by J M Thomas
“Look, I ‘ave a fing or two I ‘ave to face when we get across the pond. Not everyfink about going ‘ome is what I’m looking forward to, if I’m honest. Kinda like you comin’ ‘ome, prolly worse. But if you and me are going to be summat, we got to face our pasts, ain’t we? And I ‘appen to be able to ‘elp you wiv yours, if you’re willing.”
“Oh Aeron!” I dove into his arms, simultaneously thrilled and terrified at the possibility of what he was about to do for me. “Only if you’re willing to let me help you face yours, too. This is an incredible, thoughtful gift.”
“It’s a deal.” He smiled, his index finger brushing my dimple. “Now, you can’t see or ‘ear, and I’m shit for speaking, but… fink about what you want to say, and I’ll make sure ‘ey can ‘ear you.” He pulled a pair of stud earrings from the box, checking the backs, then a hair from the hairbrush, cupping them in his palms. “Is’ll do.”
I hugged him tight as he jerked slightly beneath my grasp. He mumbled the incantation, a thin, controlled line of blood pooling around the objects in his hands before disappearing into the air.
The wind whipped the surrounding trees, blades of grass laying over in a spiral edging toward where we stood.
“They’re ‘ere,” Aeron whispered, eerily still.
“Hey, guys,” I said with a little wave and a smile. “I miss you.” Emotion choked me up for a second, then I felt terribly awkward, talking to the stars like that.
Aeron nodded at me to continue.
“I, uh… I’m going to be leaving here today, with this guy. We make a great team, and I like him a lot. Yeah, even better, I love him, warts and all. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us. I just…” I swallowed hard, swiping at my eyes. “I just wish the future held you guys, too. Dang, I miss you.”
I gave Aeron a little wave, and he turned his palms over, slapping them against the ground. “They rest,” he said, as if it was that simple. To hear him say it like that… I wanted to believe things would always be this simple. While my soul was heavy, they rested.
Aeron eased himself down to sitting on the quilt, then patted the blanket for me to join him.
Throat still aching with emotion, I clambered onto the soft quilt and tucked myself close to his side as the night grew still around us. Things quieted down, the night creatures resuming their rhythm as if they’d never been disturbed. I sniffled once, then wiped my eyes. “That was so sweet of you, Aeron. Thanks.”
“You mean what you say?” His voice was soft, gentle, and a little husky with the night air.
I leaned against his chest where his heart thudded against his ribs. “Always. Which thing are you asking about, specifically?”
He remained silent a few beats. “That you love me.”
I tilted his head downward so he had to meet my gaze. “Absolutely. I love you, and I can’t wait to get to London with you and take on the whole world by your side.”
“Well, then.” Aeron’s grin split his cheeks. He barely got his lips down again in time to kiss me. “I love you, Celeste Grantham per’aps someday Lyons. You brave fucker.”
“Careful what you wish for.” I kissed the side of his mouth before straightening again. “You never know what you’re gonna get.”
“‘At’s noted.” His arms encompassed me, holding me close. “You ready for the morning?”
“Definitely. You?”
“Yeah. Shit, I was ready to grow old wiv you the minute you said yes to a curry.”
I’d meant those words to ask whether he’d finished packing up, but this was more than I could’ve hoped for.
He was silent a minute, like there was more he was considering, so I held my tongue. Finally, he continued, “I’ve been on pins and needles this ‘ole time for fear I’d fuck up and lose you. At hospital, I kept telling myself, ‘now, now’s the time I’ll send you on your way to ‘ave a life you’ll truly love.’ Then I worked up the courage to do it, and you called my bluff on the spot, di’n’t ya?”
I laid my head back on his chest, the night song and his warmth lulling me. “How’s that, do you think?”
“How’s what?” His chest vibrated with his voice.
“How’d you know you and me were gonna be a thing? I was just over here slowly realizing I’d rather spend all my moments with you, and slowly understood that feeling wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.” My eyelids fluttered shut, contentment relaxing my body even as my mind spun with possibilities.
“Dunno.” He squeezed me with one arm. “But ‘ere we are, and I knows it. I knows this is the best way to be—you, me, ‘oldin’ on to each ovver frough whatever comes. Sort of like ‘at cheesy song you were butcherin’ whilst ‘at watchling ‘anded my arse to me on a platter.”
I flicked his thigh. “Hey, I thought I did pretty good!”
Aeron mock shuddered, a twinkle in his eyes. “You can sing to me anytime you like. But keep your day job, eh?”
I gave him a playful smack, and he pretended it actually did anything. “‘Oi! It’s better ‘an I could’ve done as an astral projection of meself.” He kissed my head again, then my lips. “I guess it’s time we be gettin’ you back to your room, innit?”
Something in his voice tipped me off. I narrowed my eyes. “What have my brothers been up to while we’ve been out here?”
Aeron’s shrug didn’t convince me in the slightest.
Chapter 37 – Can Seal It
One week later
“Aeron Lyons, you lucky bastard!”
The fellow we’d come all this way to meet looked every bit like a scholar and not one bit like a necromancer. He wore round, wire-rimmed glasses over his long face. His wavy, thinning white hair wouldn’t quite stay in place, though he ran his hand through it twice before we’d even gotten through the greetings. He shook my hand with a firm grip, then hooked one thumb into the pocket of a knit vest over his pale blue long-sleeved shirt and pleated dress pants.
“Been a minute, innit?” Aeron accepted the man’s hearty slap on his back and returned one in kind before pivoting to introduce the older man to me. “Celeste, this man taught me nearly every fucking fing I knows about magic, and one or two life lessons in ‘ere as well. Professor Kearney, Celeste.”
