How to Break an Undead Heart (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 3)

by Hailey Edwards

  “Nah.” Lethe’s eyes sparkled as she rested her head on Hood’s shoulder. “Race you?”

  An interested sound moved through his chest. “What do I get if I win?”

  “The better question,” Midas interjected, “is what do I get when I win?”

  The trio melted and reformed as scaled hounds, the smaller male taking the early lead while the other two bumped shoulders and watched him go before sprinting after him. Hood and Lethe embodied matehood in the same way that Neely and Cruz exemplified marriage. They personified ideals and made such lasting bonds appear as the only logical step when you couldn’t breathe without the person next to you.

  Maybe that apparent ease was what made their unions burn so bright from the outside looking in. Maybe that kind of love wasn’t simple. Maybe it was a goal you strove toward every single day for the rest of your lives. A peak you never reached, but that was okay as long as you kept climbing.

  Silence reigned in the parking deck, and I breathed a sigh of relief as Linus appeared at my side. “I was so put out at Strophalos.”

  He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Oh?”

  “I didn’t see the bookstore until after the coffee shop. I missed my chance to browse for a souvenir.” A tired laugh rocked my shoulders. “Be careful what you wish for, huh? Looks like I won’t go home empty-handed after all.”

  He started walking, and I fell in step with him. “These aren’t the kind you keep.”

  “I wish I had your faith.” I beat him to the stairwell and held open the door. “Midas said ‘until the threat has passed,’ and we have no clue how long that will take.”

  His silence left me wishing I could peek into his head and see what thoughts put that look on his face.

  With time on our side, Linus texted Mary Alice, who forgot to mention a customer had taken her usual space. She had been forced to park on the opposite side of the level, which explained why we hadn’t spotted her van on our first pass.

  Linus, who I had never so much as caught with a crust of sleep in his eye, stifled a yawn as we located our ride.

  “I’ll drive.” I held out my hand for the keys. “You look beat.”

  “I am tired,” he admitted, brow gathering as if the admission surprised him too. “Thank you.”

  We got in, and I familiarized myself with the cockpit. I captained Amelie’s sedan once in a blue moon, so I wasn’t a total washout when it came to driving vehicles that required seat belts. But it was never as comfortable for me, even when I was a teen. And after Atramentous… Yeah. I much preferred the open air to any type of confinement.

  Taking it slow and easy, I checked the mirrors to make sure we weren’t being followed as I eased out into traffic. Linus kept watch too, though his eyelids drooped lower and lower. “You never told me what the initial results on Amelie’s blood yielded.” I decided to nudge him along by talking his ear off. “Did Reardon pinpoint any magical anomalies in her blood?”

  “Yes,” he murmured. “That’s why he was so insistent we continue our research.” He reclined his seat a notch and crossed his hands at his navel. “Heinz wasn’t wrong when he compared Amelie’s symptoms to that of a strained familiar bond.” His blinking slowed until his reddish-blond lashes rested against his pale cheeks. “There are unmistakable markers in her blood put there by foreign magic, but I misdirected him, let him believe any peculiarities were due to the dybbuk bond. Possessed subjects are rare, so he has no basis for comparison.”

  Meaning I would live under the sword of Damocles until Linus finished collating his data.

  “You mentioned exorcism as the only cure.” Ambrose was glutted with power from his kills, Linus warned me that night in the elevator, and Amelie would die if he attempted to separate them before the energy dissipated. “Does this mean we’ll have to wait until Ambrose weakens to get our answers?”

  “No,” he breathed, mouth barely moving. “Design a tattoo. For me. We can test for magic transference that way.”

  Traffic be damned, I whipped my head toward him. “Forget it.”

  “I will act as the control variable.”

  “We don’t know for sure what the first one did yet, what the dangers are to the wearers. Until we figure that out, I’m not going to let you ink yourself. Plus, you’re bonded to a wraith. You’re hardly control variable material. We can’t risk… Linus?”

  A faint snore escaped his parted lips.

