Page 47 of Grave Situation

“Because he’s here. Ten feet away. Still with his throat open.” His head rolls slightly, and my stomach heaves. “Even more open now.”

Every hair on my body stands on end.

Then horror strikes, and I spin and take the three strides to get to Jaimin’s tent, terrified by what I might find.

But nothing’s changed. The dead man is still dead. Jaimin is still huddled, breathing in painful gasps. I brighten the light a little, kneeling to examine the dead man more closely. His wound looks the same, though I didn’t see it all that well before, anyway. He looks… human. Hesitantly, I reach out and check for a pulse. Nothing. Do zombies even have a pulse?

Not for the first time, I curse the ancestors who decided lack of knowledge would prevent stupidity.

“What are you doing?” Jaimin wheezes.

“At least one of the ones outside is a zombie.” Shit, I’ve left Tia alone with them. As I scoot backward, I run into something solid.

“Watch it,” my sister snaps, and I relax, glancing up. She’s got her back to me, blades in hands, attention focused on the rest of the clearing as she guards us. “Is he okay?”

Blinking, I glance back at the dead man before I realize she means Jaimin. “Working on that,” I reply. “Have any of the rest risen… or risen again?”

“No. I dismembered the first one. It won’t stop it, but it’ll do while we make a plan.”

We don’t have a lot of options.

“Not a zombie,” Jaimin says, and I turn my attention to him. His breathing seems to be a little easier, but his face is still tense with pain.

“How do you know?”

He slowly lifts his hand, wincing, and taps his temple. “Feels different. That’s what woke me. People that felt wrong.” A slight shake of the head. “Not him. He was human.”

“Talon,” Tia warns. I peek over my shoulder and see some of the bodies stirring.

“I’ll be back,” I tell Jaimin, removing the telekinetic shield. I’m going to need that energy. “Let me out, Tia.”

She shifts a step sideways, and I wriggle past her and stand. Two of the men are now on their feet, at least three more moving. The two standing are easy to identify as zombies now—one’s missing an arm, and one has a gaping wound in its chest, but neither seems to notice their injuries. They’re not in pain, not confused—just intent on us as they stride forward.

I brace myself and hit them both with magefire.

It engulfs them instantly, but they keep walking, and it’s a fight not to take my eyes off them. I’m going to be seeing this in nightmares for the rest of my life.

They’re two feet away before their legs fail and they collapse to the ground, the magefire eating every trace of them, reducing them to ashes and those ashes to dust. I watch grimly until the last spark is extinguished, then raise my gaze to the others. Two more are on their feet. One’s staggering, and I’m not sure if it’s because it can feel the wound in its thigh or because Tia’s severed something important, but that doesn’t matter. I shoot magefire at both of them.

There’s movement behind me as I burn another zombie as it rises. No wounded human could move that smoothly.

“Talon?” Jaimin murmurs just as I feel his warm presence at my back. “Let me pass. I’ll check the rest.”

I move so he can come up beside me, but then fall into step with him, Tia at my other side. “We’ll come with you. We need to take care of them all, anyway.” Bile rises in my throat as I realize how easily I’ve warped the meaning of “take care of.”

We move swiftly around the clearing, Tia keeping an eye on the burning zombies as Jaimin glances at each of the remaining seven men, pronouncing them either human or not. I mostly didn’t need his help—the ones that aren’t zombies seem to be actually dead—but I obediently wait for his pronouncement before striking the zombies with magefire.

The last body we stop beside is the man who tried to kill me. Jaimin, swaying slightly, frowns down at him. “He’s human, and definitely dead. I can’t work out how, though. There’s not a wound on him.”

“Heart attack?” Tia suggests, not bothering to turn around and look.

Jaimin slowly shakes his head. “No. His heart’s healthy. Talon, how did you kill him?”

I shrug uncomfortably. “I don’t know. I wasn’t fully awake yet. My magic was involved, but that’s all I can tell you.”

He raises a troubled gaze to study me, and I resist the urge to squirm.

Overhead, Leicht continues to circle, keeping watch for further danger.

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