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

by Hailey Edwards

  “Ma coccinelle,” Odette sighed. “Today the sea churns with the salt of your tears.”

  Odette was the closest thing left I had to a mother, and hearing her voice unlocked a fresh wellspring of tears that flowed down my cheeks while I curled around my phone on the couch.

  “I warned him he stood at a crossroads,” she said sadly. “Had he chosen well, he would have had his heart’s desire: freedom to live as his own man, power to enact change, love that transcends centuries. But he chose poorly, and he has lost that which matters most to him: himself.”

  “It hurts,” I said thickly, voice catching. “It’s never… Him choosing someone over me never hurt this much before.”

  I had plenty of experience in losing Boaz to other women. This latest ought to be yet another speed bump that jarred me to my senses. For a little while. Before I set my sights on him again. But not this time. The break felt…

  “Marriage within the Society is forever.” Odette sounded pained to remind me. “That ache you feel is a true ending, bébé. He can no longer cast his net wide then drag home to you when his arms tire. He has tangled with a whale, and she will drag him out to sea.”

  The mental picture of him hurtling toward the Atlantic like a water skier behind a speedboat almost made me laugh. But I was scared if I started that I wouldn’t stop until the tears came again. They would masquerade as happy tears and hide behind my smile, but I would know the truth.

  Singing me to sleep was off the table. Odette was no songbird. So, I asked for a different favor instead.

  “Tell me a story,” I murmured, eyes drifting shut, “about you and Maud and Mom.”

  Warmed by the ray of sunlight slanted over my shoulder, I listened to her retell the story of the time she convinced them to go sailing in the middle of a hurricane. Curled on the couch, her voice in one ear and Linus’s breath in the other, I tumbled into fitful sleep.

  Sixteen

  Bacon woke me. Okay, the bacon didn’t physically reach out and shake me until my eyes opened, but the smell did set my stomach growling. Sometime during the day, I had found an empty corner and huddled there with an afghan tangled around my legs. Judging by the stacked trunks blurred through my puffy eyelids, I was still in the living room.

  “Coffee?” a towering god asked while extending a cup of ambrosia toward me.

  “Yes,” I rasped, voice ruined. “Thanks.”

  The god, who also happened to smell like bacon and resemble Linus, sat beside me.

  “You’re going to wrinkle your clothes.”

  “That’s what irons are for,” he countered. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like my heart has forgotten its rhythm.” After I gulped down a scalding mouthful, my eyes remembered how to open fully, and I raked my gaze over Linus. “How about you?”

  “You saved my life,” he said simply.

  “Just returning the favor.”

  “Thanks all the same.” A faint curl of his lips betrayed his amusement. “We make a good team.”

  “We do.” I rested my shoulder against his, and after a moment, he leaned back. “All good partnerships ought to require both people to take turns being the damsel, like a team-building exercise.” I tilted my head back and smiled. “I’ll take you dress shopping next week. Though, I don’t know where we’ll find one of those pointy hat and veil combos.”

  “Hennin.”

  “Are you an encyclopedia spelled into a human skin? You can tell me. I’ll keep your secret.”

  A flush stained the high curves of his cheeks pink, and the daisy under his left eye turned downright rosy.

  “Amelie’s called twelve times since I woke at dusk.” Somehow, he made it into a question.

  “I don’t want to talk to her.” I sipped my coffee, letting its warmth seep into me. “I don’t want to see her, either.”

  “That’s going to be difficult when you live together,” he pointed out, not unkindly.

  “I have a proposal.” The reflexive closing of my throat warned tears were queued and ready to fly at a moment’s notice, but I swallowed through the tight knot. “Poor choice of words.”

  After removing the fresh kitchen towel from his shoulder, he pressed it into my hands. “I’m listening.”

  “Move in with me.”

  Linus startled so hard, he banged his head against the wall. “What?”