  “Who did this to you? What made you believe you’re disposable? You’re an heir, a scion, a professor, an artist, a potentate. Those are all positions of power.” I kept going, thinking it through. “Do you think you didn’t earn those first titles? That you must keep proving yourself? Heaping on more and more of them? Will it ever be enough?”

  His only response was the slackening of his fingers as they slid onto his lap.

  “You are worthy, Linus Lawson. You hear me?” I reached over and squeezed his chilly hand. “Don’t die proving it to yourself.”

  With him sleeping soundly beside me, I pointed us toward home, sweet home.

  Fifteen

  Left unsupervised, I might have broken a few speed laws during that last thirty-mile stretch. Or was it forty? Fifty? Who was counting? Come dawn, I wanted to collapse in my own bed instead of a borrowed one, and I was willing to pay a few tickets to make that happen.

  Grinning like a loon, I swallowed a squeal of delight when I spotted Woolly. The van whined as I gunned it up the driveway, and it groaned as it bounced to a stop in front of the garage.

  “We’re here.” I reached over and shook Linus. “Wake up, lazybones.”

  A faint moan escaped him, and I chewed my bottom lip while debating my options. Sleeping might be like eating for him. I had never actually seen him do either, but he must at some point. For him to be out like a light, he must be exhausted.

  “I’m going to let them know we’re here.” I couldn’t sit still another minute. “I’ll be right back.”

  While Linus snoozed, I ran up the stairs and embraced the nearest pillar like I was part kudzu.

  Woolly shrieked with glee, her voice a smoke alarm’s piercing bleat. Beneath that, a symphony of magic burst in my head, the tempo as light and fast as a frantic heartbeat. All the curtains started flapping in her excitement, and the front door swung open, waving back and forth as she ushered me in.

  “I have to wake Linus.” As far as I was concerned, the luggage could wait. “I can’t leave him out here.”

  The wards solidified as I hit the lower step, and I bounced off them before my foot touched the ground.

  “Woolly,” I sighed, leaning against the railing. “He’ll get a crick in his neck.”

  “I thought I heard someone.” Amelie skidded into the foyer with a wide grin. “You’re home early.”

  “Dirty pool,” I chided the old house, certain she had called for Amelie to lure me in without a fuss.

  Amelie tackled me, almost knocking me back out onto the porch, and wrapped her arms around my waist. Over our heads the crystals in the chandelier tinkled merrily at our reunion, and the door snicked closed.

  With my eyes shut tight, Amelie a familiar comfort in my arms, it was easy to forget what she had done.

  Pretending nothing had changed, that things were as they always had been between us, was so much easier than holding on to the betrayal, the guilt, and the fear. But vigilance had kept me alive this long. A clean slate wasn’t given, it was earned, and Ame still had a long way to go until she won forgiveness.

  “I was gone forty-eight hours,” I grunted, unable to resist slumping against her, allowing my old friend to support me for a change. “You couldn’t have been that bored.”

  “Boaz told me what happened.” Hurt throbbed beneath her words, and I tensed, forgetting which what she meant. “He said there was trouble at the Faraday?”

  “You could say that.” I let her drag me down onto the couch with her. “The Master is tired of waiting for a chance to make his move.” I sank into the
plush cushions, so much comfier than the ones on Linus’s couch, and groaned with the simple pleasure of being in my own place, among my own things. “Turns out there’s a bounty on my head.”

  “A bounty?” Amelie clung tighter. “How do we get it removed?”

  “Other than surrendering me?” I tipped my head back. “No clue.”

  “You’re home now.” She exhaled with relief at that. “You’re safe.”

  Home.

  Safe.

  Two of my favorite words.

  “What have I missed?” I smiled at Amelie, who vibrated with pent-up energy in need of an outlet. “Any more attacks?” I did a mental check with Woolly, who swelled with pride over her pristine wards. “Any more fainting spells?”

  “No and no.” She curled up beside me, resting her elbow on a fraying cushion, and propped her chin on her palm. “Do you think those incidents were related to the bounty? Do you think hunters are responsible?”

