop. It was the way I
always thought of him whenever I was alone. That blond hair, those dark eyes.
Eyes that burned with passion as he looked at me. Luke. He’s still alive, he’s still
here. That’s all that matters . I forced myself to sit up. There was dirt on
my pants and mud smeared across my hands
and arms, but I was so used to being dirty now that I didn’t even try and wipe
it away. I put my back against the cavern wall.
    How many more dead lay out in that field? How many had I raised?
Seventy? A hundred? I could see their rotting flesh when I closed my eyes. I
could smell, even now, the putrid scent of them on me. I would never be able to
rid myself of that smell.
    When I felt eyes
crawling over my skin, I realized I wasn’t alone. My head jerked around and I
spotted Caleb leaning against the bars. He was watching me. He was so silent,
so still, that for a moment I wondered if I were hallucinating. We stared at
each other. There was the hatred again, blazing from his eyes. What had I done
to bring up such strong emotions in him? I’d never met him, never even seen him
before. But he looked at me as though we were mortal enemies.
    I gave him a wary look
and finally broke the silence between us. “Is it time again?”
    As suddenly as it
appeared, the anger disappeared, replaced with indifference. But I knew the
indifference was an act. “The big man wants to see you.”
    That was Caleb’s
nickname for Gage. A wave of cold horror washed over me. I had only seen Gage a
handful of times since I’d been here. Each time I felt like a snake charmer
standing before a deadly cobra posed to strike. Gage had never laid a hand on
me—he did something far worse when I misbehaved. Anytime I didn’t follow
his direction, he set Caleb and Jacob on Luke.
    The guilt I felt when I
saw the aftermath of that first beating consumed me…and I began to do whatever
Gage said. But it didn’t take full rebellion to set Gage off. There had been
other beatings, ones I had caused inadvertently by saying or doing the wrong
thing. Keeping my mouth shut and doing whatever Gage said to do was the only
way to keep Luke safe.
    Gage also seemed to take
great pleasure in starving me. I hadn’t realized how hungry you could get without
food for a few days.
    And now he wanted to see
me. My fingers were trembling. I forced them together and took a deep breath. I
pushed myself up and waited for Caleb to unlock the iron bars.
    I followed Caleb down
the tunnels, losing track of the twists and turns we took, but my head came up
when we entered a large cavern. A chandelier hung down from the ceiling, this
one lit with two dozen black candles.
    Lavish furniture was scattered
throughout the room. Red sheer material and orange silk