Page 96 of Redeeming the Angel

Her eyes dimmed with remorse.“I’m sorry.”

“No, you were right,” I said quickly, never wanting to make her feel bad.“I’m only pointing out that this wasn’t your fault.None of us could have known.The corpse-walkers we’ve seen before were all mindless puppets that had to be steered by the mages who raised them.While remaining in range.”I reached down and pet the fluffy black and white cat who apparently hadn’t left Kerainne’s side since my trip to Luminista.“Which is why you were right to stop me from destroying this one.”

“I know,” she declared cheerfully.“Can you tie its arms behind its back?”She fluttered her eyelashes at me.“You have all the muscles.”

Only she could bring light to such a dark time.I moved behind her and pinned the corpse’s back with my knee as I wrenched its arms back and tied the wrists together the best I could with the strip of velvet.

Kerainne sawed off another strip of fabric and blindfolded the head before lifting it by the hair.

At first, I tried hauling the body over my shoulder, grateful that since I’d died by exsanguination this time, no blood leaked on me.But it wriggled and squirmed too much.Then we discovered that if we let it walk, it would follow Kerainne.

The cat—who she’d named Phantom—walked between her and the corpse, growling and hissing at it every few yards.

“How did you find me in time?”Kerainne asked me.

“It was the strangest thing.”I shook my head, still trying to comprehend what had happened.“I was still in Luminista, packed and saying my goodbyes to everyone, and though I’d already been in a hurry to return to you, I felt you crying out to me and knew you were in danger.So I gathered my stuff and returned.I almost headed to the castle when I felt you in the woods.Then I heard Phantom yowling.He must have smelled me.He came running and then led me back to you.I like this cat.”

“He tried to tell me that wasn’t you.”Shame infused her voice.“I’d assumed it was because you didn’t smell like Aisthanesthai anymore.But I quickly caught on that something was wrong.That’s when I did the dispel glamour spell.I never guessed that it was a corpse-walker!”

“I didn’t either,” I reminded her.“But seeing something that looked like me dragging you to a portal to Qua’ al-fán… That was hard.Chopping its head off was easy.”

“I can’t believed I hugged that thing.”Kerainne shivered.“Though I did tell it to come back to the castle so we could wash those clothes.That smell, it wasn’t just the slight sweetness that was death, there was another odor…that must be Qua’ al-fán.”

And we’d be going there soon.I forced the thought away and focused on the immediate issue.“After we turn this thing over to Zareth, do you think he’ll be able to find a necromancer not on the Evil One’s side?”

“If he can’t, one of us will.”Her confident tone soothed me.“Not everyone who practices death magic is evil.”

When we reached the castle gates, the guards stared slack-jawed at the shambling, headless corpse and the blindfolded head Kerainne carried.

One of them recovered his speech and addressed his compatriots before letting us through.“Fates, the blood whorewastelling the truth!”

“Just whom are you referring to in such a disrespectful manner?”Kerainne said in that voice that compelled one to straighten their posture and behave.

The guard’s face reddened as he bowed to Kerainne.“Forgive my coarseness, Queen Mother.One of the bl—er I mean, donors from the blood houses came here about an hour ago demanding to see the King.She said that death magic was nearby.”

“She’s one of them faelin folk,” another guard added.“They have strong magic, which I was trying to tell Orwen here.But he didn’t listen until the Keeper of the Prophecy came and demanded us to let her in.”

Orwen’s shoulders hunched further until his red face looked in danger of being swallowed by the rest of his bulky form.“Did you do the death magic, Queen Mother?”

For some reason, he avoided looking at me.

“No.Another necromancer raised this corpse and sent it after me,” Kerainne said cooly.“Now will you let us in so we may speak with the King and the blood donor?”

When we entered the great hall where Zareth and Xochitl sat on their thrones with all our friends and our new soldiers lined up, Kerainne gasped at the sight of a faelin woman standing between Delgarias and Shen Li.

“The seventh Bride!”she whispered to me, neatly dodging the headless corpse.

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about.Then I remembered a line of the Prophecy that often fell under discussion among Del and his vampires.“Seven Nightwalkers with Seven Brides…”

“How do you know?”I whispered back.

She rose up again on her toes and her breath tickled my lower jaw because she couldn’t reach my ear.“Because Del said he’d found her in a blood house.”

“Why is a faelin working in a blood house?”I accidentally spoke too loudly.“They abhor blood magic.”

Delgarias chuckled.“We learned the answer today.Maeve?”

The faelin woman stepped forward and gazed at us with wide teal eyes shot through with jagged lines that looked like lightning bolts.“I was born a necromancer.When my power was discovered, I was exiled from Shellandria.”

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