The ghosts did not touch Grey. But they tore the necromancer’s soul from his body and dragged it down through the mud into the earth and down to Hell itself. Deray’s scream lingered for a long time, a stain on the day.
It was done.
Done.
And Grey knew that he was done, too. Now it was his time to make that long journey down into the burning Pit. Like Deray, his time had come to pay for his crimes.
In his shattered chest, Grey’s heart beat once. Twice.
A third time. Like the ringing of a fractured bell. Slower with each beat.
Brother Joe knelt beside him and made the sign of the cross in the air. He was weeping.
So was Looks Away.
And behind him was another figure, another woman. Voluptuous, with dark hair and emerald green eyes, and an inner light that burned with blue-white purity. Veronica.
Then she came and knelt down, pushing Brother Joe out of the way. She. Annabelle. Jenny. Both of them in one. She bent down to kiss his face, his eyes, his lips.
“Death isn’t the end,” she whispered, and then she said, “I love you.”
He could only manage one more word.
“Love…”
It was enough. His heart beat again. And again.
And then no more.
Grey Torrance felt himself float free of the broken shell, and a curtain of darkness fell over him, over the world, over everything.
Epilogue
-1-
The summer burned away and fall came early to Paradise Falls. It was short and harsh and followed by a bitter winter. Snows fell deep and often and winds howled through the canyons and clefts.
But the winds were the winds. No spirits or demons lent their voices to those screams.
When spring came, it too was early. Rains fell heavily. No frogs or snakes. By mid-April there was green grass in the fields and flowers exploding along the sides of the trails.
The new bridge was strong and wagons rumbled across it every day, bringing supplies from all over the region. Bringing families of farmers. Bringing miners and a legion of scientists and their apprentices to work at the big factory Doctor Saint had built. Every store and building and house in Paradise Falls wore new coats of paint, and every person wore the finest of clothes. Larders were full and no one wanted for a thing.
The story of the richest find of ghost rock, gold, platinum, and other precious metals was news around the world. Hopeful prospectors flooded the town, but not a single one of them seemed able to find a good place to stake a claim. And no one in town seemed willing to explain just exactly where they’d dug up all those rocks and metals. Paradise Falls was a happy town, but a secretive one. It kept itself to itself.
Of a Sunday, though, everyone in town was in church, weeping for the dead, and thanking God for their salvation, and their bounty.
Thomas Looks Away did not go to church. He spent his Sunday mornings walking the grounds of his new estate. The damage from the attack had been repaired, and the vaults deep underground had been mostly emptied, their contents shared equally with the other survivors.
Mostly, but not entirely.
Even when he’d measured out equal shares with every man, woman, and child who had been standing after the battle, he still had a little over a ton of gold left for himself.
Life was good. And, if he spent a lot of time alone, talking to the shadows in empty rooms, no one commented. Not even when passers-by heard a woman’s voice speaking to him from those very shadows.
Brother Joe had been restored to full office and now ran his rebuilt church with equal measures fervor and humility.
-2-
On the sunlit porch of the Pearl farmhouse, Grey Torrance rocked slowly in his favorite chair and read the papers brought in from Salt Lake, Lost Angels, and even as far away as New York. It was a strange and busy world. Bad things were happening, but bad things always happened. There were wars and rumors of wars. There were fantastical machines. And there were reports of aborted coups in a dozen foreign countries.
He smiled and reached for his coffee cup. Like most things he did, Grey lifted the cup carefully. Even now, seven months on, his body hurt in more places than he could count, and he knew that some of those aches would never really go away. Some hurts could not be healed.
Others though …
Well, there was less pain in some places than he had any right to expect. Less agony in his chest, his heart. His soul.
He laid his paper in his lap, sipped his coffee, and looked out at the day. A man walked down the street toward the house. Tall and pale, with iron gray hair and broad shoulders. He paused only for a moment to pass the time of day with Doctor Saint. They both glanced his way, saw him watching, and nodded. He returned the nod.
Then the little scientist headed back toward his lab and Lucky Bob strolled off toward Mrs. O’Malley’s place, where dinner would be waiting.
That was a strange arrangement, mused Grey. Strange, but not entirely without precedent. And, after all, Paradise Falls was a strange little town. It always would be. How could it not?
“Penny for your thoughts,” said a voice and he turned to see her come out of the house. Blond curls and blue eyes and a smile that held so many wonderful mysteries.
Grey laughed. “You can have them for free.”
“And they are—?”
“Just that it’s another beautiful day in Paradise.”
Belle laughed.
That’s what he called her. It had been what he’d started calling her during the long weeks when he hovered on the cliff between life and death. Not Jenny, not Annabelle. Just Belle. She’d accepted it. Or, they had accepted it. It became who this woman was.
Life was so strange.
She pulled her chair close to his and sat, taking his hand.
“Another beautiful day in paradise,” she agreed.
They sat and watched white clouds sail across the sky. And every once in a while they glanced at each other and smiled.
About the Author
JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author, editor, and comic book writer. Maberry is probably best known for his Joe Ledger novels and his award-winning Rot & Ruin series for young adults. His books have sold in more than two dozen countries. He lives in Del Mar, California.
jonathanmaberry.com. Or sign up for email updates here.
BOOKS BY JONATHAN MABERRY
DEADLANDS: Ghostwalkers
The Wolfman
THE JOE LEDGER SERIES
Patient Zero
The Dragon Factory
The King of Plagues
Assassin’s Code
Code Zero
Extinction Machine
Predator One
Joe Ledger: Special Ops
THE PINE DEEP TRILOGY
Ghost Road Blues
Dead Man’s Song
Bad Moon Rising
Darkness on the Edge of Town: Stories of Pine Deep
THE ROT & RUIN SERIES
Rot & Ruin
Dust & Decay
Flesh & Bone
Fire & Ash
Bits & Pieces
THE DEAD OF NIGHT SERIES
Dead of Night
Fall of Night
THE NIGHTSIDERS
The Orphan Army
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Part One: Blue Fire
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Illustration
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Illustration
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part Two: The Maze
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Illustration
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Illustration
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Illustration
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Illustration
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Illustration
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Part Three: A Man of Wealth and Taste
Chapter 64
Illustration
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Part Four: What We Die For
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Illustration
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Illustration
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Epilogue
About the Author
Books by Jonathan Maberry
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEADLANDS: GHOSTWALKERS
Copyright © 2015 by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.
Deadlands, The Weird West, and all related content is trademarked and copyright owned by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Deadlands fiction is exclusively licensed and managed by Visionary Comics, LLC, with prose fiction published by Tor Books.
Deadlands created by Shane Lacy Hensley
Cover art by Aaron Riley
Interior art by Steve Ellis, with thanks to Richard P. Clark
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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ISBN 978-0-7653-7526-1 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4668-4636-4 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466846364
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First Edition: September 2015