Crisped + Sere (Immemorial Year Book 2) by TJ Klune

don’t know. Maybe. Probably not.
    With Cavalo’s knife at his side and his own against Cavalo’s throat, Lucas leaned forward. His forehead pressed against Cavalo’s, eyes glittering in the mask.
    Cavalo thought he could hear Lucas’s bees screaming above his own.
    One breathed out. The other breathed in.
    Again. And again.
    “I will kill you,” Cavalo swore. “If you betray me. If you betray any of us, I will kill you.”
    You can try , Lucas said. Do you trust me?
    “No.”
    Blood , Bad Dog whispered again.
    They stood there for a time. As shadows lengthened. As bodies burned.
     
     
    IT WAS dusk before they thought it safe to leave Grangeville.
    The Dead Rabbits were gone.
    The town stood quiet as they walked out of the house.
    The bodies smoldered. The air was thick. Cavalo thought he saw a star in a break in the clouds overhead.
    They walked between the houses. They moved with care, sticking to dark corners.
    They did not speak.
    He is a broken man hiding in a broken prison.
    Cavalo could see the hole in the wall up ahead. Fifteen miles to Cottonwood. Maybe they’d make it before morning if they moved all night. He didn’t know if he could. He was very tired.
    The town was silent, the air clearer here.
    It still felt like death.
    “Cut across the fields,” Cavalo said quietly. “Stay low. We’ll make it to the road.”
    Okay , Bad Dog said.
    Cavalo stopped. Turned.
    Lucas was gone.
    “Lucas!” he hissed.
    Nothing.
    Then:
    Bad Dog yelped in pain.
    Cavalo saw bright lights as something heavy struck the back of his head.
    He went to his knees. Hands into the snow.
    “What do we have here?” a deep voice said. “Looks like he was right. Stragglers.”
    A woman laughed. She sounded familiar. They both did.
    He looked up.
    A large black man stood in front of him, dressed in Dead Rabbit gear. A large growth protruded from his neck. The woman was also a Dead Rabbit. Their clothes were covered in gristle and dried blood. They smelled of smoke and fire. Death.
    Bad Dog lay off to the left, breathing but otherwise not moving.
    “You just get back into town?” the big man asked. “Or were you hidden?”
    He would kill them. He would kill them both.
    The woman laughed again. “He’s getting angry.”
    Lucas did this. He knew. He’d known the whole time.
    He couldn’t get his arms to move. His head was ringing. The bees were caught in a storm.
    His knife was taken from him. His rifle. His bow. His arrows. His pack.
    Get up. Get up. Get up.
    “Poor little doggy,” the woman crooned, standing above Bad Dog. “Poor little guy.”
    “Wait,” the man said. He sounded unsure. “Didn’t he say….”
    “What?” the woman asked. “Who?”
    “Get over here.”
    “I don’t—”
    “ Now .”
    She left Bad Dog alone. As she passed Cavalo, she kicked him upside the head. The flashes became an entire universe of stars.
    “You stupid bitch,” the big man snarled. “Don’t you know who this is?”
    “Straggler,” she said. “You said straggler.”
    “It’s him . The man. Look at his fingers. They’re wrapped.”
    Cavalo pushed himself up. Sat back on his legs.
    “So? He broke them.”
    “Or the robot did.” The woman looked frightened for the first time. He recognized her. She was the one who’d punched Cordelia. He recognized the man. He was the man who’d almost found them hiding in the bushes with a dead deer.
    Cavalo grinned through a bloody mouth. “I know you,” he said. “I’ve seen you before.”
    “It’s him ?” the woman cried.
    “It has to be.”
    “We have to tell Patrick.”
    “He’s already gone back to the Deadlands.”
    “He said he knows us.”
    “Lies.”
    “Bushes,” Cavalo said. “With the deer. I saw you. You didn’t see me.”
    The woman grabbed his face with a strong hand. Leaned forward. Kissed his mouth. He tasted blood and flesh. “Maybe he can be our little secret,” she said as she pulled away. “Maybe we can keep him to ourselves.”
    Those were