Page 4 of Amethyst and Iron
Time had beenof the essence, but I’d managed to get as many pertinent details as possible from Reese. It just bothered me that I hadn’t been able to run a check on him personally.
I’d run a trace using necromantic spellwork and determined that the dead were most definitely being raised at Glasswake Settlement.
By black magic users.
I’d sent him away to seek safety while I dealt with it. I couldn’t have him getting in the way. I couldn’t have anyone.
And now here I was, having just teleported to the edge of the settlement.
A shudder rolled through me as I felt and tasted that awful acrid shit of black magic usage, much more potently than I had before on Reese. He’d just been touched by it, sort of like a second-hand connection to it.
But this… it was fucking everywhere.
And it didn’t just make me recoil from the despicable and violating nature of that sort of dangerous magic alone.
I was tied to it personally, familiar with the taste and feel of it through my father.
That old bastard was long dead now.
Morien Morgrave. He’d thought himself the Almighty Necromancer, too. The difference was that I lived up to that title and I’d proven it over and over. I’d begun my studies as a young boy and I’d been obsessive about it as well. But he’d taken another path entirely—shortcuts by delving into black magic.
It had cost him his family, his reputation, and his very life.
So, yeah, whenever I felt that shit, I had a very visceral reaction to it.
Other than being strategically sound, it was another reason why I’d teleported to the outer rim of the area. To get a handle on it and bury—pun intended—the personal sentiment attached to it. Volatile emotions when going into battle and wielding the type of power that I did were highly detrimental.
I swallowed it down and took in the self-sustaining supernatural haven up ahead.
Modern cottages, minimalist cabins, domed garden homes, and even curved structures. The scattered dwellings were woven naturally into the woods and mountainside near a misty stream. Pathways were softly illuminated by floating lanterns.
I upturned my palms, my crimson magic glowing as I employed Soul Track—my ability to locate active souls.
The moment I located a true living being, a flickering outline would appear, even through the dozen structures up ahead. There were forty beings living in this community so far, with more slated to join shortly and expand the settlement.
I frowned as nothing flickered at all.
I pulled harder, thinking that the toxicity of the black magic in the air had impacted me somewhat.
Nothing.
Still no flickers.
No active souls at all.
Had they all escaped before I’d arrived?
Or so much worse—had they all perished?
No. That couldn’t be. These beings weren’t helpless in the least. They had the means to defend themselves, at least for a time. Where the rising dead were concerned, unless they were put back down properly, they would continue on and on,exhausting anyone who was battling against an attack from them. But this quickly? It didn’t make sense.
Reese had told me that this attack had only begun a half hour ago.
Something caught my eye through the darkened areas near the houses themselves. All the lights were off and the lanterns lighting the pathways didn’t draw close enough to assist with visibility without that in play.
Irregular, dragging movements.
Grunting and groaning.
