Page 80 of Ashes and Lilies
The tense worries I’d been holding on to loosened, and my jaw no longer felt tight. I touched my head, and a wave of dizziness passed over me. While I had questions and still expected answers, my thoughts began to fuzz as my adrenaline faded.
Julian opened the driver’s side and turned me until the back of my legs pressed against the seat. “Darling, please sit,” Julian said. “Let me take care of you, and I’ll answer all your questions.”
I should listen—otherwise, I might pass out. It was growing more difficult to hold back the choking bile. Dimly, I was aware of a commotion in the background—flashing lights, piercing sounds, and a collection of nameless people scattered throughout the scene.
I… I didn’t understand what was going on. I’d only been inside one second ago. “H-how?” I asked him. “What happened?”
“You were targeted by a witch’s spell,” Julian replied. He was on his knees in front of me, rubbing his hands down my arms as he peered into my face. “I suspect the ring you found might have something to do with it—but I’m not entirely certain. However, in this instance, you were summoned in a ritual specific to the fae.”
I was shivering, and Julian’s frown deepened. He removed his jacket and wrapped it around me before continuing, “Don’t worry. This group will not be coming after you again. But…” He seemed nervous, and he looked away. “While I know that someone in the Cole family is involved, I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to any concrete evidence we can tie to Alexander Cole himself.”
“I…” I began, my teeth chattering. “What are you talking about?”
Besides, how many people were in that family?
“I read his memories,” Julian replied, and an air of resignation passed over him. He lowered a hand onto the seat beside my leg as he pressed his forehead against mine. “It’s one of my abilities—I’m a necromancer.”
A… necromancer?
That didn’t explain all the doom and gloom.
“Okay,” I told him, peering at him, but his eyes were closed.His breath was slow, even across my cheek, and there remained a tenseness to him that I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
“What’s wrong with that?” I asked.
He looked at me and touched my shoulders as he moved back.
“Bianca,” he said carefully, “necromancy is the magic of the dead.”
“Okay,” I said again. What was his point? “You deal with dead bodies. I deal with their haunting spirits. So what?”
Julian frowned. “I am able to hurt, maim, or destroy people by controlling their bodily functions, read the memories clinging to their forms and objects related to them, and even animate their abandoned forms as soulless creatures ready to do my bidding.”
“Sounds handy.” Such an ability was much more versatile than only conversing with a ghost.
“In our group, our quintet, every individual has a role,” he continued. “Damen is the leader, you’re his supporter, Titus is our fighter, and Miles oversees moral annoyances. I,” he paused, shoulders tightening as he steeled himself. “I’m the assassin.”
Was he now? Titus and Damen seemed more likely to murder someone. My focus flickered toward the yellow-taped area of the parking lot. “Did you kill him?”
The man hadn’t looked entirely dead.
“No,” Julian pouted, seeming very displeased.
“Then”—I reached over and squeezed his hand. No wonder he was in medical school. He was trying to compensate—“you’re not a very good assassin, are you?”
Julian reeled back, expression indiscernible as his eyebrows shot up, “What?”
“Don’t worry,” I told him. Between him and Miles, I no longer felt completely alone. These men, too, were still young and inexperienced. “We can learn together, okay?”
Still, should I be encouraging him to kill people…
“Yes, darling,” Julian sighed, and his shoulders slumped. But then his grip grew stronger and more confident as he changed the subject. “Regardless, I read his memories, and he only worked with one other person.”
“I thought you said that you could read the memories of dead people,” I pointed out.
He pursed his lips. “It works on the living, too.”
My thoughts went blank, and a chill rushed through me. I leaned back without thinking. “W-what?”
