I moved the desk back into place and looked around the room again. There had to be more here. More clues as to what the heck Vickie was talking about. I hefted the bed out from the wall and discovered something else—written down the side of the wooden support beam were a series of numbers. All of them in lemon juice and all of them crossed out except 1212, the last one. Not particularly helpful, so I kept searching, but that was it.
1212. What did that mean?
A sound came from behind the desk. A sound that froze the blood in my veins and shriveled my flesh to my bones. The bell that came from the graveyard. The bell that indicated a reliving person was near.
It was ringing.
A deep tremble chased from my neck down to my toes. I stopped breathing. My heart thundered so wildly it nearly drowned out the sound of the bell.
And the sound coming from the hallway—an unsteady thud-thud, thud.
Vickie. Or Marjorie Effman from the graveyard. Someone was out there. Someone dead.
I turned toward the door, my body shaking the light in my palm. The school was now magic-less and defenseless. Anyone, dead or alive, could potentially walk right on in. But the dead were harder to deal with. They were murderous, insane, and couldn't be controlled unless your name happened to be Ryze.
Thud. Thud-thud.
My thoughts scrambled as my knees crashed together harder.
The lever on the door began to move.
Instinct took over. The urgent need to flee. I squeezed my fist to put my light out and then threw myself under the bed.
The door swung open on silent hinges revealing nothing but darkness and the smell of rotten death. The bell continued, even louder now.
A single thud entered the room.
I held my breath, my fingernails scraping the stone floor as my body coiled tight. If it—she—came in farther, I would run. I still had my magic. I could quickly draw a protection spell to keep her inside and then go tell someone.
Another thud. My heart hammered against the floor and ricocheted a full-body tremor through me. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly, hardening my will, and then shot out from underneath the bed.
I didn't want to see. I did not want to see what I was sprinting toward, so I ran blind in the darkness. My leg brushed against something, but the smell of rot choked my scream. I crashed into the doorframe and then swung myself out of it into the hallway, fumbling my hands over the door to slam it closed. Then I drew the circle and symbols within it for protection, and with my pulse thrashing between my ears, I turned to flee.
And crashed right into a body, lit a sickly orange from a lantern.
I yelped and scrambled away, nearly tripping over the hem of my cloak in my rush. Only then did I realize who it was and that he was speaking over the roar of my blood.
"What happened? What's in there?" Ramsey reached toward me as if to calm a wild animal trapped in a cage. Then his eyes went wider than they already were. "Why do I hear ringing?"
"It's... It's..." I couldn't squeeze the words out, so I just nodded. Yes, it was exactly what he thought it was.
I took several deep breaths so I could speak again, but they snagged in my lungs at the sound coming from behind the door. Slow scratching down the length of it. Each one sent a chill along my spine.
Ramsey reached for the handle, but I grabbed his hand before he could open it.
"What are you doing?" I hissed.
"I just want to know what we're dealing with."
"That's not a good enough reason." I pulled on his hand even harder.
"If we know what it is," he said softly, "then we'll know what spell is needed to send it back to the grave."
"You mean me. I'll have to send it back since I still have my magic."
"I mean you or another mage who happened to be outside like the Diabolicals.” Gently, he released his hand from my iron grip. “Just a quick look, okay?"
Reluctantly, I stepped back, snapping my light into my palm. I'd come to Necromancer Academy to kill, not have anything to do with the already dead. But since my plans had been flipped, maybe it was time to act like a real necromancer. It didn’t mean I was excited about it though.
He opened the door a crack, and we both shined our lights through it. On the other side stood a dog, medium-sized and black with a lot of gray and white around its ears and chin. It looked old, not dead, but the stink rolling off of it said otherwise. Around its neck hung a red collar decorated with beads and charms, and the shiny metal part was etched with the name Max. Vickie's dog. She'd brought her dog back to life.
When it bared its teeth and bristled its fur along the spine, Ramsey quickly shut the door again, his face drained of color. "Well. That explains the bell we heard outside too."
"How did anyone not know?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"His collar had charms all over it. She probably used magic to keep him and his smell hidden, and the dampener undid it." He gestured down the hallway with his lantern, and we started down it.
"But how did he get inside without anyone noticing?"
"There's a laundry chute in the junior girl's bathroom that leads outside. It's cramped, but for a dog, it would be no problem if they were trained. I imagine he was so he could go outside and take a piss whenever he needed, when he was alive anyway.”
My mind jumped to Nebbles. Surely Seph had some kind of system in place for her bathroom needs. But my mind skipped past that for now, and how Ramsey knew about the laundry chute in the junior girls' bathroom.
“When he died,” Ramsey continued, “she must've used a lot of magic to bring him back and keep it a secret. Since she died, he's probably been wandering around looking for her."
My chest squeezed for the dog, and strangely, for Vickie too. She obviously loved her familiar. "That's so sad."
He nodded. “I always saw her with him before he died at the end of the last school year. They were inseparable.”
So Vickie was capable of being good. I wished I’d gotten a chance to know that when she was alive so I could’ve...I don’t know. Not be dangled off the stairs by her? It sounded like she’d just needed someone to talk to—and might’ve been murdered to prevent that from happening.
