Charles didn’t hear me, but the shadows hissed and thickened around his heart, changing the color of his inner self. Leaching the goodness away, the balance shifting quickly.
His dad deserved to suffer. But Charles? I took one step toward him, not certain if it was even my place to take the weight of evil from a living, healthy person. I had to try, though.
I reached out one hand, but before I could touch him. Bernard had dragged himself between us. He lay his shaggy head on Charles’s thigh, and almost instantly, the man crumpled the rest of the way to the ground, sobbing. The dog licked his owner’s hands and face, and arm, until he could reach his chest.
Then, while I watched, the dog licked at the shadows that had been feasting on Charles’s heart, tainting his soul, and… “Holy shizz, Bernie. You’reeatingthem.”
Bernard snarled at a particularly nasty shadow and kept licking. With every swipe of his tongue, he lapped up another flicker of evil. As I watched, Charles’s soul began to turn back to that balanced shade of gray.
And when the dog was done, he looked up at me, his eyes glittering with what looked like stars. I had no idea what had just happened.
“Such a good dog,” Charles said, his voice broken. “The best dog in the world.”
Before I could take a breath to ask, the door crashed open. Two guards, ones I’d never seen before, burst in. One of them, a young, pimply redhead with a wooden baton in one hand, saw me, the poker, his dead owner and crying son… and in a few short seconds, the sound of another skull being crushed filled the room. My own, this time.
Ugh.I really hated that sound.
CHAPTER6
Feather
“Rumple? Rumple! Is that you?” I woke in the ether, unsure how long I’d been floating since I’d been killed. I’d snatched the imbalance from the redheaded kid, who’d held me on his knees, crying when he realized he’d accidentally killed me. It had probably been the easiest burden I’d ever taken on. And I’d woken without the usual agony, except for a burning question inside.
How the heck had a dog eaten the shadows?
I shouted the name a third time. “Rumple!”
“Yes, little one, I’m here.”
I whirled around, wishing I could see him in the utter darkness. “You’re never gonna believe what happened in my life just now. No, seriously. You will never, ever believe it. It was epic. It was… I never could have imagined it. Like, mind-blowing.”
There was an odd sound, like teeth grinding. “You had better not be talking about sex again.”
I blinked into the darkness. “No, this was way cooler than that.” At least I thought so.
The darkness grew slightly warmer. “What happened, Little Sacrifice? The last I spoke to you, you were with that baker in the alley.”
I caught him up quickly. “And then Bernard—thedog—ate the imbalance.” I waited a moment. “Did you know that was possible? That animals could eat evil?”
“It’snotpossible,” he said quietly, almost as if to himself.
“Right? That’s what I thought! But I swear on all the chocolate in the universe, it happened.”
It sounded like he let out a shuddering breath. “Animals cannot. But some dogs…”
Had I heard him right? “Dogs can do… what I do?” For a split second, I worried that Bernard had been in pain, like I felt when I took on evil.
“No,” he replied instantly. “Not any dogs that should be on Earth, anyway. He looked like a normal dog.”
“Wait. You saw Bernard? You were there? Iknewit!”
“I may have peeked in for a moment. But I didn’t stay. I… I have to go. I must see if?—”
Before I could say another word, he’d gone, the air around me moving as if enormous wings had brushed past me. Or tentacles.
For all I knew, it could have been hooves. After I figured out his name, I’d need to start a game guessing what parts he had.
I waited, floating, wondering when he might come back. I wasn’t in nearly as much pain as usual. In fact, I almost felt… good. The red-haired soldier hadn’t meant to kill me, and he’d felt so bad about it, holding me as I died. I’d hardly felt it when I took on his burden.
