Bury Their Bones (Wicked Fortunes Book 2)

by AJ Merlin

  I was so tired of all of my lovers treating me like I was made of glass and prone to accidents at every step.

  The cecaelia didn’t argue. I heard the scrape of metal and turned to see the reflection of her unsheathed sword over her shoulder as she stalked off into the darkness.

  Finding a light switch beside the door, I flipped it on and felt my stomach unclench when the lights flickered to life.

  Just as quickly, however, a frown found my face, and I sighed.

  There were only a few working lights on the walls and two overhead. It was better than nothing, but just barely.

  With a push of my magic, I sent the Chariot ahead of me, using my magic through her to look for anything out of the ordinary.

  As she rounded the corner of a large machine, I followed, my hand brushing the cold metal.

  What were these used for, exactly?

  To me, they looked like hulking behemoths with a bunch of unmarked or faded levers and buttons. I couldn’t fathom what their use was, and the dust on them suggested they hadn’t been turned on in a very long time.

  Something tickled the edge of my magical awareness.

  I sniffed the air, tilting my head back to get a better look, but that was absolutely fruitless. This whole place smelled like dark magic. It permeated my senses and clogged up my nose too badly for me to scent where it was coming from.

  Perhaps if I shifted into a wolf, however, that wouldn’t be the case.

  Or if I had a wolf.

  But that was a very slippery slope with a very steep incline.

  Especially with Yuna and Merric here.

  No. I wouldn’t attempt to call–

  Stepping out from behind one of the machines, I was very shocked to see a man leaning against the wall.

  I gasped, magic flooding my palms as I prepared myself for a fight.

  The bald, too-thin man smiled, then vanished.

  Like he’d never been there at all.

  “Oh fuck,” I murmured. I looked at the Chariot, who had turned when I made noise but hadn’t alerted me to his presence.

  Why hadn’t she?

  She couldn’t ‘see’ in the traditional sense, and I couldn’t use her to see either. But her Form could sense anyone around us, and she should’ve sensed him much sooner than I’d found him with my eyes.

  My breath came in short pants, and I told my beating heart to chill out.

  Sure enough, when I put my hand against the wall where I’d seen the guy, there was nothing. No trace of magic. No remnants of body heat.

  Like he’d been a ghost.

  Or an illusion.

  I turned again, only to catch sight of the same man, this time standing very close to the Chariot, who ignored him.

  “This is a very powerful bit of magic, isn’t it?” He asked, making a show of leaning to one side to look at the Chariot’s face.

  “Who are you?” I asked. If the Chariot wasn't reacting, then he wasn’t really here, I reasoned.

  Where was Yuna? Could she hear him?

  “I’m Nobody,” the man shrugged. “Who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I called my magic to my hands again, power churning against my skin. “If you’re the one–“

  “Are you Nobody too?” His wide, glassy eyes found mine and stayed fixed to my gaze.

  Sweat glistened at his skin, and everything about him seemed sickly.

  “No,” I said quietly. “I’m not Nobody.” I wasn’t even sure what that meant unless it was the insult it sounded like. “Did you kill those people?” I asked. “Are you what smells in here?”

  His eyes shifted from one side to the other, as if searching for something I couldn’t see. A shaking hand lifted to his face, and the illusory creature gnawed on already-bitten nails.

  “I’m Nobody,” he said again. “Not even good enough for the insects.”

  What in the world was he talking about?

  He saw my hand twitch, and his hand fell to his side again.

  “Go home,” he whispered. “Go home, go home–“ He disappeared again.

  My heart beat hard against my ribs, almost painfully, and I fought back the chills his words sent through my body.

  Whatever I’d expected to find, this wasn’t it.

  With barely a thought, I summoned the Devil, and seconds later, her ragged ominous Form stood beside me.

  She gazed around, her face emotionless.

  The Chariot approached, drawn in by my own worry, no doubt.

  But how was I supposed to look for him, with two Forms that couldn’t smell him out or actually see him?

  Still, I walked, weaving in and out of the machines and the tools of the old warehouse.

  Before I knew it, I was in another room entirely, and fumbled for the light switch beside me.

  Nothing.

  My body told me to run. To leave. To go find one of the others because clearly, I was out of my depth here.

  But I stayed still, lifting my hand and gathering my magic in my palm until it glowed like a soft lamp. I focused on that, on steadying the pulsing light into something sustainable and not draining.

  I looked up.

  “Go home!” The man screamed, looming close to me. My witch light illuminated every sunken hollow of his thin face, and I clamped a hand over my mouth in order not to scream.

  He wasn’t really here–

  His fingers gripped the wrist that held my light in a clammy, raptor-like grip.

  I choked on my shriek.

  Both of the forms reacted, turning to me and lunging towards the man who held my arm.

  By the time they were anywhere near him, he was gone once more.

  How had he been able to do that? He’d been an illusion until he’d grabbed me, and only then had my Arcana recognized him as real.

  Unfortunately, it looked like the two of them weren’t going to help me at all.

  Even I wasn’t sure how to fight an illusion, and I didn’t think letting them stumble around with me in the near-dark was working so well.

