The door was shut, of course, and required knocking, which made my jaw clench. He was expecting us. Surely, he would have confined Julius by now. Why not leave the door open? Or at least greet us when we arrived?
Linus appeared six knocks in and gestured toward the kitchen, indicating we should sit at the table. He opted to stand in his usual spot near the sink, like he had set himself apart on purpose, and that self-imposed isolation got on my last nerve.
Maybe I was just having a bad day.
“I have a friend in Atlanta who can conduct the tests we need done.” Linus got straight down to business. “I can drive the sample there for testing. Reardon will handle the case personally, I can assure you, and I will remain with him at all times to ensure the sample is destroyed along with all testing supplies. No one else will have access to Amelie’s blood.”
“Who’s this Reardon?” Boaz demanded. “How do we know we can trust him?”
“Reardon McAllister is a made vampire with no affiliations to any clans. He’s technically a rogue, but he considers himself neutral.”
“What about the clan that made him?” They didn’t vouch for humans they didn’t mean to hold on to.
“He has no clan.” Linus leaned a hip against the counter. “His wife was a necromancer, but she didn’t tell him. He died in a carriage accident early in their marriage, and she turned him against his will.”
“That’s horrible.” I linked my fingers in my lap. “Even so, the Undead Coalition just let him go?”
“Oh, they want him returned to the fold,” Linus said, a cold smile in place, “but he was a human victimized by the Society, and that puts him under the Grande Dame’s purview. He’s a brilliant chemist. His mind is what attracted his wife to him despite his humanity. He teaches at Strophalos, has for decades. That’s how we met. He’s one of the few teachers with dispensation to live on grounds year-round, safe behind the wards.”
“You’re going to Strophalos?” I strained forward like that might get me closer to the acclaimed college for the necromantic sciences. “How long will you stay?”
“Three days at most.” Slowly, his gaze met mine. “You’re welcome to come.”
On my periphery, Boaz tensed, a stone-cold statue hewn from granite.
“I…” the moisture dried in my mouth, “…can’t.”
A flicker of something—disappointment?—shadowed Linus’s face, but he nodded as if I had done what he expected.
“I have to consider Woolly. I can’t leave her alone.” Unable to let it go, I rambled. “And Amelie. I can’t leave her unsupervised. Keet would be fine, but then there’s—” I clamped my mouth shut before I outed Oscar in front of Boaz, “—work.”
“I understand.” Linus kept his tone all business. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
The towering stack of valid reasons I had for not going tottered under that direct hit.
I wanted him to look at me like this was any other night, like there was a breakfast spread between us. I wanted him to listen to me the way he did when we discussed our lessons, not tune me out when he got his answer and it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
I hated when he reverted to this aloof version of himself who couldn’t be bothered with anyone who failed to meet his exacting standards. Tip his nose up any higher, and he’d drown if it rained.
“Would it help?” Boaz asked, voice strained. “Having Grier there?”
“If there are any markers in Amelie’s blood that are magical in nature, it might help to crosscheck them against Grier to see if we can isolate the cause and create a cure. Otherwise…” grim lines bracketed his mouth, “…she can’t practice if there are known side effects to her magic.”
Which put me right back to square one. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be a Society lackey who asks how high when the Grande Dame tells me to jump, but practicing necromancy was a dream out of my reach for so long. Having it offered up to me only for it to be snatched away again was a cruel joke.
“That’s not all, though, is it?” Boaz studied him. “You’re dropping everything to hand deliver this to a reclusive colleague in Atlanta. What aren’t you telling us?”
“Mother’s interest in Grier is contingent upon her ability to practice.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets, but I saw them ball into fists through the fabric. “She views her as an investment.”
Boaz asked what I was afraid to wonder. “What happens if there’s no payoff?”
“Atramentous,” I whispered, folding in on myself, sick with possibilities.
“Double jeopardy,” Boaz soothed. “You can’t be tried again for the same crime after an acquittal.”
