The skin-walker leaped up and shot out the door, its lips moving fast, but I didn't hear a thing.
“No!” I chased after it.
The door slammed behind it, right into my face, and then it simply vanished. The door was gone, and all that stood in my way of revenge was a thick, immovable bookshelf like the rest of the walls. A monstrous sound clawed up from my throat as I pounded against it. Tore books from the shelves. Scratched my nails so hard into the wood that splinters stabbed underneath. Like a caged animal, I whirled around and looked for another way out. The missing door was it, though, and the skin-walker was out there pretending to be me.
A skeletal arm pitched to the ground from the second floor. The crunching sounds continued. Echo and I needed to get out of here in case we found ourselves on the menu, but neither of us were going anywhere. My spell had been fueled by my powerful anger at the skin-walker. Echo could bleed to death if I didn’t reverse the spell and heal her.
I hurried over to Mrs. Tentorville’s desk, found a quill and ink, and wrote SOS on the back of one of the job ads. Then I called down two ravens at once.
"You, take this to Mrs. Tentorville," I said, putting the rolled parchment in its beak. If anyone knew of another way into the library, she would. "And you, where are the books that tell how to reverse a petrification spell?"
Yep, I didn't actually know. Echo was going to punch me in the face so much.
The first raven flew to where the door had been and vanished. The second flew to the second story right where the skeletal leg had dropped from. Because of course that was where the book I needed would be. I didn't know how long it would take for Mrs. Tentorville to get here, especially since Quiet had moved again. She could be helping with the pond, but I couldn't just leave Echo there petrified and bleeding all over the place, even if I could leave.
I crossed toward the winding steps in the center and started up as silently as I could. The raven sat on the banister waiting with its wing pointed at the shelf. In front of it, two large antlers speared into the air from a head I couldn't yet see. I rounded closer, tamping down my rage at the skin-walker so I could see straight. Then there she was, the old naked woman in a squat and chowing down on a bony foot protruding from behind the bookshelves. There were dead bodies there too?
Her jaw had unhinged again, that in itself too gruesome to watch. The air pulsed in waves around her, shot through with little rainbows, and I had no idea what that meant. What any of this meant. Who was she?
I inched closer, keeping my eye on the raven on the other side of her. Maybe she wouldn’t notice me. I clung to the wooden railing, my steps as light as I could make them, my breaths suspended in my lungs.
Just two feet away from her, three from the raven.
I moved slowly since I had no idea what she'd do if she saw me, and I didn't want to find out. The raven fluttered its wings, seeming impatient with me as it glared with one black eye. The noise caught the woman's attention, and she whirled around with her terrible wail. Faster than a blink, she had the raven gripped between her fists and snapped its head off with her teeth.
I stared in horror, my flesh slinking up my bones. My mind screamed at me to run, but I couldn't. No one was coming to help me or Echo fast enough. I needed that book.
Blood dripped off the woman's chin and soaked the ends of her stringy white hair hanging in her face. The skeletal foot lay forgotten in her lap, half chewed off.
If only I knew a summoning spell, I could get the book that way, but I'd wasted enough time. Echo needed my help.
Forcing myself onward inch by slow inch, my gaze ticked past the woman to the shelf beyond and the titles on the worn spines. The snap-snap of bird bones splashed bile onto my tongue, but I tried to ignore it as I swept my gaze over more titles.
Enhancing your Spells’ Reversals through Positive Thinking. Was that the one? Gods, I hoped so. It was in the general vicinity to where the raven’s wing had pointed. I stepped closer to the book, my blood crashing through my veins. My muscles tensed for even a hint of movement from the woman. I was in her line of sight now while she tore through the bloody stump of the bird.
I touched my finger to the top of the book. Slid it from its space. Would she attack? I had the book fully in my hand when another smaller book that had been next to it slipped out and tumbled to the ground with a thwack.
No!
Her head snapped up, and she snarled, her teeth as red as her glowing eyes. She lunged for my face.