  “I can’t do this.” A strain entered my voice that hadn’t been there earlier. “I can’t look at her without seeing him, and I can’t see him right now if I want to pull myself back from this.” I peered up at Linus. “I’m a hot mess.” I pushed out a sigh. “I need to be around someone who doesn’t add to that.”

  “Woolly won’t approve.”

  That wasn’t a no. I could work with that.

  “She didn’t want to accommodate Amelie in the first place. I twisted her arm. After this? Woolly will evict her. Forcibly if necessary. Amelie will be lucky if her great-great-grandkids can step foot inside my house without getting expelled.” I swirled the remains of my drink, careful not to slosh over the lip. “This is going to end one of two ways. Either I get a new roommate, or you do.”

  “Woolly can be reasoned with,” he began. “You don’t have to invite me in. I’m content staying here.”

  “She loved Boaz too,” I told Linus. “They were friends. She trusted him.” I set my cup down before the anger threatening the edge of my thoughts forced me to smash it on principle. “Boaz—” I choked on the name, “—is all the family Amelie’s got left. He’s going to want to visit her, and Woolly will not grant him entrance. Odds are high she’ll toss Amelie out on her keister as soon as she learns what happened.”

  “These aren’t the terms you agreed to,” he said softly. “We’ll have to talk to my mother.”

  “Can we not and say we did?” I left each of our encounters feeling like I had lost something.

  “We have to do this the right way, or you’ll be penalized, and Amelie will become a ward of the Society.”

  The temptation to wipe my hands clean of her glittered like a gem in my mind’s eye, but I wasn’t that cruel. I hadn’t offered her sanctuary only to pull the rug from under her. Despite all she had done to me, for me, I loved her enough to spare her that fate.

  “I don’t want to go to the Lyceum.”

  “The only alternative is bringing Mother here.”

  “I’ll pull on some pants.”

  “I’ll pack the bacon.”

  I patted his arm. “Good man.”

  City hall was as quiet as a tomb, for which I was thankful. While we took the elevator down to the hidden subfloor that housed the Lyceum, a transformation overcame Linus. His shoulders wound tighter, his chin jutted higher, and his expression flattened into a flawless mask of austerity. His ability to morph into this Linus, the version I considered Scion Lawson, fascinated me as much as it worried me.

  Planting myself in front of him, I braced my hands on his chest and rolled up on my tiptoes. “Are you still in there?”

  “I’m right here.” He didn’t break character, and the cut of his blue eyes—edging toward black—chilled me. “I’m still me.”

  “You don’t look like you.” A shiver tripped down my spine. “I don’t like this side of you.”

  “Are you implying you like others?” The teasing question didn’t belong on those lips.

  “I like you,” I allowed. “The real you.”

  “Thank you.” His cool fingers traced the bend of one knuckle. “I’m glad one of us knows who he is anymore.”

  A perky ding signaled our arrival, and I followed him out into the hall tiled in blood-red marble.

  The usual bustle was absent tonight, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We didn’t even have to knock on the Grande Dame’s door, though I wasn’t sure if that was because Linus had called ahead while I got dressed or if the Grande Dame didn’t stand on ceremony when she was alone.

  Linus strolled right up to the threshold, the tips of his loafers toei
ng the invisible line. “Mother.”

  “Darling.” Her head popped up, and joy suffused her features. “You’re home.”

  “Atlanta is my home now,” he told her in no uncertain terms.

  “An old habit.” All elegance, she rose and circled her desk until she could embrace him. “And you’ve brought Grier.” She enveloped me in a hug that smelled and felt so much like Maud, fresh tears welled then dripped on her shoulder. “Is everything all right?”

  “We should all sit,” Linus said, steering the conversation as he shut the door behind him.

  “Of course, dear.” The Grande Dame reclaimed her chair, and I took the one across from her. “Now, what’s all this about?”

  “There’s an issue with Amelie Madison.” He perched on the edge of her desk. “We need to relocate her.”

  “I worried this might happen.” She clucked her tongue. “Has there been more trouble? Is she attempting to remove her bindings? Has Grier or Woolworth House been harmed?”