Unwilling to be coddled, I bit out, “Forgive me if I have my doubts about the legal system.”
“Mother can’t return you to the prison without weakening her reform agenda.” Linus mashed his lips into a bloodless line. “Calling your innocence into question allows for too much speculation on her role in your release.”
“You’re saying the danger isn’t in a direct strike,” Boaz reasoned. “You think, if it comes down to it, she’ll withdraw all support from Grier and let the problem handle itself.”
“Mother would never allow a weapon as powerful as a goddess-touched necromancer, whose fledgling magic might prove capable of binding her progeny to her, to fall into the Master’s hands.” Muscle fluttered along his jaw. “She would execute Grier before allowing vampires control of her.”
An odd lightness spread through my limbs and left me tingling. The wrongness of preferring death to life in a cage pinched my conscience, but only for a second. “Okay.”
“No,” Linus contradicted me, a frown tipping his lips. “Nothing about either scenario is okay.” Boaz grunted reluctant agreement with Linus, who wasn’t done yet. “That’s why I will do everything in my power to understand the connection between you and Amelie, if one exists, and nullify it before anyone suspects such a bond might be possible.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, wishing I had better words for what he was risking for me.
Linus, uncomfortable with my gratitude, inclined his head in acceptance of my appreciation.
Boaz scratched his jaw, his brow furrowed at Linus like he was working through a complex puzzle.
“Reardon’s only interests are in the pursuit of science,” Linus continued, “but there will be dangerous questions asked. Even if we present our case as wanting to examine an accidental bond between a Low Society necromancer and a familiar, he might uncover more of Grier’s secrets on a cellular level.”
A shiver twitched between my shoulder blades. “You’re worried about handing him a new specimen.”
“Yes.” His gaze cut to me then dropped to the floor. “There’s also the dybbuk contamination to consider.”
With Ambrose’s magic swirling through Amelie’s blood, there was no telling what the tests would reveal. It might act as camouflage for whatever havoc my sigils had wreaked on her, which might be a good thing as far as Reardon was concerned, but that also meant yet another layer for Linus to peel back to find our truths.
I was gambling with my future by allowing him to seek out Reardon, but I had no real choice.
“He doesn’t have to know why you’re there. I could tell him you’re one of my students, that I’m tutoring you. He knows I’m on sabbatical, but it’s not unheard of to tutor for extra cash,” Linus said, and I snorted so hard I almost choked on my own spit. Oh yeah. That was totally believable. The Grande Dame’s son needed pocket change. “Or favors if the student’s family has political sway.”
“That might work,” I allowed. “I have zero clout, but I can still trade on Maud’s name if I have to.”
Make no apologies for surviving.
As much as I hated using her name for leverage among the curious, I would do it to protect myself. She would understand. How could she not when she had given so much to keep me safe? Even from myself.
The thrill at his first mention of th
e campus shriveled. “I still can’t go.”
“Yes, you can.” Boaz reached across the table and took my hand in his, linking our fingers in clear view of Linus, staking his claim. “We can ask Odette to stay with Amelie for three days. Woolly’s a big girl. She can take care of herself for seventy-two hours.” He rolled his thumb over my knuckles. “A short break might do you good.”
“The new wards are holding…” I allowed, willing to be tempted. “But Woolly was just attacked. We don’t know who or what was responsible. I can’t leave her alone. What if they come back?”
“Have you considered hiring full-time security? You’ve just ascended as Dame Woolworth. Everyone will expect you to start building your staff. Why not start there? The rumor mill won’t think twice about why you’re fortifying Woolly if you act now. It’s expected for new heads of family to secure their residences if such measures aren’t already in place.” There was no point in him reminding me how long she had sat unoccupied, how many years she had been vulnerable, so I was glad he didn’t poke that particular wound. “It’s better to have the extra bodies and never use them than to need them and not have them. Say the word, and I’ll handpick a team for you and have them in position by the end of the week.”
