Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“All I’m saying is the punishment should fit the crime. Do you think this is fair?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But it definitely isn’t fair how she treated me my entire life. It isn’t fair what the Order did to me. It isn’t fair that my family was murdered or that I was lied to or that Marco and Vivian drugged me and performed experiments on me while I was asleep. None of that is fair. Life isn’t fair, Leo. We know that more than anyone.” Fear bubbles in the pit of my stomach, letting me know we’re getting closer to the necromancer. “At least she’s safe in jail,” I add, trying to lighten the mood, but it’s actually true. The trail of death and destruction this demon is going to leave behind it as far from over. While she’s sitting in the county jail, it’ll be pretty obvious she wasn’t responsible for any of it. Not that that matters, because her fate seems to heavily rest in Xavier‘s hands.
“I’m sorry things have gotten so messy,” I say. “Really, I am. I don’t know how anything should have gone, it seems we were thrust into this mess from the day we were born. Right now, I really need you to just suck it up, Leo, because I think I hear something.”
He stops, tightening his grip on his dagger and pats my shoulder with his free hand. “I’m sorry, too,” he says and gives me a curt nod, letting me know there’s more to be said in this conversation, but we’re going to have to table it for now. Moving silently along the creek, we can smell the necromancer before we see him. Two bodies lay half in the water, half on land, eyes open, void of any life.
The necromancer sits several feet away, hands out in front of him over a small altar. He doesn’t look anything like I expected. Instead of some movie villain in a brown robe, he’s just a man and maybe in his late forties, dressed in clothes more suited for an office job than raising the dead. His eyes are black as he stares straight ahead, chanting.
“He’s possessed,” I whisper to Leo. “And I think he’s still alive.” Leo gives me another nod, this time letting me know we agree on our unspoken plan to capture the necromancer instead of killing him. The man the demon is possessing has no idea what’s going on and is innocent.
Then it hits me. That’s what the demon was doing when it was jumping from body to body. There are people who walk around every day with no idea they come from magical lineage. People like that might consider themselves lucky, or very intuitive because they seem to know when certain things are going to happen. They’re the social media witches, mixing potions that just kinda work well enough to make them believe in themselves but not outright or obvious enough for the public to fear them as a real witch or warlock.
Before we have time to come up with a plan, the necromancer jerks his head in our direction. The bodies half lying in the creek spring up. If they hadn’t been faced down in water for God knows how long I would think they would still be viable and we could possibly save them. They come at us with jerky, unnatural movements, mouths open, and eyes grayed-over yet bloodshot.
“I’ll handle them, you handle him,” Leo tells me. I throw my right hand out in front of me, sending a wave of energy at the necromancer. It hits him yet he hardly moves. He keeps chanting.
Dammit, he has some sort of protection around him. I move closer and try again. This time he’s pushed back and he desperately reaches forward, trying to protect whatever is in front of him.
I don’t need to destroy him… I need to destroy the altar. It won’t vanquish him, but we won’t have to deal with the demonic zombies anymore.
Florence.
I freeze, hearing Vaelrik’s voice in the back of my mind.
“What do you want?” I say out loud. “I’m here. I’m doing exactly what you asked of me!”
The necromancer scrambles forward, protectively wrapping his arms around the altar. He starts chanting, faster and faster, and I look behind me, checking on Leo. He takes out one zombie only for the other to pop back up, like the weirdest game of undead Whack-a-mole.
One of the zombies grabs Leo on the waist and I don’t think twice before I spring over to help him. I shove this one back with a wave of energy and it falls, nearly taking Leo with him. Back on his feet in no time, Leo whirls around, brandishing his knife through the air. He stabs it in the zombie’s face and when he pulls the blade out, the eyeball comes with it.