by Sarina Dorie
So many things were wrong with me. I didn’t know where to begin. “I’m worried about Balthasar.” And Thatch. And Gertrude Periwinkle. I hadn’t even asked Khaba about her and whether they had taken her into custody as some kind of accomplice. She wasn’t at the meeting.
“What did that barf breath do this time?” Hailey asked.
“Don’t call him that. It isn’t very nice,” I said.
Hailey made a face. “What’s wrong with barf breath? It’s way nicer than what we usually call each other when teachers aren’t around.”
“Call him Balthasar. Especially today.”
A chuckle came from behind me. “That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”
I whirled to find Balthasar grinning. “I was only fifteen minutes late today. A record. You should give me candy as a reward.”
From his cheerful demeanor I took it he didn’t know.
“Did the principal call you into his office today?” I asked.
“Not today. Another record.” He stole a pencil from my desk, not even bothering to be sneaky about it. “Then again, he usually doesn’t need to talk to me until after lunch.” He flashed a mischievous grin. “That’s when I usually get into the most trouble.”
“Especially with your sister giving you detentions!” someone snickered.
“Cami said she’ll pay me five bucks if I go to all my classes this week.” Balthasar grinned. “The joke is on her. She didn’t say I had to be on time. And she didn’t say I had to do anything when I came to my classes.”
My heart grew heavier. “Get started on your homework.”
He feigned regret. “Sorry. I forgot my books. I guess I’ll be sleeping instead.”
“Lame,” Hailey said. “Do you want to graduate? Share with Maya. If you don’t, I’m telling your sister on you.”
Balthasar wandered over to an empty seat that wasn’t his and plopped into the chair.
I beckoned Hailey to follow me outside. I closed the door. “Does Balthasar have any family besides his sister?”
“No. Why?”
“If someone had bad news, who would we tell?”
“I don’t know. What did he do this time?”
“Nothing.” I tried to think of some way to get the information I needed without starting rumors. “Are there any teachers Balthasar likes? Is there anyone he respects who might be able to, I don’t know, comfort him if he needed it?”
“I don’t know. He comes to Art Club, so he probably doesn’t hate you.” Hailey’s face scrunched up. “Is this about graduation? He already knows he doesn’t have enough credits, and he can’t be a third-year senior.”
I didn’t know if I should tell her. She was his friend. Sort of. She might be able to break the news better than I could. Or maybe I should tell him in private and make sure she was there.
It was the kind of task that should have fallen on the school guidance counselor, but Puck obviously hadn’t done so yet. The principal hadn’t thought about it either. Not that I trusted Chuck Dean to have the compassion and tact required of something like this anyway.
“Why don’t you just ask Cami this stuff? She’d know better than I would.” Hailey eyed me, a smirk on her face. “Did you not know about Cami? That new security guard is his sister.”
“I know,” I said.
“Then why don’t you just ask her to—” Realization dawned across her face. “No way. Did something happen to Cami?”
“Will you help me break the news to him? No one has told him yet. He needs to be in a safe space.”
“Is she dead?” Hailey asked.
“Yes.”
The door burst open. A string of profanities flew from Balthasar’s mouth. Apparently he’d been listening at the door.
“You’re a liar! I hate you! You can suck it!” White frost crystallized over Balthasar’s body. He shot out icy pellets in all directions.
I raised my arms to shield my face as sharp shards bit into my flesh.
Hailey stepped in front of me. “Are you kidding me? Are you really going to have a tantrum and attack a teacher right now?” Hailey’s skin crackled with flames, consuming the ice Balthasar projected like missiles. “Do you think your sister would want you to get kicked out of another school?”
“I don’t care what anyone thinks. This place is stupid.” He punched his fist forward, an avalanche of powdery snow flying out at us.
I lost my balance under the force of the white wonderland and fell over. Hailey screeched. White powder buried me. I fought to dig myself out. Tingling cold needled my skin. Slowly the chill wicked away and was replaced by heat. I sat in a steaming puddle. Steam rose from Hailey. She stood before me, gazing down the stairwell.
Balthasar had left. That had gone about as well as I had expected it would. It looked like I would be filling out another incident report.
Now if I managed to make things worse with the Princess of Lies and Truth or proving Thatch’s innocence, my day of damage would be complete.
Previously I hoped that getting Derrick to admit to his misdeeds would be enough to convince Khaba of Thatch’s good intentions and innocence. Elric had assured me of how futile that tactic would be. Now that there were more dead bodies, I suspected it was unlikely a confession from Derrick was going to work. I didn’t think I could prove the Princess of Lies and Truth was behind Camelia’s murder. I didn’t even know if she had done it.
That meant I needed to resurrect the dead to provide testimony.
All things being considered, I didn’t know if my plan to prove to Khaba that Thatch was innocent was going to end in epic brilliance or epic disaster.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Necromancy 101
An insurmountable number of challenges lay ahead of me. I needed to find the body of Thatch’s supposed victim, break into the crypt or whatever off-limits area the body was being held, speak with the dead without Camelia trying to kill me—which I hoped wouldn’t be the case, but so far the dead I’d resurrected hadn’t handled their deaths very well—and hopefully Khaba would be willing to listen to a resurrected corpse even if I used forbidden magic to do so.