More eyes meant more opportunities for Boaz to snoop into my life. I would have to hire a team without ties to the sentinels or to his family, if such a thing existed, to preserve my privacy. Low Society sentinels had cornered the security market. Meaning I would have to look outside the Society for guards loyal to me, a daunting prospect when you removed vampires from the candidate pool. “I’ll consider it.”
“You do that.” His mood buoyed, as if I had already agreed. “In the meantime, I can ask Taz to patrol the grounds while you’re away. Woolly is used to her presence. She might be miffed about her hurting you, but as long as Taz doesn’t touch the house, she ought to be safe. How does that sound?”
“Like you’re trying to get rid of me.” I was only half kidding. Shoving me together with Linus was not his style.
A more normal response from Boaz would have been to toss me over his shoulder and stomp from the carriage house while shouting “Go to hell” at Linus. A reasonable Boaz was a dangerous Boaz.
“Your eyes lit up like stars when he mentioned the campus. I might have been the lame older brother, but I know what you girls had planned. I know what college meant to you, and taking lessons, alone, in your own backyard is a poor substitution.” He glanced at Linus. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he said drily.
“It’s not like I can absorb the whole college experience in three days anyway.” I hated admitting, “Seeing what I can’t have might make it worse, actually.”
Until Maud…and Atramentous…I had dreamed big dreams as a kid. Getting a degree alongside Amelie. Planning how we would live together and how I would marry Boaz to make us real sisters. But those were old wishes for an old life. I wasn’t that person now, and neither was Amelie. Neither was Boaz. None of us were the same. Time and distance and life experiences did that to people.
But I couldn’t ignore the uptick of my pulse when I imagined walking those hallowed grounds.
If Maud had proclaimed me a practitioner instead of an assistant, I would have attended Strophalos the same as any Woolworth.
All this time I had been jealous of Amelie going to college here in Savannah when I was starting to think it was Linus and Strophalos I truly envied. Maybe Amelie had been right all along. Maybe I had been settling. But it had never felt that way, not to me.
These days I had no choice but to embrace my High Society birthright, and I’d had no clue how hard I had been tamping down my resentment until the limitations placed on me were wiped away thanks to a few drops of blood.
“Sleep on it,” Boaz urged. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but it might be a good thing for you to get out and see more than Savannah. You haven’t left town since you were released.”
For the longest time, I hadn’t had funds or a reason to go anywhere. My whole life was in Savannah.
I still had no reason to leave, but maybe…I wanted to go?
“I have calls to make,” Linus said in dismissal. “You’ve got time to think it over and make your arrangements.”
“Okay.” I blew out a breath and stood. “I’ll let you know at dusk.”
Boaz and I headed for the door but not fast enough.
Linus angled his head toward me. “What did the doctor say?”
“Doctor?” Boaz wheeled toward me. “What doctor?”
“There was no doctor.” I pointed through the wall toward Woolly. “There was no time.”
Wise man that he was, Linus said no more, but he let the disappointment shine through his eyes.
Much less circumspect, Boaz growled, “What doctor?”
It was like he hoped the third time would be the charm.
“Come on.” I hooked my arm through his. “I’ll explain on the way home.”
Seven
Amelie recovered from her fainting spell with no clue what had happened or why. Since we didn’t know either, conclusively, I elected to keep her in the dark. Truthfully, she might have to learn to like it there. Any explanation I gave about a possible connection to Woolly through wards I designed meant explaining this newly discovered quirk in my magic. That was impossible without also explaining I was goddess-touched.
That’s where things got tricky. Ambrose had known what I was from the moment we met. I wasn’t sure if that meant shades, the souls of deceased necromancers, had special insight from the other side or if his experience was more personal. As much as I would love to sit him down and play twenty questions, he had tried to kill me. Any information he shared would be suspect. Assuming we could communicate with him. Things would be so much easier if Amelie had retained his memories.
