Was I sleep-walking? No, because Echo had sat across from my bed and watched me to be sure I didn’t. Plus, I knew it was really her because Jon, her, and me had done the blood bond again, this time without Ramsey.
"Yes, he is here," another voice said, deeper and definitely not mine. "You brought him in with your dark, broken heart. His was broken too. You're just like him."
"I didn't," I tried to say. "I'm not." My mouth wouldn't work right, though, same with my limbs. I had no control.
A figure emerged from the void in front of me, tall and imposing. Ryze. His dark hair swirled around his wide shoulders in a breeze that shouldn’t exist within the windowless confines of Necromancer Academy. A shiver wracked my body as I tried to reel away.
"Should I die again, you can split my soul and then help me return again. If you do this, Dawn, you and I will both rule. Equally. king and queen of all of Amaria.” His grin twisted his scar on his right cheek. He curled his finger under my chin. “I will give you everything you never knew you wanted."
My stomach soured at his touch, and all the things I wanted to shout at him dried up on my useless tongue. Why couldn’t I move?
"You don't believe me, do you?” He tsk-ed. “Shame. Let me tell you what I did for Morrissey."
He pointed in front of me, and our blurred surroundings sharpened into a familiar room in his castle. I recognized the intricately detailed red drapes and paintings. Morrissey sat by a fire there with a little girl I recognized from a picture frame I'd seen in her room. Her sister, she'd said.
"She died young,” Ryze said, “and I brought her back without a scratch on her, all of her personality and memories intact. I can do the same for you. Your brother. Your beloved. Whoever you want." His hot breath flamed my ear as he leaned in. "I would do that for you."
He was lying. There was no way he could really do that because unless the soul had been split before it had gone through the spirit door, there was no other way to join the soul with the body. And I wouldn’t let him near Ramsey’s soul or his body.
"Look at them.” He pointed at the sisters. “Look at how happy they are. That could be you. All you have to do"—he waved his hand, and the Staff of Sullivan appeared in my fist—"is break the staff in half."
My hand tightened around it. Against my will, I reached out with my other one and gripped it so hard my fingers ached.
"I'm the most talented necromancer in all of Amaria. Opening the spirit door is easy. You've done it yourself. I can join your brother's soul with his body and give him back to you." He smiled as he stepped back. “Break the staff, and it's done."
He's lying.
But what if he wasn't? What if I could have Leo back in my life? My older brother. My hero. I'd be a whole person again, instead of cut down into darker, angrier pieces of my former self.
My hands tightened even more. It wouldn't take much pressure to snap the staff.
He's here. He's lying.
"Who, Dawn? Who is here?"
I snapped open my eyes at the new voice, sharp and insistent in my ear. Echo stood in front of me, her brows slanted in concern as she gripped my arm hard. Behind her, the wall of the gym rose high, and the torches crawled long shadows over half her face.
“The gym...” I said. “Why am I in the gym?”
Echo sucked in a breath. “You’re not. You’re awake in your room.”
“What?” I stared down at the staff in my hands, and Echo followed my gaze. Realization slammed into me hard and made me stumble away from Echo a few steps. If I wasn’t sleepwalking, then he'd gotten into my head another way, made me nearly destroy the staff because it was important. Somehow.
With trembling hands, I held it out to Echo. "Get it away from—"
A long, slow creak sounded from the far wall of the gym. Slowly, we turned our heads to look, even though, according to Echo, we were in two different locations. The red door that hadn't been there a second ago was opening, the same door behind which the onyx had once been stored. Darkness swarmed within.
"Echo," a voice whispered. "Come here."
Her blue eyes widened. "Craig?"
"No!" I reached toward her, but she shrugged me off as she stepped forward. "Listen to me. It's Ryze trying to trick you so you'll join him."
"Liar," the voice hissed. A pale, disembodied arm poked out from the doorway. "I'll show you if you come here."
