Page 19 of Death Raiser

I frowned. “The report said very little aside from this being a ghost consult.”

Cathy shrugged but continued to study the view. “It’s hard to explain without everyone thinking I’m ridiculous.”

“Well, now’s your opportunity to try.”

Cathy nodded. “She appears once a month. At first, I thought I imagined things. Then I thought it might be a trick of the light or something to do with the moon cycle. But as far as I can tell, it’s always on or near the twentieth of each month.”

“That she appears.”

“Yes.”

“Who is she?”

“I don't know.” Cathy finally turned away from the windows, her body shaking with nerves. “But I know what she is.”

I raised an eyebrow and waited.

“She’s a ghost and she’s haunting the street corner.”

I let Cathy’s words sink in. Normally, spirits weren’t visible to drabs but in some instances, if their death was traumatic enough or they had a lot of power prior to death, they had the ability to make themselves visible to anyone. If their deaths were horrific, the power of their demise fueled them to become ghosts—spirits stuck in the living realm like Bernie.

“There’s a ghost that appears once or twice a month on your street corner?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it harassing you?”

“No.”

“Is it malicious in any way?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think so.” Cathy sighed and sat down on the gray couch. She waved at the opposite armchair, but I shook my head. I preferred to stand. “I started to dig a little. This intersection has a disproportionately high incidence of accidents.”

“What kind of accidents?” I peered out the window again.

“All kinds. Collisions, pedestrians getting hit. Cyclists getting clipped.”

“Okay…”

“You think I’m ridiculous.”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I’m just wondering why you called in a necromancer. There isn’t a body to raise. I’m not sure how you expect me to help. This seems like more of a job for a generalized witch. The local coven might have someone they can refer.”

Though necromancers were derogatively referred to as bone witches, we got our own glamy subcategory due to where we drew our power from and our connection with the spirit realm. Generalized witches used spells and herbs and though they had magic in their blood, they weren’t connected to the veil. Their power was derived solely from the living realm.

Cathy nodded at my suggestion before responding. “There isn’t a body to raise, you’re right. But you don’t need to raise her. She’s already here. You can speak to her, right? I read that necromancers can see and speak to spirits.”

Technically, anyone could speak to a spirit, they just couldn’t see the spirits or hear their responses without the aid of a necromancer and that made conversation a little one-sided and difficult to navigate. But as a necromancer, I saw spirits regardless of whether they chose to be visible, and they also tended to be drawn to me. The death magic flowing in my veins made most spirits want to do whatever I asked.

Most.

A rampaging, murderous spirit from the last police case I consulted on had no qualms with ignoring me completely.

“That’s correct,” I answered, not bothering to get into the technicalities. “But without the bones, I can’t control her.”

“I don’t want you to control her. I just want you to talk to her and find out what she wants. Maybe she’ll move on without you having to assist her,” Cathy said. “Or maybe if we can find out who she is, we can locate her bones and help her to the veil that way.”

I sighed. Speaking to a spirit without control could be dangerous depending on the spirit, but it was worth finding out a bit more.

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