Jen Pretty

by Jen Pretty

nightclub. It couldn’t have been, but it looked like that

  woman.”

  Everyone was staring at me when I looked away from

  the TV.

  “Excuse me,” Peran said as he took out his phone and

  stepped back into the adjoining room, closing the door

  with a quiet click.

  Kai was still staring at me with a leery look like I might

  jump up and grab him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s just... there is a story the adults tell us as

  children.” He shook his head. “You can’t be her.”

  95

  “I can’t be who?” I asked, sitting forward. Kai leaned

  away from me, and I threw myself back at his reaction. It

  was like he feared me.

  “He thinks you are The Black Crow,” Nick said with

  a grin. He raised his glass like he was toasting me, then

  downed the last of his bloody drink.

  96

  CHAPTER NINE

  “What is a Black Crow?” I asked.

  Nick stood up and then flopped down on the bed

  beside me, his hands behind his head. “The Black Crow in

  mythology can summon the dead with a sweep of her hand.

  Her power is endless.”

  “I can’t summon the dead with a sweep of my hand,”

  I said.

  “Can you not? Have you tried?” Nick replied.

  I bit my lip, remembering the magic that flooded the

  graveyard when I ran from The Sanctuary.

  Peran came back from the other room. “Niri is on his

  way.”

  “Why?” I asked, not wanting to continue this

  conversation, but my mouth ran ahead of my brain.

  97

  “Because he thinks you are the Black Crow and if so,

  you need way more protection until you figure out how to

  use your magic.”

  “My magic raises wraiths. I know that” I said

  stubbornly.

  “For now,” He said with a grin. I was starting to dislike

  that grin of his.

  I tossed back the blankets and shut myself away in the

  bathroom. Their voices murmured still, but I ignored them

  and stared at my reflection in the mirror.

  I tucked my hair into the back of my hoodie, but it

  shone in the lights of the bathroom. I held out my hand

  and let a bit of magic seep through my skin. It glittered and

  flowed like a river that rose to the surface. I had no idea

  what normal was for a necromancer. Maybe I was weird,

  different. I pulled the magic back and watched it disappear

  under my skin. I saw a flicker in the corner of my eye and

  spun towards it. As I watched, a wraith floated up through

  the floor to materialize in front of me. The woman's lips

  moved, but I couldn’t hear her. Her mouth moved so fast.

  She waved her arms like she was trying to get me to

  understand, but I shook my head and backed away.

  Her face pleaded, and I watched as she fell to her knees

  in front of me. A tear rolled down her face, and I took

  98

  another step back. I hadn’t summoned her. She shouldn’t

  be here.

  I reached behind me and fumbled for the doorknob.

  My heart was pounding in my chest.

  “Nick,” I called, trying to get my hand to work on the

  knob while also keeping my eyes on the woman who was

  yelling now. There was no sound, but her features were

  angry and her mouth moved so fast. I closed my eyes and

  leaned against the door. “NICK!” I yelled. There was a

  banging on the door behind me, but I couldn’t get it open.

  Suddenly, hands grabbed me. I screamed and fought

  against them, my eyes still sealed shut.

  “It’s just me,” Kai said, scooping me up like I was a

  child and flashing me back into the main room. He set me

  on the bed and then grabbed Peran and disappeared with

  him.

  I covered my head with my arm and curled up on the

  bed. Nick reached out, and I felt the connection to him

  snap into place, and my breathing got a little easier until,

  from the bathroom, a woman's voice began to scream.

  “He has come! He has come!” I covered my ears and

  buried my face in Nick's chest. His arms wrapped around

  me and his hand ran in flat circles on my back. The

  screaming continued a moment longer and then stopped.

  99

  The sound of my laboured breathing was the only

  noise in the room. My heaving chest ached, but I forced

  my shaking hands off my ears and pushed up from Nick's

  chest.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered between pants. I covered my

  face as the tears fell. My nose ran too, and suddenly I was

  a hot mess. I pulled the collar of my hoodie up and wiped

  my face. Deep breaths hardly helped to slow my breathing,

  but I kept trying. Each shaky breath was a bit calmer than

  the one before it. Nick said nothing. He just kept rubbing

  my back. His strong arms were holding me together.

  The bathroom door clicked open, and Peran stepped

  out followed by Kai. They looked composed and normal,

  not hysterical. My heart sank further, and shame washed

  over me. I was weak. I tried to turn away, but Nick didn’t

  let go.

  “Let go,” I said.

  “There is nowhere to go, Selena. Just stay here a minute

  and calm down,” Nick said. Worry lined his face, not

  ridicule like I expected.

  “I’m not your Black Crow. I’m nobody,” I said, pulling

  away from him again. He let me go, but he was right, there

  was nowhere to go. I collapsed on the bed and hid my face

  in the pillow. The tang of blood reached my nose, and I

  knew that Peran had sent the wraith away with his blood.