She took another step forward, tears leaking down her face. I leaped ahead to stop her, but a ring of fire burst up around me, its flames licking too close to my hair and skin. I flinched away as I gritted my teeth. Ryze seemed to be an expert at reading our losses and dangling them in front of us like a cruel taunt.
"It's not him," I shouted over the crackling fire.
But Echo wasn't listening. Or was choosing not to.
I aimed a petrification spell at her, but before it could leave my lips, the fire around me and the wall torches blinked out all at once. Echo screamed, a pained, tortured one that scraped up my backbone.
"Echo!" I shouted.
Silence.
Panic shrieked between my ears, and tension clenched my muscles. Her scream had come from the direction of the red door. I broke out into a run, completely blind and with too much dark magic to light my way. By feel alone, I found the door still open.
"Echo!" I called.
It seemed even darker in here. Worse, I'd never been in here so I had no idea where helpful landmarks might be. I swallowed hard as I crept forward, my breaths suspended in my lungs. I strained my ears for any sound, but there was none.
"Answer me, Echo. It's not Craig. He was a Diabolical. He gave up his life to try to save the onyx from Ryze. He wouldn't want you to join him."
A slight tug pulled at the staff. Then again, harder. Much harder. I gripped it as tightly as I could, digging my fingernails so hard into the grains that they splintered and shoved up into my skin.
“Give it to me.” A whisper. It sounded like Ryze.
“No,” I ground out.
A frustrated growl erupted from him, and he hurled me through the air. I crashed to the ground, all the air knocked from my lungs, barely able to keep my hold on the staff. Pain lanced through my back and head. Unconsciousness edged the corners of my mind, and I wasn’t so sure if I should fight it. Ryze would kill whether I was awake or not.
“If you won’t break it,” he said, his voice coming closer, “then give it to me.”
“Why?” I finally pushed out.
Fire burst up around me, spinning and roaring like a violent windstorm. It lit up the room and the large monstrous figure stalking toward me. The jumping flames warped his face, and I wondered if the destruction of the five stones had changed his appearance. He looked like a terrible beast plucked from the bowels of all seven hells. I had to remember he was now weaker with only one stone left. Weaker, and defeatable.
“You’re so keen on how your choices define who you are,” he growled, “so I’m offering you a choice. Break it or give it to me if you want to wake from this dream.”
I was dreaming. So did that mean Echo was okay, or had she fallen asleep and was now dreaming too?
“Or don’t do either and die,” he continued. “You know what happens when you die in your dreams? Let me show you.”
The floor vanished right out from underneath me. I whipped out my hands as I started to fall, my fingertips of one hand grazing then catching the edge of the floor. Frigid air climbed up my body, and a dark chill bristled over my awareness. Two thoughts collided in my head: One, I couldn’t both hang on and keep a hold on the staff. And two, I was dangling over the spirit door.
Dark ghostly presences glided around my ankles and snapped at my feet. They yanked hard. I started to plummet. With a shout, I caught myself with the staff braced horizontally against the floor and held on with both hands. The spirits picked my strength apart with their constant jerks at my body.
I tried to shout a spell at Ryze, but nothing came out.
He gazed down at me, nothing but cool and calm. “Break it or give it to me.”
The faint scent of lavender wafted up out of the spirit door, and warmth wrapped around me in a loving embrace. Leo. He was near.
“Biscuit...Equalizer...” Leo whispered, and just as fast as it had come, his scent and his voice vanished..
Ryze’s face twisted in a scowl, and I could tell Leo had struck a nerve.
With a demonic wail, he barreled toward me and made a mad grab for the staff. But his hand passed right through. Because this was a dream? Or because he was weak?
He leaned down over the spirit door and bared his teeth in a mad grin. He reached for the staff again, but this time, his hand touched mine. While his grin grew wider, he began to peel my fingers from the staff. Wild panic surged into my throat as I fought to hang on.
“I don’t need the staff to take the onyx,” he warned.
No. Not if it was attached to Seph. What would he do to her?
A triumphant gleam brightened his brown eyes as he bent my fingers back, back, past the point of pain. My cry lodged behind his magic squeezing my tongue.