  “Seems likely.” I hadn’t had a spare moment to consider a connection until now. “They must have decided it was easier plucking me off the street than stealing me from behind the wards.”

  Our trip to Atlanta might have failed on some fronts, but it had lured my enemies away from my home.

  “Vampires with a direct line to the Master, or to Volkov, would have heard the news first. They could have learned how he weakened your wards last time too. Some of the dumber ones might have hoped you didn’t bother patching them yet. They might have been willing to gamble even if it gave them away.”

  Enough money would tempt all kinds. Not only vampires. “Mary Alice implied there are a lot of zeroes attached.”

  Amelie’s forehead wrinkled. “Who?”

  “Linus’s boss at the Mad Tatter.” I grunted out his name as I remembered where I’d left him. “It’s her van we borrowed to get home.” Shoving against the squishy pillows sucking me down, I hauled myself back on my feet. “Speaking of Linus, he’s still buckled in. Poor guy slept the whole way home.”

  The locks snicked into place on the front door before I got close enough to touch the knob.

  “Come on,” I groaned. “I can’t leave him out there all night.”

  “I wish I could help.” Amelie released a sigh. “I’d kill to walk barefoot in the grass right about now.”

  A reflexive cringe hiked my shoulders up around my ears before I forced my muscles to relax.

  “Poor word choice.” She drew her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  Forcing my body into calm lines, I noticed our missing guest. “What about Odette?”

  With any luck, Oscar, who was also absent, was recharging his batteries and not playing in the forbidden basement.

  “She left about an hour ago.” Tension strained her voice at the mention of the seer, but I was at a loss as to what could have happened between them. “One minute she was repotting the herb garden she planted for you in the kitchen, and the next her eyes glazed over.” Head down, Amelie flexed her toes like she could imagine the tickle of grass blades between them. Or like she didn’t want to meet my eyes. “When she snapped to, she muttered about being allergic to dogs and called Woolly a halfway house for broken dreamers.”

  “That sounds about right.” I pressed my hand flush against the smooth door. Not so long ago, I’d had to beg her to let me out for work each night. I didn’t want to go back to that, for both our sakes. “Woolly, I’m just going to the van. It’s parked right in the driveway. I’ll take Cletus with me, and Linus is already out there. It’s going to be fine. I’ll shake him, wake him, then come back to fill you in on my weekend.”

  And drum up some goodwill for our new security team while I was at it.

  Maybe she would agree that every ghost boy needed a dog or three?

  The overhead lights dimmed as she pouted about not getting her way, but she turned the first lock. Sure, snails have moved faster, but she was working with me. That’s what counted.

  In the time it took the Apollo 11 to get Neil Armstrong ready to walk on the moon, Woolly finished unlocking the door and opened it a crack for me. Huffing to wedge it wider, I sucked in my stomach and squeezed out onto the porch. From there, I tread the stairs gingerly, pausing with one foot above the ground to test the wards. When I didn’t stub my toe on hardened air again, I took a leap of faith, holding my breath in case Woolly clung at the last moment. Much to my surprise, she behaved and allowed me out of her protective sphere.

  The music of her wards changed from bright and energetic to a dirge, and I smothered a laugh under my breath. Woolly was such a drama llama. Sheesh.

  Back at the van, I spotted Linus, still sleeping, and my gut started twisting with a sense of wrongness.

  I rapped on his window with my knuckles, but he didn’t stir. So I popped the locks, opened the door, and rested my hand on his shoulder. I half expected him to startle awake, for his tattered cloak to burst into existence, but he kept dozing.

  “Linus?” I gave him a shake. “We’re home. Well, I’m home. In Savannah. At Woolly.” Nothing. “Wakey-wakey.”

  Warning tingles speared down my spine, and I sucked in a breath to scream, but it was too late.

  A wide palm that smelled like old pennies slapped over my mouth, while a muscular arm snaked around my waist, cinching my upper arms flush with my sides. The vampire yanked me back against his hard chest with a husky chuckle in his throat as he drawled, “Remember me?”

  The familiar voice, the taunt, caused my heart to jackrabbit.

