The Bones of Valhalla (Purge of Babylon, Book 9) by Sam Sisavath

nana out the window, then tried to light his double-wide on fire.”
    “Was this Riley’s plan all along?” she had said to Phil. “Trick me into bringing you onboard with some sob story about wanting to leave Mercer’s war, then take over the boat when we let our guards down?”
    “Riley has nothing to do with this,” Phil had said. “Riley’s a good man, but he was never really meant for leadership.”
    First Andy on the Ocean Star, then that hiccup with Lang and Ezekiel, and now Phil and the others.
    Jesus, Riley. How many other bad choices did you make that’s going to come back and haunt me?
    “All right,” Lara said into the radio. “I’m coming to you.”
    “I await with bated breath,” Danny said.
    She put the radio away and gave the cabin door one last look. She wondered if he could hear her in there, through the door and walls. Besides their unnatural (So what’s natural about any of this?) speed and strength, the blue eyes also had heightened hearing, according to Danny and Gaby.
    Because that’s what he is now. He’s a blue-eyed ghoul.
    But that wasn’t entirely true, either. He was, but he also wasn’t.
    So where did that leave him?
    She didn’t know, and she suspected he didn’t, either. They were in uncharted territory, that much was clear. There was nothing normal about this. Even in a post-Purge world, this was something…else.
    She headed back up the corridor. She passed the machinery, went up the stairs, and pushed through the door onto the lower deck, where Gwen and Jo were waiting with M4 rifles on the other side. The two women were alert, their bodies tensing as she emerged from the hatch.
    “No one goes down there,” she told them.
    They both nodded and gripped their weapons tighter. She didn’t have to tell them to stay alert, because they already knew about Carrie and Benny. But especially about what had happened to Carrie.
    One gone and one down. How many more before tonight’s over?

    * * *
    “ W hy did you do it ?” Lara asked.
    “You don’t know?” Annie said, as if the answer was so obvious she couldn’t comprehend why Lara didn’t already know.
    “Tell me.”
    “Because it’s dangerous. You shouldn’t have let Danny bring it onboard. It’s dangerous , Lara.”
    She stood across the room from Annie, who sat on one of the small cots they had put into the crew cabin. Three people shared the room—Annie, Lorelei…and Carrie. If the irony of being locked in here with Carrie’s personal belongings—her clothes, keepsakes, even her weapons—did anything to Annie, the woman didn’t show it. Not that Annie was a stone in front of her. Lara could see something that might have been sorrow in Annie’s eyes, but how much of that was real and how much an act?
    There was nothing separating them but empty space, not that Lara was afraid Annie would do something stupid, like try to lunge for her holstered sidearm. The woman sat with her hands in her lap and stared back at her, and hadn’t tried to avoid Lara’s eyes when she stepped inside the room.
    “You know that, right?” Annie said now, when Lara didn’t respond. “You shouldn’t have brought it onboard, Lara. It’s too dangerous to have around us, the kids...”
    “It wasn’t dangerous to anyone…until it had to be.”
    “You don’t understand. I’ve been out there, Lara. I know what those things can do. I’ve seen what those things can do.”
    Lara knew all about Annie’s past, about what had happened at the farmhouse in Louisiana. That was also the first time Gaby had come face-to-face with the blue-eyed ghouls. Everyone had survived the encounter…except for Lance, Annie’s boyfriend.
    “So this is revenge?” Lara asked.
    “Revenge? Why would you think that?”
    “Because of what they did to Lance.”
    “No. This isn’t revenge, Lara. I’m trying to protectus. I’m doing exactly what you would have done if that thing down there didn’t use to be Will.”
    Lara sighed. She didn’t