Hopefully I wouldn’t get fired for using forbidden magic either.
There was only one person immoral enough to help me with these tasks. There would be a price. I needed all my wits to outthink her.
I was hardly able to make it through the day as I worried about Thatch and Gertrude. I found Vega in her classroom after school. I considered asking her right then if she would help me, but there were students working on assignments. She looked up from correcting papers.
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Nothing.” I ducked out of the room. I would have to wait until she was alone.
Josie and Pinky gossiped excitedly about Thatch and Periwinkle’s guilt during dinner. Pinky looked uncomfortable in the button-up shirt that didn’t quite fit his large frame and a pair of sandals that were too small for him. Their conversation made me feel even worse about what might happen to Thatch.
I didn’t want his reputation to be slandered again when he was innocent of any crimes. I knew he hadn’t killed Rudy. He had no reason to kill Camelia. He had thought highly of her as a student. And if he had killed her, she would have had to be possessed.
After dinner I found Vega in our room, sitting at the desk, writing. She turned to watch me.
“Are you looking at me like that because you’re keeping an eye on me for Elric or for someone else?” I asked.
“For myself.” She frowned. “And anyone else willing to pay me enough that I can’t say no.”
I didn’t think Vega was compelled to accept bargains like the Fae, but she wouldn’t have admitted if she was.
“It sounds like it’s in your best interest to keep tabs on me, then,” I said. “You need to follow me and know where I go. Elric will probably appreciate it if you make sure I don’t get into trouble.”
“If you�
�re going to try to break Thatch out of prison, I suggest you don’t bother. He’s going to be locked underground in a highly guarded institution. Because they think he’s a Celestor, he’ll be underground, far from the sky. They’ll probably keep him in an iron cage because cold iron weakens most Fae and Witchkin. I am not helping you break him out.”
“I didn’t say I was breaking him out.”
“See that wardrobe over there?” She pointed to mine. “If I even suspect that’s what you’re up to, I’ll lock you in there and tell Khaba on you.”
“I already told you, I wasn’t going to break him out. I know that would be a stupid idea.” Not that I thought my current idea was that much smarter. “I want to prove his innocence by waking the dead. I’ll even let you come with me.”
“I don’t want to come with you. Your paltry parlor trick isn’t true necromancy. They don’t stay alive.”
“No, but they come back for long enough. They can attend to unfinished business if they have any.”
“I have unfinished business with the dead. It’s your fault I can’t talk to Dox. You should have left me dead so I could have stayed with him.” She lifted up her nose at me.
“I suspect you’re just saying that because you don’t want to owe me any favors.” I needed to convince her she wanted to help me. “Don’t you like being with Elric? You seem to enjoy immaculate orgasms and dancing with him.”
She shrugged.
“Camelia Llewelyn needs to tell Khaba that Thatch didn’t kill her.”
“What if she didn’t see anything?” she asked. “Probably she’s going to say she couldn’t see who killed her. That isn’t going to help you.”
I tried to understand what Vega wasn’t saying. “Like an invisible man?”
She bit her lip. She didn’t answer. I suspected she meant the Princess of Truth or Lies had killed Camelia.
“So she might be able to confirm she didn’t see Thatch and Thatch didn’t kill her, but she won’t be able to say who?”
Vega picked up a magazine and feigned interest. “As interesting as it might be to see you resurrect the dead, I’m not helping you. If Thatch gets fired, I get his job.”
She was reading the magazine upside down. I took that as interest, even if she couldn’t show it. I grabbed the magazine from her. “What do you really want?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Her perfectly shaped brows lifted. “I have no vested interest.”
“Camelia won’t be able to convince Khaba. Are you saying I need someone who is more convincing? Someone whose word Khaba would believe without a doubt.”
“Pretty much, which means you’re screwed. No one can—”
“Brogan would be able to convince him.”
Vega’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“Khaba’s lover. It wasn’t public knowledge he was in a relationship. They’d been together for years, but Brogan lived in Lachlan Falls.”
Vega’s eyes went wide and she nodded. “He had red hair and wore a kilt? I saw them walking together. He’s . . . cute.”
“He was,” I said. “He’s dead. Khaba thinks Thatch killed Brogan, but he didn’t.”
“How do you know he didn’t?”
I couldn’t meet her eyes. “My ex-boyfriend did. Derrick.”
“Huh. This makes sense why Khaba hates Thatch so much.”
“Right! So if Brogan himself tells Khaba who murdered him, Khaba will be less suspicious of Thatch for every other murder that has happened on school grounds. It will lend validity to what anyone else says.”
“Just one minor problem.” Vega smirked. “Khaba is Fae. Fae play by the rules. If you are resurrecting people, you are breaking rules. Need I say more?”
I noticed the way her eyes crinkled up. “You’re concerned I might lose my job.”
“I’m not concerned. I would love it if you lost your job and were sent away so I could have a room to myself.” She sighed. “But Elric wouldn’t be pleased.”
