Lightbringer

soul.” He glanced at the last vanishing remnants of the orb and then looked quickly away, as if not daring to stare too long lest he be mesmerized again.

“Da,” Piotr said heavily, “I think you are right.” He’d heard tales of certain ghosts being able to pull out souls before, but never imagined that a soul could come in so compact and fragile a form, or that a Lost would have that ability. Pondering over what Wendy had told him before and taking into account what he knew about her soul now, Piotr had a sneaking idea of what had happened to her mother that night. He hoped he was wrong.

“I saw my mom,” Specs said forlornly. “And my dog.” He sniffled. “I wanna go home.”

“You and me both,” Piotr agreed, hugging him gently. “You and me both.”

“Ugh,” Wendy agreed from a few feet away, eyes slowly fluttering open. Coughing, she patted her head, her heart, her hip, then slowly sat up, holding her head. “I feel like I just got run over by a truck.”

“Sorry,” Specs whispered, hanging his head. “I don’t know why I did that. I saw home and I just…I just…”

Wendy laughed then, softly and sadly, and smiled. “I understand. You wanted to go home. It’s okay.”

Specs wiped his sleeve across his eyes. “It’s okay?”

“I promise. Here.” Carefully Wendy rolled over, tucked her knees underneath her, and gingerly staggered to her feet. “Tell you what,” she grunted. “Give me a minute and I can totally make going home happen for you. But no more of that—” she waved her hand over her midsection, “that tuggy business, okay? That hurt. A lot.”

“You remember it?” Piotr couldn’t keep the disbelief from his voice.

“Sure I do.” Wendy brushed the grass off her jeans and studiously avoided looking at him. “You put me back.”

“Put you back?” Piotr swallowed. “Are you saying that you yourself…were the… thing?”

She shrugged. “I guess? All I know is that I got passed back and forth for a bit. Kind of nauseating, actually.” Wendy winced. “And cold. Really cold. Outer space cold. So cold I kinda still want a jacket.”

Having no response for that, Piotr sat on the grass and waited for Wendy to collect herself. Specs sat beside him and laid his head on Piotr’s shoulder. “Thank you for trying to rescue me.”

“Ne bespokojsya.” Piotr ruffled Specs’ hair. “Can you tell me where the others are?”

“No.” Specs’ face screwed into a miserable expression. “I don’t know. They always kept me blindfolded, and after the attack I was separated from the others.” He sniffled again. “I don’t know where they are. Only that they moved me often and kept me in the dark.”

Riffling through her purse, Wendy knelt beside him but took pains not to accidentally brush against him. Popping the top on a bottle of aspirin, she dry-swallowed four, grimacing at their bitter taste. “Why couldn’t you sink through a door or something and escape?”

“The Walkers,” Specs whispered. “Some of them are different now.” He wiped one grimy hand across his face, smoothing away tears. “When I first got taken, they made me meet the White Lady.” He shivered. “She’s horrible! She touched me and I was numb for days and days! Then the Walkers took me away. And every time I started to heal, when I might have been able to step through a wall and run away, they’d tie me up and take me to her again. She’d touch me and it’d happen all over again.”

Wendy cursed under her breath. “Was that where they were taking you today? To see the White Lady?”

Specs nodded. “It was time for my ‘treatment.’”

Groaning, Piotr flopped back onto the grass. “Blyat’! So close! If I’d just followed them instead of rushing in like an idiot—”

“I wouldn’t have heard you if you hadn’t been yelling,” Wendy interrupted mildly. “And I sincerely doubt you could have snuck past all her guards to free the kids. But this is good news, sort of.” Wendy held up a hand and began ticking off points. “We know that she’s saving the Lost for something big and we know that she can strip ghosts of at least some of their abilities. Phasing through walls and whatnot.”

Then she smiled, a dark smile that seemed very unlike the Wendy Piotr had previously grown to know and love. He was disturbed by it. “More importantly, we know that they don’t keep the kids all in one place, but that eventually they all get taken to one place. To the White Lady.”