  My stalkerpire, the first vampire to attempt to bring me into the Master’s fold, had returned.

  All this time I had hoped—prayed—he was killed in the estate massacre.

  “Volkov should have controlled you when he had the chance. A Last Seed’s ability to mesmerize necromancers is a mercy.” His breath skated across my throat, far too close to tender skin. “He could have convinced you that you were a happy couple until you started believing the lie without his influence.” The tips of his fangs raked my neck. “Now you’re going to be wide awake for what happens next.”

  Twin points of agony pierced my throat, and I raged against his hand, biting down until I tasted his blood. I spat a mouthful down the front of my shirt, thanking my lack of boobs for once. With my arms free from the elbows down, I had enough movement to reach up and dip my fingers in the stain. I painted the same protective sigil I’d used against the watchmen on the back of my left hand.

  Magic in the necromantic markers in his blood reacted, blasting out around me in a protective bubble, and the vampire was blown off me. Confident the ward would hold, I turned back and drew the same design on Linus’s cheek to protect him while I dealt with the vampire. As soon as Linus was as safe as I could make him, I shut his door and faced my attacker.

  “You’re right about one thing.” Fury trembled in my voice. “I’m wide awake now, and I’m never going under again.”

  “Big words, little girl.” He stood from a crouch, looking exactly as he had the first day he introduced himself, and he straightened as he licked his lips. “The Master is tired of waiting on you to come home.”

  “What is that psycho’s deal?” I scanned the yard for signs of backup, but Taz was nowhere in sight, and I had no idea how long it would take the watchmen to arrive. “Home is here, and he’s not welcome in mine. Neither are you.”

  Amusement glittered in his eyes. “You don’t remember at all, do you?”

  “I remember being snatched off my porch and driven to an estate where vampires played dress-up with me like I was some kind of freaking doll. I remember being promised to Volkov like a prize mare ready for breeding, except that’s not the type of procreation he had in mind. I remember thinking one of the best days of my life was when I left that place, and him, behind me.”

  “I warned him.” He tsked. “I told him you were too young when your mother ran, that necromancers don’t imprint on their elders the way vampires do, but he was convinced a hybrid would carry mo
re vampiric traits than not. He believed you would remember your nursery, filled with all your dollies, but you didn’t. You didn’t even remember your nursemaid. It broke Lena’s heart.”

  “What crazy are you spouting now?” The thunder of my pulse in my ears made hearing impossible. “I’m not a hybrid.”

  “The necromancers use a much more egotistical term. I’m sure you’ve heard it bandied about by now.” His mirth swelled. “Goddess-touched, I believe is the term.”

  No, no, no, no, no.

  Maud would have…

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  When would I learn? Maud would have done whatever she felt would protect me. Even lie to my face.

  “I see you running the calculations.” He chuckled. “You never knew your father. You barely knew your mother. The Master is all the family you’ve got left.”

  “You’re lying,” I rasped. “Hybrids don’t exist. Goddess-touched necromancers are—”

  “Abominations,” he informed me with a smile. “They were wiped out centuries ago. By your people. Given the chance, you think they won’t try again, starting with you?”

  “The Society doesn’t waste resources.” I was one, whether I wanted to be or not.

  “Your guardian died protecting your secret. Your Society murdered one of its own to get to you.”

  “No.” Once I started shaking my head, I couldn’t stop denying it over and over. “It’s not possible.”

  Maud had been invincible standing within Woolworth House, her magic at its apex while in her home.

  And yet, she had fallen. And yet…and yet…and yet…

  “You gotta learn to lie better than that if you want to survive this world.” His teeth glinted. “Your power is young, but the knowledge in your blood is ancient.”

  A buzzing started in my ears. He knew. About the magic. About the sigils in my head. About me.

  “Come with me.” He held out his hand. “Let me show you who you are. Let me take you where you belong. Let me protect you from the machinations of your mother’s people.” He curled his fingers in a c’mon gesture. “Stay with them, and they will own you. Once they grasp the breadth of your power, they will control you, or they will make certain no one else can.”