Page 17 of Devils and the Dead
“I panicked,” I told her, knowing that was a shitty excuse for going into the gray area of my necromantic magic. “It wasn’t just Addy and myself at risk, it was all the humans at the party. And when the fight was over and we were safe, I returned the dead to their eternal rest. I freed their souls to the afterlife and sent their bodies back to their graves.”
She nodded, her eyes still wide. “I understand. I might have done the same if…well, if I’d had your sort of magic. It’s okay—but don’t do it again. There’s nothing to be worried about, as long as all the zombies were returned to the grave and their souls to their afterlife.”
I winced. “They all were returned to the grave except one. I tried, Cassie. I really tried. And no one was more shocked than I was when she showed up at my door. I mean, I’m glad she showed up at my door rather than freaking out her great granddaughter or some random person at Burger King or something. But I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried twice to send her back and nothing happened. This morning I tried to resurrect her, and it didn’t work either. I mean, her body looks better, but it’s still dead.”
Cassie’s eyebrows twisted upward. “What are you saying? There’s still a zombie human walking around? One got missed somehow when you sent them back?”
“Yes. She’s at my house. And I’ve been trying to fix it for two weeks. I need help Cassie.”
“I’ll say you need help,” she snapped. “How the hell did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped back, distraught over the situation but a bit relieved over finally letting Cassie know about the zombie in my house. “I don’t know what went wrong. I mean, I’ve never raised a bunch of human zombies before, so maybe I just screwed up and missed one when I was sending them back, or screwed up on her summoning. Maybe there was something different about Maude that made her remain behind. Maybe…I don’t know Cassie. I never had anyone to help me learn my magic. None of the spell books or journals in the attic have anything about necromancy in them. I don’t know any other necromancers. I don’t know why Maude is still here, or what to do about it. It’s not like I did this on purpose. I didn’t mean to, and I’m doing everything I can to fix it, but I need help.”
Cassie stood and began to pace. “Okay, okay. Let’s both calm down and think through this. You’ve got a zombie living in your home. And no one else knows or saw her, right?”
I nodded. “Maude is her name. She stays in my house, watching TV and crocheting. She’s actually very nice.”
“She’s not craving brains or anything? Shambling off in the middle of the night to snack on your neighbors?”
“No!” How could Cassie think such a thing? “She wants to eat and drink, but can’t because I don’t think her digestive system functions. She talks a lot about when she was alive and used to cook for her family. She’s very proud of having won a blue ribbon at the fair for her peach crumble. Family means everything to her. She said that she and the others didn’t hesitate to answer my call, that they’d always help defend their family, even from the grave.”
“But the others went back. The others went back, but she didn’t,” Cassie mused.
“No, she didn’t.” I shook my head, miserable at the thought. “I feel terrible for her. She can’t see her family. She can’t eat or cook or do all the things she once loved doing. She can’t leave my house. It’s like she’s in some sort of limbo between living and dead.”
“Have you tried to send her back again?”
“Twice.” I threw up my hands in exasperation. “At first. But she told me this morning that she wants to stay. She wants me to resurrect her. And I think she should have a say in her fate. I can’t just forcibly send her back if she doesn’t want to go—even if I could figure out how to do it. That’s not right. But the resurrection spell I tried this morning didn’t work either. I want to give her a choice, but right now I can’t promise her either option, and her being stuck in this half-state isn’t fair.”
Cassie ran her fingers through her hair, tugging the ends. “Crap.Crap.I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t know anything about necromancy.”
“I talked to Nash this morning,” I told her. “He’s going to ask the other reapers if any of them knows a necromancer I can consult with.”
She paced, still worrying her hair. “That’s a good idea. And I’ll ask Lucien. They deal with souls all the time. He might have some clue about how we can return this zombie to the grave.”
“No, I want to fully resurrect her,” I reminded my sister. “That’s what Maude wants.”
Cassie stopped and faced me. “It might not beherdecision, Lonnie. She died. Her soul belongs somewhere. Resurrecting the dead…it’s wrong. It’ll piss off whoever was in charge of her soul. And I’m not sure I can protect you from the repercussions of that.”
Addy had been harboring a soul that had escaped from hell and possessed a squirrel. Lucifer and his minions had gone apeshit over the escape. It had been the biggest ruckus I’d ever seen, all over one escaped soul.
They were probably losing their minds over Maude as well, wondering where she’d gone to and how she’d managed to escape. The demons had come after Addy, trying to force her to give the escapee back. They’d do the same once they realized I had Maude. And they’d probably want me as well, since I’d basically stolen her soul.
“I’ll face whatever comes my way for what I’ve done,” I told Cassie. “I’ll pay the price. But Maude shouldn’t have to. If she wants to live, then I owe it to her to do everything I can to make that happen. This is my fault, not hers.”
Cassie grabbed me into a hug. “No, it’smyfault. I should have searched for a necromancer to tutor you when you were young, or at least some old spell books and manuscripts to help you better understand your powers. What you do…it always scared me, Lonnie. Your magic scares me, so I just ignored it and buried my head in the sand instead of doing what I could to guide you.”
I hugged her back. “You’re only nine years older than me, Cassie. You were still a kid yourself when Grandma died and Mom took off. Helping me learn my magic wasn’t your job, it was Mom’s. Don’t blame yourself—blame her for leaving. And blame me for not doing more to learn my powers. I’m twenty-four years old. I should have been searching for a mentor, not playing bartender in the human world and animating rats.”
Cassie pulled away, quickly swiping a hand under her eyes. “I’ll do what I can to honor what you want. And both Lucien and I will make sure you don’t get in trouble for this. It was an accident—one that will never happen again.”
There was a bit of a question in her last statement. I grimaced, and didn’t reply. If my family was ever in danger, I absolutely would do it again—but hopefully I’d know enough next time not to have a soul remain behind, trapped in a decayed body.
Chapter 9
Hades
Iheaded down to the sixth circle, making my way past all the flames to the third ring. There weren’t a lot of heretics by modern definitions, so most of the souls here had been in residence for more than four hundred years. I nodded to a few of the punishment demons I recognized, then stopped at a pit of lava and hot coals with a sofa made of bone in the center of it.