“And the list of things she teaches you will soon be much longer than the one I racked up, I assure you!” His voice boomed as if he was far more accustomed to a lecture hall than to a small office. “But first, let us get business out of the way.”
Kearney gestured to a pair of leather armchairs, and we sank readily into them, Aeron still a little careful when he bent his knee that far.
“You still have a bit of a bum leg there, my boy.” Kearney pointed. “Have you kept limber?”
Aeron clasped his hands in his lap and nodded like a schoolboy. “Yeah, doc says I’ll be up to takin’ on the world in anovver two weeks. Weight bearin’s good, just need a bit more range in ‘at knee.”
“Well, that’s pushing things a bit, but I suppose we can arrange briefings before you’re required to have full motion.” Professor Kearney pulled a binder from his long wall of dark-stained bookshelves. He took his own seat behind a polished mahogany desk before continuing.
“I believe your recent acquisition will be of some use here, actually. Seeing as it’s fairly difficult to find believable covers for one of your… shall we say, bearing and manners, you’ll simply be going along as the ‘plus one’ on this one.” He thumbed through the file. “It should afford you additional liberty to carry out your duties as assigned.”
Aeron blinked twice, leaning forward in his chair.
I grinned, leaning back in mine. “The server.”
“Ah, she is a clever one!” Kearney gave me a familiar finger wag, his warm smile displacing long wrinkles on his face. “Indeed. Research, testing our new additions to the server, conducting interviews. Meanwhile, Aeron will be along to network and prepare the community for their prophecy.”
He handed a yellow manila envelope to Aeron. The younger man
accepted it with a nod, but made no move to open it.
I grinned. “It’ll be great to get back in the field again. I’ve gotten used to launching straight into interview questions whenever I meet a new necromancer.”
Kearney laughed. “Well, enjoy the last of your vacation while you have it. And do accept my sincerest congratulations, lad, on your previous mission’s success.”
When we’d left the office to roam the brick and iron halls again, I prodded Aeron with my elbow. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Nuffink.” He fell back into a silence, then cast his gaze around again. “Too quiet,” he whispered. “It’s wrong.”
I snatched the manila envelope from his hands as he moved in closer to me. I tore open the top, not even bothering to fiddle with the seal on it.
Assignment location: Ministry of Necromancy, London
Aeron grinned at me. “I ‘ope you liked your last few seconds of peace before time to ‘op back to work.”
The towering arches, manicured hedges, regimented brick and stone, all coalesced into a single prevailing sight, skyline marking out a message I couldn’t miss.
“Welcome to the next chapter, I guess.” I squeezed his hand. “Let’s go save the world.”
He didn’t return my gesture.
A lump rose in my throat. “Aeron?”
“It’s wrong, Lessie…” His hand slid up to grip my bicep, tightening as he pulled me out of the middle of the pathway. I couldn’t see what was wrong, but I followed his lead, if for no other reason than this was the epicenter of magic practice.
Suddenly, we were no longer alone on the cobblestone path. A tall, pale man stepped out of the shadows, his head bowed low beneath a black hood that fell down to his elbows and dragged behind him like a train. His arms were bony and thin. On his left hand, from his wrist to his knuckles, was inked a larger version of the chalice tattoos Aeron had on his palms.
From his right hand, a pair of chains fell all the way to the ground. As he stepped forward, they dragged against the pavement, scraping and clinking with every ominous step.
Aeron slid into a defensive stance, one fist clenched tight in front of his face.
“It’s been a while, Lyons.” The newcomer’s soft voice came out smoother than I’d expected, and as he lifted his head, his surprisingly-caring eyes brimmed with eagerness beneath the hood’s deep shadow. “Oh, how I wish our reunion were under better circumstances.”
A muscle twitched in Aeron’s jaw as his eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Likewise, Priest.”
“Now that we’ve got the pleasantries exchanged…” Priest hissed sharply, then inclined his head. His palm cupped to the sky as a trickle of blood ran up his arm to pool in his tattooed hand. “Will you come quietly?”
Does the bluebird sing a love song,
Perched on razor wire coils?
A true blind she, who cannot see
That puddled blood around her boils.
The watchers’ sons, they look and lurk.
The dark awaits the lion.
Where friend and foe converge, all masked
A thousand souls scream dying.
Monsters rise to feast on men
Whose powers can’t contain them.
Betrayal traps, and lovers snap,
The night’s depths, dark and grim.
When worlds collide in deadly clash,
None can bear to see it.
In defiance one small song;
One fate, if bird can seal it.
-Necromancer Prophecy, “The Fall of Wachenta”
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading “Necromancer’s Dating Service,” the first book in the Magis Luminare series. Could you do me a massive favor and leave a quick review of the story? Reviews are how authors find the kinds of readers who will enjoy their style.
I hope you enjoyed meeting all kinds of minor necromancers and watching their lives interweave. I’m hoping to write a story from each of their perspectives, and next up is Aeron’s, continuing the events from book 1.
Who was your favorite and why? Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] and let me know!
If you enjoyed these books and would like to check out more of my science fiction and fantasy stories with a psychology twist, visit my author page here.
If you’re the Facebook type, I keep readers, fans, and my mother up-to-date on all the latest happenings in my writing. Come hang out!
I’m @jmthomasauthor on Pinterest and Instagram, and yes, I have a mood board for each new story setting!
Happy Reading!
J. M. Thomas
