Necromancer Academy: Book 1

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  I yelped, every muscle inside me locked tight.

  Seph laughed, so dark and terrifying and wrong. The noise skittered a thousand little legs up and down my back. She'd never laughed like that before, and oh gods, I dropped her. Right there on the floor because everything inside me begged to get away from that sound. She was still unconscious, though, and lay there perfectly still.

  How had that happened? Possession? Or was she still sleepwalking? I dropped to my knees next to her and pulled down her eyelids. Her eyes had rolled up to the back of her head, but from what I could see, there was no red ring around them. Not possession, then.

  Screw this. I needed to get her awake. I pulled her farther away from the gym door and then slapped her face gently enough not to hurt the sensitive-looking flesh I hadn't healed. Some of her tattoos had warped and curled, giving her face a monstrous appearance when it had no right to be. I would fix her. I would fix all of this. Somehow.

  "Seph, hey. I need you to wake up. Hey, talk to me. You in there?"

  The moonlit glass ceiling threw shimmering red and black diamonds and swirls all over her burned nightgown, and gradually, they began to move as she drew in breath after ragged breath. Her eyelids fluttered. She was starting to come around.

  "Hey, it's me,” I said. “Dawn. Your roomie?"

  Her eyes snapped open. No red. Just raw, unbridled panic.

  She shot to her feet and backed away from me, searching her surroundings and clutching her hands over her chest. Then her focus settled on the door of the gym, and a full-body tremor wracked through her.

  "It wasn't..." She nearly tripped over her feet to fling herself away from me. "It wasn't a dream...was it?"

  She must've seen the truth clearly written all over my face because the front of her nightgown soaked and trickles ran down her legs to collect in a puddle at her feet. She hung her head and sobbed.

  Oh gods. My heart ripped up the middle for her and clogged my throat with too many emotions. I ignored the pungent odor of urine, sidestepping it as I crossed toward her, and wrapped her up in a hug.

  Was this what Leo had gone through before his death? What he felt like? He must've remembered he was sleepwalking, or otherwise he wouldn't have come here to get help. If he'd been this terrified, why hadn't he told me? I hated to think he'd suffered at all before his murder. Just as I hated that Seph was suffering too.

  Since I knew how cleansing tears could be for the soul, I let her cry for as long as she needed to and then led her out of the hallway and into the entryway. Still quiet. Still empty as far as I could tell, which was strange. Had none of the staff heard Seph's screams or all the doors slamming? Any students secretly wandering after the dark hour? Apparently not, or they did but didn't care, especially about the two freshmen who'd earned the hatred of almost half the school.

  Useless cowards, every last one.

  "I was so scared, I peed myself, Dawn," Seph muttered, her head hung in shame.

  "It's fine." I gripped her hand and squeezed. "Really, it is. You’ll get no judgement from me. We'll stop at our dorm and then go find the headmistress, okay?"

  "I haven't done that since I was five.” She released a long, shuddering breath as we began up the stairs. “I don't belong here. I'm not cut out for necromancy if my own body can't even act like an adult. I should just go, start a new life, pretend I'm someone else."

  "None of this is your fault. You were sleepwalking. That's hardly enough reason to quit school," I assured her.

  The freshmen door burst open, making us both jump, and there stood Vickie, her ice-blue eyes narrowing with accusation as soon as she saw us. "Going somewhere?"

  I growled under my breath. Just what we needed. "To the headmistress. Have you seen her?"

  "You’re sneaking around after the dark hour." She took a step closer. The torchlight in the wall sconce next to her danced brilliantly over her red hair, and I had the sudden urge to slam my eyes closed. I was done with fire.

  “So are you,” I said.

  “Careful, Dawn,” Seph whispered behind me, still trembling from the first part of this horrific night.

  “Oh.” Vickie covered her nose. "What is that godawful smell?"

  We stopped, and I angled my body in front of Seph’s so Vickie couldn't see the wetness staining her nightgown. "The headmistress, Vickie. Where is she?"

  "How would I know?" She held the door and nodded for us to go through. "Now, be good little sheeple and go back to your room."

