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Billy smiled.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Of course, our arrival was announced.There were sentries posted all around the perimeter of the sprawling camp in the desert and for miles beyond, seemingly behind every hill and outcropping, some of which were living and more of which were not.Zombies made fine scouts, as the sun didn’t bother them, the night’s chill didn’t affect them, and nobody could play dead any better.

Well, almost nobody, I thought, watching masses of ghosts hovering in the sky over the camp.They were drifting across the hills and the plains beyond like low-lying clouds and flying beside us as we jounced and bounced along on what was in no way a road.They were everywhere, darting like shadows in the night, but nobody saw them.

Well, nobody but me and some of the zombies.A few of the latter twitched a little whenever ghostly hands brushed them, and I thought I saw others following some of the more bloated spirits with hungry eyes.Probably because their bokors were skilled at the ghostly form of necromancy that my father had practiced, and they saw whatever their creatures did.

That was why the crowd of people—thousands of them milling about everywhere—opened up before us, and we were allowed to rumble through the encampment and up the side of the hill that we’d left only a day ago.

The group at the top had grown, morphing from a collection of misfits shooting each other hostile glances into the leaders of an army.I stared around as we piled out of the jalopy, witnessing sights I’d never thought to see in a million years.And still didn’t quite believe.

“The enemy of my enemy,” Mircea murmured, and yeah.

I guessed so.

There were a lot of former enemies encamped around here.The dark mages had taken up a large area of desert to the left, separated from their light mage counterparts by a river of zombies, demons, and golems mixing together pretty freely.That much I’d expected, more or less, just not the numbers, which had grown immensely as word went out.

But to the right was something I definitely hadn’t expected.And standing next to Jonas at the top of the hill, looking at some papers on a table they’d scrounged up from somewhere, was the last person I’d have ever thought to see there.Ever.

“Thisisthe end of the world,” I said, staring at Zara.

With the black robes she had found somewhere and her salt and pepper hair fritzing out in all directions as if she’d recently been struck by lightning, she was the perfect example of a dark witch.Only there weren’t any of those.The covens didn’t believe in that nonsense; they believed in what worked.Which I guessed was why, in an encampment to the right, was every goddamned witch on the planet.

Seriously, there werethousands.

“It appears that the war party won,” Pritkin said, looking at them with slightly widened eyes.

“Well, if we’re ever going to do anything, now would seem the time,” Topknot said, coming over from the edge of the group on the hill.“You’re late.We were starting to worry.”

“You came with us to the city,” I said, confused.

“Yes, and left it shortly thereafter, once we’d had a chin wag with Devlin.”She harrumphed.“Devlin.I might have known.May as well have called himself devil.Speaking of which, where’s the other one?The natives are getting restless.”

“In the other, um, Jeep,” I said, assuming that she was talking about Rosier because Pritkin was standing beside me.

And yeah, the “natives” were restless, I thought, as a demon the size of a house with a long tail and claws as big as me circled another of its kind in the valley below, obviously about to throw down.And they weren’t the only ones.It looked like half of Hell was here and not happy about it.

“Didn’t drive w’ him on the way back?Don’t blame you there,” she said, clapping me on the back.“Well, come on then.Time to join the conversation.”

“It isn’t,” I protested as the two Hell-beasts started savaging each other.Some of the dark mages seemed to be betting on the outcome as I saw money exchanging hands.“You have your part to play,” I told her, tearing my eyes away.“And I have mine.They’re not the same.”

“Oh?”She sized me up.“And exactly how do you expect to get into that city on your own?”

I started to answer, then thought better of it.“It’s complicated.”

“It always seems to be with you.”

“We should check in,” Mircea said smoothly, ever the diplomat.“Let the others know we’re about to start.They’ll need to coordinate their attack.”

Which was how I found myself pushing through the throng of evil-eyed Corpsmen toward the summit of the small mountain or large hill.I couldn’t be sure which, as I couldn’t see it too well since it was covered by people who hated me.But flanked on one side by a half-demon with glowing green eyes—Pritkin had gotten into it with dear old dad on the way here, and I guessed it had had an effect—and on the other by a master vampire, nobody so much as twitched a finger in my direction.

But if looks could kill—

Well, it would save Zeus the trouble.

“Stay behind me,” Alphonse said, trying to shove me to the back.