Free The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) by Quil Carter Page B

only a thin layer, mostly we walked across bone-dry rocks and small patches of bushes and brush. We had left the last of the snow behind yesterday and now we were deep in the valley, rolling hills on all sides of us and roads that were almost invisible in the grey.
    I had never been to an area like this before, with so many trees, most hiding actual bushes that seemed to still be alive. Though none of them held green or even yellow. Everything was charcoal or grey; the trees so close to one another it dazzled you if you looked at it for too long.
    I looked at the blue cup in my satchel in almost a solemn reminder that the colour still existed. Sometimes you spent so much time around this monotone slate, you almost could convince yourself you were colourblind.
    Perish gave me another withering look. I stared back.
    “Walk up front with me,” he said, then turned back around.
    I closed the distance between us and we walked side by side. Absentmindedly I rubbed the chafed spot underneath the slave collar he had put on me. I knew where the key was, it was in his blue bag. New Perish was smart though, not the easy-to-manipulate, absent-minded professor I had seen as my friend. There was no amount of sucking up or sweet talking that could get him to take this collar out from under my chin.
    Thanks Leo... I don’t know what you were trying to find out, or even how you got Perish’s O.L.S, but thanks.
    Jade is dead because of this.
    My eyes started to sting again, and because my mind was cruel I immediately saw Jade laying on the roof. His yellow eyes staring into nothing as the flakes fell gently around him. The snow underneath his body getting redder and redder.
    Jade... Jade, I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. I’ll never forgive myself. I’ll never be able to look Elish in the eye again. How will I tell him that I saw his husband slowly dying underneath my feet?
    Fuck . I closed my eyes and tried to blink the tears away.
    “When we run out of food, I’m going to kill them one by one.” My eyes opened as Perish said this to me, in a cold but matter-of-fact voice. I looked at him just as he turned his own head to look at me. Our eyes met.
    He smiled. “Unless you can convince me to keep them alive.”
    I couldn’t keep his gaze. Sometimes I would wait until Perish could make eye contact with me so I knew he was listening, but now...
    “What do you want me to do?” I asked calmly back, though I knew the answer. I wondered how much of Old Perish’s desires remained in New Perish. He had three slaves behind us though and they wouldn’t kick and scream nearly as much as I would.
    Though that probably is what he wanted.
    And what was my reaction to this? What was I going to do?
    Keep myself alive... keep myself alive until Reaver found me.
    A felt a catch in my throat. I stared at the ashy ground and watched my grey-stained army boots walk one in front of the other.
    If I ran... how far would I go before the collar activated?
    “You will tell me everything I ask.”
    My brow furrowed. I was certain he was going to pressure me for sex, or... or something like that.
    “Like... like what?” I replied slowly.
    Perish looked ahead, a thin, closed mouth smile on his lips. “I will know if you are lying, Killian. You realize that right?”
    I nodded.
    “You know who my brother was, right? Do you remember?”
    I nodded again. “His name was Sky... he was your identical twin.” I stared at Perish and for the first time I realized that, in turn, I was also staring at Sky. The boyfriend, the love of Silas Dekker’s life, the immortal who had killed himself.
    “Yes, he was my younger brother,” Perish responded, his voice taking a turn. I saw a fresh wave of hostility sweep his eyes. “I loved him a lot, until the power went to his head. Then he was not my brother anymore. He changed, just like that piece of shit Silas.”
    It was such a small piece of brain and yet I had a feeling most of the memories and emotions