  "Were you spying on us? Is that why you were down our hall?” I asked, climbing toward her. Did she have something to do with Seph sleepwalking?

  Smirking, she shook her head. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  “Answer the question.” I shouted so loud the walls shook and the door Vickie held slammed shut, pushing her to the side.

  Her eyes flashed as she drew closer. I stood my ground, staring her down, even when her lips peeled back in an angry grimace. Magic crackled the air between us, thick and slimy and with a smell like curdled milk.

  "I don’t have to do anything you say." She shot her hand out and grasped my neck. The ground disappeared from under my feet as she lifted me higher, squeezing, squeezing so tight I couldn’t even drag in a sliver of air.

  "Put her down." Seph charged, but before she'd even made it half a step, Vickie shoved her free hand toward her. She didn't make contact with Seph. She didn’t have to.

  “Obrigesunt.” A burst of red petrification magic surged from her palm and tumbled Seph down the stone staircase.

  All the way down.

  Then dead silence.

  Oh, gods no.

  I wanted to call her name, but couldn't. I wanted to turn my head and look, but couldn't.

  I kicked out at the banister behind me, seeking purchase, but my boots found it in front of me. Vickie had lifted me over the banister, and now, there was no longer anything between me and the flickering void below. And she held me above it, my life very literally in her hand.

  I swung my legs out farther, clawed at her hand, lashed out at her fiery red hair. My fingers grabbed hold and plucked several curls out.

  “Damn you, freshman,” she hissed.

  My lungs burned and heaved. Darkness edged into my vision, narrowing my whole world onto Vickie's twisted grin. Panic ripped up my throat and held there, ticking with my last futile attempts at breathing.

  "The headmistress and most of the professors think they found Professor Wadluck far away from here,” she said. “So I really don't think anyone will care if there are two fewer freshmen on Monday morning. Do you?"

  She loosened her grip slightly. Enough to jolt me with the terror of being dropped. Enough to drag in a sharp breath so her words and their meaning would stick.

  She was going to kill me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Somewhere in the far corners of my mind, buried underneath the sound of my dying heartbeat, a door burst open from above.

  "Vickie, stop," a voice shouted. A voice that was all wrong.

  And then suddenly I was falling. Falling to my death. My feet hit a hard surface, and the impact rolled me to my knees with a splintering crack. Pain. So much pain, but I felt it. Which meant I was alive, for now. I sucked in deep breaths, each one searing my throat and lungs.

  "What the hell were you doing?" the voice demanded. All wrong, because it was male, and it had come from above in the girls’ wing.

  "These two stuck-up little shits are running around at night like the rules don't apply to them,” Vickie seethed. “I was teaching them a lesson about respect and obeying their elders. I wasn't going to really kill her."

  "Lies," I tried to say, but it came out as a croak. I sagged backward, and my head hit a stone wall. The bannister. I lay slumped on the staircase, breathing and then breathing some more, while trying to unscramble my thoughts from my tangled limbs.

  "Leave her alone," the voice said, tinged with a growl.

  All wrong, male...and so familiar.<
br />
  He appeared then in my line of sight, and I almost wanted to laugh, though nothing about this was funny. It was Ramsey, looking at me closely with deep concern etched into the lines of his forehead. His face was ashen, more like a sickly green, and he appeared to have just run a race. Or he was badly shaken. Pretending to be, at least, putting on his golden-boy routine.

  "Are you all right?" He reached out.

  I shrank back, pulling every inch of my body and cloak away from his touch.

  He dropped his hand slowly, as if unsure what to make of my reaction, and then turned toward the bottom of the steps. Toward...

  "Oh gods, Seph." I tried to haul myself to my feet, but my legs weren't having it.

  Ramsey was already racing toward her. "Seven hells, Vickie, they're freshmen."

  Vickie gazed down at me with a horrid mix of cruelty and disdain. "And they'll never cross me again. Never demand anything of me. Ever."

  "Did you burn her?" Ramsey knelt next to Seph's crumpled form and touched her shoulder.