“I see,” Piotr said, growing excited, a plan beginning to form in his mind. “You want us to wait here and maybe ambush them, da?”

“Exactly.” Wendy sat back on her haunches and nodded, pleased with herself.

“But what about the others like me?” Specs asked. “Are they going to be hurt?”

“I won’t let them get hurt,” Wendy promised, reaching over and brushing his messy hair away from his forehead. “I’ll send them home before that.” Then she straightened and Piotr knew that the moment he’d been dreading had arrived. “Are you ready to travel on, kid?”

Specs jumped to his feet, all smiles. “Really? You mean it?” Then he paused, worry flickering across his face. “Wait. Is it going to hurt?”

“Only for a moment,” she promised, reaching down and taking his hands in hers. “A pinprick. Like getting a shot.” Wendy closed her eyes and her hands began to glow.

“You promise?” Specs asked, but Wendy was fading away and the Light was building. Fearing that this would be his last chance, Piotr rushed over and pressed a brief kiss to the top of the boy’s head. “I will miss you.”

“Me too. Say goodbye to Dora and Tubs for me.”

Unwilling to tell Specs what had happened to the others, Piotr chose to simply say, “I will.”

It was difficult getting words past the sudden lump in his throat. Piotr nodded extra hard to make certain he got his point across. “You shall be fine?”

“Never better. Thanks for taking care of me for all this time,” Specs said, his voice starting to dip and slide, sounding as if it were coming from very far away. “You were cool.”

“Spasibo. You were cool too,” Piotr agreed, feeling the tug of the Light start to interfere with his thoughts. He turned his face away and closed his eyes. If he didn’t look at the Light, it was easier to handle. One note, lovely and sweetly sung, broke the silence and it was over. The warmth faded from his back, the cool returned.

Pale as parchment and shaking, Wendy slid to the ground and rested her forehead against her knees. “That,” she panted, wiping away beads of sweat, “takes it out of a girl. I’ve got no idea how Mom could stand to do that over and over again. Reaping kids is just so hard!”

“It appears to be,” Piotr agreed. He crossed his arms across his chest, shuffling his feet. He cleared his throat. “I am glad though. For Specs. And you. You did a…a nice thing.”

“Sit.” Wendy said. “Please? I’m not ready to be alone right now.”

“Of course. How are you doing?” Piotr sat beside her, wrapped one arm around her shoulders, and took comfort from the ambient heat. Their skin steamed where they touched but neither of them minded. The moment should have been uncomfortable but it wasn’t. Neither of them spoke of the fight or the empty months that lay between them, and neither wanted to. It was as if nothing had separated them at all.

“I hurt and I’m tired.” She yawned, poking at her wounded arm gingerly. “Not even two o’clock and it’s been a really rough day already.” She started to sag against him and then straightened. “Oh! Eddie’s still in the car! Wait here.”

Wendy pushed up against a nearby elm to stand and staggered out of the clearing toward the park proper. Piotr watched her use several slim young willow trees for support. She passed a young woman herding a group of schoolchildren with skates toward a nearby van. Piotr spotted her friend’s familiar car and rested against a tree, watching as Wendy carefully picked her way down the well-maintained path to the vehicle parked at the curb.

Though he couldn’t make out what she was saying, the fact that emotions were high was obvious. She gesticulated wildly for several minutes and then, surprisingly, the boy stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him. The trunk popped open and he drew out a small case stamped with a red cross on the cover.

Eddie, Piotr reminded himself, firmly stomping on the slight surge of jealousy he felt whenever he laid eyes on the boy. His name is Eddie.

Taking Wendy by the arm, Eddie stripped off the jacket and visibly flinched away. Piotr was certain that Eddie would bundle her into the car and drive her to a hospital, but was surprised when he did no such thing. Instead he reached into the first aid kit and popped the top on a bulky white bottle, pouring a liberal amount of liquid over