"Obrigesunt." The sparking dark gray ball burst from my palm and glanced off the shimmery waves around her, knocking her back a few feet.
Then the petrify spell rebounded straight for my head. My heart flipped over. I ducked just in time and then swiped up with my dagger as she charged again. Blood welled at her wrist where I’d sliced her, and she jerked away, her wild momentum nearly plunging her over the banister. While she fought for balance, I took the book and sprinted for the stairs, flipping through the pages at rapid speed.
No index. Nothing to give me any hint of where a counter-spell might be.
The madwoman shrieked.
Goose bumps plunged down the back of my neck. I leaped down the final steps and sprinted toward Echo.
"Petrify...petrify," I said through gritted teeth, flipping the pages faster and faster. There. I lifted my hand. "In lapidem e coverso."
A gray aura formed around Echo's body and held there. Had I put enough positive thinking into the spell’s reversal like the book’s title had suggested?
I glanced behind me, my stomach clenched. The naked woman wasn’t there...yet.
Gradually, the gray light coalesced into a floating ball above Echo. Then it drifted apart and vanished. Except for all the blood and the cracks in her skin, Echo looked back to normal.
Allowing myself a sliver of relief, I shot another look behind me. We were still alone.
I dropped to my knees beside Echo. “Bind thee in health, Protect mind and soul too, Boost vigor and happiness, Make it all renew.”
My gray healing magic settled over her body like a web and sealed the cracks. With the hem of my cloak, I wiped the blood from her the best I could. “Echo?”
She snapped her eyes open and swung her fist at me.
I threw myself out of the way. "No, wait. It's me, I swear."
She sat up, and the cold look in her eyes hinted she wasn't done throwing punches. "You petrified me."
"I know. I'm sorry. I was aiming at the skin-walker. We need to find a way out of here."
A key zipped into an unseen lock, and the library door appeared again when it swung open. Mrs. Tentorville stood on the other side, her mouth twisted in fury. "What in seven hells happened to the door? What— Is that blood on the floor?"
"No time to explain.” I took Echo's elbow and hauled her out of there. Over my shoulder, I said, “There's an old naked woman on the second floor!"
"What? She's not supposed to be there," Mrs. Tentorville grumbled.
Then where were the naked old women with antlers supposed to be? I shook my head as we raced down the hall.
"That thing... It looked just like you," Echo hissed. "But it might not be you any longer."
"I know," I said, but that wouldn't keep me from looking. I'd been so close to the skin-walker and could kick myself for letting it slip away.
The hallway was crowded with students switching classes. I crushed my teeth together as we fought our way through them, my gaze bouncing from face to face as we did.
Ramsey's head bobbed closer over the swarm, and when he saw me, a strange mix of relief and menace clouded his stormy eyes.
My steps stuttered, and I stopped, angling myself in front of Echo. Something had happened for him to look at me that way. Unless that wasn't really him.
He stopped, too, a few feet away in the middle of the hall, regarding me coolly before he finally spoke. "Mind telling me what that was about?"
"What?"
He pointed down at the hem of his c
loak, which was dripping wet, and then crossed his arms. "You nearly pushed me into Quiet just now in the gym."
My jaw dropped. "I would never do that to you." How could he even think that?
As if sensing I was about to blow, Echo ushered us to the right and into an empty classroom where she shut the door behind us.
"Look.” Echo elbowed herself in front of me to stare down Ramsey. “We just had a run-in ourselves with"—she lowered her voice—"someone who looks like Dawn."
"But...” Ramsey shook his head. “You smiled at me when you walked up to me, and it was you. I know it was because I know your—"
“My face, I know.” I shook my head while a long shudder chased down my back. Gods, this was unnerving. "It must be watching us, studying us to get better to trick us.”
Echo flicked her blue gaze between us. “Now that you’re awake, Dawn, maybe it’s trying to pit you two against each other. Make Ramsey think he can’t trust you.”
“But why?” I sighed. “Because I'm helping you find the Staff of Sullivan? Maybe it doesn't want you to find it. Maybe it knows I already gave you a hand for shadow-walking."