  100

  I could have done the same if I had my knife and hadn’t

  panicked.

  Shit.

  I dragged the blanket up to my chin and crushed my

  eyes closed, begging my mind to stop and let me fall into

  oblivion. Long after the lights went out and the sound of

  the TV ceased, I finally fell into sleep.

  The smell of bacon and coffee woke me. I peeked an

  eye open, and another eye was inches from my face, I

  moved my head back a few inches, and Nick's face came

  into view. He smiled, and I groaned, burying my face in the

  pillow.

  “Come on, Selena. Time to get up. Big day ahead. City

  to see! Stuff to explore!” Nick was way too awake.

  I rolled over and scanned the room. The source of the

  delicious smells was a cart with a covered tray on it.

  “Is that for me?” I asked, still eying the cart.

  “Well, it's not for me,” he replied, chuckling.

  I rubbed my eyes and then pulled back the covers and

  stretched before stumbling across the room towards the

  prize.

  “Do vampires never eat?” I asked him as I uncovered

  the tray of breakfast foods. It was way too much for me to

  eat, but I grabbed a piece of bacon, shoving it in my mouth

  101

  and then the cup of coffee in one hand and a croissant in

  the other and moved back to the warm spot in the bed.

  “Some juvenile vampires eat food, mostly becau
se they

  need to sink their teeth into things, like a child who sucks

  their thumb, but adults rarely bother.”

  “How old are you?” I asked.

  “Thirty-two.”

  The sip of coffee I had just taken tried to squirt back

  out again. I coughed, and Nick patted my back.

  “I forget you don’t know anything about us. About me.

  It feels like I’ve always known you. We stop ageing at

  eighteen. Some of us luck out and look magnificent —

  others are not so lucky.” His crooked grin was back.

  I shook my head and took a bite of the croissant. It was

  light and buttery. I hummed my simple joy of a well-baked

  pastry, and Nick laughed.

  “I’m glad I'm not a vampire,” I said before taking

  another bite.

  The door between our room and Peran and Kai’s

  opened, and they both came in.

  “Hey, Selena. How are you feeling?” Peran asked.

  “I’m fine. I’m sorry about yesterday.”

  “No need to be sorry. Niri just arrived. He is on his

  way up,” Kai said, sitting on the end of the bed and turning

  on the TV. He always seemed to be watching the news. I

  102

  wasn’t sure if he was looking for something in particular or

  just like the news, but it was getting weird.

  I stuffed the last of my croissant into my mouth and

  then slid off the bed and grabbed some clean clothes out

  of my suitcase. I had a quick shower, singing a song in my

  head so I wouldn't think about what had happened here

  the night before. I didn’t wash my hair, it was fine. I got

  into the clean clothes, and when I stepped back out, the

  jolly old wizard was standing in my room.

  “Hello, Selena. I love that you think of me as jolly,” he

  said, smiling, and I remembered he could read my mind.

  Shit.

  He chuckled. “I just wanted to have a chat with you.

  Maybe we could go somewhere a little quieter? Would that

  be all right?”

  I chewed on my lip but nodded.

  He set his arm on my shoulder, and the world went

  sideways. Before I could blink, we were in a graveyard,

  headstones lining the hills as far as I could see in every

  direction.

  Niri strolled forward at a leisurely pace along a pebbled

  path. The sun was hot on my skin, reminding me of old

  summers when I would spend the day in the cemetery. I

  found peace among the graves. The crunch of pebbles and

  the song of the birds were the only sounds for a while until

  103

  we came to a grave, it was unmarked, but for a small stone

  that peeked out of the ground. My magic wanted to spill

  out and touch the soul beneath the grass, but I dared not.

  Niri crouched down, his old bones creaking. He dusted

  away the dirt and grass clippings from the marker. It said

  Johnny Doe, with a date.

  My heart began to race.

  “He was the first that Peran raised. The first victim.”

  Niri said.

  I wanted to run. To leave the cemetery and never

  return.

  Niri straightened and then his gaze shifted from the

  small marker to me. “Peran found his killer, but not the

  boy's name. The boy had been with the man for so long,

  he couldn't remember his own name.”

  “I can’t,” I said, taking a step backwards.

  “I’m not asking you to do anything. I just want to start

  a conversation with you,” he said, his eyes shifting back to

  the grave. “Peran had nightmares for months. I think he

  would not want to come back to this place even now if he

  had a choice. But when we caught the man who killed him,

  he had another boy locked in his basement. That boy was

  only four years old. That boy went home to his mother.”

  A tear stung my eye then slipped down my cheek.

  “Tell me about the wraith you saw last night,” he said.

