Page 29 of Necromancers Don't Raise

Chapter

Nine

“Bones, I need to go shopping,” I said, reaching forward to put a hand on his shoulder. “In Apple City. Can we get there through the house? There are doors that go out both ways, but can the garage?”

“Of course, miss. You need to go shopping now? What for?”

“I need clothing to go out to eat in. The air conditioning makes me very cold, so I need something with long sleeves.” Would he question my sudden shopping emergency? I was questioning it. I really, really didn’t want to face my mother like this.

“There’s a good clothing shop in Singsong. I can show you,” he said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror with a manic smile.

I smiled back wanly. I was demonic. I needed more information, and I didn’t know where else to go for it. “It’s a particular shop that caters to cold arms. Maybe you can take me to your favorite shop later.”

“Of course, Miss Nova. And we’ll go directly home before we go shopping, just like Master told us.”

“Exactly. You might have to help guard the dressing room. I wouldn’t want anyone to come in and disturb me while I’m trying on clothes. And what if there was an attack? Can you protect me, Bones?”

“Of course, Miss Nova. Master wouldn’t have left you with me if he didn’t trust me.”

“Excellent. Bones, I rely on you.” I sank against the seat and rubbed my arm. Someone knew who I was. My mother knew me better than anyone else. Had she seen through the new me and sent someone to verify her suspicions? No, of course not, except that if she knew I was demonic and goblin, she’d know that I could regenerate and it wouldn’t be a shock for her to know that I was alive. Who else could I ask about this new, horrifying development? She’d always kept me so safe, so carefully untouched. She’d have to know that I was alive if I was going to get some answers. I couldn’t just let being demonic go. I couldn’t let the lies she’d told me rest, not when there might be other truths that would devastate what I was trying to make of my life. And Mercury. Something might follow me to his home and destroy it all, like all those people had been destroyed in the fire.

Every month, this week, day, and time, she went to Fatima’s, where she’d try on that month’s additions to her ever-evolving wardrobe. She’d never let something like my death keep her from looking amazing. Fatima was her personal shopper, but she also kept an assortment of high-end garments for her other clients in her very select boutique.

Bones pulled into the garage back at Mercury’s house in Singsong, down in the undercity next to an ominous, large stone building. There was a sign, ‘Antiquities,’ above the large gate of the next door building. Was that Mercury’s business? I knew nothing about it, but I would as soon as I stopped drowningin shock and started building my future. And after I found my killer.

When we entered the garage, the doors came down, and we sat in silence for a moment before the garage door came up, and he backed out on a different street in Apple city instead of Singsong. Some magic was simply so incredibly useful.

We drove down narrow streets through a part of Apple City I rarely went through. After a district of ominous mansions, we got to a neighborhood that was visibly magical, elven towers mixed with fairy gingerbread, and all of it bright and sparkling. This was the pretty side of magic.

“Take this corner,” I said, pointing right.

“Of course, Miss Nova.” He took the corner too fast, but didn’t hit anything. He was either a very good driver, or very lucky.

When we got to the shop, I had him park in the underground lot next to my mother’s black sedan, the one where her driver was writing his great novel while he waited for her.

Good old Murphy. I waited for Bones to open the door for me, then took his hand and smiled at him while he helped me out. His cool dry skin was starting to be normal to me. I led the way to the elevator, waving at Murphy as we passed him. He didn’t see us. He was immersed in his magnum opus and didn’t have time for the dead or the demonic.

I shivered and then squeezed Bones’s hand while we waited for the elevator.

“Miss Nova? Do you think you’ll fall over?” he asked in concern as he studied my hand gripping his.

“Bones, do you know any demonic people?”

“Demons or partially demonic people?”

The elevator door opened, and we stepped inside. I dropped his hand and rubbed my pale, bare arms. “Either?”

“Well, there are a few lesser demons in Singsong City, but not many. Mostly incubi and succubi. There are however, many more with a thread of demonic from the time when full-blood upper level demons waged war on earth.”

The elevator opened into Fatima’s very classy studio, muted walls, muted lighting, except for a few spotlights on dresses that were the height of conservative chic in black, navy, and gray. It didn’t seem like demons could possibly exist in a place like this, but here I was. Fatima’s was slightly too classic for me, but my mother assured me that I’d be grateful for the flattering cut that gave the figure some leeway when I was older. Now I wasn’t sure I was getting older.

Where did that leave me? Walking through the shop towards the back, edging around the clothing displays so the bodyguards didn’t notice us. When they did, I darted forward, with Bones keeping up until I reached the dressing room.

I whirled around and smiled up at the butler. “Keep them out, okay? But don’t rip off anyone’s arms.”

I dodged through the door while Sissy’s outrage followed me. Cecilia Sinterra was not to be trifled with. And here I was, trifling. I leaned on the door and turned to find my mother in a nude slip, looking at me with amazement on her face. Had the nervy girl who kissed at funerals really broken into the respectable dusty-blue dressing room?

I stared at her for another beat while I gathered my nerve. How in the world could I get someone so notoriously strong-willed to admit to connections to demons, goblins, and who knows what else?

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