"You gave me a..." Ramsey stared at me like what I’d said was too unbelievable. "Dawn, what hand?"
Chapter Five
I SLAPPED MY HANDS over my ears as if that would block out what Ramsey had just said. I’d given him a hand. It was him I’d given it to. Wasn’t it? "Sonofabitch."
"Oh, great," Echo said, her voice muffled. "I suppose that means I have to dig you up another body?"
I dropped my hands and curled them into fists. "No, that means the skin-walker can now shadow-walk, too, because I literally gave it a dead man’s hand."
"Not necessarily,” Ramsey said, touching my shoulder. “If the skin-walker wanted to shadow-walk, it could've easily gotten its own dead murderer's hand at any time. It's not your fault."
"I should've known." I looked up at him, my heart shredding open a little wider. "Just like you should've known that wasn't me who tried to push you into Quiet."
"I know." He heaved a breath as he raked his fingers through his hair. "We need a better way to detect each other, something that will instantly tell us who we can trust so we don’t divulge all our secrets to the wrong person."
"A blood bonding," Echo said, her gaze far away. "Black magic, but harmless. Relatively, anyway. I didn't know about it until Craig brought it up one day, but... Couples sometimes use it when one travels and the other stays home worrying. The blood bonding told them when the other was in danger, what they were feeling, or when they were near."
"That sounds..." Intimate. My cheeks warmed as I glanced at Ramsey who flashed his dimpled grin. "Permanent."
He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "That's not what you were going to say."
Damn my face.
"It's not just used for couples, but also close friends and can be reversed at any time." Echo shrugged. "Takes like five minutes."
"Wait, close friends too? So...does that mean—"
"Yes." Echo's clear blue eyes connected with mine, clear of any doubts. "I told you already I'm committed to the cause. Plus, I like to know exactly who I'm punching."
A strange mix of emotions brewed in my chest. Pressure, for one. I wasn't so sure I deserved Echo's trust or belief that I could actually do something to fight Ryze. But also...pressure, the warm, tingly kind that ballooned around my heart. It was an unexpected perk of coming to Necromancer Academy, this whole having friends thing, and I loved it.
I nodded, smiling, the first one I'd managed all day. "Okay. And Jon, too, if he wants to."
"We should do this now," Ramsey said, his gaze never wavering from me. "No more doubts about intentions. Ever."
Echo headed to the door. "Jon should be in Symbology class by now. I'll go grab him before it starts since it sounds like we're ditching."
She closed the door behind her, leaving Ramsey and me alone with the weight of what we were about to do. We'd be blood bound, like a couple. It was weird, but so was everything about...us. I'd taken his hand when I woke up from mage's oblivion, and a part of me still hadn't let go. I depended on him. I could lean on him. I'd tried to kill him.
And yet he protected me fiercely regardless.
He stepped closer, all fluid grace, the torchlight on the walls warming his smile and everything about him. "You got me a dead murderer’s hand."
"Technically, I got the skin-walker a hand."
"Still," he said, tracing his finger under my chin. "It's the thought that counts. Thank you."
I flicked my eyes up to his so he could see I wasn't lying when I said, "I wouldn't push you into a pond."
"It's not exactly your style, is it?" He shook his head and traced his fingertips up my jaw, his touch like tingling magic on my skin.
"No. I would do the murdering myself, not have Quiet do it for me. You know this."
"You're right. Seems so obvious now, but all I saw right before was your smile, and it must've done weird things to my head." Slowly, as if waiting for me to protest, he wrapped me up in his arms. "I'm sorry I accused you."
With my cheek pressed against the rapid thud of his heart, I melted into him and twined my hands around his waist. "You're forgiven," I whispered.
He sighed into my hair. "That's damn good to hear."
We stayed locked together, no more words needed for right now, and there wasn't anything uncomfortable about our silence. We were existing, together, and I liked it. Even preferred it over trying to kill him.
Then Echo and Jon barged in.