  I sighed, and the two of them vanished in glittering particles of magic.

  The Moon card had always reacted strangely. Like it was really there and understood more than the empty puppets of my other two.

  What if I could use it to track this man down?

  “This is such a bad idea, George,” I murmured, glad neither of the other two were here to argue with me. I hadn’t heard Yuna yell, and Merric hadn’t blown up his search zone, so I had a feeling that I was the only one who’d seen this Nobody man.

  Lifting my hand, I drew power to my fingers until I held the physical card of the Moon. The black card was as elegant as always, its two wolves perfectly mirrored and howling at the full moon above them.

  I tried very hard not to flash back on what had happened to Colette…and failed.

  “Please don’t do that again,” I murmured, the card vanishing and showering the floor in magical sparks.

  As before, the ethereal wolf seemed to form from those sparks, finally standing waist high with its head dipped in a stalker’s pose, ears pointed at me.

  Its eyes reflected the light in my hand, and I drew my arm away from the softly glowing figure.

  It stayed put, and the glow of the wolf’s eyes didn’t fade at all.

  Was it reflecting the light or something else altogether?

  The jawbone necklace tingled against my skin, warming until it was hot enough to be noticeable but not painful.

  Perhaps that was some kind of warning. I held my breath, waiting for the small necklace to do more than be warm.

  The wolf looked at me. I stared back.

  Nothing happened.

  “That went better than I thought,” I murmured, wondering if the Loa’s gift was only there to remind me of what I was doing. I wasn’t sure how it would help, but maybe I was just missing something.

  Letting out my held breath, I crouched down to look at the wolf, unnerved by the look in its eyes.

  “I d
on’t know if you understand me, since I really can’t seem to control you like I can the others,” I murmured. “But I could really use your help.” I blinked, magic tickling my palms, and suddenly there were two wolves.

  The necklace got a little hotter.

  Uh oh.

  “Okay, please don’t do that.” I fought to regain control over my nerves. “Just help me find this guy. If you can. If you could–“

  They both wheeled around and plunged headlong into the room, their noses to the floor as they broke apart and began to sniff.

  Holy shit. Was this actually going to work?

  One of the wolves barked quietly, scratching at a closed door at the side of the room.

  I followed, and recoiled at the sight of stairs.

  “Going up seems unwise,” I muttered as both wolves brushed past me to ascend the stairs.

  I couldn’t not think about those swinging catwalks and the way they didn’t look at all safe.

  But I followed the wolves anyway, trusting them not to lead me into peril.

  Or at least to lead me to the kind of peril I was looking for.

  The stairway echoed with my footsteps, though the wolves made no sound on the floor. The only light I had was the one in my hand, and it showed me only dirty walls with peeling paint and years of neglect.

  An open door sat at the top of the stairs, and I took a step toward it, only to be stopped by one of the wolves moving to stand in front of me, teeth bared in a silent growl.

  Movement flickered at the edge of my witch light. When I pushed more magic into it in order to make it brighter, I saw the man from downstairs standing in the middle of one of the catwalks.

  “When is a door not a door?” He asked, head tipped back to look at the ceiling.

  “What?” I demanded, edging forward until I could stand in the open doorway.

  He sighed, disappointment heavy on his shoulders. “When is a door…not a door?” He repeated slowly, as if I might not have understood the first time.

  “Is that a riddle?” I considered yelling for Yuna, but I didn’t want to spook him or start a fight.

  “When is a door not a door?”

  Couldn’t he say anything else?

  One of the wolves at my side bared its teeth in a silent snarl, the fur along its back raised threateningly.

  The man looked down suddenly, blinking in surprise as if he hadn’t known I was there.

  “Are you the one who killed those people and stole their magic?” I demanded, ignoring the stupid riddle.

  Now the man stared at the wolves. I almost buried my fingers in their fur, but it was hard enough to keep my magic from them without physical contact.

  “Are you threatening us?” He murmured in a strange voice, his eyes finally finding mine.

  Downstairs, I was sure his eyes had been blue. But when I looked at him as he spoke, there was no pupil at all. His eyes were a solid, milky white that looked at me without seeing.

  “If you are the person who did that, then I am most definitely threatening you,” I promised quietly, both wolves advancing a step.

  “How strange…” His head tilted to the side, lolling like it was barely being held by any kind of muscle. His arms lifted, palms up, and spread in front of him in a confused gesture. “We don’t feel very threatened.”

  He took a step back, then another. I followed, stepping onto the landing that led onto the unstable catwalks.

  I wasn’t afraid right here, but I was terrified to take a step forward, onto those catwalks.

  No way would I put myself in such a place voluntarily.

  “I’m Nobody.” His voice was back to its scratchy, whining tone.

  “So you’ve…said…” I looked up at him again and saw his eyes were back to their grey-blue hue.

  “When is a door not a door?” He asked for what had to be the tenth time.

  “I don’t know!” I strode forward again, my shoes near the start of the catwalk. “And I don’t care–“

  He held up a finger and put it to his lips. I quieted, but only because of what I saw on his hands.

