“It’s a hellscape,” Lilac pointed out. “This is sort of my domain.”
“I guess.” Aurora was grudging. “You could have let me do something.”
Movement caught my attention and I looked up to find a group of ghosts — almost all of whom I recognized by face if not name — watching us. They were the souls attached to the zombies from the cemetery. May had been right. They were all here.
“Go home,” I said, sweeping my arm out and clearing a path in front of the door. “Don’t stay here. Go home.”
The ghosts looked beaten down by life. One by one, they filed in front of us and raced back to their former world. We might have to deal with them at some point — and I had no idea what that would look like — but for now they were safe.
“We’re done here, right?” Booker asked.
“We’re done.” I inclined my head toward the door. “Let’s go home.”
I was the last to leave the hellscape plane. I gave it one final look — I had no intention of coming back — before walking away from death and destruction and landing in Galen’s arms.
29
TWENTY-NINE
My mother was gone when we emerged inside the cemetery building.
“Whoops,” I said as I glanced around.
Galen and Brody had waited inside of the building for us. They claimed it was to warn us about the zombies but I knew better. The second Galen pulled me into his arms, everything that had been uneven in his heart smoothed. He buried his face in my hair, holding me close, then exhaled heavily as he regained control of his emotions.
“I knew you would be okay,” he said as he pulled back. “It’s just … time passes differently.”
I understood. “What time is it?”
“Three in the morning,” Brody replied. He’d hugged Aurora upon her return, but he was nowhere near as dramatic as Galen because Aurora wouldn’t have tolerated a similar welcome.
“Wow.” My mind went momentarily blank. “We lost an entire day.”
“Nothing was lost,” Brody countered. “We saw the ghosts you sent through. You saved them all.”
My stomach constricted. “Where are they?” I didn’t ask specifically about my mother but Galen would know. He always knew.
“Most of them took off to see their families,” Galen replied. “I didn’t know any of them. My mother had left by the time they came across. She seemed bored with the entire process once Declan … well, once Declan took his bow.”
Declan. I’d almost forgotten about him. “He’s dead?” I asked.
Galen ran his hands over my shoulders. “He died fairly quickly on this side. Going through the door took a lot out of him.”
“Where is he?” Lilac asked. “I ended up chopping off Bogdan’s head because I feared he might regenerate like a vampire. Maybe I should do that to him.”
“That would have been smart,” Galen replied. “When he died, we called Jareth. He came right after the sun set. He walked across the cemetery as if it was nothing. He didn’t even look at the zombies. He looked down at Declan’s body and then pulled a little hatchet out of his pocket and … .” Galen mimed chopping.
“Well, that’s a visual I don’t want to think about,” Aurora said, wrinkling her nose. “Where is the body now?”
“Jareth took it back to the funeral home,” Brody replied. “He said that Declan wasn’t to be revered, but he was family. He didn’t have a good start in life. He could never overcome what he’d lost. He wanted to give his nephew a quiet final resting place.”
I swallowed hard. Jareth was a good guy. I made a mental note to drop in and check on him in a few days.
“Then it’s done,” I said, forcing a smile.
Galen nodded. “I called Wesley’s ranch a few hours ago. As soon as Declan died, the symbol on his property disappeared. It seems it really did take a combination of their magic to keep it going.”
That was a relief. “Did Declan say anything before he died?”