"There were all sorts of things written in lemon juice in there,” I said. “A huge symbol in the middle of the floor and a message on the wall that said ME KEEPS COMING. TELL MY PARENTS I, and that's it."
"ME. As in the skin-walker in her skin?"
"Maybe. Or initials." I blinked at him, and when he didn't seem to get it, I helped him out. "Marjorie Effman."
He cut his gaze to me as he opened the door to the stairs. "She's dead."
“We’re at Necromancer Academy.” I shrugged. "We thought the dog was dead too. Sometimes things appear one way, and they're completely opposite."
"Spoken like someone who has plenty of experience finding that out," he said with a devious grin. “Guess who hasn't threatened to kill me in the past several minutes?"
Rolling my eyes, I started down the steps. "Don't push your luck."
"Ah, but it's so fun." He was watching my face again, his shoulder bumping mine since he was so close.
I cleared my throat and scooted away on the steps as much as I could. "Can we go back to Vickie? What did she want someone to tell her parents?"
"About the dog maybe. Or that she had the dampener hidden in her diary, if that’s really the case. Or that ME kept coming. Coming to what?"
"Or that she knew where Professor Wadluck is. This is all connected somehow. I just can't see it yet, and I feel like we're running out of time."
Ramsey looked at me sharply. "Why do you say that?"
"Twelve, twelve. Another message in Vickie's room. Does that mean anything to you?"
He shook his head. "Should it?"
"A date? A time, maybe?"
“December twelfth.” He came to a stop, his body tensing and the edges of his face growing sharper, more severe when he dropped the lantern to his side. “That’s to
morrow."
Chapter Ten
When I got back to my room, I found Seph still tied up, but later that night, she began whispering, “Okay. Okay. Okay.”
Like someone was telling her to do something and she was agreeing.
But no one was in our room. I’d flung black salt everywhere to check.
I didn’t sleep at all since my nerves were too frayed, so I got out of bed early the next morning to worry. As soon as Seph blinked her eyes open, I pounced.
“Do you remember anything from last night?” I demanded.
Her eyes grew wide and panicked, and I instantly regretted not easing into it a little smoother.
“No. Why?” She bolted upright out of Nebbles’s cuddle-fest with her face. “What about Ramsey?”
I explained everything and hated the agonized look on her face afterward. Her whispering to herself was probably nothing, I’d told her, but neither of us believed it.
Down in the Gathering Room, Seph and I sat for breakfast underneath an unlit skull chandelier. No torches floated in midair, but some were secured to the mica walls. Right behind the flames, the soot had colored the walls even blacker so the mica no longer glittered. They definitely weren’t lit by magic.
Just then, Headmistress Millington took to the stage. Dark circles hung underneath her eyes, and she looked haggard instead of her usual put-together appearance. Thankfully, the bruise on her face from last night had been healed. She pinched her lips as she cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, which wasn’t necessary. The place was practically empty.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, the magic dampener that was stolen from White Magic Academy has entered our school and been activated,” she began.
A few students scattered around the tables muttered in low voices.
“Several of you have arranged to leave before the snowstorm is supposed to hit later today, and I’m urging the rest of you to do the same. Without magic, we have no academy here. But we aren’t defenseless, and we will find and destroy the dampener in order to give you back what is rightfully yours. With that said, you will see many strangers here, expert mages I’ve called to help seek the dampener and restore some of the school’s magic. If you’d like to stay and help, I won’t stop you, but it would be in your best interest to leave. Now before the storm hits. If you do decide to stay, P.P.E is the only class still in session for the day.” She opened her mouth to say more, but her words seemed to have gotten lost for a moment. “I’m gravely sorry this has happened on my watch.”
She spun around and left the stage in a hurry, whisking away her tears.
My heart broke. I wished there was more I could do. At the very, very least, though, I didn’t blame myself for bringing the dampener inside any longer. But if it wasn’t in Vickie’s diary, then where was it?
“What she didn’t say is written all over everyone’s faces,” Seph murmured as she scanned the room. “Everyone knows about the onyx’s protections being gone. The last stone to be activated.”
“We have to stop that from happening. You should go though.” I took hold of her arm with both my hands as if to drag her out of here myself.
She sighed and shook her head. “Go where? Home is too far away, and there’s only one boat that goes there once a week.”
“Then go to my house. My parents would love you.”
“Go there without you?” she asked and shook her head sadly. “Roommates stick together, or at least the two of us do. You can tie me up with rope again if you want to, but I’m not leaving your side.”
At that, a guy from the sophomore table looked over at us, his interest obviously piqued.
“Oh, turn around,” I snapped and almost threw my bread at him before I remembered that was a carbohydrate sin.
He turned back with a chuckle. Behind him, I didn’t see any sign of Ramsey. He was probably on guard duty. After we’d found the headmistress last night to tell her about Vickie’s dog, we’d made plans to meet in the library later today for more research. Hopefully we wouldn’t see any more signs of Vickie’s dog, Max, even if he was a Very Good Boy. Even so, I wore the bell from the graveyard around my neck.
