The Ravenous Dead (Gravekeeper, #2)

by Darcy Coates

“You’re ready to move on, aren’t you?” Keira dropped her voice to a rapid whisper. “You want to move on.” The nod was shaky but certain. “Okay. Hold still. I’m going to try something.” She reached for the essence she’d felt. She could picture it—a bundle of tiny, glowing threads, knotted together in a tangle. It existed in the centre of Brody’s chest, just to the side of where his heart had once been. The source of his light, keeping him corporeal, holding him together. A distant concept rose from her subconscious: the Greek Fates. The three women who wove, measured, and cut the thread of a human’s life. She hadn’t imagined it would appear so literally, but there it was ahead of her—a thread that, either by design or by chance, had become snagged. She closed her eyes and took the end of the string between her fingers. It was warm, almost unpleasantly hot, and made her skin prickle. She pulled. The knot unravelled. Keira took a quick breath and stepped back. Brody’s eyes fluttered. He looked down at himself, then back up, and a hesitant smile grew over the broken jaw. And then, like a cloud of mist caught in a breeze, he evaporated, shreds of himself disintegrating until there was nothing left.