Page 69 of Necromancers Don't Raise

“I’ll call you again tonight, after dinner.”

“Dinner? With the necromancer? Don’t you know he has zombie rats with him wherever he goes? You shake his hand, and you find teeth buried in your palm, desiccated, rotting, virulent teeth.”

“He has a few undead rats, all right, more than a few, but he also has live ones. The dead ones don’t ever bother me, but Vanilla is so sweet. She snuggles all the time.”

“You have a rat? Look at you, getting a familiar like a real magic user. So, what’s it like to be dead?”

“I don’t know. I’m completely reanimated.”

“The Necromancer’s that good? Did he stow your soul into that cabaret dancer’s body?”

“Why does everyone think that? No. This is me without surgery. Pretty, right?”

She gasped a little, then laughed out loud. “And you want to look into your mother? So it really was foul play?”

“Yes. The video of me chasing the cat back into the fire was completely fabricated. I wasn’t there during the fire.”

“It was a coverup? Like the fire at your grandparent’s house? The plot thickens! OMG, this is just like that episode onDetective Warlockwhere the ghoul was murdered and they had to lay to rest…I mean, it’s not just like that, because there was no heiress, but it’s close enough. And you got to meet the cast. I mean, did you?”

“I don’t remember anything past the train. But I did interview Winston.” I wrinkled my nose. She’d really get a kick out of my humiliation, and I was willing to humor her. “I wasbeing fitted for the dress of shame and wearing the most garish underwear known to man. Tie-died leopard print. Fuchsia.”

She almost died laughing, while I almost died from embarrassment. Happily, I was in a Necromancer’s office, and Mercury had promised to bring me back if I died more permanently. We were courting. He liked me, and not because I looked perfect, or was an heiress, but just for me.

I gave her the credit card number. She promised to charge an exorbitant fee, and with that, I was left alone to sink back into my thoughts. Did my mother kill that girl to take her life? Why do that if she was going to be a human rights activist? Was it guilt? No. It was conviction, not guilt.

“Miss Nova?” Bones murmured, breaking through my thoughts as he peered in the door.

I got up and smiled at him. “Is Mercury home?”

“No, you’re going to meet him for dinner. Don’t you remember?” He looked so concerned, like I’d suddenly had a bout of amnesia.

I laughed and skipped over to him, giving him a long hug, before I pulled back to beam at him. “Of course I remember you, Bones. I’ll always remember you.”

He smiled back at me brightly. “Did you find the book you wanted?”

“Oh. No, I guess I did forget something. Perhaps I’ll go to the bookstore with Mercury after dinner.”

He patted my hand and walked with me down the stairs and through a door that led directly to the garage. He kept glancing at me, like he could see through my manic smile.

When we pulled up outside the familiar restaurant in Apple City, my heart lurched and fell down into my stomach. Les Garçon was the restaurant where Philip and I had celebrated our engagement with my parents. We came back every year on thesame day. And now I was coming here with Mercury for our first date? It would be fine. No one would recognize me like this.

The door opened, and there was Mercury, offering me a hand, his eyes flickering with lightning as he helped me out. The rest of the world faded away when his eyes met mine and my heart expanded back into the right place and my skin tingled.

“Hi,” I said shyly, as I stood there on the pavement, my heart fluttering with hope and nerves. I wasn’t Cassandra Clarence anymore, just bare, raw imperfection.

“You look magnificent,” he said, taking my hand and raising it slowly to his soft lips.

A rush of goosebumps went over me when he finally made contact, the barest brush of skin against skin, but that made me want to be carried away somewhere close and soft, warm and sweet.

I shook my head and resisted the urge to hide my face in his suit. “Don’t say that. I want you to like me even when I look horrible.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked at me quizzically. “I like you even when you look horrible, mutilated, undead, but I prefer you this way, healthy, happy…Are you happy, Miss Nova?”

I swallowed hard while I stared into those eyes, gazing up at him, lost in his absolute splendor. “I’m happy with you. Whether you like me or not, I’m happy with you. I always have been, even when I was mutilated, undead…”

He pulled me against him tightly for a moment, inhaling my hair deeply. “Let’s not talk about that anymore. It makes me queasy. I like you more than is healthy, Miss Nova. You are my heart, my soul, my beating wings that lift me from an eternity of madness and despair into heaven,” he murmured, his low voice sending a shiver down my spine. He pressed his lips to my hair and then stepped back, folded my hand over his arm, and led me towards the beautiful restaurant.

Maybe I should mention that I came here to celebrate my engagement, but I’d rather cut off my fingers. They’d grow back, but we’d only have our first date once. Maybe it wasn’t as romantic as some places, but the food was incredibly good and it was the perfect place to announce a merger. People who went there had money, were serious about showing it off, and also cared deeply about the quality of the food. Some places were more expensive but had less care for flavor and freshness. Philip had taken me to a place like that to propose. Very sparkly, a view overlooking the city and the bay, stars gleaming overhead, and then the fireworks. We’d had our own private balcony, still in view of other diners, so they could admire us, but overall…

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