Jon scooted down the bench toward Seph, and I knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be going anywhere unless his princess did.
“Hey,” he said.
Seph looked up at him and smiled, effectively turning him to mush, zero magic needed. “Hey.”
"So maybe we can help find the dampener. I've gotten quite good at osteomancy."
"Osteomancy?" I asked.
"Bone divination. We covered it in Divination class last— Oh.” He cast me a glance. “I forgot you weren't there."
Since I wasn't Seph, he often forgot about me, which I didn't take personally. "Do you need magic?"
"It doesn't rely on magic so much as your connection with the world of Amaria." He shrugged. "It's more spiritual, I guess. It should work, but it does require a certain balance and a wide-open space. Like the gym?"
"Not the gym." Seph shook her head hard.
Jon's eyebrows shot up. "O...kay."
"Sorry, the gym and I have a history... I just..." She shook her head again so her hoop earrings clinked together.
I touched her elbow lightly for comfort. "How about the library?"
"That should work,” Jon said. “We'll also need another male. Two females, two males." He smiled at Seph. "Almost like a double date."
Real suave, this one. I liked him a lot.
Seph's cheeks turned rosy.
"But we'll need another guy. I suppose I can ask someone on my floor—"
"Oh, that's okay,” I said with a shrug. “I'm meeting Ramsey in the library anyway. He can do it."
Seph slowly turned her head to me and blinked. "What did you say?"
"Ramsey can do it. We're doing research there before we shovel today, which we’re doing after breakfast to beat the snowstorm." Yes, we were to shovel before the snowstorm. That had been Headmistress Millington’s idea so the mages arriving to help had an easier time getting to the academy. We were also supposed to do it again at our normal time during the storm, which was just lovely.
"Oh, are you now," Seph said, enunciating each word melodramatically.
"What?"
"You're spending an awful lot of time with him, Dawn. And now you want to go out on a double date with him?"
"Let's not get crazy here," I said, holding up my hand. "He'll be there anyway and will offer his assistance. That's all."
"Are you sure about him though? Really sure?"
That was a loaded question. In one sense, I would never forget his face while he stood across from me with Leo's blood seeping toward both of us. In another sense...the more I got to know him, the more he didn't seem like a killer. Or a liar. Or anything other than someone who'd given me my knife back after I'd tried to kill him with it because he knew how much it meant to me.
"He'll be there," I said, because that was the only thing I knew for sure.
After breakfast, when the headmistress held the door open for Ramsey and me, and the wind and blowing snow lashed against my face, I leaned in close so Ramsey could hear.
"Go fast today. We've got a little bit more to do than research in the library."
"Like what?"
"Jon's going to do some bone divination. He doesn't need magic, but he needs us. And he needs Seph, too, a lot more than he needs us. Will you do it?"
"Yeah, okay.” His flinty eyes narrowed as he studied my face. “No magic equals no dolls with my hair and pins poking out of them, thank gods."
"That hurt, huh?" I grinned, maybe a little too triumphantly.
"Like she was trying to rip my spine out so she could wear it."
"Sorry."
"No, you’re not, but it's okay." He casually brushed my fingertips and squeezed them in his before starting up the path. "Stay warm."
Why had he done that? Just as an excuse to touch me? It hadn't seemed like he'd really thought about it, like it w
as automatic. How was it so easy for him to forgive both Seph and me? If I were in his shoes, I couldn't do that. I held grudges for years though. Or at least I thought I did.
The snow had piled up nearly to my knees since yesterday. It was lightly snowing now, but the air felt heavy and the wind snapped angrily like we were about to get dumped on. Working quickly so we could get finished early broke me out in a sweat despite my numb nose and cheeks. By the time I finished, I was panting.
"Damn," Ramsey said behind me. He stood next to his shovel, somehow not out of breath, while I sucked in enough air to fill five hundred balloons. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the arm of his cloak. "You really want to get to the library."
"Always," I said between gasps. "Let's go."
But the magic of the library had taken a dark turn when the two of us stepped inside. I should've known it would with the dampener's power in the school, but I'd had no idea it would look like a nightmare hellscape. A library without magic was a terrifying place. The live trees that made up the tables and chairs in the middle were all dead and black. The circular shelves that towered four stories high twisted in on themselves so that some books appeared to be shelved upside down on top of others and crammed in too tight. Some had already spilled to the floor. The spiral staircase that wound up to the top leaned to one side at a dangerous angle. There weren't any sparkling leaves that fell from above and softened our footsteps, but there were plenty of raven droppings.
"This is horrible," I said.
"Yeah,” Ramsey sighed. “I saw Mrs. Tentorville crying earlier because there’s nothing she can do."
The door opened behind us, and there stood Seph in the light from a wall torch with a little yellow flower behind her ear. Jon held the door wide for her like a gentleman and a large cloth bag slung over one shoulder.
He waved her through. "After you."
"Thanks." With a shy smile, she stepped inside and hurried toward me, a strange mix of relief and panic on her face. "He really thinks this is a date. He gave me this flower and even got me chocolates."
Necromancer Unleashed: Book 2 Page 9