Page 5 of Death Raiser

“Someone cut out her tongue.” My stomach twisted in a knot. I glanced down at her physical remains. Due to the level of decomposition and the impact of scavengers on her body, the coroner wouldn’t have picked up this detail—at least not here at the crime scene. A full autopsy might’ve revealed the information, but it was doubtful. “Amy…can you give us any hint to who did this?”

Amy continued to wail. She turned to run away, but my magic held her in place. The knot in my stomach tightened. This wasn’t right. I shouldn’t be holding her. Amy needed to find peace. She deserved it.

The spirit stopped running, and the wailing stopped. She swayed back and forth some more, rubbing her arms.

“Who are you running from Amy?” I asked.

She shook her head, back and forth.

“Who did this to you?”

Amy finally looked up, her hair falling to the side to reveal white eyes that had glazed over. Her cheeks were hollowed out as if starved before she died. She met my gaze and screamed.

I flinched and leaned away.

Amy kept screeching, the pitch high in the air and eardrum-shattering. Her death energy pulled at my control.

“Lark?” Kang shouted. “Let her go, Lark.”

“Why are you yelling?” Jacobs whispered.

Wincing under the sheer volume of screams, I gathered my magic and mumbled the incantation to banish Amy’s spirit back to the veil.

The wailing stopped, fading away into the night, replaced with the low rumble of conversations and the crunch of boots on the path.

I blinked open my eyes. I had somehow ended up sprawled on the ground, halfway between kneeling and laying on my side.

Kang walked over to me and held out his hand. “Here.”

I reached up and grabbed it, letting him haul me to my feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked for the second time since I arrived at the crime scene.

“I will be.”

He didn’t let go right away. Instead, he stayed still, only inches away and studied my face. His subtle cologne wrapped around me, and I tried desperately to ignore how good he smelled.

“Are you smelling me?” His lips quirked up at the corners.

I totally was. God, he smelled good. I shook my head and stepped back, pulling my hand from his warm grasp. “I see you’re still delusional.”

Kang smirked and turned to Jacobs. “Not sure where we can go from here. The lack of evidence surrounding the body suggests she was dumped shortly after death, but we’ll have to wait until forensics finishes their investigation and issues their formal report.”

Jacob sighed. “I guess we’re going to have to canvas the area. See if anyone saw anything suspicious.”

Kang grunted.

“Did she say anything useful?” Jacobs asked.

Kang opened his mouth to say something, but I stepped in. “Not really. She screamed and tried to run away. Her appearance was also very gaunt and she was covered in dirt and scratches. I suspect she had been starving prior to her death.”

Kang nodded at me.

When Kang confirmed he wasn’t quite the drab he presented himself to be, I’d asked him who else knew. Apparently, only his partner Jacobs. Nobody else suspected, or if they did, they wisely kept it to themselves. Hell, it took me six years to figure it out. We needed to keep this act up for all the other officers and forensic analysts milling around the edges of the crime scene or Kang would lose his job.

“That gives us something. The killer is smart enough to anticipate a necromancer and cut out the tongue,” Jacobs said.

“Shouldn’t everyone anticipate a necromancer?” I asked. “It’s not like necromancers working for the police is new.”

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