A Different Kind of Deadly by Nicole Martinsen Read Free Book Online

gaped at me as though I turned into a Sand
Whale.
    "Become a necromancer?" He wasn't playing with
me; Leo was genuinely confused. "Marvin... you're already a
necromancer. You're the pride of the Six Houses."
    He and I stared at one another.
    For all intents and purposes, we may as well
have been speaking completely different languages.
    "Pride?" I wondered, against my reasoning, if
Leo was playing some kind of cruel joke. "Leo, in what way,
exactly, am I someone to be proud of?"
    He raked his hands through his head,
frustrated.
    "Marvin, you became a necromancer when you
were twelve. Twelve! Do you have any idea how amazing that
is?"
    To become a necromancer... this phrase was
also used as a euphemism for the first time someone raises an
undead creature. It was a rite of passage in our society, and last
I checked, it was reserved for persons at least sixteen years of
age.
    "But Leo," I said, "The first time I raised
anything was Uhh."
    Leo marched up to me, clamped his hands on my
shoulders, and looked me in the eyes.
    "Marvin... you don't remember?"
    "Remember what?"
    "Will."
    The name didn't ring any bells. Leo looked as
though I'd gone and shattered his favorite beaker collection. He
sat beside me on the bed.
    "It makes more sense like this."
    "What does?" I was starting to feel sick.
"Leo, tell me, please."
    "Marvin, we used to take communal lessons with
the other children of the Six Houses," he began. "We went to the
Morgue for our first practical lesson. Everyone got a body to
dissect. Yours was Will."
    I didn't remember ever having communal classes
with anyone. If what Leo was saying was true, then I was missing
nearly a decade's worth of memories.
    "You were the star pupil, but even
we were surprised when you brought Will back to life." Leo's
expression filled with a measure of wonder and admiration;
admiration that I'd never been able to comprehend until now. "He
was our age, Marvin. You treated him like a younger
brother."
    I struggled to remember what Leo was telling
me, but instead I felt queasy. It was the same feeling I had
whenever I looked at the dismal trappings of death.
    "But the inevitable happened, and Will began
to rot." Leo twiddled his thumbs together, an odd gesture for a man
as solidly built as he was. "I was going to pay you a visit, to ask
if I could borrow your herbology notes, when I saw you trying to
piece Will back together in your room. He had already decomposed
too much, though."
    I pulled the blanket around my shoulders. I
couldn't see what Leo was talking about, but I heard runes running
through my mind; the sound of static, spell rejection, and distant
screams.
    "He kept dying, no matter how many times you
tried to bring him back, Marvin. By the time you stopped all that
was left of Will was a pile of... well," Leo hesitated. "Organic
matter."
    This was a pretty way of saying that I'd
completely torn someone apart.
    "When I tried talking to you back then, you
took one look at Will and started screaming your head off. Lady
Formosa kicked me out, and the next day she announced that you'd
learn through self study since you'd already proven yourself a
necromancer. You were the pride of House Thanos... it seemed
appropriate." Leo waited a minute before finally turning to me. "So
do you mean that in all the years since then... you haven't raised
anyone else?"
    "Raised anyone?" My voice cracked from
dryness. "Leo, I... I couldn't look at a body. I kept fainting
during dinner when I looked at the test subjects. I felt like a
complete, worthless, failure."
    We were quiet after that.
    I didn't know how many minutes
passed.
    I didn't care. I fought to recall more of what
Leo was telling me, and kicked myself for never questioning my
past. Such a powerful phobia wouldn't be there without a reason. I
felt like I was taking a spade to the surface of my mind, and hid a
rock beneath the dirt.
    I couldn't see it, but I knew it was
there.
    Will?
    I fought a wave of nausea.
    Leo slung an arm across my back,