Page 11 of Devils and the Dead
“Your sisters love you,” he assured me. “They might be a bit nauseated at some of the magic you do, but that doesn’t mean they won’t understand and try to help. They know you’re a good person, a good witch. Your powers are just…odd compared to theirs.”
I nodded, realizing he was right. “If you could help me find a necromancer, that would be wonderful. And in the meantime, do you think you could possibly take a look at someone and give me your professional reaper opinion?”
“I’m not a reaper anymore, but you know I’ll do anything I can to help you, Babylon. You’re Ophelia’s sister. That makes you my sister, too.”
“You don’t have any brothers, do you?” I asked, thinking once more about how lucky Ophelia was.
He shot me a quizzical look. “Reapers don’t have siblings.”
“Never mind.” I waved the comment away. “I haven’t told anyone else this. I’m not asking you to keep it from Ophelia or anyone, but if you could possibly hold off until I let Cassie know this afternoon before mentioning it, I’d appreciate it.”
He made a lips-zipped motion that had me cracking up. “I keep no secrets from Ophelia, but other than her, I won’t tell a soul.”
That would do. I took another deep breath and let it out, working up the nerve to confess. “Two weeks ago I animated some human dead from a family graveyard to protect Addy, me, and a group of humans from the demons that were attacking us. I panicked and evidently pulled entire souls from their afterlife. When I returned them to the grave, one didn’t go back.”
Nash looked confused. “You resurrected a group? Then killed them all off except one.”
“I didn’t kill them off!” Yikes, how could he think that about me. “And I didn’t resurrect them. I created zombies, but instead of pulling only an echo of their souls, I accidentally pulled the entire soul.”
“You took a complete soul from the afterlife and put it into a non-resurrected, corpse body?”
I didn’t like that worried frown on Nash’s face. “Yes. I didn’t realize it at the time. We were fighting, and the zombies were doing their thing. At the end, I dismissed them, and they all went back to their graves except one.”
“Are you sure they went back to their graves?”
My stomach twisted with horror at the thought of souls housed in corpses, basically buried alive in the dirt. “I checked. As soon as I saw that Maude was still walking around, I checked the other corpses. There is not even a whisper of life in them. They’re just bodies. But I don’t know how to make sure the souls went back to their afterlife and aren’t just floating around somewhere. And I don’t know what to do about Maude.”
Nash ran a hand through his hair. “Can you sense spirits? Sense their ghosts? You should be able to do that with your necromantic magic.”
I nodded. “Yes. I checked the area by the graves and there were only the usual echos. I even walked around the farm and the house. If their souls had remained, I feel certain they would have hung around the grave, or at least the farm where they lived their lives.”
Thankfully, I needed both a sigil and an incantation to open my third eye to the spirit world, because going through life aware of every ghost and specter would be difficult. Wraiths and poltergeists were visible without conscious use of magic, but the little wisps of spirits that filled our world remained hidden from me until I wished to see them.
“That’s good.” Nash drummed his fingers on the table. “If their souls were somewhere in transit or floating about the veil, other reapers and psychopomps should be able to sense them. I’ll double check with my contacts, but the good news is that if you failed to return them to their afterlife and they’re not still here as ghosts, then they were probably picked up and taken to the appropriate place.”
I let out a relieved breath. I’d been so worried. Now I could focus my attention on Maude. Coming to Nash had been the right idea. If he could assure me that the other souls weren’t somewhere lost in transit, it would do a lot for the gnawing anxiety that had worried me over the last few weeks.
“What are you going to do about the soul that remained behind?” Nash winced. “In a dead body?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I was hoping you’d have some ideas on that. I tried two different spells to send her back to the afterlife, and both failed. This morning I tried a spell to resurrect her. Her body definitely looks better, but it’s still dead. So although the spell failed, I think I’m on the right track.”
“That’s good to hear.” He tilted his head. “I wonder why the dismissal spells didn’t work? I’d think those would be easier than the resurrection ones.”
I’d given that some thought on the way over. “I talked to Maude this morning, and she wants to stay. She doesn’t remember the afterlife, and she truly wants a second go around. She wants to see her family and live again. I don’t think I’m a strong enough necromancer to overpower her wishes—even though she hadn’t voiced them until this morning.”
He nodded. “That’s possible. I’ll ask around to see if there is a necromancer who has successfully resurrected someone that you can speak to. Otherwise, I’d suggest you just keep trying. You’re more powerful than you realize, Babylon. It may take you some time, but I believe you’ll succeed.”
I wasn’t sure how much time I had, though. Being a zombie had seemed to halt Maude’s decay, but how long would she be happy hanging out in my house, unable to see anyone or go anywhere?
“Thank you.” I told Nash with heartfelt sincerity. It felt good to let someone know what I’d done, and to have some reassurance that I was on the right track.
And I was definitely going to tell Cassie this afternoon. But in the meantime, I had a group of werewolves to visit.
Nash returned to the kitchen, leaving me to finish my pancakes. I paid, gave a quick wave to the other customers, then headed out to Savior Mountain.
Chapter 7
Babylon