"Ohhhh," Echo said, her eyebrows climbing up her forehead. "Are we not doing this now?"
"We're doing this now." I stepped away, feeling Ramsey's fingers curl tighter into my back before releasing me. My pulse skipped at that and then again at the intensity of his stare, softened only by his crooked smile, all of which only lasted a second before he shifted his attention toward the door. I tore my gaze away from him and waved awkwardly at Jon. "Hey. Echo told you what we're doing?"
"Yeah, but...what about Seph?"
I gritted my teeth at the raw pain just hearing her name triggered. "No. Not without her consent."
He nodded sharply. "Then what do we do?"
"Sit in a circle on the floor.” Echo started shoving the classroom’s tables out of our way. “Dawn, we'll need your dagger."
"Wait,” I said. “Echo, you left and came back, and Jon... Before we do this, we have to make absolutely sure we are who we say we are."
"Ravens." Ramsey stalked toward the door, and when he opened it, he brought his fingers to his lips and whistled. Feathers rustled, then a raven came soaring into the classroom and landed on a nearby table.
Memories of bird bones cracking and a decapitated bird rushed through my head in vivid detail, but I shook them away. Hopefully Mrs. Tentorville had that woman—whoever she was—under control since she seemed to know more about her than I did. I’d make sure right after we were done here.
In the professor's desk, Ramsey found a roll of parchment and gave it to the raven. "Deliver this to Echo."
The raven circled the room once and landed at Echo's feet.
"Deliver that to Jon," she told it.
It did, and just to be on the safe side, Jon asked it to deliver it to Ramsey and then me. By the time it was done, it cocked its head and squawked as if to say, "Enough!" Then it flew toward the closed door and vanished through it.
"Guess that means it doesn’t want anything to do with our silly human games," I said.
"Is that good, or do we need to tell our whole life stories too?" Echo took a seat on the floor, and we joined her.
"I don't have any brothers or sisters," Jon blurted, looking to the three of us. "My parents are average mages who own an inn in Pyr, and I've always been average too. Until I came here. I'm actually good at this death stuff."
"And osteomancy," I said with a smile. "And all things Seph-related."
He blushed and looked away, his heartach
e painfully clear.
Echo shrugged. "Five brothers. They taught me to fight and to never show fear. I think that's what got Craig's attention, that I wasn't just some regular girl."
"It was," Ramsey said softly.
Echo inhaled a shuddery breath and nodded.
"I miss my friends," Ramsey admitted. "A lot. I miss my family too. I write to them every day to check in, and it kills me when I write the part that I haven't found the Staff of Sullivan yet."
My throat pulled at the torture in his voice, at the raw expression on his face as he'd bared his soul. That was too much for one person to handle, all alone with no close friends and a family to save. I reached out and took his hand, and he squeezed it hard, his focus on the center of our circle.
"I will make Ryze pay for hurting all of us,” I vowed. “I'll stop him and everyone who's helping him, no matter what I have to do, and I won't quit until he's dead even if it kills me. That's a promise."
Echo smiled at me from across the circle. "We know. That's why we're here."
"That's part of why I'm here." Ramsey looked up at me then, some of the pain in his eyes gone and the corners of his lips relaxed. "I think you know the other reason I'm here."
My heart thrummed, and the ferocity of its beat stole my breath. My stomach did this weird spin and flip, and somehow it made me think I could fly. I knew. Gods, I didn't understand it or him or anything about this feeling, but I knew the other reason he was here. It was me. Me and all my faults and mistakes, and yet he was still here.
"Do we need to leave again or...?" Echo gruffly asked, but there was a teasing note behind it.
"No,” I said. “Are we satisfied we are who we say we are?"
Jon nodded. "Let's do it."
Echo held out her hand. "Dawn? Your dagger?"
I retrieved it from my boot and held it out to her, hilt first. She took it and sliced each of her palms without pause. We all did the same with quite a bit more hisses and flinches.
Necromancer Revealed: Book 3 Page 5