“I tried to make deals with you, Dawn Cleohold. Maybe the dark spirits will have better luck with you.”
He yanked more fingers back, and my grip slackened. I gasped, my whole body shaking to get the spirits off and fighting to be free.
“Or maybe not.”
He unhooked the last few fingers, and for a moment, I hung suspended by his hand. I looked up into his eyes, and hatred scorched through me at what I saw there—a cowardly man. He slipped his hand from mine.
I gasped, scrambling to hang on to something. Then I landed with a loud crack. The sound of my body breaking apart.
Wait a minute. I snapped my eyes open, roaming them over my room. I lay on the floor next to my bed and was still clutching the Staff of Sullivan.
Nebbles padded over to my head and stared at the staff with huge, glowing eyes.
Behind her, Seph’s bed was empty. Where had Echo gone?
Slowly, I hauled myself to my feet, every bone aching, and crossed to the door. On the other side of it, I found her sitting on the floor up the hall, as pale as I’d ever seen anyone.
She blinked up at me, her cheeks stained with tears. “I accidentally fell asleep. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I knelt next to her and smoothed the hair from her face.
At the very end of the hall, Jon crashed into the freshmen girls’ wing, his shoulders heaving. “The blood bond... Are you two all right?”
“Ryze was...dream-walking.” How many other ways were there to walk? “We’re...” Not all right. I swallowed thickly and looked down at Echo.
Echo shook her head. “It looked like him, sounded like him, but that’s wasn’t Craig in my dream.”
“No,” I whispered.
Her face crumpled, and while I wanted to comfort her, we needed to go see Seph. She was in serious danger. More than all of us.
Chapter Six
Equalizer, Leo had said. I’d looked it up, and in the Book of Gray Stone, I found mention of it. The Equalizer contains unknown powers. It brings light to the dark and dark to the light. That’s all it had said. Relatively easy concept, but I didn’t know what it meant. If it was on Leo’s mind, it must’ve been important, especially since it had had such an effect on Ryze. Could it be that the Staff of Sullivan was the Equalizer? Maybe...but what did it do?
The door to Headmistress Millington’s office burst open, and Mrs. Tentorville, the librarian, stood there breathing heavily. The five mages sitting around my desk turned to stare.
"He's here,” she said. “Ryze has been spotted on the shore of Eerie Island. He arrived by boat instead of magic, and a whole reliving army are at his back and some living as well. I estimate about 3,000."
I nodded stiffly. Arriving by boat would save his waning magic for when he really needed it. Like now, what would soon be a battle to the death. It was time, and we were nowhere near ready. The relivers the mages had necromanced had been sent outside the academy walls and contained within the gates since they were so unpredictable. It was going about as well as could be expected. The academy remained locked while they shambled about, only sort of obeying those who'd brought them back until the enemy arrived. And now he had.
We only had about a thousand relivers. We'd tried our best with the time and resources we had, and he’d still beat us with numbers despite his weakened state. Maybe he wasn’t as weak as I’d thought.
"Tell the mages to send their relivers outside the gates. Then send the mages outside if they’re willing to fight," I said, gathering as much confidence as I could into my voice. "Let's end this."
She nodded and grinned, her purple curls bouncing around her shoulders as she left. "With pleasure."
There was just one more thing that needed to be done, and I didn't even have to leave the cold, dank headmistress's office to do it. I wanted the powerful mages in my office to try to bring back the giant the catacombs were in. I’d saved up my magic to help, but only a little. I needed to save it to cross a few names off my list.
“Ready?” I asked them.
"O mors ego eieci te,” the six of us chanted. “Liga corpus et animam, Ut benedicat tibi terram hanc iuxta spiritum, Ad te redi vitae theloneo."
Would it work? No idea, but the intent was there. I wanted to win.
I rose from the headmistress's desk. “Go on and head outside if you plan to. I’ll see if we were successful.”
