Page 49 of Necromancers Don't Raise

I stood very still, trying not to touch the statue any more than I already had, until the bidding ended and Mercury took the statue out of my hands and gave it to the shadows waiting behind him.

I flexed my fingers and dared look down to check if my skin had turned green or started to fall off. My hands looked perfectly fine. Maybe the statue was cursed with something innocent, like bad breath.

“Next up I have for purchase, the rare and precious lily of serenity,” he said, handing me a box no larger than my palm. He opened it and then I walked along the edge of the platform, showing the audience while he continued narrating. “Carved in jade by the legendary artisan Judga the Gnome, it was?—”

“Five hundred thousand,” a woman called loudly, interrupting his introduction.

“Six,” a man with dark blue skin on the other side said, frowning at the woman.

“Eight,” another woman in the back said, baring her teeth at both of the others. “I’ve waited eight centuries for the lily of peace. It is mine. If you bid on it, you die!”

“Miss Nova, shoot the one who threatens my other guests. Left thigh, if you would be so kind,” Mercury murmured.

I drew more slowly that time, grabbing my right gun, because I was still holding the lily of peace in my left.

I didn’t like shooting random people just because they were excited about the lily of peace, but I would earn my benefits. I shot her precisely in her left thigh, and she promptly collapsed. Directly afterwards, she exploded up in a cloud of dark smoke, but Bones was there to grab her throat and smash her against the floor before dragging her out, still a cloud of coalescing darkness floating around her.

“Nine hundred thousand,” the first woman said, continuing the bid as though there hadn’t been any interruption.

The rest of the auction was much less violent. Finally, Mercury raised my hand and turned it so my gems caught the light and shimmered splendidly.

“Finally, for our last auction, I have for you the Daphne collection of priceless jewels, long thought lost to time.”

“What about the blue diamond statue?” a man asked, stepping out of the shadows and shining like a golden beacon that made everyone else look particularly dark and evil in comparison. “I’d heard that it would be up for auction today.”

Philip? What was he doing here? I struggled to maintain my composure, but I was wearing the most shocking dress imaginable, and showing off a set of jewelry that I’d used to think nothing of buying if I happened to like, which I did. I felt poor, weak, and purchasable while he was a prince charming, above it all.

I swallowed hard. “Would you like me to shoot him?” I murmured.

Mercury’s hand tightened on mine, then he gave me a slight smile. “Very much, but he used to be a friend of yours, didn’t he?”

And he was a human in a crowd of monsters. What in the world was he doing here? I’d made a deal with him, trading information if I tried to convince Mercury to sell the statue.

“That’s right. Maybe you should sell the statue. It would be a much better finale piece than these gems.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “No, Miss Nova. This collection is worth far more than any cold and dead statue. We will continue the bidding,” he said, addressing the crowd. “Any more interruptions, and my lovely assistant will silence them.”

I swallowed hard. Was he talking about shooting to kill? Philip? Just for wanting to buy a statue of me? I couldn’t do it. I looked at Philip and tried to communicate as hard as possible that he wasn’t to speak.

“Six million,” he said with a flick of his fingers.

I stared at him. Now he was bidding on these jewels?

Philip winked at me, very blatantly. “Seven,” he said without waiting for anyone else to bid him up.

“Eight,” another man said, his face impossible to see inside the shadows of his cloak.

“Ten,” Philip said with another ridiculously charming smile at me.

It was the most unnerving thing in the world to see that smile directed at me when I’d known his charming smiles so well. This one was different, though. It felt vicious, angry, like he wanted me to fall for him so that he could crush me thoroughly. Philip wasn’t like that, absolutely not, but the way he was using his charm like a weapon…

I pulled my left pistol, and shot him, grazing his ear while the bullet struck the wall behind him.

It was silent for a moment while he reached up and touched his ear, rubbing his fingers together on the red stain without looking at the blood.

“Fifteen,” he said.

“Fifty million,” a thin man with small demonic horns said, smiling at me with sharp, horrifying teeth.

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