Naughty Necromancer (Reaper Collective Book 2)

by Riley Archer

  25

  The Aberration Royale

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Ethan. I’m the reason you aren’t in the Illusionists, right?” I weaved between trees, searching.

  We went in the direction of the last scream and its subsequent thud.

  I rolled up the sleeves on my jacket. “I mean, I understand why you’re so hesitant to meet me head-on.”

  He manifested between two trees straight ahead. Despite how skinny and sickly-looking he’d become, a strange kind of strength emanated from him. Serial killer and supernatural monster vibes radiated off him like heat from the sun. “And why is that?”

  I smiled. “Because I make you nervous.”

  He disappeared and reappeared again; he was just as far away, but slightly to the right. “And why is that?”

  “Hmm.” My fingers rested on the smooth bone of the necklace. “Option one, you have a schoolboy crush.”

  “Option two?” he asked, having vanished and reappeared again, this time slightly closer.

  “You know I’m more powerful than you. More worthy of all the super-secret clubs.”

  His mouth twisted and he looked even more like a mutated version of himself. Before he could lash out at me, a root from the ground shot through the snow and wound up his leg.

  I was impressed with myself; I’d expected some dead leaves or something to respond, not the thick root of a sizable tree. But I went with it. Using my hands like a conductor, I made the roots whip Ethan into the tree trunk before slapping him against the ground.

  So maybe I’m not limited to dead plants.

  “Hold him right there,” Ash said as she stomped toward him. I was pretty sure she was dead set on decapitating him. I had every intention of letting her.

  When her scythe swung into the air, Ethan’s head turned to me. He smiled, blood gathered between his teeth and in the corner of his mouth.

  For good measure, I tightened the hold of the roots on him. Then, I gave him a little wave that had all the kindness of flipping him the bird.

  Before I could verify his head had left his body, I was somewhere slightly warmer and quieter. The air was silky rather than biting. Ash, Jose, and Damian were nowhere to be seen.

  And there were broken roots up ahead where Ethan’s freshly broken body should have been.

  That little weasel had pulled me into the faerie realm and escaped.

  “If I wasn’t decided before, I’m decided now. I’m definitely going to kill you.”

  I wandered the seemingly lifeless area. I got no response from Ethan, and I couldn’t tell where he was. But I did have something working for me; he’d spent days out here plotting in the cold, sharing his ingenious plan with nobody but Travis. And even Travis couldn’t have known the whole plan. I doubted the big lug was a willing sacrifice. Which meant, with a personality like Ethan’s, he was dying to unload how masterful he’d been.

  And to take a line from Damian, I could help him with the dying part.

  I mean, I didn’t know Ethan all that well, but anyone who was willing to have someone else write threatening notes to mask his handwriting, create a bunch of specter heathens to stoke the chaos, and then go on a killing spree after decapitating his accomplice—all because he didn’t get to join some high-society supernatural club—had a serious superiority complex.

  So, to get him out in the open, I needed to feed his ego. I stopped myself from groaning and focused on capitalizing on his weakness.

  “I just don’t understand,” I said, my voice the kind of soft I could only ever force it to be. I sounded like a lost, innocent girl in a movie. I mean, I was lost, but I wasn’t lost like that. “Why me? What did I do to you? Why are you doing this?”

  “Don’t try to toy with me, Ellis.” Ethan was right behind me. I could feel his presence raising the hairs on my neck.

  I turned, and he wasn’t there. Fine. If the lost girl act wasn’t working in my favor, he’d get me in all my bad-tempered glory.

  “Why not? It sounds like fun to me.” I tried to keep a view on all sides. “I break my toys.”

  “Do you?” He finally had the guts to show his face. Six feet away, but that was still within reach. “Good thing I refuse to be one.”

  Green fae-flies appeared and gathered behind me as if I were an appropriate shield.

  “If you don’t want me to play with you, then why the obsession?”

