“I should have killed myself. That would have gotten rid of the fucking monstrous bitch. I should have killed myself. But I was afraid.” She put her knuckles to her mouth. “I don’t want to leave the twins. I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to die.”
“She has you beat in the evil department,” Rune said, finally, “but you’re stronger than she is. You’ve had to be. Kick her ass out of there, baby.”
“I’ve tried. The only thing I can manage is to stomp her back down when she rises up like she just did. She wants something, and when she gets it, she’ll leave.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants a body to replace mine. She wants to stay here, in Skyll.”
“Any particular body?”
Lex pressed her lips together. “The witch’s,” she whispered, at last.
Rune gave a shout of surprised laughter. “She’s insane. Karin, if you can hear me, you do not want to fuck with Damascus.”
And she had to stop and catch her breath when she realized the thought of Karin Love trying to conquer the witch made her angry and jealous.
I’m the one who’s insane.
Strad, quiet and thoughtful, looked at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. “Lex, I’m going to have a talk with Rune where the thing inside you can’t hear. Walk on ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”
Lex nodded and walked away, her shoulders slumped.
Rune closed her eyes for a long minute. After Lex was out of earshot, she and Strad began to talk.
“Any ideas?” she asked him.
“We need to get her into a different body. After that, we’ll do whatever we need to do, but getting her out of Lex is priority.”
“Lex wanted to kill her.”
“Lex won’t have to deal with that. If we can get Karin to leave her, someone else is going to kill Karin Love.”
“The witch.”
He nodded. “Let’s hope she doesn’t discover Karin is here to possess her before Karin leaves Lex.”
“Yeah. She’d kill them both.”
They both fell into silence, thinking.
Suddenly Rune put a hand on his arm, pulling him to a stop. “I have an idea.”
“Lex,” he called. “Take a rest.”
She looked around, then sat down on a blackened tree stump to wait for them.
“Tell me,” he said.
“I doubt Karin has ever seen Damascus. I know a woman who would play the part. I just have to find her.”
“Where is she, and why would she agree to die?”
“She’s already dying,” Rune said. “She’d be happy to help us. The bigger the task the happier she’d be. And this is pretty fucking big.”
He nodded. “Where is she?”
“She was fighting in the battle by the hill. If she’s not dead, she’ll probably still be there.”
“We’ll wait here,” he said. “Run. Bring her back.”
She looked away. “I can’t run.”
“Fuck.” He looked heavenward. “I forgot, sweetheart.”
“I do miss my monster,” she admitted. Then she hefted the shotgun. “But I have this. You should see what happens when it hits an enemy.”
He smiled down at her. “Rune. About Z…”
She doubled over in pain so abruptly he didn’t move at first.
“He’s forgetting me,” she said. “God, Strad, I found him alive and he’s forgetting me.”
He sighed and pulled her to him.
“He’s always going to be my Z. Always.” She looked up at him. “Do you know that?”
“I have always known that. Even when you didn’t.”
“Fuck,” she cried.
He ran his fingers through the tracks of tears on her face. “First time I’ve ever seen you cry real tears,” he murmured.
And that was just too fucking sad.
She took a deep breath and roped in her emotions. “Let’s figure out how to get to Abby.”
“How do you stand that constant noise?” Lex shouted, suddenly angry.
It took Rune a second to understand that Lex was referring to the booms, explosions, distant screams, and thunderous roars from things none of them could see.
“You get used to it,” she replied.
When she and Strad stood beside Lex, they still hadn’t figured out how to get back to the battle at the castle to look for Abby. At least not quickly.
Nighttime was nearing, and without the sun, the coldness became more than an annoyance. None of them were dressed for winter.
“Let’s hop on over to Death Shimmer,” Lex joked. “Get warmed up before we head back out.”
Rune smiled, relieved that Lex seemed to have bounced back. Of course, there’d been plenty of time for the little Other to get used to being possessed. “We mi—”
Shiv Crow dived from the sky, twirling straight for her like