I followed them out into the classroom hall, my ears sharp for the sounds of battle or a giant rising from the dead. I might not be able to tell the difference. The silence plucked at my nerves. Not the coming war, not the possibility of death as I faced off with my nemeses yet again, not having any idea about how to destroy the stone. Just the silence before the storm. The rest I would handle. I'd been handling it. Sort of. Plus, a big load off my shoulders was knowing my parents would be staying indoors to help heal the wounded which was just as important as fighting.
Several mages and professors zipped by me toward the classroom wing doors ahead. "Let's save Amaria!" several shouted, and others whooped and hollered as they rushed confidently toward war.
I smiled after them, but it turned wobbly toward the end. How many would die today? When I'd first come here, my heart had hardened into an empty shell, but some of the people here had brought me back to life. I couldn't bear to lose anyone else. Honestly, with all the death lately, sometimes I was surprised I was still standing.
The floor shook under my feet like it wanted to test my theory of still standing. Then it did it again, even harder. I burst into the entryway as people flooded out of the Gathering Room at top speed. Some headed outside. Some screamed at the top of their lungs as they raced away.
Well, that was a good sign. Only maybe I should've provided some warning first. Oops. I hadn't been really sure the catacombs had been carved into a giant since Ramsey had said it was a rumor.
The ground quaked, and stones came loose from the walls and ceiling near the Gathering Room.
I hurried toward the opposite wall and the girls' staircase so I wouldn't get crushed by the falling building. What if this wasn't the giant but some sort of attack on the academy from Ryze? Were we already losing?
Stones hailed down now, and I fought to control my footing on the shaking foundation. A female professor I didn’t know burst out of the classroom hallway and dodged backward just in time to avoid being smashed.
"This way," I shouted, waving my hands toward her.
Her fear-stricken eyes met mine, and then she darted toward me.
"Stick to this wall and go!" I shoved her along to hurry her.
She raced for the closed front door and then flung herself into the war outside. I hoped she knew what she was getting into.
Stone scraped against stone, becoming so loud that it was all I heard. The wall of the Gathering Room crumbled, crushing the arched double doors beneath it. A glim
pse of sky emerged from the falling ceiling, then more and more of it. Dust and debris fogged the air, and behind it, a glimpse of stark white shone. A whole lot of it. My gaze kept climbing up, up, until a huge shadow blocked the sunny sky beyond.
The dead giant. We’d done it. I blinked hard, barely able to believe it, but raw panic shoved away my bewilderment when the giant stomped toward me. The movement cracked through the ceiling, raining down huge chunks of it.
"Stop!" I shouted, but I couldn't even hear myself. "Stop!"
If it didn't listen to one of its necromancers, we were all screwed. We might be screwed anyway, but now the giant and I were tied together with my magic. I should be able to control it at least a little bit. That was the theory anyway, but Death, Dying, and Reliving: A History of Cautionary Tales made me doubtful.
"STOP!"
Finally, it stopped within four feet of crushing me.
I loosened a shaky breath, craning my neck upward but still not able to see its face, or what was left of it. All I saw were what seemed like miles of leg bones climbing skyward. Caskets and human-sized skeletons that had been entombed inside the giant crashed down around him. Some exploded on impact into nothing but dust since they'd fallen from a huge distance.
I inhaled deeply and then shouted, "THROW WHAT'S LEFT OF THE GATHERING ROOM AT WHATEVER TRIES TO GET THROUGH THE ACADEMY'S GATES."
I waited for what felt like an eternity for some kind of response, of movement, of anything. Finally, a skeletal hand as big as the Gathering Room itself swooped down and picked up part of the room's door as well as a pile of huge stones. Then it turned, the bony digits on its feet facing the front of the academy.
I sagged against the wall, relief spinning through my head. No wonder we had a class here about necromancy cautionary tales. This was my own cautionary tale right here, and I had no doubt it could go south fast.
Now I needed to get to Seph and come up with some way to destroy the stone. Fast without hurting her. Hopefully an idea would strike me along the way, but as I slid along the wall toward the infirmary wing, I still had nothing.
Necromancer Uprising: Book 4 Page 5