  “I’ll tell you, but only if you follow me while I do.”

  “Are you offering your back to me?” Because I have no qualms about stabbing it, is what I didn’t say.

  “A momentary truce?” He tilted his head. There was something eerie about the gesture. It was more jagged than smooth, like a video game villain glitching mid-movement.

  I was dumb enough to be curious.

  I didn’t move yet, but I offered for him to go forward. “Lead the way.”

  The glow of the fae-flies grew to be a spotlight on my back. I understood why they’d want a blockade between them and Ethan, but I didn’t quite get why they hadn’t just gone somewhere much farther away. Hawaii, for example.

  “So, what made you think you knew who I cared about?” I asked after the first step. I wasn’t going to follow if he wasn’t going to give me the rope to his noose. At least that’s what I hoped his rambling would provide.

  He opened his arms. “We’ve always thought the fae were distant from us, completely alienated from our world. But they aren’t. There are certain things they pay attention to, like prophecies of children born to end their enemies.”

  “Prophecies and enemies? That sounds like a good time. Is that what you’ve been up to?”

  “You’re a prophecy and Reaper Collective is an enemy.”

  “That’s really lovely.” I sort of knew it already, but he’d thoroughly lost his mind. “Have you made friends with a lot of fae then?”

  He turned his head just enough for me to see the edge of a wicked grin. His nose looked extra pointy too, but maybe that was because he was giving off an evil witch aura. His skin could turn green any minute now and I wouldn’t be surprised. If only a house would fall on him. “Fae don’t really talk to us, do they? Not when they see humans, and especially reapers, as beneath them. But if you consume a fae, you consume its knowledge. And absorb pieces of its power. It’s intoxicating. And want to know something interesting? The Abyss won’t claim you if you have fae energy inside you. Killing Travis taught me that.”

  Ethan ran to a brush with unnatural speed and parted its snowy branches. A fae fly—a sprite, I remembered Sierra called them—buzzed around like a trapped fly along a windowsill. Ethan grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth. He paused for a moment as if savoring the sensation, an addict getting his fix. His eyes darted behind me, ravenous, but I held my arms out.

  “Find another snack and keep walking.” And talking.

  He ran his tongue along his teeth before he kept moving. “So, sure, maybe I was upset that you took my place in the Illusionists, but I see now that I was meant to watch you get into the waters that should’ve led to your death. I was meant to feel betrayed and to take to the forest. Because if those things hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have discovered what you are and what I needed to do. I wouldn’t have been able to get into the castle without anyone seeing me. Or to fill the Specter Simulator with fae energy—something scythes can’t absorb.”

  He turned and grinned again. I did my best to keep my face emotionless.

  “And what is it exactly that you need to do?”

  When he finally answered, we were at the same pond where I gave a Moss Folk a handful of bathing berries. The trunk of the tree was ripped open and hollow. There was something inexplicably gory about it. And then there was the worst part: A humanoid bark figure laid lifeless at its base.

  Ethan killed the Moss Folk that had given me a gift. I touched the odd jewelry on my neck. Anger clawed its way into my breath.

  “I need to kill you before you end Reaper Collective as
we know it. Don’t you see?” His smile was too wide, too manic, and too completely desperate. “I can be the savior of Reaper Collective. I will be.”

  I felt fizzy, slightly sharp pressure everywhere on my back. Like bee kisses rather than stings. The sprites were up to something. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Does it pose as your last words?”

  I smiled. “If you’re the savior of reaper-kind, why kill Travis? Why kill the Illusionists?”

  “Oh, that.” Ethan looked at the ground for a moment. “That was because I wanted to.”

  After a brief pause for suspense, he launched.

  26

  The Grim Faerie

  As Ethan zoomed by me from every direction, each motion an attack, I realized what the sprites were doing.

  Well, sort of. Because each time Ethan tried to slice me open with some ancient-looking wooden dagger, an invisible shield with a slight green tint deflected him. He was starting to break through it though. With each strike, he got closer and closer to my flesh.