  104

  “The woman was screaming. I didn't give her my

  blood, so she was silent, but I hadn’t raised her. She just

  came to me. I think I might have seen her earlier at the

  nightclub.” I tipped my face up to the sky to stop the tears.

  “She came to you,” he repeated.

  “I think so. How else would she have appeared?” I

  asked.

  He just nodded instead of answering. There was no

  other way for her to appear. A wraith needed necromancer

  magic. Usually, I had to give it to them, but something was

  different now.

  A loud caw split the air, startling me out of my

  thoughts.

  “So, it has come,” Niri said.

  I was about to ask him what he was talking about when

  a big black crow soared down from the trees and dove

  straight for me. I had no time to react; it hit my stomach

  like a freight train and disappeared in a blast of ebony

  feathers. I choked and coughed, doubled over with the

  wind knocked out of me. I couldn’t catch my breath, I just

  gasped like a fish on dry land.

  I coughed so hard, my eyes watered, and my lungs

  burned. I sucked in the first full breath and coughed one

  last time, feeling like my lungs were coming out through

  my mouth. I reached up and pulled a long midnight black

  105

  feather from my throat, then promptly vomited in the

  grass.

  When I finished heaving, I pushed myself over

  backwards and lay in the grass with my eyes closed. The

  sun burned on my eyelids as I lay catching my breath for a

  minute.

  “What just happened?” I wheezed, rolling my eyes to

  the side to get a look at Niri. His face was a look of

  amazement.

  “You are the one,” he whispered. “The Black Crow.”

  “Shit.”

  I closed my eyes again and just let my mind settle.

  Magic was a part of my life, but apparently, now it was my

  life. Warlocks and vampires and stupid birds.

  Magic swirled, and I tried to clamp it down, but it

  pressed at my skin. At first, it was testing, like a shark

  bouncing off the cage the divers were in, but then it pushed

  harder until it felt like my skin would split and my insides

  would burst out. I tried to hold on, but it was no use. An

  invisible force lifted me to my feet as the magic burst out.

  Dam broken, glittery blue waves rocked from my

  hands and out in an ever-growing circle around me. I heard

  a crow calling as my magic reached the limits of my sight.

  Then I heard a whisper. It was a quiet voice I could barely

  hear over the rising racket of the crow.

  106

  Someone was calling to me — from beyond the grave.

  107

  CHAPTER TEN

  Niri took several steps back, his look of awe, morphing

  to worry.

  “Perhaps this isn’t the best time to raise them all?” he

  said like I controlled the magic right now.

  I ignored him and focused in on the single voice that

  was calling me.

  “Please, you have to help me!” It whispered.

  I spun towards the sound of the voice. It was coming

  from th
e farthest reaches of the graveyard. I squinted my

  eyes, blinking into the sun. I could see a shape. The magic

  drew back into my body and pushed my legs to move.

  I sprinted, leaving Niri behind. My legs raced across

  the sloping grounds, weaving between gravestones and

  past shrubbery, to get to the one I needed to talk to.

  My heart jumped in my chest as the figure came into

  view. It was a young woman, standing on freshly turned

  108

  soil. I skidded to a stop. Her face was a ruin. Tear streaks

  cut through the bloodstains on her face. Her mouth was

  open in a silent scream. Shaking my head, I tried to turn

  around, but the magic held me like my feet had become

  stuck to the grass. I struggled to get away, thrashing my

  arms to keep from falling, my eyes locked on the terrified,

  bloody woman.

  “I can’t,” I screamed, and I heard a Crow caw. He

  swooped down from a tree landing beside me, then

  hopped two steps forward. He bobbed his head and cawed

  at the woman, and she closed her mouth. Her face relaxed,

  and she floated like a calm wraith except for the blood on

  her face.

  Niri sifted in beside me, his hand extended. I looked

  down to find a pocket knife folded in his palm. I looked

  back at the woman; her face calm, her mouth closed, her

  eyes blinking at me and I took the knife.

  The crow cawed and hopped towards me. He stayed at

  my side as I stepped towards the grave. His black feathers

  glittered in the sun and ruffled in the light breeze. My magic

  had pulled tight, so it was just surrounding me and the

  rectangular dirt patch before me.

  She waited patiently; her face still relaxed. I stepped

  onto the dirt, and the bird joined me. He pulled a worm

  109

  from the turned ground and ate it with a few quick snaps

  of his beak.

  Gross.

  I looked back at the wraith. Her form settled on the

  dirt like most did when I raised them. I knelt before her, as

  far as I could get while still kneeling in the dirt and I

  fumbled open the knife. Her eyes watched my hands

  patiently.

  With the pocket knife opened, I took a deep breath and

  pushed up my sleeve. A shiver ran down my spine in

  anticipation. My magic froze and waited for its chance to