  “No,” Linus was quick to assure her, for which I was grateful. “She’s been a model employee.”

  A pucker gathered across her forehead. “Then I fail to see the issue.”

  “Boaz is engaged,” I croaked, wiping my face dry only for it to dampen again.

  The Grande Dame appeared more perplexed than ever. It was almost funny. Well, not really.

  Cocking her head, she studied me. “Surely that’s good—”

  “Mother,” Linus bit out the word to curb whatever she had been about to say.

  Huffing out a sigh, she stilled. “Explain why this is a bad thing and how it affects the indenture.”

  “Woolworth House has developed an attachment to Boaz over the years.” Linus traced the woodgrain beneath him with a fingertip. “She believed that, thanks to Grier’s childhood infatuation with him, the two of them would marry.”

  Nothing short of him lunging across the desk and clamping his hand over her mouth could have stopped her guffaw from escaping. “Surely not.”

  “Woolly is unaware of the change in Boaz’s circumstances,” he continued, without acknowledging her outburst, “and it’s our concern that she will react badly, perhaps violently, to this news.”

  As much as I wanted to protest on Woolly’s behalf, she did have a mercenary streak. Linus could attest to that.

  “Where do you propose we relocate her?” Her amusement waned into annoyance. “She is Grier’s charge. The fact her brother will marry doesn’t change that. Grier made a pact with the Society, and it cannot be broken.”

  “We understand,” he demurred. “For her safety, all we ask is that she be confined to the carriage house rather than the main house.”

  “No.” Her scowl could have cut glass. “She is a danger to all those around her. I respect Grier for sparing her in the name of friendship, such loyalty is commendable, but I will not allow her to live with my son.”

  “Grier has offered to allow me to move into Woolworth House, with her.”

  A stillness permeated the room. Shock, perhaps. Clearly, the Grande Dame hadn’t anticipated this.

  “Oh, well, that’s a horse of a different color.” Her expression smoothed into a flawless mask her son had learned to mimic well. “I have no issue with you taking up residence in your old room at Woolworth House.”

  No imagination was required to picture her clapping her hands under her desk. Her intention had always been to have Linus bunk with me, the better to spy on me. But after all Linus and I had been through, I was willing to extend the man a little faith. Maybe even a lot.

  “We’ll have to secure the carriage house, but we can make the transition by the end of the week,” he told her, all business. “You’re welcome to send a representative to oversee the transfer if you’d like.”

  “I trust you to spearhead this.” She smiled softly at him. “Keep me updated on your progress, and I’ll notify the council at our next meeting.”

  “Thank you, Mother.”

  “Thank you,” I echoed.

  The Grande Dame reached for my hand, and I had no choice but to let her hold it after the allowance she made for me. “I am sorry you’re hurt, Grier, but surely you must see this is why Maud was so opposed to the pairing.”

  Maud had never been in favor of the match, true, but she had never said or done anything to make me think she minded our friendship as long as Boaz kept seeing me as kid-sister material. Had he taken an interest, sure, then she would have stepped in and put a stop to our flirtations. But he had never given her any cause for alarm on that point.

  “Maud wanted more for you.” She cut her eyes to Linus. “She wanted—”

  “Mother,” Linus said in a soft voice that spoke of exhaustion on a topic not worth revisiting.

  The Grande Dame exhaled through pursed lips but caged whatever else she had to say behind her teeth.

  That might have had more to do with the Elite who appeared in her doorway than him, but I’d take it.

  “We’ll leave you to your work,” he said formally. “Thank you for your time.”

  “We’ll discuss your trip at dinner on Sunday, darling,” she said in dismissal before turning her attention to the new arrival.

  Linus cupped my elbow, hauled me to my feet, and all but dragged me from the room.

  Exercising that newfound trust between us, I didn’t question him but followed his lead.

  Not until the elevator doors swished closed behind us did I break. “What was that about?”

  “You didn’t recognize him?” Linus dropped my arm and got busy texting. “He was one of the Elite who responded to Amelie’s call for help.”