  I needed to counterattack. I took a deep breath and tried to feel the presence of the plant life around me.

  I felt totally ridiculous and out of my element, but it was survival. I needed a helluva lot more ammo than the potted plants I had practice with.

  When I swooped my hands through the air and brought them together, moss, vines, roots, and grass broke free of their frost. And not just a few strands here and there—pretty much all the vegetation in the immediate area responded to my command.

  My tattooed hiney tingled worse than if I’d put a whole tub of Icy Hot on it. I ignored the sensation and kept focusing.

  I built a sharp barrier around myself with spikes of grass and wood. Ethan paused and frowned.

  “This is exactly why you have to die.” He shook his head. “And the fae think of reapers as unnatural.”

  Despite his words, he was afraid. I could see it in the jagged rise and fall of his chest and the way he analyzed his surroundings, trying to find a way out.

  He hadn’t given Aiden a way out, so it wasn’t a courtesy I planned on extending to him.

  I didn’t feel like telling him that though; I wasn’t in the mood to converse with him anymore.

  I poured my power into the ground. Ethan jumped into the air and hopped around to avoid the earthy threads reaching for him. But he had more dangerous things to worry about now.

  Somehow, someway, I’d accidentally animated the Moss Folk.

  Ethan was surrounded. He couldn’t escape.

  I didn’t think I was quite in control because the Moss Folk appeared wholly autonomous as it went after Ethan. It wrapped ribbons of bark around his pelvis until it’d formed a harness, and then it kept going, covering him bit by bit. It almost looked like it was mummifying him forest-style.

  “Help me!” Ethan screeched and reached out just before his arms were taken over.

  It was too late to help him even if I’d wanted to. The Moss Folk consumed Ethan like it was his personal armor. Mummified seemed like the right word for it just then.

  Seconds after it was done, Ethan’s whimpers went silent inside his personal hell/cocoon. Then, the Moss Folk-Ethan combo stepped into the hollow tree. And, little by little, the opening in the tree trunk sealed itself. I stood there in shock and awe-inspiring horror until the tree was still.

  When it was done, it was merely a picturesque tree with branches that bowed over a twinkling black pond.

  All the twigs and vegetation I had animated fell to the ground.

  “What in the actual fuck,” I said to myself and my sprite pals. I pivoted to get a look at them, but they were nowhere to be seen.

  Although I couldn’t see them buzzing around, I felt their presence. They felt close. Really close. I remembered the stinging pressure on my back and shivered.

  I hoped to whatever God existed that I wasn’t hosting a nest of sprites inside my body. As cute as they were, I never agreed to be a fleshy boarding school for fae creatures to live in.

  I poked at my arms and slapped my cheeks as I made my way back to my friends.

  Friends, I repeated to myself. I wondered at what point I considered the incredibly secretive Ash, Jose, and even Damian to be my friends. But thinking about it now, I knew they were. I cared about them and wanted to kick them in equal measure. What was that if not friendship?

  I took back any moment I may have envied a popular girl during my life because having friends was a pain in the ass. I sighed and continued knocking on myself, hoping I was making myself utterly uninhabitable. “If you’re in there, fly guys, you’re officially and immediately evicted.”

  I didn’t see or feel anything depart my body, but something in my peripheral vision caught my attention.

  I looked, and just for a moment, I thought I saw an … an elf watching me from the shadowed distance. What seemed to be a very handsome, very tall elf with something on his head from what I could tell.

  I blinked and the vision was gone.

  Note to self: the downside of being a multipowered creature thing was pretty serious. And I didn’t mean the lethargy that made each step feel like I had weights tied to my ankles.

  Hallucinations beat being dead, though.

  27

  The Shifty Reunion

  When I finally made my way back to the Yule log clearing, my greeting party had doubled.