  “Of course not,” Vickie spat, rubbing the spot where I’d torn out some hair.

  I gripped it tightly in my fist, out of sight, and sealed my mouth shut as I watched him closely. He muttered something over her, and I fought to get to my feet again to stop him.

  "Don't," I hissed through gritted teeth.

  Vickie snapped her fingers at me. Actually snapped at me. "He's healing her, something I was about to do before he came." She glanced down at him. “Promise.”

  Off-white light soaked into Seph from Ramsey's fingertips, quite a bit lighter than mine. I expected it to be blacker. He was a skilled necromancer—with plants anyway—and capable of murder, after all.

  "Go to your dorm, Vickie," he said. "I'll clean up your mess."

  Vickie stomped off while muttering something about seeing him later. He'd been on the sophomore girls’ floor in the middle of the night, so how many girlfriends did this guy have? And when did he find the time?

  Seph sighed awake and fluttered open her eyes, and relief crashed through me. Her gaze focused on Ramsey hovering over her, and she sent him a death glare.

  "You," she spat. "Get away from me."

  She wasn’t fainting from his presence. So it really was the gym, not him, that kicked the legs out from underneath her unless she was sleepwalking.

  He straightened and raised his hands, an angry twist to his mouth. "You're welcome for healing you."

  "Yeah, well..." She stood and cracked her neck, appearing to be back to normal. Even the skin on her face looked better, and her tattoos were less warped. “You're not getting a thank you from me, ever. You don't deserve the spit in my mouth on your shoes."

  "That right?" He backed off, clearly unoffended, and then flicked his thunderstorm gaze up to me.

  I held it, and something passed over his face as he began to climb toward me. Something I couldn't name because it wasn't his usual disinterested, haughty expression he reserved for me.

  "Dawn..." Seph squeezed her fists tightly to her sides and marched up after him. "You all right?"

  She wouldn't like the answer. I could feel the bruises forming on my throat, my voice sounded scratchy and raw, my knees felt like I'd cracked bone when I'd landed on them, and I was tired. So tired. Sure, I had several months' worth of rage to fight back, but right now, I was defeated and broken in front of Leo’s killer.

  He knelt in front of me, Seph hovering close by, and he reached out to touch me.

  I flinched back yet again because I couldn't stand the thought of him touching me. But he had to. I couldn't heal myself right now. The thought of suffering through the pain until my magic reserves were filled set my teeth on edge. I couldn't wait, so I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn't have to look at him.

  "Why bother?" I ground out.

  Without answering, he touched my knee, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

  Why did it feel like I was betraying my brother by having his murderer heal me? My heart twisted around itself as a cooling sensation swept through my body, calmed my throat, and mended my knees. I hated that I needed his help as much as I hated him for giving it. But even as his magic faded and he pulled away, it didn't change anything.

  I would still kill him.

  When I opened my eyes again, his gaze tracked a tear sliding down my cheek. His face had gone even greener, and that expression had come back that had no name. It looked foreign on him, like he'd never worn it before tonight.

  He rose then and turned away quickly, heading down the stairs. "Go to bed, you two. It’s after the dark hour."

  Seph glared after him. "We won't tell anyone you were out if you don't tell anyone we were out." After a few seconds of silence, she called, "Hey, you hear me?"

  He ignored her as he crossed the entryway, which sparked fury across Seph's face.

  "When you kill him," she said in a low voice, "make sure you kill him a lot."

  "That won't be a problem." I raised my hand so she'd help me up. When I stood on my feet again, only slightly wobbly, I pressed Vickie's hair into Seph's palm. "Think that'll be enough?"

  "Oh, you're good. This will work perfectly." She couldn’t quite manage a smile, though, not after everything that had happened tonight.

  Not that I blamed her.

  We started up the steps and then pushed through our dorm door. No sense in finding the headmistress if she wasn’t even here. The door still had a hole in it, but I bet if I set my trunk on its end and slid it over, it would cover it up as a temporary fix. The floor was back to being a normal floor, and Nebbles sat expectantly on the bed, waiting for us.

