Page 2 of Jacinth

The crying man—Skyler?—cast vacant eyes toward the new arrival. “She’s here. I know she is, Orion. Where is Niko? He should be here too.”

Orion didn’t look like he was in the mood to have a discussion of any sort, and I watched curiously as he attempted to shepherd the snotty crier from the gravesite with a tight smile for Birdie.

With a lunge, Skyler grasped the amulet, ripped it from Orion’s neck, and thrust it into Birdie’s hands.

“No!” Orion shouted, and lurched to reclaim the obviously valuable piece.

“Twenty-four hours,” Skyler said, holding a hand out. “Twenty-four hours and everything will change.”

He turned back to Birdie.

“You need to give it to Jacinth.”

CHAPTER 2

Orion

Twenty-four hours without my amulet.

I would ask if my brother was insane, but... yeah, we already knew that. This was the most lucid I had seen him for a while, and that fact alone had me considering his request.

Without the contact of the amulet on my skin, the protective runes I had tattooed from neck to knee began to buzz. Too many spirits, too much demand.

I was the most powerful necromancer in history, and what my dear, deluded brother failed to realize was that I needed that amulet to siphon off excess power. Without it for too long and I was likely to accidentally reanimate this entire cemetery, or worse, resurrect them.

I had fucked with fate one too many times, and those women were not the sort whose shit list you wanted your name attached to. Most people feared the crone, but the maiden was always the one who made my skin crawl. She always seemed to be hiding shit beneath that virginal, innocent bullshit act.

Skyler’s eyes slipped over my shoulder and lost focus once more. Shit. I had to get him home before he hurt himself.

“Be here at midnight tomorrow. That does not go to anyone else. Don’t use it. Don’t be stupid. If you aren’t here, you will be the next resident of this place.” I pinned her with my best glower and hoped she understood how serious I was. Waiting only long enough to see her nod, I grabbed my brother and got the hell out of there.

“This is a bad idea. This is such a bad idea,” I muttered all the way home.

The house we had leased for the time being was only a few blocks’ walk from the cemetery. In hindsight, that was a mistake on my part. Between the schizophrenic and the drunk, I should have considered that the proximity to the dead would be a bad thing.

Speaking of... as we pushed through the front door, my foot connected with a body that reeked of bourbon and bad choices.

“Niko.” I nudged him with a toe and received a grunt for my effort.

I headed toward the kitchen, dodging boxes we hadn’t bothered to unpack yet. I hated the untidiness. It made me itch.

“Niko.” I tried again and dumped an unresponsive Skyler into the nearest chair.

There was a rustling, heavy footsteps, and then Niko slumped through the doorway, headed straight for the kitchen bench.

“He was in the cemetery, harassing people,” I said, moving a bottle of vodka away from his grasping hand. “You had one job. Watch him while I showered. And you couldn’t even do that.”

Bloodshot eyes met mine. One ice blue, the other the same deep brown I saw in the mirror.

“Extenuating circumstances.”

This was not the time. We had moved to Silver Springs only a week ago, the move motivated by Skyler’s insistence that we were supposed to be here. It had taken us a while to get sorted for the move. Sky had been wild with worry that we were out of time and some devastating deadline had passed.

Eight months ago, he had almost killed a man. Out of the blue, he attacked the guy, screaming he had “killed her.” We never found out who “her” was, but the end result had been me on clean up. Kill the guy, quick resurrection: no harm, no foul. But it was then the obsession about moving to Silver Springs had begun.

“Where’s your necklace?” Niko asked, his eyes sharpening.

“Amulet,” I corrected.

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