  They were covered in bloody symbols that shimmered with blackness in my magical sight.

  And that really wasn’t good.

  “A door is not a door…when it’s ajar,” he explained.

  Something skittered on the ground behind me, just behind the open door that I’d stepped through.

  I didn’t want to turn around.

  My blood ran cold. I could feel the wrongness at my back, and I did not want to confront it.

  But I had to.

  I whirled around, the wolves crossing to face off against this new threat.

  Whatever I had expected, it was nothing close to what stood at the top of the stairs.

  It was easier to look at the thing in pieces.

  A human torso and legs dragged the thing forward, though no human had talons like that.

  The mouth had never been human. Exposed bone showed off what looked like a large animal jaws stapled to a man’s skull. His eyes were sewed shut, and my heart tried to break free of my ribs as I looked at this abomination.

  Two arms hung at its waist, while another two, these longer and tipped in knife-claws, dragged behind it.

  It even had a fucking tail. As if it needed another bladed appendage.

  “You’re a necromancer,” I breathed, and when I said the words aloud, the panic rose in my throat like bile.

  The necromancer giggled, though it sounded like he was stifling the sound. When I dared to look at him over my shoulder, I saw that he had one hand stuffed in his mouth, and his shoulders shook with mirth.

  Holy fuck.

  What in the Goddess’s name was wrong with him?

  The sound of rushing, clumsy steps alerted me to the mistake I had made in taking my eyes off of the abomination. When I did manage to look for it again, it was much closer to me, its patched together jaws wide and reaching.

  I stumbled backward, teetering on the edge of the landing and avoiding the jaws by just a hair’s breadth.

  But I didn’t see the tail.

  The surprisingly strong appendage hit me in the stomach when the monster whirled, sending me tumbling backward. My back hit the catwalk, arms reaching for the railings. Growls sounded in my ears, but I couldn’t think about that.

  Not while I was trying to get my bearings on this damn thing with it swinging in the air twenty-five feet above the ground.

  “Yuna!” I screeched, scrambling to my feet. “Merric!” It wasn’t time to try to figure this out myself. Not with a necromancer and its pet here.

  I focused on the fighting in front of me, confused for a second on how there were now three wolves, when it had been two just a moment ago.

  When I tried to grab for my magic, I made a very unpleasant discovery.

  I had no control over the wolves at all.

  Just like what had happened in the cemetery.

  They darted in at the creature, keeping it away from the catwalk and me.

  I didn’t need control for them to protect me, Did I? I couldn’t use much more of my magic when they were loose, but they seemed capable of at least buying me some time.

  “George! Are you–“ Yuna appeared on the landing, assessing the situation.

  And all I could do was watch as a wolf slowly materialized from nothing in front of her, head down.

  “No!” I yelled, fighting to rein it in. “She’s our friend!”

  The wolf didn’t seem to care. It stared at her, unmoving.

  “Call it off, George,” Yuna called. “Call it off so I can help.”

  “I can’t!” My hands tightened around the railing. I couldn’t call them off. I couldn’t do anything now that I’d lost control of them!

  It was happening again. Just like it had in the cemetery.

  Only this time, my friends were in real danger. Not just watching in horror from the sidelines.

  And one of them could very well get hurt.

  The
heat of the jawbone at my throat turned searing, prompting me to gasp. I reached up, but long before I could even consider yanking off the necklace, the talisman sent what felt like a lightning bolt through me.

  My witch light, somehow still in my hand, vanished.

  And so did all of my wolves.

  I’d been momentarily disconnected from my magic, like a computer undergoing an emergency restart.

  It would’ve been useful and welcome…in other circumstances. And I was definitely grateful that Yuna was no longer staring down an uncontrollable piece of my magic.

  The necromancer’s creature had gotten free, and its head turned to me like it could see me through its stitched together lids.

  “This is such poor timing,” I murmured, backing up on shaky legs as the catwalk swung under me.

  It shuddered hard when the creature put its claw-tipped hands on the end of it and dug in until the metal creaked and popped.

  Yuna yelled, her sword arcing towards it in a strike that would’ve been lethal.

  If it had connected.

  But the monster moved a moment before her, and before she could recover, it found its target.

  Me.

  I screamed, but it was already too late.

  The amalgamation of dead things already had me off the catwalk and into the open air above the machinery.

  Chapter 21

  My ears rang.

  Vision blurred, all I could see was a dim light somewhere far above me. The ringing in my ears seemed to pulse, and it was all I could focus on.

  Until I drew in a deep breath and my lungs screamed in protest.

  Followed by my entire body shrieking its disagreement with me moving at all.

  At least I wasn’t dead.

  I tried to sit up and almost fell.

  But I was not going to confirm the idea that some of my lovers had of me being a fragile flower. I was not done.

  Setting my teeth against the pain, I forced myself to sit upright.

  Blood ran in rivulets from my nose, and I hoped to the Goddess I hadn’t swallowed enough of it to make me sick. That was all I needed right now.

  Something loud banged over my head. A light flickered.

  I stumbled to my feet, and this time did fall.

  My leg was definitely broken and taking longer than it should to heal.