It wasn’t difficult work. Benny used some dried twigs from among the debris to hold the flame, and he picked up all the wax he could find and dribbled it over the handles, then pressed the red ribbons back in place. The original job had been thorough but not neat, and his finished product looked about the same. He nodded, satisfied, then ground the burning twig underfoot and moved to the open hatch.

He was just about to call Nix’s name when he heard her scream.

Benny saw why.

She stood in the clearing near where they had exited the forest earlier, but she was not alone.

She was surrounded by a dozen reapers.

Chapter 77

77

SAINT JOHN STOOD ON A ROCKY OUTCROP THAT OFFERED AN EXCELLENT view of the forest, the plateau, and the surrounding desert. Brother Peter and other trusted reapers had come and gone a dozen times over the last hour, bringing him information on everything that happened inside the forest.

“Observe only,” Saint John had instructed them. “Do not be seen, and do not interfere until you have talked to me.”

These reapers were his, heart and soul, and they obeyed without question. They were also very smart and highly trained. They moved like ghosts and they watched like owls. For some of them it was hard not to take action. It was as if the knives at their belts ached to open red mouths in every person who moved under the desert sun.

As his reapers brought him pieces of the strange puzzle, Saint John assembled them into a picture whose image did not entirely surprise him, though it saddened him, threatening to break his heart.

So many things happening at once.

Riot had been spotted. Carter’s daughter, Eve, and an unknown heretic—a Chinese boy whose body was wrapped in bandages—were with Riot, sharing a quad with her. They were heading by a circuitous route toward the Shrine of the Fallen.

The ranger, Joe, had also been seen. A dozen reapers had fled from him rather than lay down their own lives to send that sinner into the darkness. Saint John would have Brother Peter re-educate them in some matters of faith.

The ranger, it seemed, was also heading toward the shrine.

And two children had been seen climbing into the shrine itself. A red-haired girl with a scarred face and a boy with Japanese eyes.

Nyx and her knight.

That was a piece of the puzzle Saint John did not yet understand. Several intriguing possibilities occurred to him, each of them dependent on whether this Nyx was a true manifestation of Thanatos’s mother on earth. If she was something false, perhaps a demon of one of the old religions, then things could turn against God’s will. Saint John would send Brother Peter to learn the truth.

Brother Peter came to join him.