Wincing, I renounced that thought with my whole heart.
Things would have been easier, all right. For me, not for her. Recalling the vile things he’d forced her to do had given her nightmares. Meaning Woolly was treated to a nightly symphony of screams ringing out from both ends of the hall. So far, she hadn’t volunteered any information she might have gleaned from Ambrose, and neither Boaz nor I had pressed for details.
The problem with the kid-glove approach was it meant we were operating under the assumption she had no idea I was goddess-touched when she might know more about me than everyone else squished together.
“Boaz said you might be heading to Atlanta.”
Torn from my thoughts, I spotted Amelie lingering in my doorway, waiting for permission she never used to have to ask. But the last time we had been alone in this room, things had gotten heated.
“I’m considering it.” I patted the mattress beside me. “What do you think?”
“A tour of the campus might be fun,” she allowed. “Maybe, one day, you could go there. If you wanted.”
Atlanta was three and a half hours away. I could drive that in a day. Not close enough to commute, though I could come home on weekends and holidays. But that meant leaving Woolly alone for whole weeks at a time, and I couldn’t bear abandoning her again so soon. With the wards renewed, the bond between us was stronger than ever, and each pang that wracked her when I left arrowed through me.
“It’s not like that.” I scooted over to give her room. “It’s more that I want to lay an old dream to rest.”
“Do you have to bury it?” She plopped down beside me. “College was always goal number one for you.” An exhale puffed out her cheeks. “Okay, so it was number two behind becoming Mrs. Boaz Pritchard, but it was still up there.”
“So much has changed, though.” I plucked at the comforter. “The big appeal back then was what we have now—girl nights every night, no parents to boss us around, no rules except the ones we make.” I thought about Boaz, about the phone that never flashed with his number. “I’m not sure I know what I want anymore.”
“Life is funny that way.” S
he flopped onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. “Boaz partied all night, slept through most of his classes, and still managed to get an associate degree in criminal justice.” She kicked her heel against the mattress. “I never partied, studied all night—heck, my last professor asked me to donate my binder full of class notes and diagrams to her—and I still managed to ruin my life.”
“Ame…”
“This is not a pity party.” She shoved my shoulder. “This is not about me. This is about you.”
Lately it felt like everything was about me, and I hated being the center of so much attention.
“What do you want to do?” She turned on her side facing me and braced her cheek on her fist. “Can you deal with Linus for three days?” A chuckle moved through her. “Just make sure you don’t drive. He might start lecturing and put you to sleep at the wheel.”
I smiled. It was what she expected. But it bothered me how quick she was to cut him down when he had done so much to help her. Even Boaz was acting nicer to him these days. Then again, maybe that was part of the problem. What I saw as an act worthy of thanks, she might view as him kicking off a chain reaction that landed her nameless, jobless, and hopeless.
“He’s not so bad.” I palmed her forehead and shoved her down on the mattress. “You played peeping Tom through his bedroom window. What happened to that?”
“He’s easy on the eyes. I’ll give him that. He grew up hot.” Gaze distant, she linked her hands across her navel. “I don’t…” She wet her lips and tried again. “I don’t remember everything that happened. With Ambrose.” The cracked plaster ceiling held her rapt. “But in my dreams I’m him again. We’re being chased. Standard nightmare fare, really.”
Barely daring to breathe, I nodded my encouragement before the words dried on her tongue.
“The thing tracking us is like a wraith but not. Black mist come to life, and I do mean life. It’s not insubstantial. It’s real. Alive.” A tear streaked down her temple. “When it catches me, and it always does, it whirls me around, and its hand is like ice. The creature carries a scythe, and it…” Her hand lifted to her vulnerable throat. “He takes my head, Grier. Every time. And the last thing I see is always the same. Linus’s face beneath the hood.”
How to Break an Undead Heart (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 3) Page 8
