Right.
I closed my eyes and pictured the doorway to my parents’ room. The same as before, I could see tethers floating off in different sections. Some were long, others very short. I reached out and grasped one of the major ones. It was thicker and longer than any other on the door. I pulled hard. The only awareness I had that anything had occurred was a slight dipping in my stomach. A gasp had my eyes flying open. Reds six and nine were stationed in this hallway, and when I appeared from nowhere I think I almost eliminated another two Walkers via heart attack.
“Josian!” I dodged around the two to bang on his door. “Dad, get up.”
The door flew open, and he was framed in the massive doorway, wearing just a pair of long pants.
“Baby girl?” He didn’t look as if he’d just woken.
He was calm and alert. Almost seven foot of towering muscles and fiery red hair. Walkers were too much; I swear they were carved from stone or something.
“Que is in my room. Brace was kind of holding him there. Why did no one feel him enter the house?” I was just shy of shrieking.
He left me hanging, of course, disappearing from the door. He was back and dressed in about thirty seconds.
“A question I’ll be asking, with persuasion. Stay here with your mother.” He took off then, followed by the other reds.
I hesitated outside the door. I knew I should follow his advice. I’d be a distraction neither of them needed. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t stay here and not know what was happening to my father and Brace. I ran without pause through the hallways and down one set of stairs, jumping every second step.
Reaching the children’s wing of the house, I dashed past Samuel, Lucy and Talina’s rooms. I finally slowed outside my own door. I couldn’t hear anything inside. I ordered my door to open slowly. My room was particularly connected to me, so I had no problem with control. I stepped through, my eyes darting everywhere. The room was empty.
Brace ... where the hell are you?
I tried to connect with his mind. It was difficult as panic started to consume me. I had a really bad feeling about Que, and his reasons for invading a house full of Walkers. I could hear a faint sound. It took me a moment to realize it was coming from outside. I flung open my balcony doors before moving into the shadow of my eaves, eyes straining to see.
And my bad feeling was starting to make sense.
It was the reds versus the blacks. Walkers were gathered in large masses in our front yard. Moonstale light flooded the early-morning darkness. Que had not arrived here alone. Behind him stood at least thirty Walkers, covered in the black marks of Abernath. Josian, with the reds at his back, stood his ground.
“I only wanted the Doreen half, but since you have forced my hand like this, Bracelional, I want both halflings now. Send them to me, and I will not harm anyone.” Que’s voice rang out in the darkness.
“It’s not going to happen,” Josian said, sounding calm.
“Geez, is it non-stop drama in your house or what?” Lucy skidded to a stop beside me on the balcony. “Now we’re having a break-dance Walker-style.”
I grimaced. “More like a gun-shoot-out-at-dawn style.”
“If you can hear me, half-Walkers, come to my side now or I will remove from existence every person you love. And if you think I am not capable of killing Walkers, think again.”
“So either he knows about the dead Walkers, and is claiming credit to scare people –” Lucy started.
“Or he was the one who killed them.” I finished her sentence.
She gripped my arm tightly. “Don’t even think about going to him, Abby. If he’s telling the truth then he’s going to kill them anyway; you know he can’t leave witnesses, especially not ones as powerful as other Walkers.”
She knew me well and, while I saw the sense in her words, I wasn’t sure I could just stand here and do nothing.
“If you take one step off that balcony, Red, I am going to kick your ass.” Brace, who was standing between the two groups, almost in the center of the battle, turned in my direction.
We were about a hundred feet apart but I could see his expression clearly. And he was furious. His jaw was doing that tick-tick-tick thing that meant he was about to lose it.
“Do not in any circumstances listen to him. He coined the original saying of a forked tongue. His lies are legendary.”
“Yes, my son, I may bend the truth to fit my plans, but whilst my lies are legendary so are my promises. Any punishment I have promised is always meted out ... ten-fold.”
“I remember, Que,” Brace said darkly.
Could this be reference to all those ridges I often felt along Brace’s skin? What the hell could mark a Walker like that and not heal clean?