  "Don't worry about sleepwalking," I told Seph.

  "No?" She crossed toward her desk and set Vickie’s hair on top of it.

  "No. I'll tie our ankles together if I have to and spell it with a knot only I can break." Something I should’ve done before had I known her sleepwalking wasn’t done.

  She looked at me with bright, shining eyes and blew out a breath. "You’d do that for me?"

  "Yes." No question, because whatever lay beyond that red door was bad news not just for Seph, but very likely for all of Amaria. Behind that red door might be where the onyx stone was kept.

  She nodded and plopped down on her bed next to Nebbles, looking as exhausted as I felt. “Okay. Because I’m going to need sleep if we still plan on getting answers with a séance tomorrow.”

  "HERE'S WHAT I'VE LEARNED about séances." Echo shut the door to our room behind her and Morrissey, and the dozens of black candles strewn around highlighted the fear on her face. I could tell already she wasn't a big fan of this idea. "How do I put this delicately? Every single one I've been to, the spirit called wasn't the spirit who came. The evil ones live near spirit doors on purpose, just waiting to torment innocent freshmen girls and drag them through the door to their deaths. You think I'm joking, but I'm not."

  "How many séances have you been to?" I asked from my seat on the floor.

  "One, and that was plenty." She shivered and adjusted the ornately embroidered sleeves on her cloak. "Swear to the gods, a spirit slid his hand up under my cloak and touched my thigh last time."

  "Were your eyes closed?” Seph asked, sitting directly across from me.

  Echo shrugged. "Of course."

  "Were there guys there?"

  "Yeah."

  Seph raised her eyebrows and waited for the pieces to click together.

  Morrissey grinned as realization suddenly dawned on Echo’s face. Today, which was Sunday, a string of teeth wound through Morrissey’s side braid. If she would talk to me, I would ask what was up with the teeth. I’d have to figure out another way to know what her deal was.

  She and Echo settled in on either side of me on the floor. In the middle of the four of us, a “talking board” lay, similar to one we’d found in our Divination textbook, which we’d drawn on a cloth napkin. The book had said it didn’t matter what was used, so we went with that. The alphabet lined the edges, and in the middl
e, Seph had written Yes, No, and Goodbye. In the exact center, she’d drawn Hecate’s eye, now closed. When it opened, the spirit door would too. A glass tipped on its top sat in the center, which we’d all touch as soon as we began. When I’d tried this myself back home, I’d used Leo’s old talking board.

  The truth was, the more and more I thought about doing this, the more I was convinced it was a terrible idea. It could all be for nothing if Leo didn't show up, and it could turn into a nightmare fast if someone else showed up in his place and didn't feel like playing nice.

  Another knock sounded at the door. The hole in it had soundlessly been repaired sometime during the night by a maintenance person, I supposed. Seph and I had both been asleep. Thankfully. With the help of a rope literally tying us together.

  I got up to open it, and there stood Jon with his blond hair so slicked back that it probably squeaked when he moved. He wore his cloak open, and underneath he wore a simple white tunic and brown pants. A nice spicy smell wafted off of him, not too strong, but enough to notice. Pretty sure as far he was concerned, this was a date with Seph, and the rest of us were just here to make sure it didn’t get awkward.

  His gaze skipped right past me as if I were invisible, and his whole being lit up at the sight of Seph on the floor. "I'm here to help."

  She scratched her chin with her thumb and glanced at me, her cheeks reddening. It had been my idea to invite him, and it had been her idea to disinvite him. We needed all the help we could get though. Not Nebbles. We’d moved him to Echo and Morrissey’s room so she wouldn’t flip out and distract us.

  "Where do you want me?" Jon asked.

  "Just stand guard inside the door for now," Seph instructed as I sat down opposite her again.

  Echo began tucking her cloak around her. "To run for help when this all goes bad?"

  "To relight the candles in case they go out,” Seph said, smoothing the napkin. “Once we get started, we can't break the circle. Even if someone's hand goes up your cloak."

  Echo sighed. "I should've worn some chastity armor or something."