  “He’s going to report to her on the incident,” I groaned. “She’ll force us to go back and make a statement.”

  “She’ll have to catch us first.” Linus flashed a mischievous smile as we reached the lobby, and took me by the hand. He tugged me after him right up to the curb where a white van idled. Behind the wheel, Tony saluted with a can of energy drink. “Hurry before she sends him after us.”

  I wanted to laugh, goddess knows I did, but I didn’t have enough light in me to manage. What smidgen of levity I possessed shriveled when reality struck home. “I have to break the news to Woolly.”

  “How do you want to handle it?” Linus exhaled once the door rolled shut behind us. “Do you want me there, or will that make things worse?”

  “It’s best if I do it alone. She might lash out, and I don’t want you to make an easy target for her.” I chewed on my bottom lip, mentally curating a to-do list. “We’ll have to completely empty the carriage house before Amelie moves in. There are too many artifacts stored there, and the trunks in the living room have to go too.”

  “Can you wait and tell her when we’re ready?”

  “The wards are too strong.” I shook my head. “Woolly senses my emotions when I’m in contact with her, and I’m a crap actress. I won’t be able to fake it around Amelie. Not this time. Woolly will realize something happened, and she won’t rest until I confess.”

  Nodding like he expected as much, Linus sat back. “We’ll postpone your lessons for the time being. It’s more important to get Amelie resettled.”

  “The Kinase pack needs debriefing too.” But how to call them to me? Here boy would get me bitten, I was sure. “They might want to sleep under the stars, but I still have to feed them and teach them the rules. I can’t have them accidentally eating the wrong people.”

  Though, to be fair, most of my visitors were of the edible variety.

  In all my life, I can’t remember ever dreading the moment when Woolly came into view, but the sight of her columns set my gut roiling.

  I didn’t want to break the news about Boaz to her. I wanted to keep on pretending like always. That this girl too would pass, that one day he would wake up and realize I was it for him. But engagements were serious business, and Odette was right. Divorce did not exist within the Society. Marriage was a contract that couldn’t be voided.

&nbs
p; Boaz had taken a crucial step toward an irrevocable bond, and nothing I said or did would change that.

  It was time I let him go. For good.

  After the van parked, I glanced over at Linus. “Wish me luck?”

  “Good luck.” The worry pinching his expression didn’t sell it.

  While Linus squared up with Tony, I dragged my feet across the lawn and trudged onto the porch.

  Woolly lit up the second I touched her planks, fear and worry and dread blazing through our connection. Guilt that I hadn’t come home the previous night weighed me down, but seeing Amelie after Boaz made his big announcement would have shattered me when I had already been too close to breaking.

  One night later, I wasn’t in much better shape, but I could speak without tears garbling my words. Maybe.

  Aware of Amelie drifting through the house like a specter, I selected the front porch swing for the chat and sat, waiting until Woolly had gathered all her awareness to that point to begin.

  “I’ve got some bad news, girl.”

  The boards groaned beneath my feet.

  “I know how much you love Boaz. I love him too.” Though now I would never get a chance to be in love with him. “But I need to not see him for a while.”

  The light above the door flared in question.

  There was nothing for it but to put it all out there. “He’s engaged.”

  The bulb shattered, pieces raining down onto the planks.

  “His family needs him to marry well for them to save face after Amelie.”

  More tiny explosions, more glass tinkling as it hit and skittered.

  Carving out my heart would hurt less than admitting, “He’s doing the right thing for the Pritchards.” The window beside me bowed, ready to crack, but I pressed my palm against the pane. “You can’t hurt yourself over this. He’s not worth it.”

  Face paler than usual, Oscar materialized at my eye level. “What’s wrong with Woolly?”

  The wards, that constant melody playing in my head when I was home these days, turned into a jumble of discordant notes, a primal screech of agony voiced the only way she knew how.

  “One of her friends let her down,” I told him. “She’s upset, but she’ll be okay.”