  Ash, Jose, Damian, and a still-knocked-out Sierra were joined by Mari, David, and Maven. Although joined may not have been the right way to describe it. They were on opposite sides and all appeared grumpy.

  Well, shit.

  I couldn’t fully read the atmosphere. So, for the first time maybe ever, I tried to brighten it. “Hello friends. How are you this evening?” Look at me, throwing the F word around.

  Mari dropped her arms. “See? She lives. Now keep your word.”

  Everyone shot grim glances to each other. If Mari was demanding something from the two people she must have freed from their cellar, and something about it depended on me being alive, it couldn’t have been good. Except for the me being alive part.

  “Great. Which one of you wants to kidnap me?”

  Maven propped her hands on her hips and looked at David. “Did she really just say that? After she hogtied me with a plant?”

  I became hyperaware of the eccentric jewelry around my neck. “Oops.”

  “Put in the order. Now,” Mari barked more than meowed.

  After a two-second stretch of silence, which was too damn long when I didn’t know what was going on, I said, “Are we ordering Chinese? Because that’d be great. I’m starving.”

  Jose yawned. Or sighed. I couldn’t tell which. “Our liege wants Warden Wyatt to issue a warrant for her soul arrest. So that me and Ash can escort her to the Abyss prison, aka the Rift.”

  I rubbed my temples. I never wanted to attend any sort of dress-up event ever again. And Mari willingly wants to go to soul prison? “Why?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Maven twanged.

  “You agreed to terms. And you like contracts, da?” Mari stretched her lengthy claws. I was pretty sure she was using some ghostly trick to make them look more like talons.

  “We”—Ash pointed between her and Jose—“didn’t agree to anything. We just said we were waiting for Ellis to get back.”

  I realized Damian had been silent and I wasn’t quite sure why. He caught me looking at him, but he struggled to meet my gaze. It was unlike him. I didn’t understand.

  David, who’d been sitting with his knees pulled into his chest, stood. “We said we’d get her into the Rift if she freed us, Maven. It’s not like she can do much damage there anyway. Let’s get it over with so we can get on with our family reunion.”

  Family reunion … those words might as well have been poison to Damian. Because his dad literally killed him with poison.

  David continued, “Father is going to be so happy his prodigal son has returned. Maybe he’ll be happy enough that you
’ll get your own trip to the Rift. You’re the reason it was created, after all. All those years searching for you in the Abyss, wondering if you were hidden in some dimensional pocket. No wonder he was inspired to build impenetrable cells.”

  The word impenetrable made my stomach flip.

  Damian’s long eyelashes fluttered closed for a moment. “I’m sure he will be happy. Just like he’ll be happy to keep you here at the Academy for eternity. Did you really think leading the Illusionists would make a difference?”

  David flared his nostrils and his lips formed a tense line. He looked like someone who wasn’t used to being angry, and he had no idea how to control his expression when he was. “As soon as there were reports about a reaper with your description being seen with her,” David cast a disgusted look in my direction. “I knew you were alive. And the Illusionists were all that was left of you. I was looking for a clue.”

  Damian cracked his neck. He’d been doing that a lot lately. “There’s no way you were given access to those reports. Maven?”

  David looked stung again, but Sierra whimpering awake drew everyone’s attention.

  She kneaded her eyes. “Eliza?”

  We followed the direction of her gaze, and indeed, Eliza was approaching. No scarves, no big coat. Just a slip of a dress. Something about her presence was a thorn in my consciousness.

  “I’m doing the rounds, checking to see if everyone is all right after that incident.” She flashed her bright white teeth. “Professor Forrester, and … Professor Forrester?” The second iteration came out at a much higher pitch.

  “Aren’t you cold?” I asked her.

  She rubbed her arms as if she were suddenly freezing. But she didn’t have goosebumps, her teeth weren’t chattering, there was no sign that she was struggling with the weather. She was faking. But I didn’t understand why anyone would pretend to hate the cold. That was like pretending to hate car wrecks or anchovies.