Page 5 of Chaos
If Dorian had tried to dog-ear the pages of one of the sentient books, it would have bled everywhere. I put them out of my mind.
A new face came in. She was very timid and seemed afraid of me. Honestly, no one would hurt her if she didn’t get approved for a library card. I never assumed someone didn’t have one when speaking to them. Sometimes, people had one and didn’t visit often; or they had one and lived in another country.
“What can I help you with?”
She leaned in like she didn’t want anyone to hear.
“I need help with some necromancy.”
I pointed to my bowl.
“You know the drill.”
She pricked her finger, and the blue text floated up.
Hettie Quinn, a hedge witch. She had full access to the witch section and approval for my help with spells. She was going to need it because necromancy required potent magic. There was nothing in her file saying shecouldn’traise the dead.
“Do you have the body?”
Iloatheddoing necromancy. Corpses stunk, depending on how fresh they were. Some in the supernatural community didn’t believe in embalming their dead, and it utterly reeked when they wanted to raise them.
“It’s in my truck.”
This bitch right here was just driving around with a dead body in her truck. She did realize we lived among humans, right? Human cops would throw your ass in jail so fast if you got caught with a corpse. I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers.
“Get it in here before you end up in jail. You do have someone to bring it inside, don’t you?”
Hettie squeaked and nodded.
“Bring it to the atrium. That’s where spells are performed. I’ll get everything set up.”
She scurried away like a little mouse. What was this hedge witch doing performing necromancy? She was just so meek. I already knew I’d be doing all the work and channeling her. Still, who was I to judge? Maybe she’d just lost her lover.
I grabbed the bowl, black onyx, and athame from the cabinet. I tried not to roll my eyes when Hettie and her friends tried to wheel the box in. It was all tiny hedge witches trying to manage a massive wooden box. I sighed. My back was going to hurt tomorrow. I helped them wheel it to the center of the room.
“Okay, if you don’t have a library card, get the fuck out of my library.”
All five witches grumbled and left. It was just Hettie and me. I pried the lid off the box and prepared myself for the stench. This wasn’t a fresh corpse. This was a mummified dead body wrapped in gray rags. I’d been a massive fan of those Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser. Technically, Hettie was clear to raise the dead, but I wasn’t dumb enough to help her without asking questions.
“Who is this?” I demanded, pointing at the mummy.
“Seth.”
We were about to raise the dead. Thiswas notthe time to answer my questions in monosyllabic grunts. I’d boot her ass out of here so fast and have this mummy transferred to Ravyn at the Museum of the Profane so fast.
“Seth, who? Where did you get this body?”
Hettie was nervous. There were beads of sweat forming on her upper lip, even though the library was always cold. The atrium was even colder because it was all stone with no windows. This didn’t bode well for me helping her raise this corpse.
“He’s one of my ancestors!” she squeaked.
“Then why are you so nervous, Hettie?”
“I got my library card a few years ago, but I’ve never really used it. I’m a hedge witch, so I don’t do necromancy. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I really need your help. Your kind likes to look down on us hedge witches.”
Was that it? It certainly could be. Other witches and warlocks like me looked down on the hedge witches sometimes, but honestly? I’d seen more hedge witches approved for library cards than witches like me because they didn’t intend to abuse the contents. They just wanted to learn. It was odd that Hettie hadn’t been back to the library, but I knew from experience many of the hedge witches were sweet and harmless.
“I don’t. I’m sorry. Come here and get ready to hold my hand.”