“I don’t see what other choice I have. They are going to kill Thatch and Periwinkle, right? But they’re innocent. I have to prove it.”
She frowned. “Why do you have to care about other people so much? Your life would be so much simpler if you weren’t so nice.”
“So, are you going to help me?” I asked.
“No.”
“Even though innocent people might die?”
She bit her lip.
I tried to appeal to her romantic side. “Think about how good this will be for Khaba. He’ll get to see Brogan again, and he’ll be able to let go.”
“No. This is going to be traumatic for him, and he’s going to go djinn crazy again. Do you know what it’s like to see someone you love after they’ve been buried for years? Not everyone was preserved as well as Dox Woodruff in the school crypt. Brogan’s flesh will be falling off.”
“Fortunately, you know a spell to heal a corpse’s flesh.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Don’t lie. I saw you heal Galswintha the Wise. I know you can do it. Plus, you owe me a favor for resurrecting you.”
She said nothing.
“Haven’t you ever had someone you had unfinished business with?” I knew this might dig into her wound with Dox. “Wouldn’t you want to be able to say goodbye to him?”
“Her.”
Her? That was unexpected. Maybe her mother had died or someone else I didn’t know about. That shard in her heart might not have been from a past life as I’d suspected.
“You owe me a debt for saving your life,” I said.
“I have granted your favors. I haven’t said anything about your relationship with Felix Thatch that would get you in trouble.”
“You haven’t come through on my last wish. You said you were going to help me make it safe to have sex with Thatch. You haven’t. You still owe me.”
“Very well.” Her eyes narrowed. “I will do this as a favor to you. But I want to get something out of it.”
“Okay.” That wasn’t exactly how paying off a debt worked, but I was also dealing with Vega.
“I want to be there the entire time. I will observe. You will tell me exactly what you’re doing and how you do it. Describe what’s happening with your affinity and teach me how to use my affinity.”
“I’ll try. I’m not sure how I do it.”
“Not ‘try.’ You will show me.”
“Okay.” I used my Yoda voice. “Do or do not, there is no try.”
From her scowl, I could tell the joke went over her head. For better or for worse, I had convinced Vega to help me.
We dressed warmly with gloves, mittens, and hats to complement our winter coats. I was surprised Vega didn’t insist on wearing one of her sparkly shawls or high heels. For once she was practical. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first grave she’d robbed.
Vega used dowsing to determine where Brogan’s body was buried in Lachlan Falls. She snuck us off school grounds with invisibility wards so we wouldn’t be spotted and then used a Celestor transportation spell to take us directly to Brogan’s grave. She acquired two shovels by magic.
Most things I wanted to do were solved easily with magic.
“What are the shovels for?” I asked. “Can’t you just exhume the grave with an Elementia-earth spell?”
She handed me a shovel. “This is consecrated ground. They ward it against ghouls and other dark creatures of the night so they can’t use magic to get to the bodies. It doesn’t keep all creatures out of the graveyard itself, but it keeps them out of the graves.” She nodded to a cluster of shadowy headstones.
I squinted but didn’t see anything right away. After a few seconds I noticed the two smoldering eyes watching us. I shivered, and it wasn’t just from the cold.
Vega lifted her chin, staring imperiously into the darkness. “What are you looking at, death breath?”
She raised her wand, sending out a bright light that illuminated the graveyard. A
pale spindly creature that could have passed for Golem in Lord of the Rings cowered from the light. Stringy black hair hung in the creature’s ashen face. Dirt caked its hands and stuck in clumps to its body.
I shrank behind Vega. “What is that?”
“Just a ghoul. Nothing to be afraid of. They like to eat the dead. You’re safe.” She stabbed the shovel into the earth and stepped on it. “Unless you die. Then they’ll eat you.”
That made me feel slightly better. “So ghouls don’t kill people?”
“That’s like asking if people don’t kill people. Some do. Obviously that’s why we’re here.”
The earth was hard with the cold. I fought with the ground to sink my shovel in deeper.
Vega scooped a pile of dirt to the side. “If a ghoul is really hungry, he or she might kill you and bury you to save you as a snack for later.” She smiled at my discomfort.
We mostly dug in silence, our only light that of Vega’s wand, which she had stuck in a mound of earth.
My drill sergeant occasionally made helpful comments like, “You’re weak and lazy. If you want this dead body, work harder to keep up.”
As I worked, I grew warmer and removed my hat and scarf. My hands blistered even with the gloves. They were the wrong kind of gloves for digging, but they were all I had. I used my ability to numb my pain to ignore the sting on my palms.
I tried to remedy my blisters using the magic Thatch had taught me during the summer to heal my burns, but I hadn’t used my affinity that way for a while, and I couldn’t remember how. Using my affinity stole my attention away from digging.
Vega nudged me. “Work faster.”
She shoveled three times faster than me, either because she had given herself an enchanted shovel, or she was an Amazon woman. We dug for hours. The coffin wasn’t actually six feet deep. It was closer to four. Standing on top of the wooden box, I could see above the ground.
Vega swept dirt away from the surface of the wood. “Here comes the fun part, it’s like opening a Christmas present.”
For her maybe. I was already feeling nervous.